It's up to individual voter during each and every election to use their heads and separate fact from fiction. More often than not, we get stuck with the governments we deserve because people can't do that.
"CDN_PATRIOT" said It's up to individual voter during each and every election to use their heads and separate fact from fiction. More often than not, we get stuck with the governments we deserve because people can't do that.
It's a vicious cycle.
-J.
So true,
and yes we do
and yes it is.
What always bugs me is the near 50% or so who ignore the whole damn process and do not participate. Though sometimes I'm unsure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
The less the stupid participate the better it is for those actually have some brain cells to rub together. No joke, the dummies are the same that they've always been. Gullible, hyper-reactive, and incredibly easy for the salesmen & shamans alike to turn towards evil ends. There's no real difference from the retards of the past who would go out and burn "witches" and the kind of people who stormed the US Capitol on Jan 6. They're all just slightly different iterations of the identical hate-filled torch-carrying mob that's plagued humanity since the beginning.
Disagree. The greatest threat to democracy is apathy. Only the supporters of despotism and fascism see non participation of anyone except for themselves as viable.
Ignorance can be cured but it requires involvement in the process. If you are not a stake holder in the process you think you are immune to it but as the saying goes either you do politics or politics do you.
There are tonnes of new participants in the franchise of democracy who need to know what's what but a lot are new here (young, immigrants) or have abdicated their stake due to a variety of factors and have lost hope in the process. If you turn the light off of information or make it obscure they will not seek it out and become a part of the disenfranchised mass that acts like a cancer on our body politic.
Oddly enough though it's been the onslaught of unfiltered information, both the real and the fake kinds, over the last twenty years of the internet's existence, that can be credibly argued to have made things much, much worse.
At this stage I'd say it's been more than proven that too much information is just as bad as no information at all. It's just too overwhelming for a lot of minds to process. Even more so when it gets warped and twisted by professionals in order to lead the lemmings straight off of the edge of a cliff. Too bad for the lemmings, I suppose, but the pied piper that led them there certainly got everything he wanted, didn't he.
Society can only grow if mistakes are made. The scars enable healing and a new way to go forward. The only remedy to 'bad' ideas is more ideas and so it goes.
It sounds good to say that people should not be allowed to lie about certain things. In the real world, its not so black and white. One person can say about a politician that the unemployment rate was the lowest it has been in 50 years while said politician was in office. Someone else can say that the unemployment rate is the worst it has been in 50 years under the same politician. BOTH can be right. Wild swings can occur while someone is in office. Without adding timeframes, both statements can be correct.
Someone can state that said politician voted against a bill that was for the common man, like a $15 an hour minimum wage. They won't tell you that a rider was added to the bill basically outlawing all abortions. The politician now looks like some evil rich asshole that wants to bring back slavery, when he was really picking between the lessor of two evils. That scenario plays out every day with every topic in American politics. Abortion, gun rights/control, taxes, spending.....you name it. Anyone can be made to look like anything to anyone when they mix up the bills like they do.
It would be far better to have a law that states that EVERY bill is a single item bill. It stands or falls on its own. If we are talking about abortion, that we stay on abortion. If we are talking about minimum wage, than that is all we talk about. No more riders, no more add-ons, no more horse trading, no more bullshit. Either you are for it or you are not. Straight up or down voting on the single issue. It is was that way then someone's voting record would actually mean something. You would know where they REALLY stand on the issues.
It would be far better to have a law that states that EVERY bill is a single item bill. It stands or falls on its own. If we are talking about abortion, that we stay on abortion. If we are talking about minimum wage, than that is all we talk about. No more riders, no more add-ons, no more horse trading, no more bullshit. Either you are for it or you are not. Straight up or down voting on the single issue. It is was that way then someone's voting record would actually mean something. You would know where they REALLY stand on the issues.
In Canada, we make 'Omnibus' bills, that include one item about the budget, because if a bill fails that is about the budget, it triggers an election. And no one wants that.
"rickc" said It sounds good to say that people should not be allowed to lie about certain things. In the real world, its not so black and white. One person can say about a politician that the unemployment rate was the lowest it has been in 50 years while said politician was in office. Someone else can say that the unemployment rate is the worst it has been in 50 years under the same politician. BOTH can be right. Wild swings can occur while someone is in office. Without adding timeframes, both statements can be correct.
Someone can state that said politician voted against a bill that was for the common man, like a $15 an hour minimum wage. They won't tell you that a rider was added to the bill basically outlawing all abortions. The politician now looks like some evil rich asshole that wants to bring back slavery, when he was really picking between the lessor of two evils. That scenario plays out every day with every topic in American politics. Abortion, gun rights/control, taxes, spending.....you name it. Anyone can be made to look like anything to anyone when they mix up the bills like they do.
