Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
What Democracy Looks Like: Debates
I'm trying out a new idea on my blog that I am awkwardly titling "What Democracy Looks Like." I can't help but feel that democracy in America is a lie and that (as George Carlin put it) we are given the illusion of choice. So, with the idea that visualization is the first step in enacting change, I've started trying to imagine what democracy would actually look like, if we had it.
Since it is now the election season, I have been thinking about what debates would look like in a true democracy.
Currently, the way debates work is that the two major parties argue about the format of the debate. This is (to use a colloquial expression) like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. This is why in many debates over the past dozen years or so (particularly presidential debates) the candidates were not allowed to address one another directly. It also has enabled strong restraints on the number of debates, the topics raised, and the time given for a response. These rules often favor the ignorant who can more easily express a sound bite than a logical, reasoned response.
I wrote a paper on this in junior college where I suggested a reform specifically for presidential debates. These debates used to be conducted by the League of Women Voters, but was taken from their control by the two major parties in the eighties.
It is vitally important to the health of the country that we have a non-biased third party set the standard for debates. In my essay, I proposed five debates to address different concerns. In particular, there were two debates specific to addressing the needs of the elderly and the youth vote. The rules would be standardized to allow lengthy responses and direct address.
However, as I have become more interested in house and senate seats, I have realized that we need reform to publicize and standardize these debates as well.
Is there any debate for candidates for congress? If so, where can I see it? Every election season there should be notices everywhere to come and witness the candidates in order to make an informed choice about local politics. It should be held in a large public place like a county fairgrounds and every flyer should also have a website and the names of any channel carrying the debate.
Hell, how about just a weekly debate forum for every issue that comes out? Instead of attending biased news programs to get out your sound bites, how about a formal debate forum to discuss the issues of the week in a neutral environment?
Is that so crazy? Or is it just the bare minimum that we should demand in the "greatest country in the world?"
Perhaps the most blindingly obvious sign that we do not have a true democracy is the fact that Election Day is not a national holiday. This would seem like the best way to encourage most voters. Many other nations have this policy. I can only conclude that actually getting people to vote is not a priority.
Anyway, here is a couple clips from The West Wing to show what a debate should look like:
Since it is now the election season, I have been thinking about what debates would look like in a true democracy.
Currently, the way debates work is that the two major parties argue about the format of the debate. This is (to use a colloquial expression) like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. This is why in many debates over the past dozen years or so (particularly presidential debates) the candidates were not allowed to address one another directly. It also has enabled strong restraints on the number of debates, the topics raised, and the time given for a response. These rules often favor the ignorant who can more easily express a sound bite than a logical, reasoned response.
I wrote a paper on this in junior college where I suggested a reform specifically for presidential debates. These debates used to be conducted by the League of Women Voters, but was taken from their control by the two major parties in the eighties.
It is vitally important to the health of the country that we have a non-biased third party set the standard for debates. In my essay, I proposed five debates to address different concerns. In particular, there were two debates specific to addressing the needs of the elderly and the youth vote. The rules would be standardized to allow lengthy responses and direct address.
However, as I have become more interested in house and senate seats, I have realized that we need reform to publicize and standardize these debates as well.
Is there any debate for candidates for congress? If so, where can I see it? Every election season there should be notices everywhere to come and witness the candidates in order to make an informed choice about local politics. It should be held in a large public place like a county fairgrounds and every flyer should also have a website and the names of any channel carrying the debate.
Hell, how about just a weekly debate forum for every issue that comes out? Instead of attending biased news programs to get out your sound bites, how about a formal debate forum to discuss the issues of the week in a neutral environment?
Is that so crazy? Or is it just the bare minimum that we should demand in the "greatest country in the world?"
Perhaps the most blindingly obvious sign that we do not have a true democracy is the fact that Election Day is not a national holiday. This would seem like the best way to encourage most voters. Many other nations have this policy. I can only conclude that actually getting people to vote is not a priority.
