Boomin850 Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 Well, basically Im writing a final paper that is due tuesday. Just wanted to see what people had to say since everyone is usually opinionated here. Well here is the prompt...Many argue that we are currently in a difficult stage for democracy, some going as far as calling it a crisis. Comment.I'll just let you guys argue that for a bit I guess and take some ideas from it. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM850R Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 I wouldnt go as far as calling it a crisis. Its the same thing different day. The biggest problem I see is corruption. It has a lot to do with big business and politicians in America. Obviously I cant give out names because I havent done research but from the news, we have a lot of corrupt political figures out there. Some have been caught, many have not. Why would someone who worked for the oil companies their entire lives, want to believe in Global Warming. I dunno. I should do some research before I just throw out straight crap from my ass. It is my opinion and I stand by it because its what makes sense. I know there will be some guys on here that will tear this apart and give me crap for it, but thats ok. Im open to constructive criticism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoony Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 I'm just curious to know whether the people of america could even overthrow the government if ever necessary. If it's a government for the people by the people, could the people actually alter it in the future or has our government become so strong that it's no longer a democracy....I dunno. It's just curiosity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bottlecap Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 a quote from lewis lapham's essay in the new jan. 2007 issue of haprer's:"the constitution doesn't serve at the pleasure of representative pelosi any more than it answers to the whim of president bush, and by taking "off the table" the mess of an impeachment proceeding, the lady from california joins the president in his distate for such an unclean thing as government of the people, by the people, and for the people." i don't think it matters what your political viewpoint is... our system in its current state is broken. debate in this country, if it happens at all, is always between two policies. either this or that. there is no discussion of any course of action that does not conform to either this, or that. adding to the problem is that this and that are very often not what the majority of people want, but are instead opposing extremes. discussions of this and that are also oversimplified. the primary process is largely to blame, but so is the way congressional districts have been re-drawn. the senate is now more competitive then the house of representatives. that is not at all what was intended, nor was it the state of things for 200 years. further complicating the matter is that the political game has become a winner take all sport. compromise isn't even looked for. and then there's the money and the lobbying... there really is a question of access. the bottom line is that people in gov't don't govern anymore. special interests (industry or otherwise) write the laws and get them passed.there's also no accountability whatsoever, and no respect for the truth. there is not a man in congress or any other branch that is willing to stand up and scream on principle alone. i don't think there's a genuine leader in the entire federal government right now. the media too has failed in these areas. lies and propaganda are printed and disseminated without question. when lies are exposed, the exposure fails to reach the public and the population continues to believe mis-information even though story after story contradicts it. the media too confines its reports to this and that as opposed to opening the debate.we also have the problem of a completely ignorant population. it's hard to have a functional republic (we're not a democracy) when the people are unable to make informed decisions. this is largely do to a failing educational system, but it also has a lot to do with pop culture and also capitalism. who needs to worry about politics when you have a good job and can be a consumer whore?recent decades have seen the slow decline of federalism. state and local gov't are left with fewer and fewer responsibilities as we more and more turn to the federal gov't to solve our local problems. for all intensive purposes we have a government that, even though it was controlled completely by a single party, could not accomplish anything meaningful in the way of solving people's problems. how much more broken can it get?there are a million reasons why the liberal democratic experiment is in such a dire situation. as i said in the iraq study group thread, the two main reasons are an inability to create a marketplace of ideas and also a population unwilling to think about things rationally. you could argue though that the main reason is the strength of capitalism. global capitalism has progressed to the point of threatening democratic sovereignty. NAFTA and other trade agreements allow corporations to sue governments for what is called "takings." so if a town passes an environmental ordinance to better the public health or for whatever other reason, businesses can, have, and are continuing to sue for lost profits as a result of the new regulation. what is of paramount importance is not the will of the people, but the production of maximum capital. /rant-mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USMC850T Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 not a crisis. Why not find the scholarly articles on the subject in something like Jstor or one of the online databases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boomin850 Posted December 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 Ha ha...your rant actually incapsulates a lot of my essay already. Now that's what Im talking about tho. Meh, its 4:10 AM here...I should stop righting already and go to sleep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starfish Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 Well, basically Im writing a final paper that is due tuesday. Just wanted to see what people had to say since everyone is usually opinionated here. Well here is the prompt...Many argue that we are currently in a difficult stage for democracy, some going as far as calling it a crisis. Comment.I'll just let you guys argue that for a bit I guess and take some ideas from it. ThanksI don't believe for a second that we are in a more difficult stage of democracy to start with than from any other time in history. When your at the top of no matter what you are doing, there is always someone trying to knock you down. The biggest attack on the American political system is a continuance from leftists, communists, socialists and liberals. Look at the Sweden thread and compare it to America today, is there is not much difference in that socialist democracy from where the democratic party wants to take us today? They had a hisory as a Nordic country that