How to fight political corruption

[Dinner]

I'm hoping to come up with some ideas here because the local Republican Party here in San Diego seems to be especially corrupt even by the standards of the rest of their party. In the last year we've had one mayor resign for cooking the city's books in order to hide massive financial obligations, two city council men arrested for accepting bribes from strip club owners, and one Congressman convicted of accepting bribes to rig defense contracts. I'm guessing the Republican Party's lock on local power has brought about a great deal of arrogance among that party's local elites. that said they keep winning elections dispite each new revolation about their corruption abeit some of the recent ones have been razor close (the Democrat lost by just 50 votes though there was a question about electronic voting machines being hacked and not counting votes correctly).

Does anyone have a viable solution to political corruption? Any other city having near this much trouble with corruption among the ruling elite? 5 year ago I would never have suspect that'd we'd have Chicago style corruption in this city but the local Republicans seem to be as unethical as it gets.

[Drake Tungsten]

Does anyone have a viable solution to political corruption?

1. Vote the Republicans out of office.

2. Wait 8 years.

3. Vote the Democrats out of office.

4. Wait 8 years.

5. Restart at step one.

[bipolarbear]

A little revolution every once in a while is a good thing.


Seriously, I was thinking about this today. Really I think that if we keep having revolutions then there will always be a steady influx of people who really want to fight to change nad make things right. Give em' 8 years though, like Drake said.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by bipolarbear
A little revolution every once in a while is a good thing.


Seriously, I was thinking about this today. Really I think that if we keep having revolutions then there will always be a steady influx of people who really want to fight to change nad make things right. Give em' 8 years though, like Drake said.

That is what some of the founding fathers beleived. I don't know, if you look at the Russian revolution and the first French one, you can see how badly revolutions can go.

JM
(we were quite lucky with ours, it could have been a lot worse)

[Gatekeeper]

That's actually not a bad plan, Drake. Hmm. Maybe toss in a viable third party in there, too, to keep the other two on their toes.

Gatekeeper

[Jon Miller]

yeah, a third party or two would be great

JM

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
a third party or two would be great

You're lucky there's no more room in my sig

[Pekka]

kick them in teh nuts. When a citizen has the right to kick a politician in the nutters, after corruption case.. man, no one wants to take a risk of millions of people kicking you in the nuts. And even when most can't be bothered, you know there WILL BE hundreds of people the next day waiting for you to leave your house, just to kick you in the nuts. And the next day, and the next day.. go ahead, wear a cup. It still hurts, and when you get kicked in there hundreds of times a day, it'll broke in the first 20 kicks anyway.

[Jon Miller]

[serious mode on]

I think I used it correctly
third party
n.

1. A political party organized as opposition to the existing parties in a two-party system.

[/serious mode]

JM

[Sikander]

The problem with having only two parties is that it is quite likely that one or the other will dominate in certain areas. When this happens you get corruption. We tend to expect corruption in big cities (typically Dems) and in the south (typically Repubs) and wherever there is effectively a one party system. More parties means more choices in areas where one party is considered completely out of the question. Imagine what would happen if we had a libertarian right and a religious right, each with their own viable party, or in the case of the left a green left and a social democrat type left. Big cities could choose between wealth redistribution or wealth forfiture while southerners would get to choose between God and Guns. Good times.

[Drake Tungsten]

You're lucky there's no more room in my sig

[KrazyHorse]

Jon

I don't think what you said was stupid, just funny.

a) Those of us not from a "two-party system" are less accustomed to that term, so we tend to actually read the individual words in it and thus interpret it more literally, even if we are aware of the American implications

b) I would think that even somebody accustomed to the term would still be able to appreciate the humour in your statement, and would be allowed to poke a little fun at you for not tripping over the combination of terms while writing it...

[Jon Miller]

lol

I didn't mean for you to take my response seriously, that is why serious mode went off.

Jon Miller
(It was somewhat done to make sure I had used the words properly, as I tend to not do so)

[KrazyHorse]

**** it. I'll lose Franklin for a while...

[Pekka]

Yes yes blaablaa let's do this and that.

No. Kicking the sacks. That will work. Think about it. Efficient, beautiful.