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I think we all understand by now (hopefully, of course) that neither party has solutions to problems, neither party can fix the country, and neither party is focused on anything but beating the other party (and subsequently changing little except in the social arena)
So what does it take to get rid of both of them and create a system with more than 2 parties? A conservative, a libertarian, a liberal, and a socialist party, perhaps?
Don't say "just vote for another party in 2012". We all know that doesn't work, and we all know that most of the current third parties are filled with nutjobs.
How much further do these two parties have to take us before we rise up and ban them from our system?
I think we all understand by now (hopefully, of course) that neither party has solutions to problems, neither party can fix the country, and neither party is focused on anything but beating the other party (and subsequently changing little except in the social arena)
So what does it take to get rid of both of them and create a system with more than 2 parties? A conservative, a libertarian, a liberal, and a socialist party, perhaps?
Don't say "just vote for another party in 2012". We all know that doesn't work, and we all know that most of the current third parties are filled with nutjobs.
How much further do these two parties have to take us before we rise up and ban them from our system?
They are 90 - 92 percent of the voting block. Alternatives aren't typically big on their list of priorities, "same ol' same ol'" very much is. Most will continue to be firmly part of that 90'ish percent block which comprises most of the volume under the statistical curve, with the statistical outliers (the remaining 10'ish percent) who want something different mostly being left to go it alone.
Just don't hold your breath waiting for the 90 percenters to entertain the argument. I think most people probably understand to some extent that having 19 flavors of ice cream as their choice might not be such a bad idea, but if all you ever get is chocolate and vanilla anyway, how much incentive or effort are you really going to expend to get the local vendor to make more choices available (or even if they are available - how willing is one to step out of their comfort zone to try something different). Just so long as he keeps doling out the chocolate and vanilla, at least a good percentage of them may be satisfied.
I want a party that represents people with IQ's over 100 that are socially liberal, fiscally moderate to conservative, and don't support having our military all over the place for no good reason.
I want a party that represents people with IQ's over 100 that are socially liberal, fiscally moderate to conservative, and don't support having our military all over the place for no good reason.
I think we all understand by now (hopefully, of course) that neither party has solutions to problems, neither party can fix the country, and neither party is focused on anything but beating the other party (and subsequently changing little except in the social arena)
So what does it take to get rid of both of them and create a system with more than 2 parties? A conservative, a libertarian, a liberal, and a socialist party, perhaps?
Don't say "just vote for another party in 2012". We all know that doesn't work, and we all know that most of the current third parties are filled with nutjobs.
How much further do these two parties have to take us before we rise up and ban them from our system?
I want a party that represents people with IQ's over 100 that are socially liberal, fiscally moderate to conservative, and don't support having our military all over the place for no good reason.
Got one of those?
Haha well I have an idea in my head that I've been playing around with in terms of my ideal political party. I call it "Social Reform":
Governmental Stance:
1. Move to Amend the Constitution to make the Presidency a ceremonial post with a single six-year term. Remove the Vice-President position. Move the executive arm into the legislative and create a Westminster-like Parliament with a distinctly American style with no confidence votes, the fall of the government if a budget doesn't pass, question periods, opposition days, etc. Remove the filibuster ability in the Senate and move to 2 elections of half of the senators each.
2. Unite election under the authority of a single, independent electoral commission made of representatives from all political parties with at least 2% support in federal elections, plus one independent. Ban campaign contributions from corporations, and only accept campaign contributions from individuals. Limit individual contribution to $1000. Limit the total amount a campaign can spend. Have a 60-day election/campaign period for all elections except for byelections which will be 30 days.
Economic Stance:
1. Immediately focus on paying down debts and deficit. Withdraw troops from overseas, stop funding defense contractors except for purchase of large products (missiles, ships, planes, and satellites).
2. Place the capital gains tax on investments at the corporate tax rate (retirement plans are exempted).
3. Simplify the individual tax code with income below $45,000 exempted, tax $45,000-$100,000 at 15%, tax $100,001-$750,000 at 25%, tax $750,001-$2,999,999 at 35%, and tax everything above $3,000,000 at 50%. Make the corporate tax rate 20% for small, local corporations and regional corporations, 25% for national corporations, and 30% for international corporations. Make an effort to classify small businesses separately and move them to an entirely new tax bracket at 10% unless their income/expenditure ratio is below 3:2.
