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Gridlocked Out

23 points| isb | 14 years ago |nationaljournal.com | reply

18 comments

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[+] crusso|14 years ago|reply
Congress has no incentives to work better since voters don't hold them accountable for bad governing. That's because voters aren't held directly accountable for casting votes for politicians who govern badly.

The whole system seems more likely to collapse than it is to fix itself.

The less power these children have, the better. That's why my first principle is "more individual liberty, less government". Liberty has its problems too, but having these know-nothing masterminds control us is just not the answer.

I know that my "less government" rant doesn't resolve the immigration issue directly. But maybe if those DC clowns had less to worry about, they could deal with the few issues (like immigration) that the Constitution enumerates as their powers. Certainly if they did less we could monitor their progress more closely.

[+] dfc|14 years ago|reply
"That's because voters aren't held directly accountable for casting votes for politicians who govern badly."

The above seems more like an argument against democarcy than an argument for "smaller government." More over if we found ourselves under your "smaller government" how will that solve the problem that voters are not held accountable for "votes for politicians who govern badly"?

[+] astrofinch|14 years ago|reply
You're still operating in a fantasy world where the "children" somehow loosen the reins long enough for you to implement your principle of personal liberty.

I'm a lot more optimistic about concrete plans to make things better that folks from all over the political spectrum can support:

http://www.americanselect.org/

If you really think the system is going to collapse, you could make money by buying put options on U.S. Treasury bills. Done at scale, this could potentially affect the system a lot more than complaining on Internet forums...

http://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/money

See sections on shorting and options.

[+] jefe78|14 years ago|reply
I have to wonder; what makes a lot of these people qualified to do this sort of thing? I'm not saying it isn't a noble goal, but do they have any experience in behavioral pharmacology or classroom education? And yet they're dictating what should and shouldn't be scored? I cringed a little when I read they would be ranking various criteria, such as 'teamwork'.

And after all the articles on introverts on here, lately.

[+] isb|14 years ago|reply
For people not following the immigration bill that is being discussed in this article, it eliminates archaic per-country limits on issuance of green cards.

It has been incredibly frustrating to see such a common sense "fix" - which is supported by a majority in both parties and the industry - get stuck due to pure politics. I guess the lesson here is that it is the Senate rules that really need to be reformed.

[+] dfc|14 years ago|reply
It is quite a stretch to take a perceived solution to an alleged problem with one issue and generalize it to apply to all senate activities.

What would you change?

[+] astrofinch|14 years ago|reply
"We want those brains in our country"

This seems like an awfully nationalist perspective. (Can we start using nationalist as a derogatory term like racist or sexist?)

If the United States really has the best universities, I have a hard time imagining a better use for them than spraying highly educated people all over the world.

Of course, startups are a somewhat different issue...

[+] dfc|14 years ago|reply
Why would we start making up new definitions for words. How about jingoism?