Direct Democracy - are we ready?

[jraabe]

I read an interesting article recently that did a take off on the IRS form, "check this box to contribute $3 of your taxes to the Federal Election Fund" (or whatever it is called).

Why not expand on this idea to include other federal programs folks could choose to support directly with their tax dollars?

It could start small to see how it would work. Maybe it only be 5-10% of our taxes to start. But, we would have a direct vote in how it was spent. So much to...
• Education
• Defense
• Health care
• Environment

Do you think this would get the attention of Congress and the media? This is political polling where you put your money where your mouth is.  

Programs could even be invented to see what kind of funding they might snare.

The more I think about this the more I could see it as a step toward direct democracy that totally does a detour around the whole military-industrial-legislative complex. No lobbyists needed!  

[Amanda_931]

Hmm.

I think I just read something by or quoting John Kerry on how he thought he'd made a mistake taking those funds.  Too many strings attached, I expect.

[jraabe]

Yep, I wouldn't be surprised to find out politicians will attempt to control even the free money.

[glenn-k]

Have no doubts -

[peg_688]

Yep, I wouldn't be surprised to find out politicians will attempt to control even the free money.

 

  [size=12]   No such thing , free money, ya right

   Even / level the playing field , no perks , no heath care , no airfare , no free lunch , no retirement, etc . a small base pay , make it not a job for life , politician , make it so it is what it was meant to be  ,

    " A  SERVICE TO COUNTRY / THE PEOPLE . "  


  Something done [highlight]for some one [/highlight], not to some one , us the people .

   Politician , never was meant to be a job . Take the bennies away , people will serve to fix it then go back to the private sector , like it was meant to be done .

 That's the fix , IMO!   [/size]  

[glenn-k]

You are right PEG, but since the crooks control the rules there is no way they will favor cutting themselves out of everything.  I'm sure everyone's favorite thing is when the pollies vote themselves big raises.  Not often that we see them vote themselves pay cuts.  I think political offices should be voluntary with no pay.  A real service to the county.

Remember that for them to give anything back to us, first they have to take many many times more than that from us --administration fees - bureaucracy fees, embezzlement, finger in the pie, illegal personal trips, etc.

Be glad that you don't get the amount of government that you pay for.  Who said that?

[harry51]

Good question. Whatever happened to the citizen statesman?  Things are what they are because we the voting public have failed to exercise the term limit options that the Founders gave us: periodic elections. We just keep sending the same crooks back again and again, until we have allowed them to morph into a defacto ruling class. What's the answer? Pay close attention to what they do, not to what they say. Don't send them back unless they prove from the git-go that they operate from a consistent philosophical base that respects the concepts of limited government that this country was founded upon, and not some other agenda, personal or otherwise.

Direct democracy as an engine of reform is an interesting concept that was tried here in the Fool's Golden State recently by Gov. Arnie with his multi-point initiative proposal.  The people here voted for no change in the borrow, tax and spend policies of previous administrations, defeating the initiatives. Unions and public employee special interests waged a withering anti-initiative T.V. ad campaign, and an enemic rebuttal effort from Arnie likely had a lot to do with the outcome.

Arnie has now apparently heard the voice of the people, and is now calling for huge bond issues to finance roads and other infrastructure repairs/improvements. We pay .18/gal excise tax plus 7.25% sales tax on gasoline, or about .41/gal at current prices. According to the California Energy Commission at:

[size=8]http://www.energy.ca.gov/2005publications/CEC-999-2005-025/CEC-999-2005-025.PDF,
[/size]
we burnt 18 billion gallons of gas and diesel in 2005. That amounts to over 20.2 million dollars per day in taxes. I wonder what we're spending THAT on?

Is direct democracy a viable form of government? The founders didn't think so. Thomas Jefferson said "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine".  Instead, they designed a representative republic, which attempts to set forth, protect and perpetuate a set of rights and a climate of liberty for everyone. Imperfect as it is, the people of this world who vote with their feet  say it's still the best there is. Tragically, our collective failure to properly discharge our individual civic duty has taken us a long way down the slippery slope Jefferson predicted when he said:  "Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence".

[Amanda_931]

I keep wondering if we need more roads.

If making (the coast-to-coast) Highway 64 4-lane all the way across the country (and especially in SW middle Tennessee) really will have any effect on jobs, tourism, etc., given what fuel is likely to do in the next few years.

[jraabe]

Heard an interesting interview with Ted Kennedy.

You may not like his politics, but he has been at the job a long time and has seen some changes.

He said one of the main things that has changed is that everyone now has to spend at least half of their time fund raising for the next election. In the old days he used to put in a full week's work for the people he was representing. Now everyone takes off on Thursday and doesn't come back until Tuesday. They have to spend the better part of the week in their district talking people into writing those big checks (while you're making political promises - although he didn't say that!)

He said there also used to be informal ways you would get together with peers to discuss or just joke around about legislation.  No more of that either.. everyone is walled off in their party compounds.

What a way to run a country.  

[Amanda_931]

In the very early days of the country, senators and congressmen--all men!, would come to town and find a boarding house.  Probably one that served at least one meal a day.  There may have been mostly one-party boarding houses.  But some would surely have taken anyone.  Can't be too isolated from the people you eat breakfast with every day.

Back in the 70's in Nashville, we had a pretty fair congressman who decided to run for mayor because maintaining two complete households cost him way way too much  (IIRC, he didn't make much of a mayor).

Big difference.