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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (25012)	9/21/1998 1:14:00 AM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Michael, I'm a little more cynical than that. I think the only way we'll see real change is for crowds of irate citizens to take on the party bureaucracies, starting at the local level and going right up, throw them out on the streets, and start all over again. Term limits alone will just get us a new set of figureheads. The money issue is something which nobody has ever resolved. Obviously, winning a campaign takes huge amounts of money. But do we want to turn over complete control of the political process to the small number of people who control large amounts? We did it that way back at the turn of the century, and it didn't work too well, unless you enjoy the idea of the government existing to serve a tiny clique of billionaires. Since then the campaign-finance rules have grown into an unintelligible monstrosity, with a loophole for every purpose. Change is obviously required, but deciding what to change to, and getting those changes through a system grounded in the status quo, is not going to be easy. Steve

To: greenspirit who wrote (25012)	9/28/1998 12:20:00 AM
From: Grainne	Respond to of 108807

Michael, even if you have term limits legislated into being, there will just be games played with them. The reason we San Franciscans have Slick Willie Brown (yes, there is more than one Slick Willie!)as our mayor is that he could not run again for the State Legislature, for example. People will find out ways to manipulate the rules, and will just exchange one political office for another, in a different branch or jurisdiction. While it is easy to be cynical and say everyone is just in politics for the money, I think there are lots of politicians who are fairly idealistic and want to serve their cities, states and country. A lot of them are really experienced, as well. I'm not sure whether there would be a good result, over all, by bringing in a bunch of greenhorns time after time. Wisdom is something that is necessary in government. Incidentally, are you saying that just the Democrats are corrupt in Washington, DC? I think it is pretty bipartisan, really.