A Candidate for "Change"
Years ago, there was an old tale in the Marine Corps about a lieutenant who inspected his Marines and told the 'Gunny' that they smelled bad. The lieutenant suggested that they change their underwear.
The Gunny responded, 'Aye, aye, sir, I'll see to it immediately'. He went into the tent and said, 'The lieutenant thinks you guys smell bad, and wants you to change your underwear. Smith, you change with Jones, McCarthy, you change with Witkowskie, Brown, you change with Schultz. Get to it'.
The moral: A candidate may promise change in Washington but don't count on things smelling any better.
A great joke!
But, sadly, true. No matter how well-intentioned any one person is who becomes president, it will be only ONE PERSON. REAL change is unlikely when the rest of the system is so broken.
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A broken system, for sure.
Here is a Rasmussen Poll on public opinion of our elected leaders. Pretty dismal.
http://rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/congressional_performance/congressional_performance
What do you think about congressional term limits as a opening move to fix the broken system?
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Jim,
Thanks for the link. Amazing stats, huh.
I do not think term limits would address the real problem, which is the dysfunction of the duopoly of the two party system.
I continue to believe the real solution lies in instant run-off voting that would break up the duopoly and force the parties to pay attention to their business. That and apportioning electors to the Electoral College by the popular vote within the states.
Larry
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Instant Runoff Voting would help, but the system, our federal system was badly damaged when we switched from a house of representatives and a senate appointed by the State Govts to popular elections for both. Both houses are now, technically, houses of representatives. Standing for Congress or the Senate means promises of bacon. Hillary doesn't represent the govt in Albany any more than Libby Dole represents Raleigh. One could argue that Lieberman represents Israel more than his state.
Ron Paul was correct on all points including the financial collapsing of the federal reserve dollar.
We can no longer afford our empire. We have twice the number of troops overseas outside of iraq as inside. The fed is printing money... $4 trillion recently.. and no longer tells us how much. I'm very discouraged. Seniors getting 2.3% cost of living increases and government employees getting 5+% raises..
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Nydra,
Great post. You are the second person lately who has mentioned to me the change we brought about when we changed the Constitution to allow Senators to be elected by the population of the state rather than by the state legislatures. I'm not so sure about the representatives. I think they have always been elected by the popular vote. If I'm wrong about that, please let me know.
The other change the other person mentioned to me recently he felt was particularly negative was the 22nd Amendment limiting the President to two terms. This automatic lame ducking of the President does seem to decrease the office's effectiveness.
Thanks for your comment on printing money. I think my next to last post had a comment in the article I referenced that the amount of money being printed wasn't being published anymore. Where did you find that stat? Of course, for those who aren't aware, printing more money (i.e. putting more money into circulation) devalues the dollar even further.
Lots of good stuff. There's a couple of Ron Paul groups that meet locally aren't there?
Larry
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