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A great opinion piece from Thomas Friedman about the failure of our government to govern.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/opinio...edman.html
If you want to see in stark relief all the forces undermining our system’s ability to make smart, strategic, long-term decisions, read Ryan Lizza’s article in the Oct. 11 issue of The New Yorker, explaining just how the bipartisan effort by Senators John Kerry (D), Lindsey Graham ®, and Joseph Lieberman (I) to produce an energy-climate bill and enhance clean-tech innovation was killed this year. Entitled “As the World Burns,” Lizza’s piece is an X-ray of the dysfunctions eating away at our future: politicians who only know how to read polls, never change them; media outlets serving political parties; special interests buying senators; mindless partisanship; an epidemic of low expectations for our government. And us — we elected them all, and we tolerate them.
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Inability to think and act strategically is symptomatic not only of our politicians but our system of government and election methodology. When a politician's primary energies are spent getting re-elected, the long term is the last thing on their mind.
And when any long term thinking (which will definitely cost more in the short term) is espoused, it is part of the package that is used to reject them in the following election.
Once again... Representational democracy is not 'the best system of government'. It's just the one that is the least screwed up so far.
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We the people are the government, we the people are at fault.
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(re: what cbelt said) yeah... I think the only way to really get the hard long term issues addressed is with a truly benevolent dictator - our system is simply unable to deal with it...
and things will get a lot worse before they get better...
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It says something rather unflattering about our country when the best we can hope for is gridlock, where neither side holds a compelling majority through both the legislative and executive branches We fear the "progress" of either party in total power more than we fear inaction.
The whole benevolent dictator idea looks good on paper, but it never seems to hold for more than one person in succession, or even the entire time that one person is in control. Eventually the powers he must control out of necessity eventually corrupt him or rebel to destroy him.
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What we have to realize is that we do NOT have 'gridlock'. Really. What we have is a compromise process. It seems like gridlock because we're in election season, and the benefit of getting re-elected is higher than the benefit of actually doing something (and the risk of actually doing something is equally high in re getting re-elected).
I personally think the simplest 'fix' would be to reduce the length of the election season to one month for primary, one month for general election. No political ads, etc. allowed before that blackout period. And for Congress to use those two months as their allotted vacation time.
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The whole benevolent dictator idea looks good on paper
I agree. And the same thing can be said for Libertarianism, which, like Communism, must defy basic human nature to work. The notion that business leaders will do the right thing through "enlightened self-interest" may come true in certain cases, but overall is a fantasy. And Communist leaders will be corrupt. Greed is a powerful motivator.
It's just the one that is the least screwed up so far.
I'm not convinced of this any more. I think that as a nation, we are pretty much irreparably screwed. It's going to be a rough ride.
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Just add a few thousand more lobbyists into the mix. That'll fix it. 8-)
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Acer wrote:
The whole benevolent dictator idea looks good on paper.
Just what we need - an oxycontin king
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Don Kiyoti wrote:
The whole benevolent dictator idea looks good on paper
I agree. And the same thing can be said for Libertarianism, which, like Communism, must defy basic human nature to work. The notion that business leaders will do the right thing through "enlightened self-interest" may come true in certain cases, but overall is a fantasy. And Communist leaders will be corrupt. Greed is a powerful motivator.
It's just the one that is the least screwed up so far.
I'm not convinced of this any more. I think that as a nation, we are pretty much irreparably screwed. It's going to be a rough ride.
although communism is probably the best theoretical system - it instantly breaks down since it hold too many humans to unhuman expectations.
"enlightened self-interest" has worked the best, but is terribly broken now. The capitalist have simply become too good at the self interest thing. They now can mopve far faster than regulators. By the time regulations are in place, the horses are outta the barn and are 100s of miles away. Think Enron... S&L Crisis... very smart, very rich guys can do pretty much anything they want these days...
I compare MY benevolent dictator to Lincoln - he pretty much ran the show by himself for a couple of years. Nearly locked up the Supreme Court Chief because of all the roadblocks the court put up. Congress was a mess obviously.
Of COURSE it's fantasy... if we ever get a dictator in place, he won't be benevolent...
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