How can we hold politicans accountable?

[Silurian]

I read a story once where there was a very tall tower on an inhabited island off a remote shore. A person could sail to the island then climb the stairs to the top, and there press a button. If enough people did this the president's/ prime ministers head would be blown off by the explosives in the ceremonial collar she/he wore.

Spoiler :

Obviously this is not a practical solution.

 

[Tahuti]

I fear this is easier said than done.

True. But the elections themselves are pretty fair, it's just that voters make the same mistakes, again and again. And are prone to elect either liars who change nothing or populists who makes changes for the worse.

I blame the internet for the mess we are in now. Just having more information doesn't mean more informed. Look at the 9/11 truth people. You can find "facts" to prove even the craziest ideas.

The problem is mostly that people fail to utilise it and those 9/11 conspiracy theories would probably also be popular without internet as urban legends. Internet, if used in a good way, can be used to garn useful information that would be very expensive or hard to come by without it.

 

[warpus]

Let's face the truth: most politicians in office in the U.S. are there to advance their careers. The ultimate goal: more money, better connections, and a move up the socioeconomic ladder.

Maybe we could try to make political positions far less lucrative? As it stands now they tend to attract morally questionable greedy bastards. Why would they care about the people? They're there to make money..

 

[Tahuti]

Maybe we could try to make political positions far less lucrative?

Like by not voting for them?

 

[warpus]

Like by not voting for them?

It'd be awesome if Americans stopped voting for Democrats and Republicans, but they're kind of stuck in a thing where they can't stop doing voting for them.

 

[Murky]

It'd be awesome if Americans stopped voting for Democrats and Republicans, but they're kind of stuck in a thing where they can't stop doing voting for them.

Yeah, you feel slightly better for at least voting for someone to help keep the really bad people out of office.

 

[Leoreth]

I propose the Ukrainian model: negotiated a bad gas treaty? Have fun in prison for seven years!

 

[lovett]

Let's face the truth: most politicians in office in the U.S. are there to advance their careers. The ultimate goal: more money, better connections, and a move up the socioeconomic ladder.

Maybe we could try to make political positions far less lucrative? As it stands now they tend to attract morally questionable greedy bastards. Why would they care about the people? They're there to make money..

If you make political positions less lucrative you get less competent elected officials. Political careers are hard and taxing and most successful politicians could earn far more in another industry than in politics. If you, for instance, reduce politicians salaries you serve to dissuade people without independent means from going into politics, and you serve to dissuade a chunk of the brightest and best from going into politics.

 

[LucyDuke]

Their salaries are not where their money comes in.

 

[Old Hippy]

i say pay them more ... but ban them from working for corporations for 10 years after leaving office, to often they take up corporate positions with the same people they awarded contracts too... while they were in office

 

[Pangur Bán]

Let's face the truth: most politicians in office in the U.S. are there to advance their careers. The ultimate goal: more money, better connections, and a move up the socioeconomic ladder.

Maybe we could try to make political positions far less lucrative? As it stands now they tend to attract morally questionable greedy bastards. Why would they care about the people? They're there to make money..

The solution is to make it more lucrative, pay them more and give them a generous pension (say a few million dollars per year for congressmen). BUT, make it illegal to earn money after holding public office, and make punishment for receiving money either during or after office extremely severe: state confiscation of all property and 5 year minimum prison sentence (including for any attempts to get around it by unmerited payments to close relatives). Fund all political campaigning with government revenue, make private funding illegal.

The point? Pay them well so that not only the rich can hold office. Pay them well to free sensitive public offices from corruption and the power of anti-democratic forces. These offices are so sensitive that strictest measures are necessary. In a democracy the public are the main interest, anything that gets in the way of that threatens our institutions.

The US political system as is is closer to Russia than most other democracies, with most politicians on the fix one way or another, doing the dirty of pressure groups and big-business for political funding, "director" and "consultant" jobs, and million dollar "lectures" and "lecture tours".

