We're SUPPOSED to be a representative republic, but yet, if you ask them, the overwhelming majority of Americans will say they've never met their representative or senator--much less the president of the United States. If/as that is the case, HOW on EARTH can they possibly represent you? Unless you have the financial wherewithal (like those mentioned in the article cited below), you stand a worse chance of meeting them than a snowball has in surviving the fires of hell.
And yet we still dutifully pull the lever, just like our civics teacher told us to do, even though we KNOW, intuitively, that the people who aspire to rule/own us couldn't give two squats about us!
Many donors to Clinton Foundation met with her at State
Stu, some rare people have such an original and unique way of thinking that we cannot make assumptions about their beliefs, politics and attitudes based on a few questions. I believe Nimitz may be one of these.
His question is an open question. This holds true even if qualified by the statements he writes beneath the question. He seeks the views of a broad cross-section of people.
Why not tell us whether you personally feel that your views as a citizen are represented accurately in legislation by your chosen elected candidate if he or she succeeded in being elected)?
@ Rpf1918, That tends to be my view most of the time.
But I think given that political market research all over the Western world confirms that over 80% of voters are cynical, disaffected, and see politicians as in the pockets of multinational and local corporations - it is probably high time we collectively shifted our arses into gear for reform.
Utopia is impossible, but reforms and improvements are always possible if we mount sufficient pressure. It has to be at least sufficient to overcome the minority of wealthy power brokers in the top echelons. Organisations like Change. org and Avaaz do win 10% of their campaigns. It's enough to prove that the effort is worthwhile.
If we shut off and shut down, then the slide into increasing corruption becomes inevitable.
...But good luck getting an answer. Stu has decided to make me the topic of conversation. As Yoda would say, "A new strategy this is not." :-)
If you vote, you have no right to complain. If you legitimize a broken/rigged system by participating in it (complicity), whatever happens to you/us will be your fault.
Act on the courage of your convictions and stay the hell home on electoral farce day. The outcome will be the same either way.
...Which is hanging on by a thread!
I don't think it does. I believe that despite what the talking heads say, once they get into office, they assume the role of self-serving sycophants to lobbyists, corporations, and special interest groups.
AS for meeting a politician...I live in NH. It's almost hard NOT to run into one sometime or another.
I've met:
Bernie Sanders - Twice :)
Jeannie Forester
Jean Shaheen
Scott Brown (Carpetbagger idiot)
Kelly Ayotte (Ughh)
and my personal nightmare, John Sununu. Gawd I hate that guy. Not only his politics, but he's an obnoxious, unlikable, bloviating, caustic A-- hole
It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.~Andrew Jackson.
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission .~Ayn Rand
Now don't start me laughing. Like so many familiar terms (eg, military intelligence) that of 'Representative Democracy' is an oxymoron. Only the very trusting or those with comprehension issues still believe what it says on the tin.
So far as I'm aware, all major representative democracies in the west are often anything but representative and democratic only when it suits.
It's about power, just like it always has been. The rules of the game are different now, but it's essentially the same game played by Phillip II of Macedon, the entire Julian clan, several generations of the Borgias, a few Popes, Kings and Queens uncounted, plus a host of other, more minor players.
I've been an advocate of not voting for quite some years. I still think it would (if it could be organised) give the most horrible wake up call to politicians in lots of countries. It's an old principle - "Hang a few of 'em to keep the rest honest."
If you vote, you have no right to complain, if you DON'T vote, you have no right to complain...? How about if I just complain whenever I feel like it? Who's going to stop me?
Nobody. And nobody should! Personally, I think both adages are full of [a foul smelling brown substance].
Ahem, the point, of course, is that voting is a) an act of support for whatever the government does be it done by your guy or the other one, and b) a complete waste of time.
Uh...OK. :-)
