Uh, maybe in theory… but people are woefully and willfully ignorant and helpless to boot.

They’re incapable of seeing that there is frightening little difference between D/R.

And depressingly, and predictably, it looks like people are looking to Republicans for answers again.

You’d think with such huge repudiations of both political parties in less than 1.5 years, they would start to consider alternative candidates and parties… But then the TV says that makes you a kook, and apparently most would rather be slaves than stand out in a crowd.

I agree to a point, Jacob. The problem is the mega-conglomerate corporations around today…you never really know who owns what without significant research. And I’m talking about people that read this blog and care at least a little, what about the rest of the world – they sure won’t look up (or care) who owns Cheez Whiz before going out and buying some.

What JohnnyH said is spot-on. Democrats haven’t “fixed things” in their year in power, so everyone thinks the Republicans should be voted back in again. When will people realize there is no easy answer, that flip-flopping won’t solve anything.

w/ regards to politics… Ron Paul is prob the only honest person w/ any common sense up there in DC

OK, I’ll take your bait…

America was founded as a republic (i.e. representative government), but not necessarily as a democracy. The franchise was limited to certain land owners; so more akin to a timocracy as Plato or Aristotle would have seen it.

Over the course of decades, the predicates for the American Revolution (i.e. equality and the concept of sovereignty arising from the people) have led to extending the franchise to all adult citizens. Some of those citizens are simply too ignorant, uneducable or unsophisticated to vote with the same level of discernment that even the lo-tech founding fathers excercised. I, for one, would have no difficulty restricting the franchise once again on some relevant basis for qualification: military (or civilian) service to the republic ala Rome and Heinlein; some minimal property ownership, so that taxation has some direct significance to the electorate; some minimal level of civic educational attainment, so that a citizen can demonstrate that he or she understands the consequence of his or her vote. Of course, as a Libertarian, I also want a much more limited role for government as a whole. This would mean far less dire consequences to anyone subject to the government’s action, whether a voter or not.

Alas, nothing short of a revolution is going to bring about such circumstances — at least until after the collapse.

I already do my part. The problem is not enough people care. It’s a small, but very vocal minority that does anything about it and that’s just not enough to affect change.

@ KK: it all depends on how truly someone believes what theyre saying, and to what extent. If one believes sweatshops are bad, they WILL find some way to get clothes without the use of them.

” majority of people do not want to live like the 1600s,”

It doesn’t matter what the majority is doing, but rather what you PERSONALLY are doing. I think that’s the whole point of this blog, tbh.

@Maus
“…some minimal property ownership, so that taxation has some direct significance to the electorate;…”

Actually, land that you own can not be taxed. It also cannot have any mortgages or other liens on it. It is owned by you through a treaty with the united States in the form of a land patent. Alas, our nice government decided that true property ownership was a bad thing around the 1930’s and thus it is almost impossible to get recognized land patents any more.

Since I know that my vote doesn’t actually count, as we had a popularly elected president and still ended up with Bush in office thanks to the electoral college, all I have to ask is this, have you had a conversation with your father-in-law. That should be answer enough to all of your points.

“If you do not like that the two political parties agree on practically everything save stem cells, abortion, and gay marriage, are you not free to vote for a third party”

You’re kidding right?? I don’t know what your flavor of republicans looks like where you live but around here they cut funding for education whenever they get the chance.

Investing in education gets a good ROI. For example in my case the gov spent about $50K on my K-12 education. Over the next 40 years I will return about a million dollars back in all told taxes and fees. And my job isn’t one to brag about.

I would think republicans could figure this out because supposedly they own lots of the businesses in this country?

In essence don’t we all contribute to the overall problem? even if some do so PERSONALLY in a small, tiny way or do so in a large SOCIETY way.

Consciencely/unconsciencely – passively or actively we all contribute to government/corporations at large in todays world.

Even if you walk naked everywhere, you contribute, because no matter where you walk that place is owned by some person/place or thing. So in essence just by walking on a dirt road you are actually giving your personal ok to the system at large for providing that road

If you walk naked on your property, you still contribute by the property taxes you pay on it.

If you go and get a free shirt from a church clothing give-away, you are giving your personal ok to the system set up that provides that church with the opportunity to give away that shirt. Not to speak of the distance corporation that provided that shirt in the first place or the cloth for it.

I somewhat agree but the problem is that government is based on monopolistic coercion and contrary to a business that you dislike, you can’t just shift to a competitor.
You can vote for someone else, but if the system is inherently biased against your interests, then your vote is symbolic and worthless.

Voters are certainly capable of rationally making up their minds, but they don’t and they won’t. It’s easy to convince somebody to do something against their best interests if you have more information than they do. At it’s base, that’s what the field of “sales” is all about. There are many people who are very, very skilled in this area.

@Chris: what are you talking about?… Spending in education has been climbing for years. Every indicator of US education against the world is terrible and getting worse. Therefore, there is little, if any, correlation between spending and education… Then look at where US college students get their degrees: physcology, business, sociology, english, communications… IMHO, not as valuable as the science and engineering dominated by foreign students.

Newflash: US public education is almost complete garbage. Most only invest in it under duress via taxes.

Also, from your language I going to guess you are highly partisan. Looking at the (D) or (R) next to a name and blindly marking it possibly the #1 reason for the sorry state of the US today.

Vote on issues and individuals, not damn parties.

For those who think that public education “must” be funded in order to provide quality education to people, read this:

The Underground History of American Education

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm

Truth is, a lot of the reasons we find ourselves in our current condition as a country are explained in that book.

Having a set of values and principles should allow you to navigate through this mine field, however too many people are swayed away from any set of principles or values. It reminds me of the Republicans who talk about family values but secretly cheat on their wife.

A couple things:

If a lie is repeated enough through propaganda, it turns into beliefs in the minds’ of the masses. Having money to advertise creates a huge advantage then….

Half of people have below average IQ and many are not able to think critically, are naive. Many, but of course not all, are elderly.

Jacob, you crack me up with your -talk is cheap and you know who you are- polemic while investing in the system at the same time.

JPP

Without the items you mention you would be delivering your posts on stone tablets (on foot), or possibly some kind of paper made of dried weeds. I doubt many would be actually able to read if that was the case as well.

I do however agree with your reply just above. I find that the people that are mostly on a soapbox telling others they should do this or that usually have made all their money and are sitting in a position of comfort. Then they try to social engineer the rest of the population. I find them to be the most hypocritical of all. Like your plane reference above.