If the title of this blog entry sounds like a Dr. Seuss kids' book, I assure you that it is meant to cause such a reaction. It is election season again. The high priests of the conservative and liberal bandwagons are telling voters what a disaster electing Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton would be, and what they and other candidate/s would take away from you or the religion or foreign country that wants to conquer you. Why anyone would want to lead the United States as President is not understandable to me. It takes a certain amount of self-worshipping and self-loathing to slog through the two years before a Presidential General Election in the USA. Often the people who would not touch running for President are the very people who are sanest and would do the best job (Dwight Eisenhower for example...yes, he was a Republican). Political Science is no longer discussed between friends, as civil discourse is no longer practiced.
After a dirty General Election, the wounds and bites Conservatives and Liberals have inflicted upon each other fester and make for a toxic swill that prevents bipartisanship. People who are elected nationally are running for re-election right after they take the oath of office for which they were elected. Newly elected Representatives and Senators are immediately courted by people and especially corporations who prostitute themselves in the hope that their point of view becomes national policy. Citizens United polluted the policy making process to an almost unfixable level of dysfunction.
As it stands now, we have two people nominated by the major Parties whose abilities to build consensus are questionable. Mr. Trump has no public service to speak of, and Ms. Clinton has put herself in a position where her posture vis-à-vis policy making looks like a child playing that old game Twister, where players become so contorted that eventually they inevitably collapse. There seems to be no energy anywhere to remediate this huge pastiche of the enactment of legislation and policy-making relationship with other countries. When cockroaches are more popular than the United States Congress, there's a problem. A group of baboons is called a congress...kinda makes me think....just sayin'......
When someone emerges as a new leader, such as President Obama, his or her initiatives are sabotaged by snipers from both sides of the political spectrum. Never mind that the political process of the United States was designed to build consensus and also weed out toxic decisions made by the Congress or Executive branches of the federal government. Quite candidly, I am now persuaded that the process of electing public servants (note the oxymoron here) is sufficiently polluted and compromised that the only remedies to solve the issues outlined are to abolish political parties, set limits on how long a public servant may be in office, and to finance elections through a transparent public process. That process would set limits for the funds the candidates desiring to run would receive through grants of a certain capped amount of money, depending upon the level of office to which such candidates would hope to be elected. The money would be awarded by a non-partisan board who serve under the condition that they will not run for office for a period of years after their period of service ends.
The State of Montana has limited the length of legislative sessions to approximately four months every other year, in the odd numbered year following State of Montana elections. Montana suffered extreme grift after the Copper Barons locked up the Montana Government with bribes and under-the-table disbursements of dirty money in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. The citizens of Montana overhauled the election and policy-making process so that the governmental arms of Montana would function with a minimum of dirty lobbying, with disciplinary processes to prosecute or remove politicians and policy-makers who violate the rules enacted by citizens or the citizen legislature.
This has not lessened the ambition of rich fat cats to run for office in Montana. This year we have several millionaires running for legislative and executive positions in Montana government. The citizens of Montana have generally rejected the attempted bullying and subversive elements in various towns, counties, and regions of Montana. The most notorious of these types of organizations, such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are funded directly from private money sources to provide model legislation that directly supports private interests with no beneficial outcomes for the public-at-large.
Some of the proposals that have been proposed to combat the oligarchy that is the U.S. Congress and subterfuge by billionaires and corporations opposing legislation that is in the best interest of our families and future generations (e,g, Climate change denial) are included in a wonderful fact sheet put together by the Campaign for America's Future. This is a public interest group seeking to reduce the pap and propaganda such billionaires and corporations develop to pollute the political process, our nation's environment, and healthcare, amongst the vast amount of legislation, policy-making, and regulation that is not in the public's interest. If all you do is write a letter, sign a petition, or call a lawmaker or a policymaker, or visit their office, you will have learned more about the process of how legislation and policy-making regulations operate and directly touch you and your family, and the generations of your family to come.
