The Wall

[lpetrich]

I said nothing of the sort! I said that the bigger states like The Socialist Republic of California, NY, and Florida could in reality elect the President just on their own. That the founding fathers of the American constitution saw the problem and tried to fix it by allocating some smaller states with enough clout to also have a say in the process.

As if the people in each state vote in lockstep with each other.

The Avalon Project : Federalist No 68

Where does it state:

• That the EC shall be a partisan rubber-stamp body?
• That the EC shall be elected in winner-take-all fashion?
• That states may choose either all statewide or else two statewide and the rest by House district?
• That only a few states being contested is a legitimate possibility?

 

[angelo]

Perhaps the US should have a look at the Aussie compulsory voting system where we usually have have an over 90% voter turnout in both state and federal elections. Wouldn't that better show the will of the people? a failure to vote results in a fine unless one has a rock solid excuse.

In that case the winning government, or a President of the day can truly state they have a mandate to build a wall, or whatever policy is on their agenda.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Perhaps the US should have a look at the Aussie compulsory voting system where we usually have have an over 90% voter turnout in both state and federal elections. Wouldn't that better show the will of the people? a failure to vote results in a fine unless one has a rock solid excuse.

In that case the winning government, or a President of the day can truly state they have a mandate to build a wall, or whatever policy is on their agenda.

The problem is, the people voted in the anti-establishment Presidential candidate... along with the establishment Congress.

 

[Gun Nut]

Perhaps the US should have a look at the Aussie compulsory voting system where we usually have have an over 90% voter turnout in both state and federal elections. Wouldn't that better show the will of the people? a failure to vote results in a fine unless one has a rock solid excuse.

In that case the winning government, or a President of the day can truly state they have a mandate to build a wall, or whatever policy is on their agenda.

It's not in the philosophy of America... Maybe an incentive to vote, like a tax credit... but not a fine for failure to vote. We are free to screw ourselves over all we want.

 

[untermensche]

Perhaps the US should have a look at the Aussie compulsory voting system where we usually have have an over 90% voter turnout in both state and federal elections. Wouldn't that better show the will of the people? a failure to vote results in a fine unless one has a rock solid excuse.

In that case the winning government, or a President of the day can truly state they have a mandate to build a wall, or whatever policy is on their agenda.

It's not in the philosophy of America... Maybe an incentive to vote, like a tax credit... but not a fine for failure to vote. We are free to screw ourselves over all we want.

We make people wear seatbelts for the insurance companies not the people.

We can make people vote.

We sent people to Vietnam against their will.

This is a bit less.

But we have to open up voting. Allow it to occur from the Saturday to the Tuesday and have a national holiday on the Monday. Allow internet voting for some people, like those in the hospital or sick at home.

If everybody voted the Congress would look very different.

No Republican party for one thing.

 

[Gun Nut]

Perhaps the US should have a look at the Aussie compulsory voting system where we usually have have an over 90% voter turnout in both state and federal elections. Wouldn't that better show the will of the people? a failure to vote results in a fine unless one has a rock solid excuse.

In that case the winning government, or a President of the day can truly state they have a mandate to build a wall, or whatever policy is on their agenda.

It's not in the philosophy of America... Maybe an incentive to vote, like a tax credit... but not a fine for failure to vote. We are free to screw ourselves over all we want.

We make people wear seatbelts for the insurance companies not the people.

We can make people vote.

We sent people to Vietnam against their will.

This is a bit less.

But we have to open up voting. Allow it to occur from the Saturday to the Tuesday and have a national holiday on the Monday. Allow internet voting for some people, like those in the hospital or sick at home.

If everybody voted the Congress would look very different.

No Republican party for one thing.

It's an individual State thing that maybe should not be.. In Colorado, you vote by mail, or in person, or at any number of a ballot boxes around town... anytime during a 2 or 3 week period of time... "Voting day" being the deadline, not the only time to vote. There is no rational excuse for this to not be a federal mandate over how states perform their duties to citizens.

