I agree about not trusting the politicians, but not sure I trust the general public much more unfortunately.
The founding fathers didn't either that's why they put a buffer in in case there was a nuance not under stood by the general public. The only problem is I don't think they envisioned a party hell bent on the country's destruction.
The greatest flaw in the founder's reasoning was that they trusted public servants to fight for what's best for the country. They expected public figures to always attempt to do what's best for the country and their constituents and built our systems based on a lot of trust.
They never expected there to be half the country that doesn't care about the rules and only works for their own benefit.
They didn't really... there are a LOT of check and balances in the US constitution.
There were a few holes though. FPTP is possibly the biggest one, yet the easiest to forgive them for because they literally didn't know any better, but FPTP causes bipartism which leads to line-toeing which necessarily weakens the "balance" part of check and balances.
Then there's the almost complete immovability of the US constitution which gives enormous power to the SCOTUS and led to a whole lot of gaps being filled with fragile "tradition" or nefariously repurposed (2nd amendment, citizens united, executive orders, yada yada). This isn't just on the founders for trusting states too much to continuously reform the constitution, but also lies squarely on this frankly insane cult around the revolutionary mythos which made it entirely taboo to reform anything the founding fathers ever did to the point that no meaningful amendment was passed in over a century.
Complain all you want about the founding fathers, but they aren't to blame if a vast majority of Americans would almost certainly, in a hypothetical referundum, vote against even the smallest constitutional reform on the grounds that "it ain't what the Almighty Fathers intended". The very fact that you're talking about the Founding Fathers' intent as is if it has ANY BEARING on today's politics shows just how deeply ingrained this personality cult is.
A two party system was one of George Washington's fear. It breeds division while both sides occupy themselves making us emotional about how much the other side does wrong. Then they get more donations and more power. They don't care if they aren't effective because they know we won't ever go to the other side.
... There's a great Freakonomics episode on the duopoly formed by the Democratic and Republican parties and how they both benefit while stifling the competition from other parties that could provide more varied perspective.
My takeaway - support rank choices voting and elimination of closed primaries (which encourage extremism in candidates).
Just look at your presidential race, sadly I agree
Bad example, Trump lost the popular vote both times. Dang electoral college was responsible for that travesty. Also George W. Bush lost the popular vote in his first election too. Thanks again, electoral college.
People voted for him, those people are fucking brain dead
I don't disagree, just saying it's an instance where direct democracy would have been better than having this representative layer of the electoral college in between.
Well we're on the same page now
That’s because we need a maximum age to vote too.
A maximum age to vote?
Wtf?
So old people should have no voice?
I kind of see what they're saying. If you're on your way out, you probably shouldn't have a ton of sway on how the world operates after you're gone.
That's how Brexit happened in the UK.
I agree about not trusting the politicians, but not sure I trust the general public much more unfortunately.
The founding fathers didn't either that's why they put a buffer in in case there was a nuance not under stood by the general public. The only problem is I don't think they envisioned a party hell bent on the country's destruction.
The greatest flaw in the founder's reasoning was that they trusted public servants to fight for what's best for the country. They expected public figures to always attempt to do what's best for the country and their constituents and built our systems based on a lot of trust.
They never expected there to be half the country that doesn't care about the rules and only works for their own benefit.
They didn't really... there are a LOT of check and balances in the US constitution.
There were a few holes though. FPTP is possibly the biggest one, yet the easiest to forgive them for because they literally didn't know any better, but FPTP causes bipartism which leads to line-toeing which necessarily weakens the "balance" part of check and balances.
Then there's the almost complete immovability of the US constitution which gives enormous power to the SCOTUS and led to a whole lot of gaps being filled with fragile "tradition" or nefariously repurposed (2nd amendment, citizens united, executive orders, yada yada). This isn't just on the founders for trusting states too much to continuously reform the constitution, but also lies squarely on this frankly insane cult around the revolutionary mythos which made it entirely taboo to reform anything the founding fathers ever did to the point that no meaningful amendment was passed in over a century.
Complain all you want about the founding fathers, but they aren't to blame if a vast majority of Americans would almost certainly, in a hypothetical referundum, vote against even the smallest constitutional reform on the grounds that "it ain't what the Almighty Fathers intended". The very fact that you're talking about the Founding Fathers' intent as is if it has ANY BEARING on today's politics shows just how deeply ingrained this personality cult is.
A two party system was one of George Washington's fear. It breeds division while both sides occupy themselves making us emotional about how much the other side does wrong. Then they get more donations and more power. They don't care if they aren't effective because they know we won't ever go to the other side.
... There's a great Freakonomics episode on the duopoly formed by the Democratic and Republican parties and how they both benefit while stifling the competition from other parties that could provide more varied perspective.
My takeaway - support rank choices voting and elimination of closed primaries (which encourage extremism in candidates).
Just look at your presidential race, sadly I agree
Bad example, Trump lost the popular vote both times. Dang electoral college was responsible for that travesty. Also George W. Bush lost the popular vote in his first election too. Thanks again, electoral college.
People voted for him, those people are fucking brain dead
I don't disagree, just saying it's an instance where direct democracy would have been better than having this representative layer of the electoral college in between.
Well we're on the same page now
That’s because we need a maximum age to vote too.
A maximum age to vote?
Wtf?
So old people should have no voice?
I kind of see what they're saying. If you're on your way out, you probably shouldn't have a ton of sway on how the world operates after you're gone.
But that is a suuuuper slippery slope.
"The law abhors dead hand control."
Voting is a basic human right, though.