why can't we have something better?

@Ynotisay Agreed 100%. But I will admit that in my 20s, I would have loved to see a political novice in high offices simply to shake up the status quo. Now I see the error in that thinking.

@trollslayer That's totally understandable. I was the same way in my early 20's. It's a time when you want action and think it can happen immediately. Then you learn how the sausage gets made and it tempers expectations.

@Adstar my idea is that instead of debates, let's have like 10 questions each candidate must answer in writing. things like:

1. which taxes do you intend to raise, and how much?

2. are you going to expand, or downsize the military. If downsize, which bases will you close.

3. do you support term limits for congress.

4. should senators go to jail for slander just the way we might?

5. what additional drugs will you legalize, if any.

6. will you lower the voting age to 16?

ETC Etd

@SusanInFlorida
1. which taxes do you intend to raise, and how much?

Political reply ::I intend to put a 20% tax on all earning on investments... But my friends in the other party who you will vote for in the senate to prevent me from having total control of the presedency and both houses will block my proposal.. Therefore all my rich elites masters will have a giggle and i will be able to claim that i put the law forward but i was sabotarged by them evil ( insert political party name here)


Political reply:: We will set a maximum of 50 overseas bases reducing them from the current 200.. But once i get into power then i will have some international emergency which will include a war that will cause me to POSTPONE my policy,, You know for natioanl security reasons..


Political reply:: Yeah but none of the congress memers are going to vote that one into law.. So as the presedent i can again say that someone else has frustrated my policies..


Well yes,, But we will only impose the law on senators who bring truefull corruption allogations against my fellow friends.. And yeah those senators who try to reveal our dirty little secrets.. We will use the anti-slander legislation to finaly bring to and end free speech...


politcal response:: We shall legalize all drungs... But i know the congressman who get bribes . donations from organised crime will be recieving death threats to stop them making drugs legal.. A lot of people will lose a lot of money if those drugs are made legal... Not going to happen..


Of course i will... if it favors my political party.. If we are better then the other side at fooling gulliable young people then for sure we will support it.. Maybe we should have 12 year olds getting the vote as long as we control the education system and we can have our party members dominating the teaching staff at schools this will be a solid goer.. As long as we control both houses.. muahahahahahaaaaa 😈

@Adstar The media can ruin a candidate with a single sound ite if they wish.

@JPWhoo i really don't spend my free time surfing the websites of 3rd parties. its their duty to reach out to the public

@4meAndyou Maybe. And if you’re not already on the ballot and therefore don’t have a chance to win a certain percentage of the vote, then maybe pay a fee and collect a certain number of signatures?

@SusanInFlorida They don’t have the resources to be able to reach out to the public, mostly because big corporations have bought out the two major parties so that’s all the mainstream media covers. It’s fine if you don’t want to support them though, I’d actually just as soon they not do well so the Democrats will have a better chance of beating the crazy Republicans.

@SusanInFlorida I agree but the problem with having a dictator in charge is that you don’t have a choice. Dictators usually get in by force and stay in until their regime is toppled.
With a democratically elected government you get to vote for change every 3-4 years depending on the presidential term.

@justanothername i'm not in any way defending any sort of unelected leader. Not in

Russia
china
north korea
cuba
Iran
Saudi Arabia
Monaco

I even have problems with the way they select the "European union leader". THATS not a publicly elected office, either

@SusanInFlorida Monaco Prince and Princess is part of the European royal family.

EU leader is elected by the other EU member nations. It’s all part of the process.

@SusanInFlorida You have fun with the YOUNG person you decide to vote for. Because youth is really all that counts in a President. Incidentally, I am an Independent voter, so I usually listen to ALL sides....unlike some I could mention.

@4meAndyou I am also an Independent.

@cherokeepatti I really do respect YOUR opinions...because I know you do a lot of research.

@SusanInFlorida I live in Oklahoma and 4 Chinese nationals were executed at their worksite this week, and a fifth person was also shot but survived and identified the shooter, also Chinese. This happened at a Chinese owned medical marijuana grow center. Investigation is ongoing.

@cherokeepatti wow, i read that but didn't realize it was chinese. i assumed it was "gangstas"

@SusanInFlorida could have been, they arrested the suspect down in Florida already. There are Asian gangs in America. I audibly witnessed a shooting (no one was injured) during holiday break at my apartment complex one winter break 33 years ago. A lot of people heard it but I was told that I was the only person to call the police. I walked out and saw a police woman handcuffing the suspect, an Asian man, that I recognized visiting a neighbor woman several times. Chinese living above me told me he was having an affair with a married woman. The police asked me to fill a report they could use and I cooperated the next day. After I signed it the officer warned me that I should always look through the peep hole before opening my front door and if I saw any Asian men with tattoos on their arms to not open my door and to call 9-1-1. I asked him if he was in an Asian gang and he said they believed he was. The rest of my break was basically ruined. The police told me they wanted to prosecute him due to a history of violence after women had broken up with him and that they believed he would kill someone if he wasn’t dealt with. The police officer told me that the D.A. Was not wanting to take the campus police’s charges seriously so my report was important. It ended badly because the D.A. Refused to press charges.. The man found another girlfriend, and when she broke up with him only a few months after this incident he killed her and killed himself.