It would be far better to have a law that states that EVERY bill is a single item bill. It stands or falls on its own. If we are talking about abortion, that we stay on abortion. If we are talking about minimum wage, than that is all we talk about. No more riders, no more add-ons, no more horse trading, no more bullshit. Either you are for it or you are not. Straight up or down voting on the single issue. It is was that way then someone's voting record would actually mean something. You would know where they REALLY stand on the issues.
Absolutely. It's ridiculous to have an "add-on" to a bill to address another issue as it makes it appear that perhaps the add-on is what they really wanted passed.
because people can't do that.
It's a vicious cycle.
-J.
It's up to individual voter during each and every election to use their heads and separate fact from fiction. More often than not, we get stuck with the governments we deserve
because people can't do that.
It's a vicious cycle.
-J.
So true,
and yes we do
and yes it is.
What always bugs me is the near 50% or so who ignore the whole damn process and do not participate. Though sometimes I'm unsure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
What always bugs me is the near 50% or so who ignore the whole
damn process and do not participate.
And yet they're the first to complain about everything.
-J.
Ignorance can be cured but it requires involvement in the process. If you are not a stake holder in the process you think you are immune to it but as the saying goes either you do politics or politics do you.
There are tonnes of new participants in the franchise of democracy who need to know what's what but a lot are new here (young, immigrants) or have abdicated their stake due to a variety of factors and have lost hope in the process. If you turn the light off of information or make it obscure they will not seek it out and become a part of the disenfranchised mass that acts like a cancer on our body politic.
At this stage I'd say it's been more than proven that too much information is just as bad as no information at all. It's just too overwhelming for a lot of minds to process. Even more so when it gets warped and twisted by professionals in order to lead the lemmings straight off of the edge of a cliff. Too bad for the lemmings, I suppose, but the pied piper that led them there certainly got everything he wanted, didn't he.
Would be nice if a politicians lies were taxable. Then we could all have nice things.
Someone can state that said politician voted against a bill that was for the common man, like a $15 an hour minimum wage. They won't tell you that a rider was added to the bill basically outlawing all abortions. The politician now looks like some evil rich asshole that wants to bring back slavery, when he was really picking between the lessor of two evils. That scenario plays out every day with every topic in American politics. Abortion, gun rights/control, taxes, spending.....you name it. Anyone can be made to look like anything to anyone when they mix up the bills like they do.
It would be far better to have a law that states that EVERY bill is a single item bill. It stands or falls on its own. If we are talking about abortion, that we stay on abortion. If we are talking about minimum wage, than that is all we talk about. No more riders, no more add-ons, no more horse trading, no more bullshit. Either you are for it or you are not. Straight up or down voting on the single issue. It is was that way then someone's voting record would actually mean something. You would know where they REALLY stand on the issues.
It would be far better to have a law that states that EVERY bill is a single item bill. It stands or falls on its own. If we are talking about abortion, that we stay on abortion. If we are talking about minimum wage, than that is all we talk about. No more riders, no more add-ons, no more horse trading, no more bullshit. Either you are for it or you are not. Straight up or down voting on the single issue. It is was that way then someone's voting record would actually mean something. You would know where they REALLY stand on the issues.
In Canada, we make 'Omnibus' bills, that include one item about the budget, because if a bill fails that is about the budget, it triggers an election. And no one wants that.
It sounds good to say that people should not be allowed to lie about certain things. In the real world, its not so black and white. One person can say about a politician that the unemployment rate was the lowest it has been in 50 years while said politician was in office. Someone else can say that the unemployment rate is the worst it has been in 50 years under the same politician. BOTH can be right. Wild swings can occur while someone is in office. Without adding timeframes, both statements can be correct.
Someone can state that said politician voted against a bill that was for the common man, like a $15 an hour minimum wage. They won't tell you that a rider was added to the bill basically outlawing all abortions. The politician now looks like some evil rich asshole that wants to bring back slavery, when he was really picking between the lessor of two evils. That scenario plays out every day with every topic in American politics. Abortion, gun rights/control, taxes, spending.....you name it. Anyone can be made to look like anything to anyone when they mix up the bills like they do.
It would be far better to have a law that states that EVERY bill is a single item bill. It stands or falls on its own. If we are talking about abortion, that we stay on abortion. If we are talking about minimum wage, than that is all we talk about. No more riders, no more add-ons, no more horse trading, no more bullshit. Either you are for it or you are not. Straight up or down voting on the single issue. It is was that way then someone's voting record would actually mean something. You would know where they REALLY stand on the issues.
Absolutely. It's ridiculous to have an "add-on" to a bill to address another issue as it makes it appear that perhaps the add-on is what they really wanted passed.