I Have Had It With Politics!

[Guest Eliza_S]

Thank you, Carolynn. Sometimes I'm afraid we'll have another Civil War in this country if we keep on the way we are. But I just can't sit by silently and let "the monster" tell us all what to do.

[Sally]

As usual, I have a simple solution that no one will listen to and never enact.

The biggest problem in the two party (or more) system is the campaigning and it has gotten so far out of hand that the President is elected for a four year term but he can only serve two years before the campaign for the next four begins - same sort of thing in the Senate and of course the House is just continual campaigning - very little work can be done.

So term limits have been discussed but not of the type that I suggest - 1 term is all anyone gets - no interruptions in the business of running the country - the campaigns are all among the replacements and have no ties to the incumbents who would not be allowed to endorse any candidate.

The Presidential term would be 6 years (the total number of years that they could have before when you remove the campaigning), Senators four years and Congressmen 2 years and here is where this whole thing becomes affordable and makes them Public servants again rather than elected nobility - no government retirement, just Social Security - now see who runs.

Eliminating career politicians while cutting governmental spending - the annual salary of each position should be based on the average salary of their constituency - an incentive to improve conditions for everyone.

What politician would ever vote for this?

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest MsGsptlsnz]

I think the basic problem with politics is the confusion that comes from our childhoods and our adult lives. We are taught in school about liberty and democracy but at home we are raised, for the most part, in benevolent dictatorships. We are taught in school about rights such as freedom of speach and religion while we are punished for talking back and have to go to church when we may not want to. We are taught about rights such as no cruel and unusual punsihments yet at home over half of all families spank their children to teach them that hitting is wrong.

So when we get to vote we bring those conflicts with us into the polls. We parrot the lines we learned in school but deep down we want that benevolent dictator who kept us safe but scared the heck out of us from time to time in what we hoped was our best intrests.

If we really want freedom and liberty that needs to start in the home. We need to raise children who are, within reasonable boundaries, free to make choices and are diciplined in logical ways. Otherwise we will continue to have this insanity in our political system.