extended back to the middle ages. If you observe what has happened in the last forty years, a significant part of their culture has been erased.This erasure of culture did not come by the evolution of the Swedish people, but the advancement of liberalism which forced upon them multiculturalism. As the new immigrants came to Sweden, the immigrant birthrates grew quickly due to their new wealth and freedom. At this same time the liberals promoted homosexuality, abortion and an attack on marriage and family leading the Swedish birthrate to a decline. Do you see the big picture? Hundreds of years of Swedish culture is being removed and the faces of the Swedish people have changed literally overnite. America is in this same position. Liberalism brought us multiculturalism, a lack of assimulation by immigrants to our culture, cowtowing to immigrant demands for political votes, an allowance of an attack on our language, flooding of asylum seekers or through a porous border, expanding government social, economic welfare and health programs aimed toward the new immigrants paid for by American citizens, abortion of white babies, the promoting of homosexuality, attacking marriage through taxation penalties, and weakening of military strength puts us in jeapordy as a nation to be recognizable as to what we were in the past. When we allow this change to occur we submit our democracy as we knew it to a system of what foreigners demand. Give liberals the finger! Liberalism is a mental disorder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DVolvoguy850T5 Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 I'm just curious to know whether the people of america could even overthrow the government if ever necessary. If it's a government for the people by the people, could the people actually alter it in the future or has our government become so strong that it's no longer a democracy....I dunno. It's just curiosity.The above is what the second amendment is all about. Could it happen? It should.Like T5 said, too many corrupt officials and crooked big business CEO's. Chicago is a good example. Nepotisim? Pass down aldermanship to your kids? Bold faced lies told to congress by John Kerry? Any one know that he was brought up with a court martial(dishonerably discharged)(sp.. sorry greenchunks)? That was dismissed by his buddy Jimmy Carter in 1980? Just an example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merlin390 Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 To much corruption in politics. Our Representatives in office are career criminals and do NOT represent the common person and how could they understand the common man/woman when they (reps) live in mansions? I am not advocating socialism or anything I just want to actually have people in power who have had to struggle and who have not been born with the silver spoon in mouth disease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gdizzle Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 I don't believe for a second that we are in a more difficult stage of democracy to start with than from any other time in history. When your at the top of no matter what you are doing, there is always someone trying to knock you down. The biggest attack on the American political system is a continuance from leftists, communists, socialists and liberals. Look at the Sweden thread and compare it to America today, is there is not much difference in that socialist democracy from where the democratic party wants to take us today? They had a hisory as a Nordic country that extended back to the middle ages. If you observe what has happened in the last forty years, a significant part of their culture has been erased.This erasure of culture did not come by the evolution of the Swedish people, but the advancement of liberalism which forced upon them multiculturalism. As the new immigrants came to Sweden, the immigrant birthrates grew quickly due to their new wealth and freedom. At this same time the liberals promoted homosexuality, abortion and an attack on marriage and family leading the Swedish birthrate to a decline. Do you see the big picture? Hundreds of years of Swedish culture is being removed and the faces of the Swedish people have changed literally overnite. America is in this same position. Liberalism brought us multiculturalism, a lack of assimulation by immigrants to our culture, cowtowing to immigrant demands for political votes, an allowance of an attack on our language, flooding of asylum seekers or through a porous border, expanding government social, economic welfare and health programs aimed toward the new immigrants paid for by American citizens, abortion of white babies, the promoting of homosexuality, attacking marriage through taxation penalties, and weakening of military strength puts us in jeapordy as a nation to be recognizable as to what we were in the past. When we allow this change to occur we submit our democracy as we knew it to a system of what foreigners demand. Give liberals the finger! Liberalism is a mental disorder.I don't think I could have set it better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Che'_Moderator Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 Congratulations. With your combined effort you all spawned the dumbest thread of the week. Its only Monday. Pray for you souls that Starfish and Gdizzel can run the country while you sit in a hole and emo yourself to death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DVolvoguy850T5 Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 Greg? Where did you get your Avitar from? I just got shafted for being here on VS while working...It made me bust out laughing.At any rate, history is repeating its self here in the US. While folks are busy watching Real World and American Idol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prasamin Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 the democracy itself is not in a crisis....we still vote, and the high vote-getter wins, so technically it's still working the same way it was 200 years ago.the problem is the foreign policy, and everything that the current "democracy" is doing/not doing.the democratic process still lives on, but the individuals within it are the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bottlecap Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 Congratulations. With your combined effort you all spawned the dumbest thread of the week. Its only Monday. Pray for you souls that Starfish and Gdizzel can run the country while you sit in a hole and emo yourself to death.maybe by the end of the week it'll get better? what else am i supposed to do at work at 3am or whatever it was when i was writing that post... oh yeah... working. oooops. -mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Che'_Moderator Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 maybe by the end of the week it'll get better? what else am i supposed to do at work at 3am or whatever it was when i was writing that post... oh yeah... working. oooops. -mikeWork... nah don't do that. Arob bashing is more rewarding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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