101–110 of 362 posts
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What is money if not a proxy of power? If money didn't buy power, no one would be interested in attaining billions in wealth.
What is politics if not a means of exercising power? If there were no power in politics, no one would be interested in politics.
Among the many weird things that the U.S. have but real democratic countries don't, the most promiscuous of them is this flow of private money into politics. Campaign financing, U.S. style, is just legalized bribing. In any healthy democracy it would be illegal. In the U.S. is just the way things are.
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I wish we had direct voting on important decisions
Hell no, California has this and it’s a catastrophe. Prop 13 is one of the worst policies enacted by a democratic polity in the 20th century, and has been wrecking the state for decades.
Voting should be done without anonymity, online. One should be able to either vote for everything manually, or delegate the vote to any other person.
If some change is supported by 100% of the voters it should be implemented immediately. But if smaller percent supports the change, then there needs to be a vesting time (e.g. 10 years for 60%, infinity for 50%+1).
This allows people to either trade support for policies (i'll vote yes for your initiative if you vote for mine, or give me money), or to get high level of support locally and try out various laws on local level.
The same site that manages voting should also show detailed budget of city/state/country, where people can see where their taxes are being spent and should be able to redirect the money they have paid.
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Their very existence doesn't align with my politics, or any decent person's politics for that matter.
Smart, successful people offering products and services that lots of people want does not align with your politics? What are your politics?
That's why I'm a socialist and I would invite anyone who thinks things might not be going in the right direction to consider that as well.
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Hell no, California has this and it’s a catastrophe. Prop 13 is one of the worst policies enacted by a democratic polity in the 20th century, and has been wrecking the state for decades.
So do you believe in democracy or not? And I do not mean this as a loaded question because the value of democracy is a legitimately arguable point. If the majority of Californians want caps on property tax, then I do not see a good argument that they should not get it that is also compatible with democracy.
Nobody really advocates for Direct Democracy. It isn't viable: 'tyranny of the majority' etc.
Most Western governments are Liberal Democracies - where some issues aren't subject to a vote - partly so that the mob can't persecute outnumbered subgroups.
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System is broken af. Politicians don’t want to reign in on campaign financing because it will hurt their own re-election and campaign fundraising. Republicans have bought/installed the SCOTUS which allowed for favorable decision in Citizens United v FEC. This corporation dominated landscape is quite awful. Corporations have more rights than woman right now.
Citizens United was the correct decision. I don't understand how you can legitimately restrict political activity. The constitution contains the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. Why should certain groups of people not have this right? The constitution also contains the right to freedom of the press. Why should the government get to decide who gets to exercise this right?
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I wish we had direct voting on important decisions
Hell no, California has this and it’s a catastrophe. Prop 13 is one of the worst policies enacted by a democratic polity in the 20th century, and has been wrecking the state for decades.
Parts of the US is mature enough to implement a similar system as Switzerland, which has a superior form of democracy.
I think rich people have too much influence, I probably agree with Garry Tan on a lot but we need to get money out of politics. Let’s face it we’re all meant to get one vote but rich people spend money on this stuff so that they manipulate what and who can be voted for. I do think that if this current system is the result of democracy + the internet we need to seriously reconsider how democracy works because it’s cur…
If rich techies had too much influence in California, the state government would not look like what it does. I mean I just don't see how you get to this opinion after any real review of the evidence.