Americans: Bernie Sanders or Hilary Clinton

[Pyrrho]

. . . streamline the bureaucracy . . .





thanx Pyrrho

It would streamline the bureaucracy because one administration would take over for the two separate programs mentioned, and because it is far easier to determine eligibility if one only requires that the person be an adult citizen than if one also has disability requirements added on, or income requirements, or any other requirements.  It would be simpler and therefore easier to run.  Not to mention that being simpler, it would be harder for someone to cheat the system.

In fact, though, it would take over more than just the two programs previously mentioned.  It would also replace unemployment benefits.  It would be much easier to deal with than the current system, and it would be better for everyone who is not rich.

[vorlon13]

Fiorina announced she would not replace any of the anticipated 250,000 baby boomers retiring in the next few years.

I'd say that implies a federal hiring freeze, but curiously, she NEVER said that.

And even jettisoning 250,000 over a few years would not 'streamline' anything about our government. Announcing a federal hiring freeze FIRST (Carly!, pay attention) and then laying off 50,000 employees per month might start clearing the federal constipation after a couple of years.

However, a big road block will immediately arise. The higher ups will INSTANTLY realize when ordered to start laying off grunts that the best and brightest and most efficient ones will need to be the first to hit the street because . . .

I'll let everyone weigh in on why that would be the case. It really is SUPER obvious, but I bet there will be considerable difficulty for certain mindsets to see it.

[Iroscato]

Not an American, but I HUGELY prefer Sanders over Clinton from what I've seen so far. Even if he doesn't ultimately win the election, it's a sure sign a lot of people are quite pissed at the current status quo. And it's not outside the realm of possibility that he won't win just yet.

[houseofcantor]

I can't help but thing a vote for the Bern is a vote for a four-year government shutdown. And while Liz Warren is my favorite politico, I don't trust a single one of 'em. Also think that if it gets where the old timers think the kids have a shot of putting the Bern into office, they'll show up in record numbers in a group mind knee-jerk. I don't think anybody serious takes the Bern serious. But I'd vote for him. Fuck Hillary in the neck with a rusted spoon; she's kinda scary.

I will vote or Sanders, if he makes it to the finals, for no other reason but to listen to the Wingers in this country go completely bat shit crazy.  Other than that though, I will probably be far away on election day and not bother.  Anyone who thinks that this country can be saved by an election is, in my humble opinion, living a fantasy.  At some point a system is too badly broken to be fixed.  Progress will only come when that system is replaced by something new.  Any election that does nothing but put Democrats and Republicans in the White House, the Senate, and the House, will just be more of the same old system.

Light me up a revolution.  Put millions of Americans in the streets calling for resignations, trials, imprisonments, and wide spread removal of the elite in power.  Have them rampage through the SC building, haul the Justices who voted for Citizen United before a tribunal and have them tried for treason.  Actually Occupy Wall Street this time, haul that bronze bull out and throw it in the Bay, shut down the Market until the Big Banks are busted up, and have the CEOs doing perp-walks while Faux news goes dark because the FCC pulled their operating ticket in fear of the protesters paralyzing DC and chasing winger governors out of State Houses across the nation.  Write and approve a new Constitution.  The old one gave us the nation we see now, steeped in elitism, crony capitalism, war mongering, violence, racism, and misogyny.

Start any of that and I might think something is finally happening.  Otherwise it will just be the US fading into the dustbin of history.  The only real question is what comes next, and how it arrives.  But it will not arrive on the back of a sham election put on by a sham democracy, were the voters are a people buried in propaganda and unable to tell fact from fiction.

I kinda got a chub right there.  

[Iroscato]

I'm rather inclined to agree. The elite have grown far, far too comfortable in their ivory towers. It's not a terrible idea to remind them that they are vastly outnumbered now and again, if not a full-blown RARGH KILL THE RICH EAT THE RICH BECOME THE RICH.

[houseofcantor]

I was inspired to make a thingy...

[Minimalist]

Perhaps, the rich-poor divide is the default position and trying to cling to the model of how we think things should be versus how they actually work may blind us to other possible, perhaps even more effective, social orders.

Yeah.....heaven forbid that injustice be resisted, eh?

[tjakey]

I believe that this system has been rigged for the elite and, as a result, is too badly broken and too corrupt to be salvaged. Whenever a political / national system collapses and eventually gets replaced by a, hopefully but not necessarily better, system, that is usually referred to as a revolution.

The US the system of government was deliberately designed to limit democracy in order to prevent a tyranny of the 51%. An good idea that was poorly implemented. The US senate is fundamentally undemocratic, as is a gerrymandered Congress. The Supreme Court where the justices rule for life is, at least so far as a democratic institution goes, a complete fuck-up. The President of the US is not elected by “the people” but by the electoral collage. All in all the the claim of “one person, one vote” is a complete illusion found nowhere in the Constitution that we all claim to love some much. (Well, some of us anyway.)

“States rights” are, inevitably, used as cover for the elite to abuse the population over and above that allowed by the federal Constitution. In my lifetime “States Rights” have been a cover for Jim Crow laws, allow assaults on women's rights, provide loop holes though which corporations can poor poisons into communities and, today, to allow Christians to discriminate against LGBT citizens.

Elections are not going to get it done. Armed revolutions are deadly, leading to years of war and deprivation followed by, if one is lucky, a slow rebuild into something better. Successful peaceful revolutions are likely another illusion. Without at least the credible threat of violence, why would those in power pay any attention? (Before anyone points to MLK, it doesn't seem to me the civil rights movement would have gone far without the implied and, sometimes, implicit violence of groups like the Blank Panthers.) If someone comes up with a way that replaces this corrupt system without a shot being fired, I am all for it.

That being said, having the country fade into history rather than convulse into something new is probably the best bet for most of us. With a certain amount of doing people can still carve out a pretty good life, take care of the ones they love, know a certain amount of joy, share in the laughter of kids and grand kids, and practice a bit of personal freedom and responsibility. As I move into the late fall and early winter of my own sojourn, my wife and I have carved out such a life. If I am completely honest, if there is to be a revolution, and as much as I think that could be a good thing and is quite possibly and inevitable thing, I hope it holds off for a few more decades.

But if it doesn't, if my grand kids decide that enough is enough and take to the streets, I will understand. In fact, I would hope to take up my (by then needed) walker, and join them.