 

[untermensche]

We make people wear seatbelts for the insurance companies not the people.

We can make people vote.

We sent people to Vietnam against their will.

This is a bit less.

But we have to open up voting. Allow it to occur from the Saturday to the Tuesday and have a national holiday on the Monday. Allow internet voting for some people, like those in the hospital or sick at home.

If everybody voted the Congress would look very different.

No Republican party for one thing.

It's an individual State thing that maybe should not be.. In Colorado, you vote by mail, or in person, or at any number of a ballot boxes around town... anytime during a 2 or 3 week period of time... "Voting day" being the deadline, not the only time to vote. There is no rational excuse for this to not be a federal mandate over how states perform their duties to citizens.

They should make voting mandatory as well.

But they will never do that. Not because it is some great infringement on freedom.

Because many who do it will no longer be in power and they know it.

So they will scream "freedom" until they are red in the face.

 

[Gun Nut]

We make people wear seatbelts for the insurance companies not the people.

We can make people vote.

We sent people to Vietnam against their will.

This is a bit less.

But we have to open up voting. Allow it to occur from the Saturday to the Tuesday and have a national holiday on the Monday. Allow internet voting for some people, like those in the hospital or sick at home.

If everybody voted the Congress would look very different.

No Republican party for one thing.

It's an individual State thing that maybe should not be.. In Colorado, you vote by mail, or in person, or at any number of a ballot boxes around town... anytime during a 2 or 3 week period of time... "Voting day" being the deadline, not the only time to vote. There is no rational excuse for this to not be a federal mandate over how states perform their duties to citizens.

They should make voting mandatory as well.

But they will never do that. Not because it is some great infringement on freedom.

Because many who do it will no longer be in power and they know it.

So they will scream "freedom" until they are red in the face.

Before you can make something mandatory, it has to be at least AVAILABLE. Once voting has become as available as seat belts are in a car, then we can see if it even needs to become mandatory.

 

[repoman]

One thing that is interesting is that now that there are A LOT of newish citizens that want immigration for the purpose of getting more of their families over as compared to say the 1980s that it will be hard to stem the flow through the ballot box. As if the ballot box has much direct influence anyway.



And yes that is a purposeful mispelling.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

So compulsory voting has something to do with Trump's greatest of wind mills?

 

[untermensche]

They should make voting mandatory as well.

But they will never do that. Not because it is some great infringement on freedom.

Because many who do it will no longer be in power and they know it.

So they will scream "freedom" until they are red in the face.

Before you can make something mandatory, it has to be at least AVAILABLE. Once voting has become as available as seat belts are in a car, then we can see if it even needs to become mandatory.

You do both.

You make it mandatory and also provide ways for that to occur.

And you constantly work to make it easier to vote.

But we are so far from that. The Republicans are desperately working to make it harder. And desperately gerrymandering to make it meaningless.

- - - Updated - - -

So compulsory voting has something to do with Trump's greatest of wind mills?

It would have kept Trump out of office.

 

[repoman]

 

[lpetrich]

A "shallow, narcissistic lying conman"? Ann Coulter, welcome to the club.

 

[angelo]

Perhaps the US should have a look at the Aussie compulsory voting system where we usually have have an over 90% voter turnout in both state and federal elections. Wouldn't that better show the will of the people? a failure to vote results in a fine unless one has a rock solid excuse.

In that case the winning government, or a President of the day can truly state they have a mandate to build a wall, or whatever policy is on their agenda.

The problem is, the people voted in the anti-establishment Presidential candidate... along with the establishment Congress.

It's not often when the President's party controls both houses and the White House. What I fail to understand is why didn't the Trumpet get the funding for the wall while he did have control of the two houses.

 

[angelo]

Perhaps the US should have a look at the Aussie compulsory voting system where we usually have have an over 90% voter turnout in both state and federal elections. Wouldn't that better show the will of the people? a failure to vote results in a fine unless one has a rock solid excuse.

In that case the winning government, or a President of the day can truly state they have a mandate to build a wall, or whatever policy is on their agenda.

