questions about the US government

[kcantankerous]

How do all of you think the government should operate? What should we expect from government? What should government expect from us?

[MrMacphisto]

When it comes to the U.S.... Well, it should operate with the interests of the middle class in mind, but it doesn't. We should expect the government to be corrupt, because that's what most rich and powerful people act like. The government should expect most of us to fall in line without much question of what it is doing, because most people are sheep. Of course, it should also expect that a few people will make a stink about things, but that's easily quelled (or amplified) via the media.

To put it more simply: we should expect the government to grease the right palms to preserve the elite power structure we've come to hate, and the government should expect most people to be relatively uninterested in governmental policy until really nasty crises draw their attention.

As for how government should operate... well, you could base multiple threads on that topic.... Pick a more specific realm of policy....

[kcantankerous]

It's clear you don't like how the government is doing things, but how would you fix it. What constructive things could have been done to avoid the elite from being the main benifitiares. I think a start is a cap on campaign spending. Furthermore, an organization needs to be set up to monitor the expenditures of each major political candidate. Its just a start

[MrMacphisto]

It's clear you don't like how the government is doing things, but how would you fix it. What constructive things could have been done to avoid the elite from being the main benifitiares. I think a start is a cap on campaign spending. Furthermore, an organization needs to be set up to monitor the expenditures of each major political candidate. Its just a start

I think you're looking at this from the wrong angle. There is no way to prevent the rich from running the government. This is true of every government that exists. Even Communist governments are run by an elite rich class, despite how that contradicts the very principle of Communism. A much better approach is to force the rich to serve the interests of the common man. This isn't done solely through elections, this is done by getting the public to educate itself better, and thus, they will elect the candidates that actually come through on their promises of economic progress.

You mentioned education a lot in the thread about poverty. I agree that education is important to occupational success, but it's possibly even more important for politics. A lot of the stupid decisions made by our politicians are the result of an ignorant public putting the wrong type of people in office. Most of the people that currently hold office are self-serving assholes that don't care about our interests. They care about creating an image of serving our interests, but in truth, they do just enough to preserve this image and get re-elected. They also serve the interests of special interest groups that fund them.

Campaign finance reform is an interesting idea that you brought up, but I think that an even better move would be to get the public to investigate the nature of campaign fundraising. Most people would probably be appalled at the methods used to gather funds from individuals and corporations, and after making themselves more aware of what kind of system they are dealing with, they'd expect more out of the character of their candidates and representatives.

The problem is that this all centers on the public taking the initiative to educate itself. Democracy is probably one of the easiest systems to setup and maintain, but it requires a lot of active participation on the part of its citizens. Remember how Jefferson once said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance"? My interpretation of that involves the public vigilantly following politics and informing themselves on the actions of their government. Obviously, most of our citizens don't do that.

As a result, elections are heavily determined by advertizing and rhetoric. If your candidate is an excellent speaker, he can sell the most plutocratic policies imaginable and have the people think that his platform is the best thing since sliced bread. If his campaign's advertizing firm is top of the line and well-funded, he can spread the message that he's the next political messiah all over the airwaves, and a lot of people will actually believe it.

I would argue that we've reached this point of political ignorance in American society. Most people in this country don't have a fucking clue about what's going on throughout the world anymore, and they heavily depend on the corporate media to inform them. Most people are either too apathetic or too stupid to care enough to take the time out to research various sources of information and form a balanced opinion on important issues. This is the irony of our time: with the advent of the internet, we are in an Information Age, and yet, there is more misinformation than ever. The people are too blase to bother with separating the crap from the truth.

So... it's no wonder that our system sucks, when most people in office are not the best leaders, but instead, the best salesmen. That's all this is: political capitalism. We're sold on so many issues and spend so much time on the packaging of ideas that we rarely take the time to realize exactly what we've agreed to buy.

Democracy worked a lot better in the past when the electorates involved were exceptionally educated and/or active. Ancient Athens is often hailed as one of the best examples of a functioning democracy, and the men who were a part of it were extremely participant in their system. Sure, not giving their women the right to vote was a cultural prejudice within Athens's institution, but we didn't even give our women electoral rights until after more than a century of governmental existence.

There are plenty of modern democracies known for their functionality as well, but the vast majority of them have small populations (less than 40 million people), and they usually have First World standards of living. America is the second largest democracy in the world (behind India), but recent events have led many to wonder at its functionality. We actually have one of the oldest governments in the world in the sense that we haven't overhauled the basis of our system in the last 200 years. That's actually pretty remarkable, but it could also be cause for concern. Most prosperous democratic nations were forced to radically change their systems due to economic and cultural issues that have occurred in the last century. Some would say that America will need to alter many of its institutions in order to root out the corruption that plagues our system. Things have to get pretty bad, if the Supreme Court has to intervene in the outcome of a presidential election. The electoral corruption we've witnessed firsthand in the last two presidential elections should definitely raise some red flags among the people actually paying attention.

To end this rant, I just want to say that, before anything else, we need to change our culture. More people need to start participating in their governmental process -- especially at the state and local levels. In the context of a democracy, governmental progress is dependent on the state of the general populace. If people continue to be relatively ignorant about their own government, then we will continue to have incompetent leaders and corrupt representatives. If this corruption lasts long enough, then the system and economy will likely fall from irresponsible spending habits and asinine foreign policy decisions. Should this occur, the people who put these politicians in power are ultimately responsible for their own downfall. Such dependence on the public's intelligence and wisdom is both the beauty and curse of democracy.

[kcantankerous]

I think highschool government classes need to be overhauled. The majority of us were taught by coaches in government classes. Furthermore, this would help those that dont go past highschool. Maybe instead of some type of fine arts credit we need have everyone take 2 to 3 years of government in highschool.

[MrMacphisto]

I totally agree

[Red Jester]

I'm not really sure how to approach this question as its very vague.

[kcantankerous]

Red Jester, just through out constuctive ideas that you think will improve the current state of the U.S. government.