laughing dog
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Will someone explain how ending the drug war mends our broken system?
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Changes to The Constitution.
- Thread starter steve_bank
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Because all the judges/politicians etc who get elected on a "tough on crime" platform will magically achieve some self awareness with regards to what they are causing.
Simply put, having so many people incarcerated isn't a bug - it's a feature. System is working just fine.
Derec
Contributor
All it takes is one juror to have a mistrial.
And even 12 jurors can be misled and vote for acquittal of somebody guilty. Just look at OJ Simpson or Casey Anthony.
"Of course it's difficult to convict! Look at this one black man and a woman in trials 17 years apart!"
That's not the zinger of an argument you might think.
Derec
Contributor
If we are having arbitrary changes to the Constitution, why not go for broke and abolish congressional districts. We can replace them with some form of proportional representation.
Derec
Contributor
There are many more, of course, but those two murderers everybody knows.
bilby
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Yeah, it's not a ringing endorsement of the American legal system that people who everybody knows are much harder to convict than people who lack such fame.
It ends a big cause of problems. It won't fix the system, it will remove something like half the crime and a lot of the dirty money. It's a case of stop digging the hole deeper.
Jimmy Higgins
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As a reminder, OJ Simpson was 27 or so years ago, Casey Anthony well over a decade ago.
The problem becomes the selection of representatives. With district boundaries you at least have a candidate who has to live in the district and is (or can be) both familiar with the district and familiar to the district's voters.
Shadowy Man
Contributor
and any day now he is going to find the real killer, like he promised he would try to do.
barbos
Contributor
You need to separate elected officials from big money (especially MIC)
Politicians must represent people, not oligarch scum.
Politicians must represent people, not oligarch scum.
bilby
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Swammerdami
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It's useless to think of constitutional amendments in today's political clime. I don't think we could even rename a post office today, if a super-majority were required.
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I'm afraid your implication is very bad advice. (I hope you've not succumbed to propaganda about the "deep state.")
There are 4000 political appointment positions in the U.S. government, 1100+ of which require Senate confirmation. These appointees have hire/fire influence over many more employees. Some appointments are for long terms that will span elections: Federal Reserve Governors, for example, are appointed for 14-year terms. (Trump if/when reelected has already announced plans to use hire/fire powers to replace many thousands of government employees.)
Or do you actually mean individually elected by the general population, rather than being appointed by the elected President and confirmed by the elected Senate? This is too bizarre an idea to be your intent. Adriana Kugler is an FRB Governor whose term expires in 2026. Should we replace her with Lauren Boebert for name recognition? All kidding aside, the soundness of the U.S. Dollar owes much to the FedRes NOT being elected.
Should Biden and Trump each choose candidates for FBI Director and Attorney-General and let the general public choose between them? Oprah Winfrey vs Sean Hannity for Secretary of the Treasury?
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I'm afraid your implication is very bad advice. (I hope you've not succumbed to propaganda about the "deep state.")
There are 4000 political appointment positions in the U.S. government, 1100+ of which require Senate confirmation. These appointees have hire/fire influence over many more employees. Some appointments are for long terms that will span elections: Federal Reserve Governors, for example, are appointed for 14-year terms. (Trump if/when reelected has already announced plans to use hire/fire powers to replace many thousands of government employees.)
Or do you actually mean individually elected by the general population, rather than being appointed by the elected President and confirmed by the elected Senate? This is too bizarre an idea to be your intent. Adriana Kugler is an FRB Governor whose term expires in 2026. Should we replace her with Lauren Boebert for name recognition? All kidding aside, the soundness of the U.S. Dollar owes much to the FedRes NOT being elected.
Should Biden and Trump each choose candidates for FBI Director and Attorney-General and let the general public choose between them? Oprah Winfrey vs Sean Hannity for Secretary of the Treasury?
Elixir
Made in America
Yeah, incompetence is almost as bad as malevolence when it comes to presidential character deficiencies.
Toni
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No, I mean that there are thousands and thousands--millions, actually, of federal employees who do the vast overwhelming bulk of the work running the federal government. They are neither appointed by any political office holder nor confirmed by any vote of any Congress. This is not a 'deep state.' It's called having a job and doing it.
Total government employees U.S. 2022 | Statista
In 2022, around 19.23 million people were working for state and local governments in the United States.
www.statista.com
I do not mean that their work is completely unaffected by those who are appointed and confirmed or by policies and laws passed or not passed by Congress. Of course, these are the people who will most directly be affected by any government shut down, at least at first. Congress of course exempts itself from being unpaid.
Elixir
Made in America
That would seem like an easy fix.
If ever a “both sides” disparagement was warranted, this is it.
Swammerdami
Squadron Leader
Wikipedia has a list of notable Presidential pardons. Trump and Clinton do appear to be the most egregious, but George H.W. Bush had some doubtful pardons including
Armand Hammer – CEO of the Occidental Petroleum Company, contributed $110,000 to the Republican National Committee just before his pardon. Pardoned for illegally contributing $54,000 to Richard Nixon's presidential campaign in 1972
Toni
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Not so easy considering who does the voting for such proposals. Just, faor, wise abd even necessary? Oh yes. Simple? Yes! Easy? Not by a long shot. Self interest is the most powerful motivating factor.
Elixir
Made in America
^ why we need to find a way to use it.