[Unknown Target]

You know what would be funny? If in the next U.S. election, the majority winner was "No-One", a write in.

After all, between the two parties, who's not evil? "No-One". Who's not corrupt or in someone's pocket? "No-One". Who do we have faith in to fix our government? "No-One".

It'd be rather interesting, is all I'm saying. At least it's an interesting concept and a new way of civil disobedience. If no one is able to fill the position, then what happens to it? If we don't agree with the majority of the way our government is run, then why do we have to follow it? If the government is the people, then we shouldn't have this much distaste for our government.

I think the problem is that the government is too focused on enforcing/creating laws, and not focused enough on what is actually good and works.

[Grizzly]

Get Jon Stewart to campaign for him .

[Davros]

So what is good and actually works ?

The problem with u.s politics is you dont have a Monster Raving Looney party
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Monster_Raving_Loony_Party

How can you argue wih such great policies :

Cool on the outside:
 To combat global warming and climate change all buildings should be fitted with air conditioning units on the outside.

Hypocrites
 It is proposed that all politicians be made to swear a "hippocratic oath", preventing them by law from being Hypocrites. All politicians should be made to stand by their policies

One Sided Policy
 It is proposed that The European Union end its discrimination by creating a "Court of Human Lefts" because their present policy is one_sided

Prison Food
 The problems of prison overcrowding and increased crime will be solved easily by issuing a compulsory contract on McDonalds to do all prison catering. Convervative estimates suggest a 50% reduction in crime rates within 2 years with 0% re-offender figures.

Political Colours
 All politicians should paint them self's permantly head to toe in the colour of the party they represent - e.g. all Labour candidates in Red, all Conservatives in Blue, etc,etc

Good Heroes
 Make it illegal for super heroes to use their powers for evil.

Scary Terrorists
 Ban all terrorists from having beards as they look scary.

Put a Sock in it
 All socks to be sold in packs of 3 as a precaution against losing one.

Education
 As well as using computers in schools, children should be taught to reed, rite, and appreciate rock.

No fly Zone
 It is proposed to declare the Channel Tunnel a No Fly Zone.

National Defense
 To keep our nation on it's toes, we should have a minimum of 2 nuclear war drills a day.

An Englishman's home is his Chateaux
 It is proposed that everyone in England should buy one hundred square meters (or be subsidized to do so) of France.
 The English would then own France, saving a lot of arguments, and winning us another UN veto...
 After owning France, It is proposed that we should rent it back to the French
 Then we should start on Germany.

[Mikes]

Well in leadership theory it's always been discussed that it is, for example, much better to let an employee choose between what you want him to do and something much worse.

That way he will do what he wants to do and feel much better about it than if you had just told him "You have to do this crap, get started"... simply because it was *his choice*.


Frankly... that's pretty much how I'm starting to see the US political system as compared to say...  the late Sowiet Union or Eastern Germany before the reunification.

They had the communist/left wing party and in the case of East Germany (GDR) everyone was essentially forced to vote for it or face repercussions. A horrible status quo, no doubt.
- but what do we have? Well, we pretty much got a choice between one right-wing capitalist party and a bit more extreme right wing capitalist party with pretty much the same agenda except for some fringe disagreements like abortion and the newest pointless war that make for great media attention while the inherently unstable / collapsing economy that is rotting at the core of the nation becomes the proverbial elephant in the room.

And yes... i did say pointless wars and before anyone disagrees with that statement it needs to be put into context just how pointless they really are in lights of a country that is coming closer and closer to national bancruptcy. It's like a terminal cancer patient with a few weeks to live going at someone elses throath because he may have a knife (or a WMD) that he may or may not use......  in a month or a year or never - if he even *really* has it.

... so what about terrorism one might say. Yeah, well what about it? The looming economic disaster / national bancruptcy in a nation so dependent on personal mobility and "just in time deliveries" for even essential goods, like food,...   would quickly result in human suffering and death on a scale that would dwarf even the most heinous act of terrorism ever committet in human history.

[Mustang19]

The executive doesn't necessarily matter. As long as Congress keeps passing the annual appropriations bill the President could vacation all year in Disney Land for all that matters. The government will still run.

[Unknown Target]

People act so shocked if someone doesn't know who the current US President is, like that's a bad thing. Honestly I'm pretty sure that was the original intent of the framers; the presidency was NOT supposed to be the focus of so much attention like it is today.

[Nuclear1]

It's 2011?  I didn't know that.  Oh well, not a bad thing.

If someone doesn't know who the current leader of arguably the most powerful nation on Earth is (and arguably, the single most powerful man in the world), they've had their head in the sand. 

[redsniper]

The government now is just the entertainment division of the military-industrial complex.

[Mustang19]

In fact in the late 18th century activist presidents were considered a bad thing. The executive was expected to mark time and ensure the government did nothing more than keep order unless the situation demanded it. You heard it from me.

[Nuke]

what i think should happen is that all the nations with nukes need to form up into one big country, and nuke anyone who doesn't submit to their rule. this new government would be led by a cat.

of course i know a die hard republican who will vote independent when his party does something he doesn't like.

[Nuclear1]

Nuke, you are a dangerously unstable man.

[Nuke]

yes, yes i am.

[General Battuta]

Early American elections were (according to participants) often decided by who handed out the best alcohol at the polls.

I think we've come a long way!

[Unknown Target]

Now it's just whoever hands out the best promises and tax cuts!

[General Battuta]

No it's not, it has a lot more to do with RDI growth in the election year.

[Unknown Target]

RDI? I'm unfamiliar with that acronym.

[General Battuta]

Real Disposable Income, a measure of income that accounts for taxes, price indices and inflation. Basically it means that tax cuts are just one component, control of the money supply and general economic performance (which politicians rarely control) are also important. Politics is a predictable system but not a well-understood one, and it's an open question how smart voters are (my lab generally thinks 'pretty dumb').

[Unknown Target]

Well I wouldn't say dumb - most people are pretty smart. What I think the thing is is that our system was designed so as to promote trust in our politicians (and arguable, promote trustworthy politicians). If a candidate says they're going to do something, the logical thing for most people to do is...trust them.

[Mustang19]

Lol. Batutta gets a kick out of people asking him to explain what RDI means apparently.

Now if RDI growth is the key variable why don't politicians just slap 99% taxes at the start of their term and lower them to nothing in the election year? That would certainly induce "RDI growth".

[Bobboau]

You know what would be funny? If in the next U.S. election, the majority winner was "No-One", a write in.

After all, between the two parties, who's not evil? "No-One". Who's not corrupt or in someone's pocket? "No-One". Who do we have faith in to fix our government? "No-One".

It'd be rather interesting, is all I'm saying. At least it's an interesting concept and a new way of civil disobedience. If no one is able to fill the position, then what happens to it? If we don't agree with the majority of the way our government is run, then why do we have to follow it? If the government is the people, then we shouldn't have this much distaste for our government.

I think the problem is that the government is too focused on enforcing/creating laws, and not focused enough on what is actually good and works.

you have my vote.
assuming you can get No-One to run.