 

[Tahuti]

It'd be awesome if Americans stopped voting for Democrats and Republicans, but they're kind of stuck in a thing where they can't stop doing voting for them.

What about not voting at all?

 

[Pangur Bán]

Saw Thomas Friedman on Bloomberg the other day. He thinks this might be the wave of the future, the end of the two-party system:
http://www.americanselect.org/

 

[classical_hero]

Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.

We are seeing the results when the leaders are not righteous.

 

[Agent327]

I watched some video the other day which claimed to feature Obama lying seven times in under two minutes. I didn't verify whether he actually did lie all seven times (one of his statements was a bit vague so hard to label as a lie exactly) but it did make me wonder the question posed in the title.

Is there any way to actually hold politicians accountable?

There´s this little thing called voting.

 

[woody60707]

The solution is to make it more lucrative, pay them more and give them a generous pension (say a few million dollars per year for congressmen). BUT, make it illegal to earn money after holding public office, and make punishment for receiving money either during or after office extremely severe: state confiscation of all property and 5 year minimum prison sentence (including for any attempts to get around it by unmerited payments to close relatives). Fund all political campaigning with government revenue, make private funding illegal. ...

The short of all this is to make politician not bribable. The OWS people said much the same line. Beyond plain bribery, it's just not possible.

1. A US congressmen can be elect with as little as 100,000 votes (maybe less). So if you can win just once in a low pop state, you can get paid millions per year for the rest of you life. That's better odds then the lotto.

2. You want to make earning money, in the US, illegal? Do stocks count? Gambling? Can I rise money for kids in Africa? So a 30 something who was in the House for 2 years is now in force retirement? And there kids, what happens if they land a good job? Does the politician go to jail, or the kids, maybe just all of them? What if a CEO for 20 years has a child that runs for office one day, is that a go to jail card on day 1?

3. So only the government can fund elections? And who do they fund? Does the Nazi party and NABLA get the same funds as Dems and Repubs (yes, the US does have a Nazi party)? Or are we locked in a two party system were it's illegal for anyone else to run for public office? You are also taking away my right to free speech by saying no private funding. I can't spend my money to make flyers expressing my beliefs.

The nugget of making politician not bribable sounds great. And i'm not saying we shouldn't try to make the system better, but going off the deep end like that isn't workable.

 

[LucyDuke]

Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.

We are seeing the results when the leaders are not righteous.

What does that actually mean?

 

[LucyDuke]

The short of all this is to make politician not bribable. The OWS people said much the same line. Beyond plain bribery, it's just not possible.

...

The nugget of making politician not bribable sounds great. And i'm not saying we shouldn't try to make the system better, but going off the deep end like that isn't workable.

Mandatory 24/7 surveillance? It sounds pretty unpleasant, but they're the ones trotting out "nothing to hide? nothing to fear! all the time". We do it to prisoners. And nobody's forced to run for office.

 

[Pangur Bán]

The nugget of making politician not bribable sounds great. And i'm not saying we shouldn't try to make the system better, but going off the deep end like that isn't workable.

None of your questions are particularly bothersome though (and a bunch of them seem to be based on misunderstanding ... i.e. no family members were said to go to jail, but rather the politician if he can be proven to be using them to earn brown bag money). And no, I don't count the ability to have one's elected politicians captured by special interets as "freedom". In fact I'm very tired of that vacuous word being used to prop-up anti-democratic forces in the US.

 

[Tani Coyote]

Actually, there is no electoral advantages to incumbency in congressional elections. The correlation between incumbency and re-election can be explained by the strategic withdrawal/entrance of relevant actors.

"The incumbent gave hundreds of thousands of you jobs with his pork package. I, however, just popped out of nowhere and would like to take the job. Vote for me, even though I would have to introduce myself to all of the other legislators and have no prior friendships, alliances, and understandings with them! "

...Yeah. I'm pretty sure even Congressionally, incumbents can still have an advantage. Pork is the legal way to buy votes.

It's always okay if the government does it!