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[Urist McScoopbeard]

My vote's for freedom.

[wierd]

lobbyist
political analyst
contractor for company with deep government ties (say, northrup grummman or lockheed martin)
any government payed vocation (includes mailman)
attorney

The idea is to remove even potential (however far fetched) routes that corruption could maybe, possibly, take root through-- even if that causes terrible chafing, and chapping of asses.


the candidate can have career backgrounds in the above, just time in that vocation does not count toward their required outside vocational requirements for eligability. (eg, you can be an attorney, but the time you spend working as one does not count when evaluaing your candidacy. There's nothing stopping an attorney from also working a second, eligable job.)


The basic idea there is to force government officials to endure and experience, first hand, what thier policies do to the general public-- vocations that are historically sheilded from those impacts need to be off the table.


scoopbeard:

define freedom as you intend it please. that word has too much newspeak and double-speak injected into it.  Freedom to do whatever you want? That's the antithesis of government, who's main function is to subvert such pure freedom for the safety and protection of the masses. (otherwise, the rapist, the murderer, and the con artist would all be free to ply their arts.)  The argument with government is to arrive at a workable balance between necessary removal of freedoms for genuine protections needed for a society to function, and the unnecessary removal of freedoms for the illusion of protections needed to placate public anxiety and fear.

[Owlbread]

If we dont elect anyone we'll be like Belgium.

And that's terrible.

The Belgians were alright though, weren't they? They've got a few devolved governments already that worked just fine in the absence of a national government. It just means America will be at the mercy of its state governments and Governors.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

I'll tell you exactly what freedom is. It's in my new 9 part plan to define freedom. The first step is to ask the question, what is freedom? the next step is to answer that question. The third step is to present that answer to your question in a way that benefits everyone. The fourth step is to use that presentation to define freedom. The fifth step is to show you how that definition of freedom is presented and to answer the question. The sixth step is to use the question to check the presentation, definition, and presentation of freedom. The seventh step is to use that check to ensure that the presentation of the answer to your question is indeed free and that the definition provided has defined freedom. The eighth step is to tell you that of course that assurance ensures to you that freedom is free. The ninth, and final, step is to tell you that that answer to your question lies in the assurance of the presentation to check the answer to your question.

Hopefully that questions the answer to your question's answer.

tl;dr it was a joke you dummy. (Also, that's some liberal use of newspeak and double-speak. I literally just said freedom, in the context provided, literally freedom from everything. It was sarcastic/humorous)

[wierd]

If we dont elect anyone we'll be like Belgium.

And that's terrible.

The Belgians were alright though, weren't they? They've got a few devolved governments already that worked just fine in the absence of a national government. It just means America will be at the mercy of its state governments and Governors.

I'm fairly certain that this(^ ) was how the USA was originally intended to function. The interstate commerce clause was intended to keep individual states from levying duties and taxes against imports and exports between states, not to give the fed omnipotent regulatory power over the state governments-- which were originally intended to retain vast sums of autonomy-- such as what the supreme court has opined for nearly 100 years now.

the commerce clause is stretched so tightly you could use it for violin string.

[Jopax]

wierd, what you're asking is for a corrupt system to self regulate to reduce corruption.

You do realise that, right?

[Urist McScoopbeard]

If we dont elect anyone we'll be like Belgium.

And that's terrible.

The Belgians were alright though, weren't they? They've got a few devolved governments already that worked just fine in the absence of a national government. It just means America will be at the mercy of its state governments and Governors.

I'm fairly certain that this(^ ) was how the USA was originally intended to function. The interstate commerce clause was intended to keep individual states from levying duties and taxes against imports and exports between states, not to give the fed omnipotent regulatory power over the state governments-- which were originally intended to retain vast sums of autonomy-- such as what the supreme court has opined for nearly 100 years now.

the commerce clause is stretched so tightly you could use it for violin string.

Then everyone realized that a strong federal government would be the only way to survive.

[wierd]

ANY government suffers that problem. They ALL require "self-regulation".

We have historical data showing that anarchy does not work well. (modern example, somalia)  Thus this corruption is a necessary evil.  We also have some limited data showing that self-regulation of government can work in limited ways.

I understand your objection, but you need to provide a better solution to make it be more than just rhetorical.

[mainiac]

If we dont elect anyone we'll be like Belgium.

And that's terrible.

The Belgians were alright though, weren't they? They've got a few devolved governments already that worked just fine in the absence of a national government. It just means America will be at the mercy of its state governments and Governors.

Belgium is weird so we are allowed to laugh at them and give them wedgies.

[wierd]

What do you expect from the birthplace of the waffle?

[Jopax]

And I don't have a solution, it was just an observation. It might be cynical and apathetic to think like that but I honestly don't see much of an alternative, other than trying to change it yourself but that never really works out when you need a gradual change.

The people who have the power want to keep it, and they'd be hard pressed to lessen their grip on it in any way.

So what you're proposing, while being a good idea that would lead to good things if implemented will sadly never be implemented because you're asking sociopaths for self control.

[wierd]

Like I stated--

"I also want icecream and a pony."

[Jopax]

Eh, missed that bit, tho I fully agree with it ^^

[Frumple]

I'll take the icecream. Ponies are stinky expensive poop machines, and I'd rather not >_>

[FearfulJesuit]

Nate Silver tentatively predicts a really close match, along with some stern warnings about the "emerging Democratic majority."