Problem solved

[Grumpy]

IMO the start to fixing our problems lie in term limits.

One no matter what office, one term. No exceptions

No paid politicians. End of story.

No bennies. Nope not even insurance.

Would this ensure no crooks got in ? Nope but its a start to getting people in who really care and want the job, not the money, power and lord knows what else they can pilfer while in office.

[JCricket]

Originally Posted by tincat

get rid of the political parties altogether. randomly select a certain number of citizens to run for a particular office. give each access to various media to make their case-if you opt out or fail certain qualifying criteria(plain and simple restrictions on major criminality or disabilities), another random choice replaces you. winnow this initially somewhat large pool down via electronic 'voting' to a three person race wherein each contender gets more media time and scrutiny(no private funding). winner is biggest vote getter w/runner up as back up in case of probs or as vp in the national election.
ok, yeah, lots of stuff to be worked out here, but the one thing this does is eliminate the current hegemony that money and cronyism has over the governance of this country. don't blather on about somehow 'tweaking' the system; it is thoroughly corrupt and broken and should be abandoned. the elected, by the way, should serve as conscripts, with their needs provided(well-being, security, housing, etc., as well as access to all objective information available on any topic germane to their deliberations) and their choices well publicized. the job should be seen as a duty, not a prize, and you shouldn't get to bring all your 'homies' w/you, though a certain number of assistants(vetted to some degree) could be of your choice-they too, would be 'conscripted' to 'serve' as a 'duty'.
what we've got going on now is beyond a joke, and bears little resemblance to a true democracy, for which we are paying a continuing price in lives and treasure; i would much prefer that the 'authorities' be persons who come from the world in which i live and not from some gang which has succeded in manipulating the system to its own ends.

Very interesting ideas. I like.
I see some problems, but heck itstill sounds one heck of a lot better than what we have.

Kind of like serving on a jury trial.

I think if you couple this with a mandatory education in law/civics/history in school you might just be onto something.

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

IMO the start to fixing our problems lie in term limits.

One no matter what office, one term. No exceptions

No paid politicians. End of story.

No bennies. Nope not even insurance.

Would this ensure no crooks got in ? Nope but its a start to getting people in who really care and want the job, not the money, power and lord knows what else they can pilfer while in office.

how long would the terms be?

[JCricket]

Question for you folks - in regards top Grumpy's poat about one term.

Is there a skill or knowledge level needed to be a good leader? I would have said good politician but that is an oxymoron. I like Grumpy's idea, but the first thingthat crossed my head was the cuban missle crisis. How does a leader learn to work in situatuins such as this. I garantee, you wouldn't want me in there. I wouldn't have a clue how to handle it "appropriately".
+I certainly see his logic in the idea, but I wonder about the shortcomings??

[merrylander]

Then we need to change some of our outmoded political concepts. For example, it has been nine months and not all 'appointments' have been made. Most Presidents spend their first year getting these approximately 8000 appointments made. Some because of other pre-occupations, some because of this dumb-ass idea that lets a Senator put a hold on an appointee simply out of pique. If a single term is the rule then we damn well better go to a parliamentary system were everyone below cabinet level is a career civil servant. Or shall we only allow them to serve for four years as well.

The Framers by and large did a pretty good job, but they screwed up royally when they let Congress make its own rules, guess they were tired after a long hot summer shut up in the convention hall and wanted to go home.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by merrylander

The Framers by and large did a pretty good job, but they screwed up royally when they let Congress make its own rules, guess they were tired after a long hot summer shut up in the convention hall and wanted to go home.

Congress is a bunch of inbreed morons who could not find their way out of a wet paper bag with a knife. In other words I agree with ya

One term should be something like 2-3 years. 4 is long enough to get this country in to serious trouble that could take 10 to get out of. As is proved by past and present elected officials.

[JCricket]

Warning, tyoping without thinking is about to occur........

Just a thought. IN addition to term limits, maybe political commitees. These would be teh groups taht actually wrote the laws. They are unpaid and unelected. Strictly volunteer. Furtehr, tehy have no say or popwer what so ever. More like a group of people who get together to brainstrom and come up with ideas. When they have an idea they can give it to the single term elected official. They asa group get to reveiuw, accept, change, reject, or whatever they want to do with the proposed idea - no strings attached.

Thus you might have a group of people who are skilled at coming up with ideas but have absolutely no power in the government. At least this is the goal of my idea.

[d-ray657]

Originally Posted by JCricket

Warning, tyoping without thinking is about to occur........

Just a thought. IN addition to term limits, maybe political commitees. These would be teh groups taht actually wrote the laws. They are unpaid and unelected. Strictly volunteer. Furtehr, tehy have no say or popwer what so ever. More like a group of people who get together to brainstrom and come up with ideas. When they have an idea they can give it to the single term elected official. They asa group get to reveiuw, accept, change, reject, or whatever they want to do with the proposed idea - no strings attached.

Thus you might have a group of people who are skilled at coming up with ideas but have absolutely no power in the government. At least this is the goal of my idea.

I would say that someone that has the ability to draft proposed legisation and has direct access to the public officials who pass the laws had considerable power.

Regards,

D-Ray

[elwood127]

Common sence and decentcy would be a good criteria for a politician. 3 years max. I like Lewis Blacks idea. Throw a monkey out of a plane and the first person he touches is president. Couldn't do any worse.