Anyway, here is a couple clips from The West Wing to show what a debate should look like:
California fires healthcare company
This is why there is no faith in the democratic party. They are claiming that they reformed healthcare, but they caved to pressure by businesses and right-wing fanatics.
We don't have an actual liberal party. Just conservatives and moderates.
This is why I'm a socialist.
We don't have an actual liberal party. Just conservatives and moderates.
This is why I'm a socialist.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
We are going down the socialist toilets
[Note: This was not written by me. I'd credit the writer if I knew who it was.]
I'm mad as hell and I ain't gonna take it any more. Please let me tell you about what my day was like.
This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy. I was in the house that I purchased with no down payment, thanks to the GI Bill.
I then took a shower in the clean water provided by a municipal water utility.
After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
I watched this while eating my breakfast of U.S. Department of Agriculture- inspected food and taking the drugs that have been determined as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
At the appropriate time, as regulated by the U.S. Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration- approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.
On the way out the door I deposit the mail I need to send via the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school. I have to remember to stop by the public library to return the books we've used to plan our vacation to Yellowstone National Park. (We will drive mostly on interstate highways.) I also make a note to check out a book or two about how the United States military planned the D-Day invasion in 1944 and how NASA planned and carried out the landing of two men on the moon in 1969.
On the way to work I look at the bay and the worlds Greatest Navy heading out to sea to protect the interest of the USA anywhere on the planet .The white contrail in the crystal blue sky assure me in the skies over, the USAF is on duty to protect the USA.
After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.
I will sign up for Social Security and Medicare on the very first day I am eligible. I will ensure that all my assets are placed in the names of my wife or children so that the state and federal government -- through Medicaid -- can support me in a nice private room in a nursing home for the last five or six years of my life, without sacrificing a dime of my children's inheritances. Before that, I will attend my 25-year reunion at the college I attended, thanks to the GI Bill paying my tuition and most of my expenses for the full four years.
And then I log on to the Internet -- which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration -- and post on Freerepublic. com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.
Like I said before, I'm mad as hell, and I ain't gonna take it anymore!
I'm mad as hell and I ain't gonna take it any more. Please let me tell you about what my day was like.
This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy. I was in the house that I purchased with no down payment, thanks to the GI Bill.
I then took a shower in the clean water provided by a municipal water utility.
After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
I watched this while eating my breakfast of U.S. Department of Agriculture- inspected food and taking the drugs that have been determined as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
At the appropriate time, as regulated by the U.S. Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration- approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.
On the way out the door I deposit the mail I need to send via the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school. I have to remember to stop by the public library to return the books we've used to plan our vacation to Yellowstone National Park. (We will drive mostly on interstate highways.) I also make a note to check out a book or two about how the United States military planned the D-Day invasion in 1944 and how NASA planned and carried out the landing of two men on the moon in 1969.
On the way to work I look at the bay and the worlds Greatest Navy heading out to sea to protect the interest of the USA anywhere on the planet .The white contrail in the crystal blue sky assure me in the skies over, the USAF is on duty to protect the USA.
After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.
I will sign up for Social Security and Medicare on the very first day I am eligible. I will ensure that all my assets are placed in the names of my wife or children so that the state and federal government -- through Medicaid -- can support me in a nice private room in a nursing home for the last five or six years of my life, without sacrificing a dime of my children's inheritances. Before that, I will attend my 25-year reunion at the college I attended, thanks to the GI Bill paying my tuition and most of my expenses for the full four years.
And then I log on to the Internet -- which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration -- and post on Freerepublic. com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.
Like I said before, I'm mad as hell, and I ain't gonna take it anymore!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
GOP Wants You To Work To Death
They must be desperate if they are risking alienating senior citizens.
I agree that what we have in place isn't sustainable, but the answer is not to work the populace when they should be enjoying what little time they have before death. The answer, as usual, is to go where there is a surplus of money and that means taxing the rich.
I agree that what we have in place isn't sustainable, but the answer is not to work the populace when they should be enjoying what little time they have before death. The answer, as usual, is to go where there is a surplus of money and that means taxing the rich.
Friday, July 30, 2010
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