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And if you lost faith in Congress, like 94% of Americans. You might also join a realistic effort to reform it: http://www.rootstrikers.org http://www.rootstrike
by wybo 13y ago
And if you lost faith in Congress, like 94% of Americans. You might also join a realistic effort to reform it:
http://www.rootstrikers.org http://www.rootstrikers.org
(ran by Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law prof who also founded the Creative Commons movement)
- dantheman 13y agoRoot Strikers is fundamentally misguided, they attack the symptoms instead of the cause. The root of all this corruption is how large the federal government is, any organization with that much power and money will be co-opted.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- dantheman 13y agoWell, specific solutions would to be close various federal agencies, e.g. the department of education. Push law making wherever feasible to the state level or lower. Simplify the tax code - i.e. end tax breaks, reduce the overall tax rate so that the government spends less money. The key thing is to not attack our freedom to associate and speak, which is what rootstrikers are advocating. Many of the policie they advocate will be used to silence anonymous speech/activities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootstrikers#Positions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootstrikers#Positions At the end of the day, their cure won't fix anything, but it will hurt a lot.
- flagnog 13y agoI agree with most of what you're saying, but I'm not sure why you think Rootstrikers is such a bad thing. I read the wikipedia entry but still don't know what you are specifically talking about...
- dantheman 13y ago* political expenditures which are limited and transparent --> Restrictions on spending = restrictions on speech --> Transparent means anonymous donations can't be done, anonymous speech is an import part of the American political process In general they're against people forming groups (corporations) to promote their ideas and believe that once you're in a group then you lose your right to free speech among other things.
- wybo 13y agoI don't agree. Good governance is possible, and size has little to do with it. If there is proper democratic control over government, government can be a force for good. Many northern European countries governments show this (they generally are trusted, and few people resent paying taxes). Democratic control can provide equality and fairness, with every person one vote, rather than the market where some people having more impact than others, simply because they are richer. Maybe because in America there hasn't been good governance for so long, trust is low, and the only solution many see is to simply chop down government to the minimum... but there are other solutions, actual democracy is one of them.