Do you wish we had proportional representation?

[CCS]

Just upsets me that two very different candidates run for office. I don't like either of them, but one of them is not as bad as the other. We vote, and 53% pick one candidate, and the other 47% get sand bagged.

Wouldn't you prefer it if there were a spectrum of candidates, elected in a why that proportionally represents the voters? It also upsets me that every term the political environment swings wide from left to right. I'm sure the unpredictability of taxes and legalities must frustrate investors and mess up the business world. Lawyers of course love it because it keeps them in demand.

There is no way one president can make 300,000,000 voters happy. The only reason we need a fast acting president is for national security issues. I say we replace the presidency with a parliament or something, and then just have a secretary of defense who has the military powers the president had. We just need to make sure the secretary of defense is elected by congress, and is not allowed to give speaches to the people, that way it is harder for a demogague to get that office or be drawn to it.

I swear. The president of the united states is like a king. The british are way ahead of us here. Their king is just a figure head, but has no political power at all. He just does ceremonial stuff so that demogogues can't take over the country as easily.

And the house of representatives is dumb. Same problem of 47% of voters getting sand bagged, and only a fraction of the winners actually thinking he/she is the best candidate possible. The house of representatives is responsible for the vast majority of pork barrel spending. Just get rid of that house and require 60% of the senate and parliament to pass laws.

Before the 17th amendment was passed, letting senators be elected by the populous, the senate was elected by legislatures. The intent was that senators would represent state governments so that the federal government would not get too big and strong. Fact is not everyone agrees on a lot of issues, and you can move to a different state if you disagree on something. But with the fed running everything, we all suffer if someone wins a political fight we don't agree with. Now that the populous can elect senators, people elect them to change issues they don't agree with their state on, rather than just move to a different state.

We need to repeal the 17th amendment, and replace the president and the house of representatives with a parliament of sorts, give the secretary of defense some presidential powers, and require 60% of both houses to pass bills. That would stabilize politics and make it more fair.

 

[CCS]

One thing I really like about another forum is it is packed with thousands of libertarian leaning people. The misc section has at least 1000 new posts per day of region fights and democrat bashing, and post after post of libertarian leaning people bashing Obama. If it was not for the keyboard wariors and "bulkers" in the muscle section, I'd say the people on there are mostly like me. What really is funny is the pages and pages of thread titles of people calling out different groups for a debate on some topic or other, usually religious.

 

[ali777]

Welcome to democracy. The Greek democracy was based on the rich voting among themselves. In the modern times, democracy is based on the poor voting for some rich man. Nothing has changed.

In defense of the system. I'm not very familiar with the way the US government runs, but don't you have some sort of senate that proportionally represents the vote?

In smaller countries we have parliaments that are based on proportional representation. It's not a perfect system, some small parties get enough overall vote, but not enough regional vote for a seat and they end up having no representatives. However, in theory this proportional representative system is the only one that would work.

I like the idea of having a constituency and voting for the local guy who should in return be accountable to his constituents. However, I don't like the idea of a party presenting me with their choice of Prime Minister. We do not have a direct say in who the PM should be.

 

[CCS]

Nothing proportional over here. Just every election half the people get their preference, which might not be who they really wanted as a representative. The other half get sand bagged. And the whole government swings back and forth, left to right, with each side blaming the problems on the fact that they don't have enough votes to get what they want done.

I want to save money for retirement, but I don't know if it will get inflated away, or if the democrats will take my money and use it to Propecia up social security. So I'll just spend for now, and pay off debts later after the inflation.

I don't think there should be a prime minister. Even if you could vote for the prime minister, there is no way you could all agree on who it should be, when your views vary so much. I say you should have another house of parliament, or just require a super majority in parliament to pass a law. We really need to end the day of presidents. The only reason we need an autonomous person is for military reaction speed, not for politics. At least with military we all know the country needs defending.