[abanikko]

People need to understand their vote DOES matter! That nobody can complain about any loss of liberties and freedoms if they don't even vote. That if there are suddenly no jobs, jobs with substandard pay and no medical benefits, and those that DO have medical benefits paying 20-30% of their income that IT IS THE NON VOTERS WHO HAVE ACTUALLY CAUSED THIS TO HAPPEN!
Not casting a vote is in fact voting to enrich the wealthy and support a continued oppression of the majority. It's my opinion that the pain in this country to date has been caused by the absolute oblivious character of more than 50 million people. It should be legally mandatory for every eligible voter to caste a vote in order to ensure the will of the majority is implemented.

[Curlyben]

to ensure the will of the majority is implemented.

Interesting, but how does that gel with the American College electoral system?
After all winners can be declared WITHOUT the backing of the popular (Majority of population) vote.

By the time the actual elections arrive, people are generally tired of all of the rhetoric and unsubstantiated mud slinging. Why can't we simple have an honest election without the "point scoring" against the opposition members.
After all we, the Voters, are more interested in what YOU, the party, are going to do for us, not what the others AREN'T doing or have done wrong.

A change of focus is certainly needed.

[Fr_Chuck]

Require term limits on all congress and any political office.

Limit the money that any side can spend on advertising.

Require any advertising be approved by the party running it and allow them to be held liable for law suit for any lies in the ads.

Find a way to allow voting by smart phone or computer, so people don't have to go and stand in lines for up to a hour to vote.

[abanikko]

Good points there CURLYBEN! Now the Electoral College? In my opiniion is the largest scam in politics and leaves me totally bewildered as to how it was ever passed and why the majority don't acknowledge the unconstitutionality. The Electoral College needs to definitely be done away with so that one man,one vote truly stands for something.
None the less because of the electoral college it would just require that many more voters to extinguish its relevance as its affects are limited with enough voters.
What should anger everyone is that the reasoning the architects of that legislation gave was that it made sense because there are always a certain number of people out there who are deemed to be incapable of making the right choices. Then they also said that there were certain states that really wouldn't get a voice as a state and that wasn't fair. Since when should the voice of state overide the voices of its individual citizens and the national majority?
I don't think most people understand it, aren't concerned with understanding solely because they don't realize the incredible unjust that has been taking place.
They're ensuring that the minority gets an upper hand and THAT is NOT Democracy.

[abanikko]

One more thing CURLYBEN. I forgot to mention your statement of "After all we, the Voters, are more interested in what YOU, the party, are going to do for us, not what the others AREN'T doing or have done wrong" is absolutely correct! I'm with you 100%! How in the blank can they fix anything with their ridiculous childlike focus?
With unconstitutional processes like the electoral college it is imperitive we somehow educate people about these things. People just don't know and could never fathom things like this exist thus don't understand the importance of paying attention.
How many people realize the Federal Reserve is not a government agency? You say that to people and they think you're some kind of whack job because it sounds too appallingly unfathomable. Yet it is reality! I know things are changing and there are way more people aware of this today than years ago. But we've got a long way to go

[ebaines]

With unconstitutional processes like the electoral college ...

Huh? The electoral college is defined in the Constitution - therefore by definition it is NOT unconstitutional.

I don't think the relatively small turn out of voters that we have in the US is due to the Electoral College. And if you abolish it, how would you handle recounts? Remember the recont debacle in FL from 2000 - if the system used a direct vote that awful recount process would have to include all 50 states. That would be a disaster.

The real problem with the Electoral College is that it's a winner-take-all system for each state's electorates, which can cause a small swing of votes in a state like FL to throw the entire election one way or the other. Better would be a system of apportioning states' delegates by the proportion of popular vote within the state, as many states do in awarding convention delegates in their primaries.

[ebaines]

How many people realize the Federal Reserve is not a government agency? You say that to people and they think you're some kind of whack job because it sounds too appallingly unfathomable. Yet it is reality! I know things are changing and there are way more people aware of this today than years ago. But we've got a long way to go

Are you suggesting the Fed should be structured to be part of a federal agency of the executive branch, like the Treasury Dept? So that President Obama would have the primary say in setting interest rates and monitoring money supply?

