It's The Expediency Stupid!

I've been thinking over why American style Democracy simply does not work, and have come to this conclusion:

Our system heavily incentivises creating policy based on political expediency.

Our system provides absolutely no incentive against creating policy that is objectively unnecessary, nor encourages the drafting of policy that is actually effective, not against creating policy that may cause actual harm.

Individual politicians of good conscience can of course attempt to please the people while stressing over the details of effective, necessary policy that causes no unintended consequences, but they pressure to do so simply isn't there as it is to sell the public.

That's a pretty serious flaw, in my opinion. And an unfixable one.

Legislation should NOT BE A POPULARITY CONTEST. But it is.

Legislation certainly shouldn't be a stepping stone to advance a political career, but it obviously is.

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Originally posted by jaden_2.0
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Is it the message or the messenger? 😂

I guess it does sound pretty pretentious. But Democracy just doesn't work.

Any system that plays out like a reality TV show won't work.

System I thought about to counter it would be for there to be a draft system for politicians. You are drafted to be a senator for 2 years, for instance. Probably would fail though...
Less extreme:

Short term limits
Abolish the electoral college
Strictly illegal lobbying

That would be 3 ways to start to counter it.

Originally posted by truejedi
System I thought about to counter it would be for there to be a draft system for politicians. You are drafted to be a senator for 2 years, for instance. Probably would fail though...
Less extreme:

Short term limits
Abolish the electoral college
Strictly illegal lobbying

That would be 3 ways to start to counter it.

Agreed.

Term limits for sure. House and Senate positions maxed out at 8 years total. They run every two years for a total of four terms. That would end career politiicans like we have now.

Erradicate the electoral college, it’s out of date now and utterally broken. The person who gets less votes can win? Only Republicans want that, as it favors them. Election should be every person’s vote counts as one equal vote and whichever candidate gets the most most, they become POTUS.

Lobbying should either be outright illegal or maybe be reduced to a fraction of what it is now. I’d be willing to hear arguments for.

Originally posted by cdtm
Legislation should NOT BE A POPULARITY CONTEST. But it is.

Originally posted by Robtard
Agreed.

Term limits for sure. House and Senate positions maxed out at 8 years total. They run every two years for a total of four terms. That would end career politiicans like we have now.

Erradicate the electoral college, it’s out of date now and utterally broken. The person who gets less votes can win? Only Republicans want that, as it favors them. Election should be every person’s vote counts as one equal vote and whichever candidate gets the most most, they become POTUS.

Lobbying should either be outright illegal or maybe be reduced to a fraction of what it is now. I’d be willing to hear arguments for.

The UK, for example, still has life peers and ceremonial religious peers, as does Iran! Now, say what you want about religious rule and feudalism, but I think most rational people would prefer stability over instability.

After all, I could also point to your supreme court which is a much more corrupt system when it comes to absolute rule.

Yep. Britain sure is a bastion of political stability these days, isn't it?

Originally posted by Macklemore
I would argue term limits create instability and uncertainty resulting in political chaos.

The UK, for example, still has life peers and ceremonial religious peers, as does Iran! Now, say what you want about religious rule and feudalism, but I think most rational people would prefer stability over instability.

After all, I could also point to your supreme court which is a much more corrupt system when it comes to absolute rule.

Both our countries have career politicians in power.

How well is that working out for us?

The US supreme court also needs an overhauling. Either term limits there, or in the very least have the people elect the judges, not the POTUS.

Rob, there's one reason why 1 person 1 vote isn't feasible.

It requires all states to agree with that. The fact is, every state is allowed to run it's own system. Feds aren't really allowed to remove the states from the equation for direct democracy, or meddle in how they arrange the vote.

States run their own elections, but the EC is Federal, it's established in the Constitution.

The likelihood of the EC going away is almost impossible, as it would require House and Senate Republicans being on board to pass a Constitutional amendment and they won't be as the EC favors Republicans. Its how they get Presidents who get less votes than the competition elected.

That doesn't mean that the EC shouldn't go away. It's outdated and broken.

Originally posted by Robtard
Both our countries have career politicians in power.

How well is that working out for us?

The US supreme court also needs an overhauling. Either term limits there, or in the very least have the people elect the judges, not the POTUS.

Originally posted by Macklemore
The supreme court has the power to end lives, Rob. It should comprise of the oldest and wisest and one of those cases where a democracy isn't the best idea.

The court also has the power to block both federal and executive orders.

That plus judicial review where they can make a law say whatever they want, like applying the Commerce Clause to somehow mean a person can't grow wheat in their own back yard lest it affect National trade, means they have more effective power then the legislative and executive branches.

Yeah, judicial branch has too much power, but you have to have one, right? The problem is how lopsided it's gotten. 6-3 conservative because of her emails.... (And McConnell and his bullshit with Merrick)

I don't know how to fix that.

The country is honestly too politicized right now. That's the problem. It's not the system, it's honestly the mindset that there can be no compromises on any issues. No I trade something I want for something you want, it's more I get everything I want or I vote no on everything...

I blame the Tea Party, and it's ultimate crown jewel, trump. They divided the country. Before them, laws still got passed.