It's not in the philosophy of America... Maybe an incentive to vote, like a tax credit... but not a fine for failure to vote. We are free to screw ourselves over all we want.

We make people wear seatbelts for the insurance companies not the people.

We can make people vote.

We sent people to Vietnam against their will.

This is a bit less.

But we have to open up voting. Allow it to occur from the Saturday to the Tuesday and have a national holiday on the Monday. Allow internet voting for some people, like those in the hospital or sick at home.

If everybody voted the Congress would look very different.

No Republican party for one thing.

In that case you would have a dictatorship of a one party rule, just like some two bit, tinpot nations of South and Central America and most of Africa. That was tried in the Soviet Union and look at what happened to that!

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Perhaps the US should have a look at the Aussie compulsory voting system where we usually have have an over 90% voter turnout in both state and federal elections. Wouldn't that better show the will of the people? a failure to vote results in a fine unless one has a rock solid excuse.

In that case the winning government, or a President of the day can truly state they have a mandate to build a wall, or whatever policy is on their agenda.

The problem is, the people voted in the anti-establishment Presidential candidate... along with the establishment Congress.

It's not often when the President's party controls both houses and the White House. What I fail to understand is why didn't the Trumpet get the funding for the wall while he did have control of the two houses.

And this again exposes your ignorance of American politics. The GOP doesn’t want a wall. They know it won’t do any of the things Trump proclaims.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

A "shallow, narcissistic lying conman"? Ann Coulter, welcome to the club.

While he is indeed a lying con-man, that he is not trying to get a wall is not correct. This is how the right-wing lying machine does things. They create faux truths that support positions to the right of where they can pragmatically be. The base will be whipped into a frenzy and provide part justification to move the center.

 

[angelo]

It's not often when the President's party controls both houses and the White House. What I fail to understand is why didn't the Trumpet get the funding for the wall while he did have control of the two houses.

And this again exposes your ignorance of American politics. The GOP doesn’t want a wall. They know it won’t do any of the things Trump proclaims.

Nevertheless, he and the GOP took that policy to an election which in fact was one of the main platforms.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It's not often when the President's party controls both houses and the White House. What I fail to understand is why didn't the Trumpet get the funding for the wall while he did have control of the two houses.

And this again exposes your ignorance of American politics. The GOP doesn’t want a wall. They know it won’t do any of the things Trump proclaims.

Nevertheless, he and the GOP took that policy to an election which in fact was one of the main platforms.

FIFY

 

[PyramidHead]

Nevertheless, he and the GOP took that policy to an election which in fact was one of the main platforms.

FIFY

Moreover, while it was Trump's campaign promise, the wall wasn't his idea initially. It was something that advisers suggested to him as a rallying cry because it was easy for Trump to remember and return to in speeches. He never expected it to catch on, and when it did, he found himself in the unfortunate position of having to make good on it.

In 2014, Trump’s plan to run for president moved into high gear. His political confidant was consultant Roger Stone. “Inside Trump’s circle, the power of illegal immigration to manipulate popular sentiment was readily apparent, and his advisers brainstormed methods for keeping their attention-addled boss on message,” writes Joshua Green, author of Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising. “They needed a trick, a mnemonic device. In the summer of 2014, they found one that clicked.”

Joshua Green had good access to Trump insiders, including Sam Nunberg, who worked with Stone. “Roger Stone and I came up with the idea of ‘the Wall,’ and we talked to Steve [Bannon] about it,” according to Nunberg. “It was to make sure he [Trump] talked about immigration.”

The concept of the Wall did not click right away with the candidate. “Initially, Trump seemed indifferent to the idea,” writes Green. “But in January 2015, he tried it out at the Iowa Freedom Summit, a presidential cattle call put on by David Bossie’s group, Citizens United. ‘One of his pledges was, ‘I will build a Wall,’ and the place just went nuts,’ said Nunberg. Warming to the concept, Trump waited a beat and then added a flourish that brought down the house. ‘Nobody,’ he said, ‘builds like Trump.’”