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Equality 7-2521
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 11 2005
Location: Philly
Status: Offline
Points: 15784
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Posted: July 05 2006 at 17:03 |
maani wrote:
NNJF:
^
"It has lasted us this long." A whole 250 years? Consider that we are among the youngest (if not the youngest) countries on the planet. Which means that the governments of all the still-extent countries founded before us have forms of government that have lasted them far longer.
He should have said it made us this sucessful in such a short period of time. America's staggering growth to a world power is really amazing, and a large part of that is owed to the fantastic system of government we have.
"Other than civil war there have been no crises of government." Ever heard of a little thing called Watergate? A president was forced to resign when it was clear that he would be indicted for "high crimes and misdemeanors." And Iran/Contragate also threatened to reach into the highest levels of government, though Reagan was able to dodge it when others (Poindexter, North et al) essentially agreed to take the fall.
Please, Watergate was hardly a crisis of government. Nixon got himself involved in some underhanded activites, and had the unforunate luck of getting caught. He resigned. The nation was not rocked or sent into turmoil.
"And we have had regularly scheduled elections every two years for about 230 years." Yes, but the accuracy and reliability of those elections have become increasingly questionable, especially in recent years. Our current president had to be "appointed" by the Supreme Court after the Florida debacle of 2000. And there is strong reason to believe that the 2004 election was also unreliable due to certain problems and irregularities in Ohio.
Or the American public has become increasingly similar in opinions and thus the split between candidates isn't as large resulting in our current close elections.
"The constitution is a brilliant document." True, for the most part. But keep in mind that is based at least partially on a much older document (the Magna Carta), and that the very "elasticity" that its founders built into it has become a flaw and, in some cases, a liability.
Whichdrew from Locke. And the US constitutions allows plenty of room for change so it will not be doomed to whither as an archaic document.
Peace. |
To answer the question a pure democracy would be ideal but very unrealistic to maintain. A democractic republic is the best way.
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"One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. "
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coffeeintheface
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 02 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 397
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Posted: July 11 2006 at 19:21 |
lol @ everyone who voted Communism
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OBQM: www.soundcloud.com/onebigquestionmark (solo project)
nQuixote: www.soundcloud.com/n-quixote (ambient + various musical ideas)
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AtLossForWords
Prog Reviewer
Joined: October 11 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 6699
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Posted: July 11 2006 at 19:23 |
coffeeintheface wrote:
lol @ everyone who voted Communism |
Being tied for second place isn't too bad.
Edited by AtLossForWords - July 11 2006 at 19:24
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"Mastodon sucks giant monkey balls."
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goose
Forum Senior Member
Joined: June 20 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 4097
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Posted: July 12 2006 at 07:10 |
When anarchism also has 6 votes, you know you're in good company...
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crimson thing
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 28 2006
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 848
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Posted: July 12 2006 at 08:29 |
........if you're not free to vote for communism, you don't live in a true democracy........
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"Every man over forty is a scoundrel." GBS
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Asyte2c00
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 15 2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 2099
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Posted: July 13 2006 at 15:40 |
If the governemnt is competent and provides for the people, it is a good government.
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crimson thing
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 28 2006
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 848
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Posted: July 13 2006 at 16:11 |
Asyte2c00 wrote:
If the governemnt is competent and provides for the people, it is a good government.
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.........that rules out our lot & your lot then........
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"Every man over forty is a scoundrel." GBS
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markosherrera
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 01 2006
Location: World
Status: Offline
Points: 3252
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Posted: October 15 2006 at 02:44 |
I LIKE THE SOCIALDEMOCRACY OF SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES,ICELAND ,SWEDEN ,NORWAY,FINLAND,DENMARK.
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Pnoom!
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 02 2006
Location: OH
Status: Offline
Points: 4981
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Posted: October 19 2006 at 21:42 |
Neutral Democratic Republic with some slight Socialist leanings (but not too many).
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Pnoom!
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 02 2006
Location: OH
Status: Offline
Points: 4981
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Posted: October 19 2006 at 21:43 |
Or, perhaps, any government that adequately provides for and protects its people.
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Arrrghus
Forum Senior Member
Joined: July 21 2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 5296
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Posted: October 19 2006 at 21:43 |
crimson thing wrote:
Asyte2c00 wrote:
If the governemnt is competent and provides for the people, it is a good government.
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.........that rules out our lot & your lot then........ |
Oh, you guys aren't so hot, either.
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SolariS
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 27 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 891
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Posted: October 19 2006 at 22:08 |
ClemofNazareth wrote:
stonebeard wrote:
The USA is a democratic repulblic. A pure democracy would be nearly unworkable because it would require everybody to vote for every little thing, and the size of the USA would make that rediculous. So I suppose a democracy is the best for a very very small number of people (essentially obsolete in our time since no country has that few people), so a democratic republic is best for me. |
One alternative is a libertarian republic. Still essentially a democracy, but avoids a lot of the problems that come with either representative government, or with a democracy where everybody has to have a vote on everything. In a libertarian society the government would have authority only over defense from invasion, and over crimes that affect people immorally imposing themselves on others (murder, rape, etc.). All other governance is delegated to the lowest possible local jurisdiction (or is simply none of the government's business).
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I don't like the libertarian idea. There are things other than war (and equally as large) that affect populations. Take for instance, pollution. Pollution isn't a crime, yet a company would cheerfully dump waste into our rivers without government regulation. Don't believe me? Until the government laid down the law in my hometown of cleveland ohio, industries were dumping waste into the Cuyahoga river...and it caught fire. Bigger things also need to be addressed as well such as power and emissions. What commercial industry would tackle potentially irreversible pollution problems like global warming without monetary incentive? and how about simple things like sanitization conditions for restraunts, working conditions or drug regulations? It just couldn't work and in fact most of the regulations we have in the US are a result of them not working. In the 20's, companies were heavily exploiting it's workers because they had no rules placed on them. The regulations we have now are a result of the ugly side of pure capitalism.
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Sasquamo
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 26 2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 828
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Posted: October 20 2006 at 21:37 |
Look at all the votes for anachism and communism. How silly. Anarchism doesn't work because unless everyone is told what to do they're pretty soon going to start killing each other. If we were anarchists we'd still be banging rocks together to make fire and killing our brother because we want his nice bearskin coat. There's a reason we've become so succesful: government.
As for communism, here's what Frank Zappa said:
"Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff"
Agreed.
So far democratic republic is the superior government. And about America being young, yes it is a very young country, but just look in how little time it managed to get ahead of the pack and become more powerful than countries many years older than it in such little time!
Edited by Sasquamo - October 20 2006 at 21:38
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markosherrera
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 01 2006
Location: World
Status: Offline
Points: 3252
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Posted: October 20 2006 at 22:49 |
DAMNOCRACY
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