MOPanfisher Posted January 29, 2016 Posted January 29, 2016 The last time I looked Bernie was not an independent he was running as a democrat. That aside I am ashamed to.look at the entire list of presidential candidates and think, this is our best and brightest? Presidential candidates love to say what they will do and change, fortunately or unfortunately they have very little ability to do any of it. They have to work through congress. Personally if a candidate came up and stated he would veto every single bill that Congress sent to him I would vote for him. Pass a common sense budget on time.congress and then I might have some respect for them. Otherwise they are like having 435 different cooks all working on a big pot of soup and randomly adding ingredients. If one of the candidates were to debate Ned vs. Crank bait or maybe .243 vs .30 06 I would listen, otherwise I have books to read and lots of channels on tv. Maybe if I could dice them up and pick one or two things from each candidate I could make one.I would fully support.
Al Agnew Posted January 30, 2016 Posted January 30, 2016 1. Energy. This affects everything else. The old model of profligate use of fossil fuels isn't working as well as it once did, and can only go downhill. Sure, we have lots of coal and we keep finding more domestic oil, but it's reached the point where the stuff we have left is dirtier and environmentally destructive to extract. At the same time we've cleaned up some of the pollution and destruction it's caused in the past, what is left can't be obtained as easily. I don't really want to see more mountain tops in Appalachia removed and more fly ash ponds killing rivers. I don't want to see Western landscapes covered by fracking wells and rural communities turned into industrial sites. Plus, and perhaps even more important to our national security, our continued dependence upon oil continues to mean that we have to stick our noses into every part of the world that has oil. If we weren't still dependent upon Middle Eastern oil, we could just arm Israel to the teeth and get the heck out of the rest of the region. If the WORLD wasn't still dependent upon oil, most of the people providing the Islamic extremists with money wouldn't have the funds to do it. When it looked like Nazi Germany was going to develop a nuclear bomb before we could beat them in WWII, we collected all the best and brightest scientists in relevant fields (including a bunch of Jews that escaped Nazi Germany), and put them on a crash course with virtually unlimited government support to develop our nuclear capability before the Germans did. It worked, and in a matter of two or three years they got the job done. Right now, so much depends upon developing safe, reliable, renewable, and clean sources of energy that we need the same kind of crash course, gathering as many of the best and brightest as we can and giving them that same unlimited government support to develop such things as better battery technology, fuel cells, etc. Instead, we've been relying upon the "free market", with inconsistent government subsidies to various private companies, to somehow compete with the (also subsidized) fossil fuel industries which already control the market. And even if the companies being subsidized come up with something, which as long as they are getting the subsidies they don't necessarily work as hard as they might, it is usually geared toward universal power grids. We need energy, especially renewable energy, to be more a matter of many, many smaller companies servicing much smaller entities, such as individual homes, businesses, municipalities. This would go a much farther way to solving jobs problems. The boom in the renewable energy industries if they were manufacturing and servicing vast numbers of those individual homes, businesses, and other smaller "customers" would result in huge numbers of new jobs, presumably good paying jobs--but it has to be developed in America and all those American companies have to be protected from being undercut by the Chinese, which is what has happened with solar panels and systems at this point. Plus, our huge power grids right now are scarily vulnerable to terrorist acts or something like an EMP attack. By making electric power far less centralized, we greatly reduce our energy vulnerability in that way, too. And oh, by the way, whether you believe it's a clear and present danger or not, all this stuff also addresses climate change. As you can see, I've thought a lot about this. 2. Election reform. The country is almost evenly divided as far as voting is concerned, but you can't tell that by the make-up of Congress and congressional districts. Relatively few districts are really in play in any election, the rest are "safe" districts for either Republicans or Democrats. So you end up with very few Republicans or Democrats that are willing to compromise and work with the opposition. It does not serve their election prospects to do so, since their constituents are mostly strongly one way or the other. We need as many districts as possible redrawn to make them competitive. If you know you're going to always have a tough election, you have to somehow appeal enough to BOTH sides to convince some of the independents and a few of the opposition to vote for you, and you also have to be able