Here is the link to the two page fact sheet to which I am referring, please copy it and place it in your chosen browser:
https://ourfuture.org/fact_sheet/koch-brothers-exposed-why-we-must-act-and-how
My best wishes to those of you who are still willing to try to fix what is broken in our political process, and my thanks to those of you who are already fixing what is broken.
After a dirty General Election, the wounds and bites Conservatives and Liberals have inflicted upon each other fester and make for a toxic swill that prevents bipartisanship. People who are elected nationally are running for re-election right after they take the oath of office for which they were elected. Newly elected Representatives and Senators are immediately courted by people and especially corporations who prostitute themselves in the hope that their point of view becomes national policy. Citizens United polluted the policy making process to an almost unfixable level of dysfunction.
As it stands now, we have two people nominated by the major Parties whose abilities to build consensus are questionable. Mr. Trump has no public service to speak of, and Ms. Clinton has put herself in a position where her posture vis-à-vis policy making looks like a child playing that old game Twister, where players become so contorted that eventually they inevitably collapse. There seems to be no energy anywhere to remediate this huge pastiche of the enactment of legislation and policy-making relationship with other countries. When cockroaches are more popular than the United States Congress, there's a problem. A group of baboons is called a congress...kinda makes me think....just sayin'......
When someone emerges as a new leader, such as President Obama, his or her initiatives are sabotaged by snipers from both sides of the political spectrum. Never mind that the political process of the United States was designed to build consensus and also weed out toxic decisions made by the Congress or Executive branches of the federal government. Quite candidly, I am now persuaded that the process of electing public servants (note the oxymoron here) is sufficiently polluted and compromised that the only remedies to solve the issues outlined are to abolish political parties, set limits on how long a public servant may be in office, and to finance elections through a transparent public process. That process would set limits for the funds the candidates desiring to run would receive through grants of a certain capped amount of money, depending upon the level of office to which such candidates would hope to be elected. The money would be awarded by a non-partisan board who serve under the condition that they will not run for office for a period of years after their period of service ends.
The State of Montana has limited the length of legislative sessions to approximately four months every other year, in the odd numbered year following State of Montana elections. Montana suffered extreme grift after the Copper Barons locked up the Montana Government with bribes and under-the-table disbursements of dirty money in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. The citizens of Montana overhauled the election and policy-making process so that the governmental arms of Montana would function with a minimum of dirty lobbying, with disciplinary processes to prosecute or remove politicians and policy-makers who violate the rules enacted by citizens or the citizen legislature.
This has not lessened the ambition of rich fat cats to run for office in Montana. This year we have several millionaires running for legislative and executive positions in Montana government. The citizens of Montana have generally rejected the attempted bullying and subversive elements in various towns, counties, and regions of Montana. The most notorious of these types of organizations, such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are funded directly from private money sources to provide model legislation that directly supports private interests with no beneficial outcomes for the public-at-large.
Some of the proposals that have been proposed to combat the oligarchy that is the U.S. Congress and subterfuge by billionaires and corporations opposing legislation that is in the best interest of our families and future generations (e,g, Climate change denial) are included in a wonderful fact sheet put together by the Campaign for America's Future. This is a public interest group seeking to reduce the pap and propaganda such billionaires and corporations develop to pollute the political process, our nation's environment, and healthcare, amongst the vast amount of legislation, policy-making, and regulation that is not in the public's interest. If all you do is write a letter, sign a petition, or call a lawmaker or a policymaker, or visit their office, you will have learned more about the process of how legislation and policy-making regulations operate and directly touch you and your family, and the generations of your family to come.
Here is the link to the two page fact sheet to which I am referring, please copy it and place it in your chosen browser:
https://ourfuture.org/fact_sheet/koch-brothers-exposed-why-we-must-act-and-how
My best wishes to those of you who are still willing to try to fix what is broken in our political process, and my thanks to those of you who are already fixing what is broken.
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