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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (236337)	7/13/2007 5:53:12 PM
From: Constant Reader	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Governments tend to move slowly, which is probably a good thing on balance. The problem we confront today is that the technology exists and is being used to render virtually all elections meaningless, save the top of a statewide or national ticket. Using California as an example, John Burton used to brag that he gerrymandered the legislative districts of the state in 1980 on his hand-held Texas Instruments calculator. He did a pretty decent job of it. In 2000, the Republicans and Democrats in both legislative houses as well as the congressional delegation used subsequent technological advances to gerrymander almost every legislative district within the state, and succeeded to a fare-the-well. Out of 170+ state and federal districts, the number where your vote remotely makes a difference is down to 2 or 3 (5 if scandals hit as they did in 2006). Remember "Your vote counts?" Not in California it doesn't. Because local taxation has been virtually eliminated, and is instead basically dictated and collected by the state, local elections have become a charade. The teachers unions are just about the only ones organized for school board elections and their nominees have controlled most California school boards for over a generation, developers and police and firefighter unions are the only ones interested in city and county politics. What those elected by them gave away in the '90's has sent cities and counties throughout the state to the verge of bankruptcy. The number of centi-millionaires in the United States Senate shows no sign of abating. The best seat that one's own money can buy, apparently. Not that they really spend their own money, most lend themselves the money and then get it all back fund-raising from their preferred special interests after election. Republics have come and gone throughout history. At the rate things are going, our national experiment is in danger of not standing the test of time, I think.