june gloom on 13/4/2012 at 23:29
Quote Posted by Azaran
No, justice would be if the Republican party was struck by a major scandal that permanently destroyed its reputation.
Such an empty statement that contributes nothing. I don't like the GOP either, but are you actually even following the conversation here or did you just stop by to poop that out, CCCToad style? "Major scandals" have so far failed to completely ruin either party's reputation; aside from that, do you even have any suggestions on what to replace a huge portion of the United States political system with, or are you just parroting the same old groupthink? It's amazing how many people fail to construct and analyze valid reasons for hating a group or political party and just go along with the echo chamber. Then again, you're in high school so I guess I shouldn't expect you to think for yourself.
faetal on 13/4/2012 at 23:37
Quote Posted by heywood
That's certainly one reason, but I think it's been overemphasized of late.
The US executive branch has about 4 million employees, enough regulations and policies to fill a landfill and much of its budget is obligated in multi-year contracts. Bureaucracies that large don't change direction quickly.
Lobbying is quite surgical with how it shapes policy. It happens gradually, but it happens. Don't forget that these 4 million people are grouped by delegation.
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Worse, the electorate prefers to cast votes for people whose ideas, values, intentions, and charisma they like and don't give adequate consideration to leadership ability and proven experience running a large bureaucracy.
This is where layer 1 of influence kicks in. You can only sell your ideas, values, intentions and charisma with the right style and amount of PR, which requires exorbitant amounts of money. In step campaign donors, who will obviously be sure that the horse they're backing is going to sympathetic to their concerns if they are elected. Layer 2 is all tied up in lobbying, legitimised bribery or often by those in power actually being big business leaders directly. The only choice of President in the US is rich guy 1 vs. rich guy 2. Those who are not well-connected just don't have the means to compete.
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In our system, there is a huge gap between the actual power of political leaders to make change and the expectations of the electorate who seem to think they're handing god-like powers to each new administration.
This is the problem with any democracy - most people don't know shit, yet are voting on who should be running the country. The problem is that if you have enough money and know the right people, you CAN change things to be more in your favour. Over time, this then becomes the de facto role of government.
SD on 13/4/2012 at 23:47
Thought this thread was going to be about Macs getting trojans. Finally justice after 15 years of smug "I don't get viruses I have a Macintosh not one of those dirty Windows beasts" cuntery.
Either way, I am delighted that Santorum has dripped out.
Renzatic on 14/4/2012 at 01:08
Quote Posted by SD
Thought this thread was going to be about Macs getting trojans. Finally justice after 15 years of smug "I don't get viruses I have a Macintosh not one of those dirty Windows beasts" cuntery.
Go to a Mac messageboard and read the replies. It's good geeky fun.
CCCToad on 14/4/2012 at 05:22
Quote Posted by Azaran
No, justice would be if the Republican party was struck by a major scandal that permanently destroyed its reputation.
With Congress's approval rating at 11% the last time I checked (which was awhile ago), I think its safe to say that the American political parties have no reputaiton to begin with.
Most Americans dislike politicians as a whole but naively cling to the belief that their district's representative or the president they like is somehow a different breed; not like the rest of those corrupt scoundrels. As a result, in most districts the individual representative has a fairly high approval rating.