to compromise and cooperate once you're in office. So redistricting is a priority. So is campaign finance reform. As somebody else pointed out, right now we have the best politicians that money can buy, and big money buys them. Not as much that big money hand picks the candidate that they want, although that happens. But mostly, big money buys influence with whoever is elected. Big money goes to both sides, and whichever wins is beholden to the big money that elected them. The Supreme Court Citizens United decision may have been one of the worst in history, basically giving big corporations unlimited ability to spend money on elections. And finally, we need to change the way we do elections. I don't have as much of a problem with unlimited terms as some; I don't think term limits are all that great. But what I'd like to see is truly viable third parties. The two we have are the height of complacency, since they know that they can do (or not do) just about anything and they'll still be one of the two parties the next election. No third party has a chance. So to fix this, we do preference voting. Instead of picking one of the two (or more) candidates at the ballot box, you rate ALL the candidates. If there are four candidates from four different parties running, you rate them 1-4. Your one rated candidate gets three points, the two rated one gets two points, the third rated one gets one point, and the one you put last gets zero. All the points are added up to get the winner. That way, you can comfortably vote for a third party (or fourth party candidate without feeling like you're not only throwing your vote away but helping the party or candidate you LEAST like. If you like the Democrats far better than the Republicans but you REALLY like the Green Party candidate, right now a vote for the Green Party probably hurts the Democrats and helps the Republicans. But with preference voting, you are helping both the Democrat that you voted number 2 and even more the Green guy you voted number 1. Ah heck, I'm tired of typing. Didn't mean to write a book. Maybe I'll come up with 3 through 5 later! SpoonDog and Trav 2
Trav Posted January 30, 2016 Author Posted January 30, 2016 It's ok Al... I can write a manifesto about what needs to be changed so we don't repeat history. And it is a fiery subject with lots of room for debate. I am a little more simplistic when it comes to the reality of our country. However I am biased on many levels. I like the idea of universal health care and free college. As far as the five most important issues of our country today I tend to lean against money and power. There is so much wrong with our system it is a joke. Bernie might be running as a Dem but I can assure you he is only doing it to have a viable route to get his message out. He is a true independent at his core and won't let a party lead him by the nose. The true innovators of politics are coming from the liberal side of the arena. Find one the party doesn't own you have a winner. Still feeling the Bern! "May success follow your every cast." - Trav P. Johnson
Root Admin Phil Lilley Posted January 30, 2016 Root Admin Posted January 30, 2016 Didn't see this thread... Trav, I created a forum just for politics - http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/forum/326-politics-and-other-discussions-ask-for-password/ while you were gone. It's worked pretty good so far. You can't even see it unless you have the password and I'll give it to anyone who wants it - send me a PM. There are no rules there... As for this thread, I'll let it go till it turns south - if it does. Ham, Trav and BilletHead 3
Mitch f Posted January 31, 2016 Posted January 31, 2016 I Feel The Bern!!!! BilletHead, Trav, Quillback and 1 other 4 "Honor is a man's gift to himself" Rob Roy McGregor
Trav Posted January 31, 2016 Author Posted January 31, 2016 My Gram is gonna be 90 this year... age is just a number. The presidency ages ya but when you are already old it don't matter if you look older when your job is done... haha "May success follow your every cast." - Trav P. Johnson
fishinwrench Posted January 31, 2016 Posted January 31, 2016 8 hours ago, Trav said: My Gram is gonna be 90 this year... age is just a number. The presidency ages ya but when you are already old it don't matter if you look older when your job is done... haha The harsh thing that nobody wants to say outloud is that you're probably not gonna get a second term out of Bernie. He won't be able to accomplish anything meaningful in 4, so electing him is basically just pissing 4 years away.
SpoonDog Posted January 31, 2016 Posted January 31, 2016 2 hours ago, fishinwrench said: electing him is basically just pissing 4 years away. It may be better than the alternative :). And there's congressional elections slated for this fall, too. mjk86 1
MOPanfisher Posted January 31, 2016 Posted January 31, 2016 Honestly I don't care what political party they claim, if I have respect for them it wouldnt be so bad maybe, all the crap they claim they will do that they don't have the power or authority to pull off, really puts me off. I do like some things Bernie says, education assistance in particular. An educated populace is NEVER, a bad thing for a society, maybe bad for the power of govt but not society.
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