@spjennifer Not too sure about that. I think drawing an equivalency between Democrats and Republicans should be off the table by now. The system is fine. Outside of the electoral college and Citizens United which one party supports and it's not Democrats. Third party doesn't work because the platforms, policy support and leadership isn't there. Maybe some day. But now the problem is who the PEOPLE vote in to office. We're not a smart country. Herschel Walker, who can barely form a sentence, has a realistic chance of being elected. That says it all.

@Ynotisay I do draw an "equivalency" between the Democrats and "Usual Republicans" (not the current batch of imbeciles running them). In years past, both parties have had good and bad policies and have also done good and a lot of harm at times. What's needed is electoral reform in order to give people a choice other than just those 2 and I agree, we are not a smart Country when for example the Republicans put someone like Herschel Walker up for the Senate, the man is a moron.

@spjennifer OK. I hear what you're saying. But it's from the assumption that a third party would be any different. It wouldn't. The platform might have some nuance but at the end of the day the issues and legislative machinations on a federal level would remain the same. And third parties typically have a very specific focus. I'm not too sure about hiring electricians to fix the plumbing.

Let's say the Green party came to power. Have you looked at their platform? It's very similar to what Democrats are working towards but takes it to pie-in-the-sky place. You can paint a world of lollipops and rainbows but it means nothing in terms of implementation. It was the same thing with Sanders. He promoted a utopia that had ZERO chance of becoming a reality. Pushing the ball down the field is one thing. Appealing to the impressionable which ended up directly impacting Republican victories says it all. It's not an all or nothing game.

Democracy is driven by the cream rising to the top. A parliamentary system isn't baked in to the Democracy cake. And at the end of the day? People don't vote. Typically around half can't be bothered to take ten minutes out of their lives to vote for their futures. Stories were trumpeting the great youth voter turnout in the midterms and it was like 25%. That's a big deal? 25 percent of voters 18-30 actually voting is worth applause? I'll stick with where I am. It's all on "us."

@SusanInFlorida That would cause an even bigger wealth gap than we have now.

@BohemianBabe yeah. but who cares? I don't want to rob people who are hard workers, shrewd investors, or entrepreneurs. the politics of envy and confiscation don't work anywhere

@SusanInFlorida Most rich people are born into wealth. They're not hard workers or that smart.
Besides, taxing the rich to fund social programs benefits everyone.

@SusanInFlorida
babushka is not an insult, it is an identity !

@Aliveshock wikipedia says its a russian insult. it's like shouting "old lady" at random people you don't know in america. it's a catcall.

@SusanInFlorida
isn’t it sad when Russians treat each other that way. Sounds like calling someone a Nazi in Germany. They make the cutest stack up dolls. You know that when Vladimir bared his chest it was for them because any other woman would straight up laugh at him.

@SusanInFlorida If enough people get fed up and start to think, things will change.

I talk to way too many people who believe there are only two choices.

@QCDog2659 i had a 5 minute flirtation with the libertarians. it ended when i realized they were mostly either in it for drug legalization or tax avoidance

@SusanInFlorida I see

@SusanInFlorida Pat hub…i wasn’t thinking of any 80s music but rather the dual of Hamilton and Burr after all the common theme here was famous historical waders of the U.S. with the irony that Burr wasn’t just a murderer but also VP!

@Aliveshock i don't think we should romanticize political assassinations. not burr. not lincoln, not kennedy . . .

@SusanInFlorida
I didn’t make the Broadway play.
it is sad that the VicePresident did “assassinate” Hamilton.

@SStarfish i'm writing a dystopian novel about life in the future. congress - all politicians - are 90% women. but the outcomes are no better. we are as selfish and greedy as men, on average.

@SusanInFlorida typical

@SStarfishsuch a novel already exists?

@SW-User we might be safer if return to the found father's principles:

congress in session for only about 12 weeks a year. candidates back in their home states doing normal stuff the rest of the time

@IWasCallingYaLarry that's what the parties want us to believe

@SusanInFlorida It's sadly true though. Because the Libertarian party sucks and is never taken seriously, and 2: too many people who vote, they don't actually pay attention to politics, so they don't know, don't care, all these people know is "Go to polling place and put D or R down for everything."

@IWasCallingYaLarry i actually voted libertarian once. some guy named "johnson". very anodyne

@pianoplayingsteve the two party system is still better than the one party system

@Entwistle who can blame politicians for being like that, though? People will get offended at whatever they are told to, believe whatever they are told to - even if it contradicts their programming the day before. They are happy to end friendships with real people who disagree with their programming put on them by people who dont care about them, nor the issues they pretend to want to fix. I do not wish ill on anyone, but they do deserve to reap what they sew if they decide to be wilfully ignorant.

@pianoplayingsteve most people aren't "willfully ignorant". they are graduates (or dropouts) of america's public schools, and informed about current events by cbs, cnn, fox, twitter . . .

@WolfGirlwh0r3 i'm not sure "new people" without actual experience will automatically be an upgrade

@SusanInFlorida do you trust the state-level government?