Question for Americans:Voting?

[ben]

In general, it's a lot easier to criticise than to analyze the tradeoffs involved in politics.
This is particularly so when said politics concern a massive - and massively diverse - body politic.

Serious question: Who, camberiu, in your book, is a good - or at least noncriminal - politician?
Which politician - in any position of consequence - in the past 60 years, makes your list?
Reagan? FDR? Churchill? Chamberlain? Mitterand? De La Rua?

 

[camberiu]

Serious question: Who, camberiu, in your book, is a good - or at least noncriminal - politician?

No one. They are all criminals. Wanting to be a politician should automatically disqualify anyone for the role. That is why the representative democratic model is in crisis worldwide. The public is realizing that the whole "election game" is rigged. So now they vote for the likes Trump, Duterte, Marine Le Pen, UKIP, Geert Wilders. It is an act of protest, of venting frustration, more than anything else. To try to give the middle finger to the elites that have been screwing them over since the early 20th century. It will backfire, of course. But these populists are no more criminal and ruthless than the status quo represented by the likes of Hillary.

 

[ben]

Nice pic. Same point as the tweet I linked.
But then what exactly is your proposed solution? Anarchy?
Or getting into nitty-gritty of who will be a more effective/just/moral leader, relative to the alternatives?

 

[camberiu]

Nice pic. Same point as the tweet I linked.
But then what exactly is your proposed solution? Anarchy?

You pic makes a good point about how immoral and impractical it is for an all powerful bureaucrat to presume to know what is best for 300 million people.
The solution is to move away from this model of a highly centralized, bureaucratic government model that by its is very nature of concentrated power, attracts the pathologically corrupt.
An alternative is to move away from this model and shift to a more local, grass roots, community centric, voluntarist approach for tackling problems. Let each local community attempt to tackle is problems and challenges locally, instead of the central bureaucracy. It makes the popular oversight much easier to execute, and the reduced scope of the political roles will make them less attractive to the power hungry.

It is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but what we have today is already so broken, so tainted, so corrupted, that it is the only alternative. Voting for the a-hole who wants to rule over 300 million people and to expect from that a good outcome, it is beyond folly.

 

[ben]

Sorry, I forgot to say 'realistic solution'.

Your solution is beautiful. It also will not happen.

The nature of these things is to keep growing until they bust. That's just human nature.

The 13 colonies pooled their resources and influence because they knew that that would multiply said resources and influence. And once they did that, most of the remainder of the continent didn't stand a chance.

Same goes for Europe, (except the bureaucrats there didn't have the good sense to realize that given that they were showing their naked ambition - sorry, moving - a tad too fast for a supranational union to go over well, considering linguistic and cultural divides hardened over more than a thousand years).

Big fish swallow smaller fish. Big businesses swallow smaller businesses. And the local, grass roots, community centric, voluntarist approach - and whoever is empowered to administer it - will always vanish in the face of more centralized ones with bigger reach and bigger ad budgets. This will sometimes be a good thing and sometimes a bad thing - but it is what it is.

Your choice is essentially between autocracy, democracy and anarchy. Other solutions, appealing as they may be, have not proved to actually exist.

 

[camberiu]

Sorry, I forgot to say 'realistic solution'.

Your solution is beautiful. It also will not happen.

Sure. 500 years ago we could have had the some conversation, but about how you can have a productive society without slavery. And your response about a proposed system of voluntary employment and wages would probably be something mentioning "realistic solutions" and "will not happen".
Go ahead, keep voting for the same clowns expecting a different outcome.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

I got a card in the mail from the US last week for expats voting while abroad.
Here's the website that answers all your questions.
https://www.fvap.gov/overseas

 

[Boogalou]

Register at voters abroad.

 

[camberiu]

Can't wait for the Trump version of this video, which the author promises it is next.

Hillary Clinton lying for 13 minutes straight.

 

[scotttswan]

Can't wait for the Trump version of this video, which the author promises it is next.

Hillary Clinton lying for 13 minutes straight.

Doubt it could it be better than this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ7_bo74VMA