[magprob]

In a post-Constitutional America, We the People no longer decide the outcomes of political races: it is They, the Corporations, which decide, through their contributions, who gets elected to run the government of this country, at all levels.
And trust me: when politicians get acquired, they stay acquired. And this is most true for our country's Presidents.
This is why most legislation passed at every level, be it municipal, state, and national, is great for the corporations, and generally lousy for We the People.
We have, unfortunately and very awkwardly, wound up, over two hundred thirty years since the founding of this country, right back to the same place where the colonists found themselves who rebelled against Britain: we have taxation without representation.
Yes, there is that kabuki-like process every couple of years which looks like an election, but is sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing.
It has all the overtones of a religious ritual, where the communal act of voting gives people the illusion that they, by participating in this act, can somehow magically sway the outcomes of domestic and foreign policies to be pursued by the government.
Of course, the reality is, that corporate and military interests guarantee that no matter who we vote for, or who we support, the ultimate trajectory of national policies doesn't seem to change much from those favored by the monied interests.
Let us look, for example, at the last Presidential election, with Mc Cain and Obama.
I supported Obama marginally because I really thought that, under his leadership, the US would change course from the horrific directions in which Bush and Cheney, et al, were pushing this country, and that he had the capability to develop some enlightened domestic and foreign policies.
DAMN, was I wrong!
Under Obama's watch, we have seen the following:
1. The continued offshoring of American jobs for tax incentives corporations get for continuing to do so.
2. An explosion in poverty (particularly with American children) at amazing rates.
3. Bailouts of the "too big to fail" institutions, and no bankers or corporate directors everever jailed for their malfeasance.
4. The lack of persecution of those responsible for credit default swaps, and the "bundling" of shaky mortgages as financial instruments.
5. A continued, expanded failure of imagination, when it comes to Afghanistan, when the only intelligent answer is to leave.
4. A pathological inability to "encourage" Israel to create a just and lasting peace with the Palestinians, a cankerous sore in the body politic of the Middle East. What we are seeing is the absolute destruction of any hope for a lasting peace, where Israel ethnically cleanses Palestinians at will, and there is a brisk annexation of Palestinian lands in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
5. The continued supporting of dictatorships in the Middle East, like the government of Yemen and Bahrain, which consistently suppress their own people, for whom there is very little hope for the future.
6. Expanded, covert wars in Africa for its resources.
7. The threatening Iran with war over an alleged nuclear weapons program which cannot, to date, be proven to exist.
8. The signing of the NDAA on New Year's Eve, which contains language enabling any President to order the arrest and indefinite detention of any American citizen without due process. And the mother of all ironies here, is that Obama used to be a lecturer on Constitutional Law; I never knew how much he despised the Constitution and Bill of Rights until he signed off on that legislation.

9. The signing of H.R. 347 last week, under which "Congress may at its discretion impose federal criminal charges on not only those who enter the White House grounds without prior permission, but on anyone who participates in protests at or near a location falling within the greatly enlarged scope of this new prohibited zone." So much for the First Amendment.
10. The approval of extrajudicial assassination of American citizens by the President, with absolutely no due process.
Was all the above the "hope and change" I had expected from this Administration?! HELL, NO!
But the reality here, is, that just as with most his predecessors, President Obama is, after all, simply an acquisition of those financial and corporate powers which brought him to the power of the presidency.
And no matter how much of a burden their geopolitical agendas place on the welfare of both the American people, and the world, he is bound to serve their agendas... and not ours.



Democratic pollster Mark Mellman.

[Stringer]

I pretty much agree Mag, clear insight.

[OneDude79]

Can I provide a contrarian point?

If you fail to pay attention and vote, you probably aren't intelligent enough to make an informed decision anyway.

[magprob]

Yes OneintelligentDude,
I'm sure you are soooo much wiser than all the rest.

RNC may block Nevada delegation if it seats too many pro-Paul delegates | The Raw Story

[OneDude79]

Yes OneintelligentDude,
I'm sure you are soooo much wiser than all the rest.

RNC may block Nevada delegation if it seats too many pro-Paul delegates | The Raw Story

Ever watch Leno? When he does those "on the street" interviews or whatever they are?

That's all you need to see to know what I mean.

[magprob]

Ask me help desk is the perfect place for you. A place where you will have zero influence on anyone.

HAHAHAHAHA!!