BF2S Forums Debashed Politics

Take an axe to the lobbyists?

Liberal-Sl@yer wrote:

It seems that here in America, we are akin to watch controversy with open mouths and empty minds. We like controversy so much that the media garnishes this interest with constant stories of something new a politician has done to upset someone or something that will make them shine like a deity. Yet, with all this attention focused on the controversies what attention is their left to actual policy?
     Policy is left to the waste side because of the interest Americans have in conflict. Our laws are allowed to be dictated and ignored if the politicians or lobbyist see them unfit (i.e. H.R. 4279) and we as the public are left ignorant. So the questions I prose are these, Who is to blame, and How do we fix this?
     Who is to blame? Is it the media the perpetuates the ignorance of America or Americans themselves for being so ignorant in the first place?

     How do we fix this?
     These questions I am going to leave up to you BF2S what do you think?

Blame both.  The average person is an idiot, and the media is run by idiots that only care about turning a profit.

Changing the situation would require a greater investment in education on the part of state and local governments and a general decentralization of power away from the feds and to the states and local governments.

Basically, if we could keep our dick out of other countries long enough to fix our domestic problems, we'd be in better shape as a country.  Most of the reason why America functions the way that it does is because of our size and excessive interest in interventionism. 

It's truly remarkable that a nation of over 300 million people is still First World in standard of living.  To put things in perspective, Japan is the next largest First World nation, and they have less than half of our population.  Germany is the 3rd largest one, and they have only 80 million people.  So, given America's size (both in population and in land mass), we're doing ok, but our debts have begun to catch up with us.

Chances are, we will continue along the road of idiocy and complacency, and there will be a gradual erasure of our Mexican border, both in terms of economics and culture.

Looking forward, our best moves are to start teaching Spanish in every school alongside English, because our status as mostly monolingual isn't very realistic.  In addition to this, we can expect a growing influence of Catholicism in our currently predominantly Protestant one.

Also, Canin's suggestion of term limits is excellent -- especially for the House.  The turnover rate in the Senate is decent, but the House has basically been gerrymandered into oblivion.

Turquoise wrote:

Liberal-Sl@yer wrote:

It seems that here in America, we are akin to watch controversy with open mouths and empty minds. We like controversy so much that the media garnishes this interest with constant stories of something new a politician has done to upset someone or something that will make them shine like a deity. Yet, with all this attention focused on the controversies what attention is their left to actual policy?
     Policy is left to the waste side because of the interest Americans have in conflict. Our laws are allowed to be dictated and ignored if the politicians or lobbyist see them unfit (i.e. H.R. 4279) and we as the public are left ignorant. So the questions I prose are these, Who is to blame, and How do we fix this?
     Who is to blame? Is it the media the perpetuates the ignorance of America or Americans themselves for being so ignorant in the first place?

     How do we fix this?
     These questions I am going to leave up to you BF2S what do you think?

Blame both.  The average person is an idiot, and the media is run by idiots that only care about turning a profit.

Changing the situation would require a greater investment in education on the part of state and local governments and a general decentralization of power away from the feds and to the states and local governments.

Basically, if we could keep our dick out of other countries long enough to fix our domestic problems, we'd be in better shape as a country.  Most of the reason why America functions the way that it does is because of our size and excessive interest in interventionism. 

It's truly remarkable that a nation of over 300 million people is still First World in standard of living.  To put things in perspective, Japan is the next largest First World nation, and they have less than half of our population.  Germany is the 3rd largest one, and they have only 80 million people.  So, given America's size (both in population and in land mass), we're doing ok, but our debts have begun to catch up with us.

Chances are, we will continue along the road of idiocy and complacency, and there will be a gradual erasure of our Mexican border, both in terms of economics and culture.

Looking forward, our best moves are to start teaching Spanish in every school alongside English, because our status as mostly monolingual isn't very realistic.  In addition to this, we can expect a growing influence of Catholicism in our currently predominantly Protestant one.

Also, Canin's suggestion of term limits is excellent -- especially for the House.  The turnover rate in the Senate is decent, but the House has basically been gerrymandered into oblivion.

Alas, term limits will never come to pass. Not so long as we the people do not push for them in a majority, not to mention the politicians not being willing to step away from their drug.

Turquoise wrote:

The thing is...  passing term limits is like passing a resolution to end the Electoral College.  Both the Electoral College and the lack of term limits are what keep most politicians in power.  They'd never disband the very things they draw power from.

Another thing like this is how Congress continually raises its salaries but always drags its feet at raising the minimum wage.  The hypocrisy is astounding.

The Ancient Romans had it right...  being a Senator is both a privilege and a service to the public.  Senators should not receive salaries nor should the President, because let's face it, you've got to be pretty rich already to be either.

I disagree. Having gov't reps draw a salary isn't the problem, it's the enormous cost involved in actually attaining office.

Lowering the financial barriers to actually attaining office would be a start, but you'd have to also reduce costs for ad-buys, marketing, consulting, mailers, web-traffic, candidate transportation, etc. That's all the stuff that makes the cost of running prohibitive.

Reduce those costs and you open up the available pool of candidates exponentially.

If you don't offer a salary you virtually guarantee that no one other than those who can afford not to work (or can afford to take years off) will be elected.

To people care about irrelevant shit because that's what the media focus on or does the media focus on irrelevant shit because that's what the people care about?

Reciprocity wrote:

Most Americans are incredibly stupid.  And I'm talking Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, Americans in general, very stupid.  Subtlety is completely lost.  Nuance is a faggy french word.  We require large font headlines and shiny graphics. 

I don't blame politicians or the media.  They're giving us what we want.  Steaming piles of sensational bullshit.  Absurd quotes, talking points, full coverage, news commentators and pundits.  They all do focus groups, they know exactly what we crave.

That is an extremely ignorant statement that makes me wish I had my negative karma back. You are generalizing too much. There is a good portion of Americans who are intelligent yet apathetic toward politics. I am specifically referring to the mud slingers among those who are politically active. Those who do nothing but slander one candidate over another because of something they did that they thought was wrong in some way, and not of their policies and whether they disagree or not.