4. Enforce the taxation/removal of tax-exempt status of organizations who engage in political activity.
5. Institute a penalty for corporate executives who flee a sinking ship with a golden parachute (tax this at 90%).
6. Nationalize the oil industry. A well-functioning country cannot sustain itself with essential energy prices out of control. Removes speculators from the market. Take profits from oil/gas and fund greener/alternative energy research and products.
7. Reorganize farm subsidies and regulations into state-by-state farming boards composed of farmers in each state that will determine the regulatory and subsidy standards for farming and agriculture and takes government bureaucrats out of the decision making process. Farms owned by national and international corporations would not be allowed to participate in state farming boards.
8. While paying down debts and deficits, refund social security and blockade the fund from being used to pay anything other than seniors' checks.
9. Take a hard stance on China. Increase the cost of American corporations supporting jobs in China and other countries through tariffs, and therefore making it cost prohibitive if they do not move jobs back to America. If unemployment drops to at or below 5%, remove tariffs gradually. Force China to revalue the yuan/renminbi so it is not undervalued or refuse trade.
10. Set up special economic zones in areas with higher than average unemployment. Lower the cost of doing business within these zones substantially lower than national average.
Social stance:
1. Hold off healthcare reform until debts and deficits are paid off. Then have a referendum in each state to decide if the individual states will institute universal single payer, continue private insurance, institute health cooperatives, continue medicare/medicaid if they do not choose USP, etc. Provide a federal network that ensures ease of transition between each state's system for people who are traveling and moving.
2. Change education systems from being funded by local districts' property taxes into being redistributed by each state on an equal funding-per-student basis. Remove generalized assessment tests and institute state course examinations that test the knowledge of students gained on a course-by-course basis. Do not remove funding if a school has lower test scores, instead, allow state teacher boards to evaluate and rearrange how those schools educate.
3. Institute welfare reform by lowering the amount of time a person can be on welfare unless they are on long-term disability as verified by an accredited doctor. Monitor individual doctors and ensure that if one doctor has an abnormally large amount of LTD cases, that they are ensured to be true LTD cases. If children are involved, they must attend school regularly. If they do not, they could be removed from the parents' guardianship and a complete loss of welfare to the parents (plus jail time) would ensue.
4. Increase funding to adoption/orphanage programs.
5. Remain pro-choice on the abortion side. Do not allow abortions to be funded by state funds unless it is medically deemed necessary to save a life or in the cases of rape.
6. Get the government out of the marriage business. Allow two people to join in a civil union for legal benefits only such as wills, hospital visits, inheritance, etc. Remove the tax benefits of marriage.
That's just a small amount of my personal beliefs, but if this party existed, I'd be so happy lol
We need to move towards a hybrid of the present US system and a Westminster style parliamentary system with 4 major political parties: a conservative party, a moderate right party, a moderate left party, a socialist party, and a host of other minor parties.
Becoming a Westminster style parliamentary republic complete with the president as a largely ceremonial head of state is VERY HIGH is my list of things I would like to see.
I have been saying this for a long time now---I believe the most powerful thing we can all do to scare and shakeup the pols is to all jump out of the two parties and register as independent or undeclared.
Besides using civil disobedience (which I don't condone), this is the only way I can see to show the pols that we, the people, are totally fed up with not being represented by either party, and they better start catering to OUR needs rather than their own special interest and political needs.
Our government is totally dysfunctional and broken when it comes to leadership and governing---unless it has to do with their political interests and then things get done amazingly quickly and often secretly. In Europe, they use strikes and riots to keep the government afraid of the people's power---we are the opposite here---we let them get away with the most egregious corruption and incompetence because we are too distracted with texting and banal entertainment.
We need to move towards a hybrid of the present US system and a Westminster style parliamentary system with 4 major political parties: a conservative party, a moderate right party, a moderate left party, a socialist party, and a host of other minor parties.
Becoming a Westminster style parliamentary republic complete with the president as a largely ceremonial head of state is VERY HIGH is my list of things I would like to see.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mountainrose
I have been saying this for a long time now---I believe the most powerful thing we can all do to scare and shakeup the pols is to all jump out of the two parties and register as independent or undeclared.
Besides using civil disobedience (which I don't condone), this is the only way I can see to show the pols that we, the people, are totally fed up with not being represented by either party, and they better start catering to OUR needs rather than their own special interest and political needs.
Our government is totally dysfunctional and broken when it comes to leadership and governing---unless it has to do with their political interests and then things get done amazingly quickly and often secretly. In Europe, they use strikes and riots to keep the government afraid of the people's power---we are the opposite here---we let them get away with the most egregious corruption and incompetence because we are too distracted with texting and banal entertainment.
Both of these posts for the win!
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