[Peace-discuss] my comment to WILL/IPR Fwd: Chat with Illinois Public Media's Kimberlie Kranich today over lunch and tell her what information you want from us so you can be an informed voter. Today at noon online

[Karen Medina]

Mencken seems to be correct. However, I believe that most (if not all)
people think they are being the best people they can be under the
circumstances.

On Sat, May 26, 2012 at 7:53 PM, E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigsqq.org> wrote:
> /Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical;
> especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of
> crazes;
> the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed
> (and hence clamorous to be led to safety)
> by an endless series of hobgoblins,
> most of them imaginary.
> —/H.L. Mencken
>
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> On 5/26/2012 1:17 AM, Rohn Koester wrote:
>>
>> Karen, thanks for passing this along.
>>
>> An interesting question behind the "voter" question is whether voting
>> is an essential characteristic of a democracy. Arguably, any elected
>> position could be made more representationally effective if it was
>> assigned by chance than by vote, somewhat in the way that juries are
>> empaneled sort of by chance. (And the extent to which juries aren't
>> randomly selected is one source of injustice -- all white juries that
>> rule disproportionately against black defendants, for instance.)
>>
>> Imagine a Congress that was randomly selected to represent the major
>> demographical groupings of the U.S. at any given time -- no more
>> elections, just almost-random appointments. As with the present
>> congress, aids would be available to explain procedure, to provide
>> research, to communicate, and so on. I'll bet the general public would
>> be much more interested in watching that version of Congress arrive at
>> decisions than our present version.
>>
>> In my opinion, the best way to try this out is to promote a reality
>> television show that enacts the idea -- 535 randomly selected cast
>> members to play the roles of Senators and House Reps, at least a few
>> of whom are guaranteed to come from someplace near you. The Reality
>> Congress would then compete, week by week, with the elected Congress
>> for market share. With enough ratings wins, the Reality Congress could
>> make the argument that it deserves the better location and time slot,
>> eventually swapping places with the U.S. Congress, which is sent to
>> some remote island and then canceled for lack of interest.
>>
>> I want to juxtapose the debates Congress has and the actions promoted
>> by the President with the debates the general public wishes to have
>> and the actions it wishes to promote -- to end the wars, to prosecute
>> international banking fraud, to reform the prison industrial complex,
>> to revise the tax code, etc.
>>
>> Rohn
>>
>> On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 11:39 AM, Karen Medina<kmedina67 at gmail.com>
>>  wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> The most important office of government is citizen." (often attributed
>>> to Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis who lived
>>> 1856-1941.)
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>
>



-- 
-- karen medina
"The really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain