General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Supreme Court Didn't Go Far Enough in McCutcheon.
The Supreme Court has taken their second step forward in accomplishing a massive relaxation of the rules on political contributions. I applaud this trend, but fear that it doesnt go nearly far enough in cleaning up the tangle of rules and regulations governing our electoral process. Therefore, I would like to propose some simple reforms to make government more responsive and efficient. My grand scheme is predicated on the well-documented fact that political outcomes are decided by money, and upon the apparent intention of the Supreme Court to accelerate this trend. The genius of plan I am about to propose is that it turns what is often perceived as a flaw or failure of the system into a virtue.
The first step in my plan is to permit unlimited contributions to politicians. Any politician will be allowed to take any amount of money from any source at any time.
Second, the cumbersome electoral apparatus will be junked. Instead, all political offices will be put up for bid. Anyone who wants to be a Senator, for example, will submit a bid of so many dollars for the job, and the job will be awarded to the highest bidder. Once in office, the politician will receive no salary; instead, each will be expected to support him/herself on a fee-for-service basis, by selling individual votes on proposed legislation, charging a substantial fee to introduce proposed legislation written by corporate lawyers, etc.
This plan is startling in its elegant simplicity and cost-effectiveness. It can be made to work at all levels of government, from the local city council to the Presidency. In a single stroke it converts the government from a financial drag on society into a center of profit. Furthermore, in the same stroke, it restores honesty to the system. No longer will politicians have to maintain a pretense of serving the interests of people without money. No longer will we be plagued with financial scandals. And no longer will the public need to be distracted from Nintendo, Nascar, celebrity news, and reality television by so-called electoral politics.
This general philosophical approach can be extended beyond the Executive and Legislative branches to the Judicial branch as well. The whole expensive edifice of the Court system, at all its levels, can be replaced by a simple system in which court decisions will be determined by a fair and honest bidding process. This can be made to work handily in both civil and criminal matters. Civil decisions will once again be awarded to the higher bidder. No need for a jury. If a poor person steals from a rich person, the rich person can pay to have the criminal convicted and punished. As a side benefit, I predict that our jail and prison systems would fall into disuse, at a great cost savings to society, as offended rich people opt to use cheaper means, such as fines, floggings, involuntary servitude, and hangings, to punish those who have offended against them. As a second side benefit, I predict that the whole apparatus of appellate courts could be eliminated--if a person cant afford to buy a verdict in a lower court, they will also no doubt be too poor to buy an appellate decision.
The more I think about this system, the fewer flaws I can find in it.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)since she outspent him by $160 million in the race.
I guess money isn't everything.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)2) Satire is dead.
AlinPA
(15,071 posts)flying rabbit
(4,632 posts)...I got nothin.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)Last edited Wed Apr 2, 2014, 04:13 PM - Edit history (1)
More proof that our system does indeed work by encouraging entrepreneurism.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)LiberalArkie
(15,715 posts)The laws they create would be the same. The normal people would still be treated like crap.
One great benefit would be no political ads, just the notice in the paper about the jobs being put up for bid and the report on who won the bids. The wealthy political class would probably have great turnover. We would probably only keep a senator or rep for 2 terms at most until they were out bid for their position.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)madinmaryland
(64,931 posts)with enough brown shirts to take over the government, and then rewrite the constitution, eliminating all elections.
I am assuming you forgot the emoticon .