What would you change about the U.S. government?

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The American revolution was undertaken partly because the people who favored independence were as well armed as British Troops. If the population of the Colonies were disarmed the Revolution never would have happened.

ruveyn

I'm quite thrilled to see an innovative account of power and cultural dynamics in America based on a preindustrial, agricultural, 18th century, agrarian social reality.

Last edited by Master_Pedant on 08 Jun 2010, 8:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Before I can develop a more comprehensive post, I'd like to say repealing Taft Hartley Act would be a top priority.

The electoral college is used to ensure that the outcome of elections are not determined solely by major cities so that rural areas get represented too.

I'd institute instant runoff voting for the Presidency and make all House elections based on a single-transferable vote system.

Abolish everything.

Single Pay HealthCare System
More taxes on the rich (look call me what you will but 10% of the population controlling 85% of the wealth is crazy)
Stricter policies to move toward eco-friendly fuels.
Tax funded higher education.
Better public transportation
Better safety regulation and supervision in prisons
Better rehabilitation programs for homeless people
Either no death penalty, or no suicide laws
Make bullying a crime
No private education
No private sector in the judicial system, lawyers work publicly
Stricter laws against corporate involvement in elections

Yeah you get it. I am pretty much for getting more working class representation in government. Government just doesn't make sense if it primarily set up to help those who don't need it. I'm not saying strip the rich of everything, they create a lot of the jobs we have as well as pump money into the economy. But I am saying that more money should not give you more power. That's what the real problem is.

I'd have to disagree about gun rights. Some people live in dangerous areas and keep guns in their home to defend themselves from robbers. Other people such as farmers have guns so that the pig/cow dies a much more painless death that cutting it open and letting it bleed to death. Also, we probably would have had a lot of trouble defeating the Nazis if we didn't have guns. Sure we could have dropped a nuke, but then I wouldn't know my wonderful German friends, not to mention all the people trying to survive in the camps. So I respectfully disagree.

Yeah but considering Britain's good programs for special needs students and their better health care system, I could have lived with being British.

Right, I can respond to those points.

1) There dangerous areas here in the UK too. If someone were to break into your home, the law allows you to use reasonable force to prevent them from attacking you. So if you happen to have knife nearby, you are allowed to do enough damage that they can no longer attack you, then you phone the police. You don't need to shoot them.

2) Farmers can have gun licenses.

3) The armed forces should obviously be allowed guns, that's a no-brainer.

Legalize drugs. All of them. Fire all the people involved with enforcing those laws on the federal level and use the savings for reparations to people who had their lives destroyed by our asinine drug policy. Oh, and let out all the non-violent drug offenders too.

Go at the educational system with a hatchet and blowtorch, fire as many bureaucrats and administrators as possible, if the teacher's union doesn't like it, use the overhead savings to hire scabs at a higher wage. Go nationwide with vouchers, if the local public schools can't cut it parents can choose to take their tax dollars elsewhere, let the power of the market trim the fat and clear away the incompetent. Encourage specialization in schooling, don't turn out an tide of generalists, figure out what a kid is good at and likes doing and send him to the appropriate middle and high schools. Apply a similar approach to trimming other sectors of government, fire the useless layers of management and administrators, most offices run better without them anyway.

Destroy the prison industry. Normally I'm all for privatization, but not here. The profit motive should never enter into the equation when it comes to incarcerating people, the potential for abuse is simply too high. Prison should not be fun, but as they now stand our penitentiaries only harden incoming criminals and turn people who may have simply made a mistake into societal outcasts with little chance to return to a normal life. I could populate an entire thread on this subject alone, but taking the money out of the system would be my first priority.

Adopt a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to privacy, forbidding any government body within the country to install public surveillance cameras, including red light and speed trap cameras. This would also forbid electronics eavesdropping without serious and documented cause, generalized internet surveillance, and the outlawing of deploying optical character or facial recognition software in public spaces. Private property owners can of course do what the want, but the government would be prevented from pursuing pervasive public surveillance, such as that seen in the UK.

Flat tax. Find a fair percentage and everyone pays the same, no loopholes, no exceptions.

Start weening the people off of social security, it's a ponzi scheme in structure and unsupportable in the long run. I imagine a gradual increase in the eligibility age as well as making the payments income dependent could start the process, with eventual goal of going to an individual retirement account system, or something similar.

Incorporate the entire Bill of Rights against the states. Currently, only certain amendments apply to the states, which is not what I think the intentions of the authors of said amendments had in mind when they wrote them. Incorporation would put everyone on the same legal footing and give every citizen greater protections from over-reaching local government.

A few short and miscellaneous items:

Adopt Instant Run Off Voting as the national standard
Federally pre-empt local governments from infringing on private property rights (business smoking bans, etc)
Establish a national concealed weapons license valid in all states
Establish national universities around the country that are free for those who merit admission.
Streamline the immigration process and allow greater use of guest workers
Implement strict term limits for Congress (1 term for Senate, 3 for House)
Increase federal spending on scientific research and development
Drop all tariffs and import duties

Historically, being armed back at the end of the 18th century was a necessary condition for the revolution to happened. If the population had not been as well armed as the regulars, the revolution would not have happened. Once the revolution occurred, other things happened to limit the power of government somewhat.

ruveyn

According to this source less than 10% of the USA owned guns before the middle of the 19th century.

http://www.keithsuter.com/2009/04/24/gu ... ed-states/

I would interpret the 2nd amendment in the modern day to allow for citizens to own and operate military hardware, such as combat helicopters and tanks. However, special licensing and thorough background checks would be required.

1/1,000,000?

The Civil War was also partly undertaken because they favored independence and the populace was armed. That kinda stopped the whole armed uprising bit unless you want to acknowledge the black market as a constant source of fighting for freedom and killing people to allow their businesses to operate freely...but you wouldn't consider them legal gun owners, now would you?

/I'd be all for people getting their guns and overturning the government...except that the people who have guns are mostly morons who think that going backward in time is the way to go politically. A lot of people tend to confuse youth with better times for the country.

Its not like as if he could acknowledge the key role that the French played in arming our troops and helping fight the war.