h a l f b a k e r y[marked-for-tagline]
add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random
news, help, about, links, report a problem
browse anonymously,
or get an account
and write.
register,
|
|
|
Proxy Election
Select how you want the issues dealt with and a competent "Presidential Proxy" panel will carry out the wishes of the masses. | |
Instead of voting for a new temporary king every 4 years,
the
voters select how they want the issues dealt with from a
large menu showing all the challenges facing the country
and
proposals on how to deal with them.
A voter might fill out his card:
Immigration: Allow everybody in and
put them all in
welfare
immediately. Then ship them home with a participation
trophy.
Gun rights: Take all the guns away from people with an odd
number of letters in their first name and distribute them to
those with an even number of letters.
Taxation: Raise everybody else's taxes, lower mine.
Issues would win, not a candidate. A presidential panel
would
be appointed and judged by how effectively they carried
out
the wishes of the voters. If they had anything less than a
90%
success rating, they'd be out of office. If they fulfilled the
voters wishes satisfactorily, they get to stay in office. There
would be a head president and a panel of minion presidents
each assigned to deal with the individual issues on the
ballot.
This presidential panel would be selected for their ability
to
carry out voter's wishes without personal prejudice. If they
didn't properly carry out the job they were charged with,
they're fired and somebody else is put in their place. If they
did a great job, they get to continue, theoretically getting
better every year. Their personality, hairstyle, etc wouldn't
matter because they'd be judged solely on their ability to
carry out the people's wishes for that election period.
How would you select these people? Draft them. Anybody
who wants to be a politician is unfit to be a politician in my
opinion.
And that stupid "Hail To The Chief" song would be replaced
by "Like A Boss".
[link]
|
|
Isn't this just "representative democracy" [-] under another name ? |
|
|
No, it's a suggestion that a ballot be about issues
rather than people and their hairstyles. A rant would
be an observation or series of observations without
an idea attached to them. Sort of like mindlessly
posting "Rant". |
|
|
//Isn't this just "representative democracy" under
another name ?// |
|
|
Yes, but with more specifics. Rather than vaguely
promising to "Send a message to those fat cats in
Washington" or "Clean up the mess that those other
guys caused." this would clearly lay out specific jobs
that would
be done. |
|
|
There was a radio personality in New York that ran
for mayor saying he would simply do one thing then
pass the job over to a more qualified person. The one
thing was to have work being performed on the
streets be done at night so as not to interrupt traffic.
A pretty good idea. I think he was ahead in the polls
until they wanted him to disclose his tax info and he
bailed out. |
|
|
"And therefore by his own admission, Your Honour, we contend that the case of the People vs. [doctorremulac3] is proven beyond reasonable doubt ... " |
|
|
In California, USA (and possibly other states, but most
famously in California), it is possible for a simple petition,
if it acquires enough signatures, to become an issue for
voting, on a statewide ballot. To the extent that this Idea
resembles the existing situation there, I would say it is
"thoroughly baked", if not so WKTE that the author of this
Idea might have heard of it. |
|
|
I probably didn't explain this idea, good or bad, very
well. |
|
|
Yes, there would be similarities to ballot initiative
votes but for ongoing issues, all the issues you'd want
a president to handle. Immigration, taxation, social
issues, war, peace, the environment etc. The ballots
might be very similar every vote. Rates of taxation
and who gets taxed for instance would be on the
ballot every four years. |
|
|
Think of it as programming for your president. You
use this as a punch card to design the perfect leader
in your eyes. Then the "proxy", for lack of a better
name, president simply acts according to the
majority
votes on the ballot. |
|
|
The idea of this is to break away from the team A vs
team B mentality that quickly gets caught up in tribal
"Four legs good, two legs bad" kind of debate that
gets away from the issues. This term's president
might be tasked with balancing the budget,
supporting gay marriage but limiting immigration to
citizens that pass some kind of minimum means test
like many countries do. (don't want to start a debate,
just saying as an example) I think this non-polarized
president might get a lot done with this more direct
form of democracy. |
|
|
You'd have a president that really was giving the
people what they wanted in a very direct fashion. |
|
|
yeah, 'cuz it's not like they'd do a number of polls, promise whatever the polls said then, after being elected, do pretty much what they wanted. WKTE |
|
|
They're not elected, that's the point. They're
appointed to carry out, with great specificity, the
exact instructions of the voters on specific issues. |
|
|
If they deviate in any manner, they're fired. They're
not politicians, they're facilitators hired to do exactly
what they're told. |
|
|
Smells a lot like California Proposition System, but on a National Scale. |
|
|
or maybe an Earth Wide Proposition 13 ? |
|
|
No, just a individual issue based ballot rather than a
ballot to select people. |
|
|
Nobody's commented on replacing "Hail To The Chief"
with "Like A Boss". |
|
|
Now come on, there's no legit argument against that. |
|
|
If you haven't heard the song, you can Youtube it but
it's, well... very NSFW. |
|
| |