Suggestion for fixing your country's election issues.

I don't pretend to know beans about the nuts and bolts of the American electoral system. As a Canadian, I can't honestly say I have a very good understanding of my own - when by the time the western provinces finish voting, the rest of the country has basically gone to celebrate or gone home because the election is already over and decided.

But, since I didn't want to derail the nlbs thread, or the other thread about basically the same thing, I had a thought that may be useful to you guys down south of me...

NLBS spent a good portion of the current show listing some of the superpacs and the people behind them...

Why wouldn't you, as American citizens, create one for election reform? Colbert did it, and that was on a lark.

Why wouldn't you use the "power of the people" to work towards the reforms you want?

Examples that come to mind, from posts here and watching the Ron Paul debacle from afar would be:

- Make states that only allow "R" or "D" on the ballot expand to include other candidates.

- Get rid of the electoral colleges? (I don't understand what they do exactly, so just throwing this one out there)

- Limits on terms in office.

- Limits on spending per person / per candidate

- Getting rid of Superpacs?

There are enough of you guys (and gals) that seem to be disgruntled enough to throw ten bucks or more in the pot and make some waves for change.

All the best!

Yah, we wish it wasn't so either.

Heres one problem with making them do things.

"Them" control the media. Them Media have one side to their daily, daily… what them want us to hear. There is no longer a debate from two sides to the Mainstream, just one narrative.

There are ways we can tell this is going on. Usually they have "a" guest, just one pentagon spokesman, one senator, one "expert". So the exchange has to be one sided. They do have panel discussions, but those are mainly made up of members of the media. So it appears like a multi opinion party but falls short of actually vetting alternative opinions. Since the main stream media controls total access to the population at large, we the people have no say there.

God forbid we should hear both sides of an argument. Thats why we call it the "main stream".

a reply to: gspat

HA! If only it was that easy..

But as an American I do appreciate your constructive criticism/ideas for our electoral system. Lately it seems to be a bunch of bashing over anything and everything.

I agree that our system is broken, but it's more broken than any superpac can fix. I'm afraid it is going to take sacrifice.

Add: 'sacrifice' doesn't quite fit. It will take an all out war against the entire D.C. elitist party and their supporters. War fits better than sacrifice.. so use 'war'.

I don't really think that the election process is the problem. Its the candidates and the voters that need fixed. The majority of the voters being more informed/intelligent or just used their common sense would fix some problems. And it would be an easy fix. Getting the politicians to honor our Constitution and actually do what they say they will during a campaign should fix the rest.

That being said the electoral college could be changed a bit. Maybe up the reps for smaller states or lower the them for the bigger. Not make it equal since the bigger states are representing more votes/opinions just a little more balanced. My state gets a whole 2 votes so we're basically worthless and have to go along with what the bigger states wants which is completely different.

Better yet states rights and a small fed would fix it.

You touch on the truth of the matter. I have heard a few ideas floated from Dan Carlin including:

1. A Kickstarter kind of idea for a politician we could get behind
2. This is a bit out there but having a portion of our taxes withheld and at the end of the year we can contribute them to a candidate of our choice or simply have them refunded. The portion withheld could be left to our own discretion

Without money you have no chance of making it to the races and that's a sad fact

a reply to: gspat

Lessig has been doing that already. He's on top of it. It's an uphill fight though.

Wolf PAC is fighting to get the states to organize to add a constitutional amendment removing money from politics.

People are trying but money is pretty powerful.

a reply to: tavi45

I forgot about wolfpac. I actually joined them a while back but haven't been very active

a reply to: nukedog

You should get active. In my opinion it's the single best idea for political activism. The national level of politics is corrupted beyond repair. State legislatures often have real people who care about real people rather than corporate puppets. They have Vermont and California already and nearly have New Jersey.

a reply to: tavi45

They also won the 3 elections they directly supported by narrow margins this election. Democrats lost everywhere. Wolf PAC won their fights.

a reply to: tavi45

I'm all active'd out atm. I do plan on doing some calls. It's just that they use google+ which I hate because it bombs my inbox so bad I pass it off as spam.

a reply to: nukedog

Yeah I'm not a huge fan either but activism isn't supposed to be easy

a reply to: gspat

Campaign finance reform and term limits have to be voted in by congress and they surely don't want to vote themselves out of their cushy political career. They should let the people decide and put it on the ballot!

Op you have a lot of good points that have been brought up by ATS members. I just think the system is stacked against the people. It's been corrupted and the people who hold the cards are part of the corruption. Then again, the Supreme Court of this country ruled in favor of corporate donations. If the judges of this country are going to ignore the corruption of the system, than in reality we Americans are screwed!

a reply to: WeRpeons

That's why I like Wolf PAC so much. They aren't going to ask Congress to do it

originally posted by: gspat
I don't pretend to know beans about the nuts and bolts of the American electoral system. As a Canadian, I can't honestly say I have a very good understanding of my own - when by the time the western provinces finish voting, the rest of the country has basically gone to celebrate or gone home because the election is already over and decided.

But, since I didn't want to derail the nlbs thread, or the other thread about basically the same thing, I had a thought that may be useful to you guys down south of me...

NLBS spent a good portion of the current show listing some of the superpacs and the people behind them...

Why wouldn't you, as American citizens, create one for election reform? Colbert did it, and that was on a lark.

Why wouldn't you use the "power of the people" to work towards the reforms you want?

Examples that come to mind, from posts here and watching the Ron Paul debacle from afar would be:

- Make states that only allow "R" or "D" on the ballot expand to include other candidates.

- Get rid of the electoral colleges? (I don't understand what they do exactly, so just throwing this one out there)

- Limits on terms in office.

- Limits on spending per person / per candidate

- Getting rid of Superpacs?

There are enough of you guys (and gals) that seem to be disgruntled enough to throw ten bucks or more in the pot and make some waves for change.

All the best!

"I don't understand anything about your electoral processes or constitutions, but here are some words I heard, why don't you form a political action committee and change them? A TV comedian did something like that once."

a reply to: FurvusRexCaeli

Thanks for the personal attack on the OP. You really contributed.

His level of knowledge is actually superior to many Americans. At least he admitted not being an expert. Most people I know who act like experts on politics can't even name the 3 branches of government.

Not to mention that his idea is a good one.

a reply to: tavi45

That's why I like Wolf PAC so much. They aren't going to ask Congress to do it

That's the first time I heard of the organization. Sounds like an organization I would give my support to.

a reply to: WeRpeons

I assume you don't know TYT then? They are the biggest internet news organization and the founders of Wolf PAC. They are definitely progressives but they bash Democrats and Republicans alike. Watch some of their videos. Their style of reporting is refreshing in this MSM age of propaganda. They do a lot of political and social stuff but also great stories on crazy news or new science or things like new studies on porn viewing habits. One of the best organizations around in my opinion. You can disagree with their opinions (they freaking encourage you to) but they are not liars and are not bought and paid for (except by Google since they are on YouTube).