view the rest of the comments
politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
Lucky for us there is a system of checks and....oh wait...
Bribery. Checks and bribery.
A system of checks and money orders. And cash.
And luxury vacations. And forgiven "loans." And property purchased as "gifts." And free flights on private jets. And...
These fuckers. These absolutely amoral fuckers.
*immoral
Amoral, as in without morals.
Don't forget the gold bars, and RVs
And cigarette cartons
Checks and bigger checks.
They may exchange goods and services for checks and bribery.
Bank checks and account balances.
A solid line you got there.
The biggest blunder of the framers was assuming we'd never form factions (i.e. parties). The assumption was that the branches would oppose each other, not collude.
I don't think that's their fault. They specifically addressed a two party system in multiple writings (they didn't like it) in addition to explicitly stating that they expected future generations to update the constitution as necessary to protect the republic from those who would seek to undermine or replace it. We didn't heed their warnings and now here we are.
To be clear, I don't think the framers were infallible or able to see all possibile challenges that our nation would face. However, they seem to have been pretty damn good at learning from history and that's something modern Americans are absolutely abysmal at. For all their faults they have a lot to teach us in that respect.
The problem with this is that it requires people in power to vote to limit their own power. And while there have been some, certainly, who have been willing to do so, getting a supermajority of people willing to do it is simply not something I see as remotely possible anymore.
One could argue that situation would occur if we were smart enough to repeatedly elect those kinds people
It assumes a democracy of well informed voters that is capable of creating enough Cincinnatus figures that they can reliably voted in. That’s not the worst assumption for them to have. It’s a similar assumption to what fucked over the ussr and ccp. The problem is that the average person only cares about bread and circuses and that when the going gets rough or they start losing a certain percentage of the population is comfortable abandoning democracy for perceived security.
At least one of them (maybe Jackson but I'm probably wrong on who) specifically warned about political parties
It was Washington. However, Washington also tended to side with Hamilton against Jefferson in practice, and those two would quickly form political parties that are the ancestors of the modern ones.
The "Founding Fathers" were far from a monolithic block of philosopher kings like American mythmaking likes to portray.
Duverger's Law was developed in the 1950s and 60s, so it wasn't understood way back then.
Thank you, good to know
Which is fucking stupid to think that humans won’t form tribes.
Yeah Andrew Jackson was not a founding father. He was a person who owned hundreds of human beings as slaves and conducted genocide against the native population. He was a total piece of shit really. Trump ordered Jackson's portrait hung in the oval office during his presidency.
You think Trump knew him as anything but "the face on the $20 note"?
If he had gotten office in 1914, he'd have put Grover Cleveland's portrait up for the same reason.
Trump knows Jackson, actually. Jackson is one of his favorite Presidents. Jackson was also a raging asshole, so that makes sense.
That Jackson portrait that was hung up during Trump's tenure? They made sure it was there when Trump met with Native American leaders, and the intended insult was heard loud and clear.
You aren’t wrong on any count but it should be noted most of the founding fathers were slavers and conducted genocide on the native population. Jackson was just particularly shameless about both whereas someone like Jefferson was clearly uncomfortable with slavery, just not as much as he was with the idea of not keeping his fellow human beings, some of whom were his biological family, as slaves.
there is a system of cheques and account balances?