What is Wrong With the United State?

[Iznogoud]

This is a fairly broad topic given all of the problems that have manifested in the so-called "World's Greatest Democracy," so I will start off with just one; the failure of the American political system to work the way it is supposed to.  There is a lot of history behind this, but let us once again limit the topic to how the present system works or doesn't work.

First of all, American politics is fouled by money at all levels to an extent unknown in any other democracy.  Political candidates are funded so heavily that the political process is completely distorted.  There are laws limiting political donations, but those with the money found a way around such restrictions long ago, essentially creating a situation in which it is very difficult for someone without this funding to mount a successful election campaign.  This creates a situation in which successful candidates are beholden to those who fund them most heavily; ignoring the desires of ordinary voters.

Second, deliberate efforts have been made at all levels to disenfranchise voters resulting in elections where numerous citizens are robbed of their right to vote.  This situation has been made even worse by gerrymandering which results in election results that do not actually reflect the actual number of votes.  As a result many elections result in a party electing far more or far fewer candidates than they deserve. 

Third, the outmoded Electoral College does not work the way it was intended.  The United States is the only democratic nation in which in a one-on-one race the candidate getting the most votes does not always win.  This has occurred twice in the last sixteen years resulting in the election of one of the worst presidents in US history in 2000 and probably the most inept in 2016. 

Fourth, due to the difficulty in creating a viable third party in the US voters are pretty much restricted to voting Republican or Democrat.  This has resulted in the two parties becoming more a more alike in order to appeal to the broadest spectrum of voters.  This also results in both parties being right of centre by the standards of the rest of the world.  As an example the leftist Barack Obama was actually not much different in his political outlook than Conservative leader Stephen Harper. 

Fifth, the political situation at the federal level has pretty much resulted in political deadlock.  Even when one party controls the presidency, the House, and the Senate amazingly little actually gets done.  Part of the reason for this is once again the influence of money.  Members of congress have learned that the longer they delay legislation intended to please any party the more likely the highly sought after political donations will come in.  Still another reason is the complicated nature of the congressional system.  The numerous checks and balances intended to ensure that American democracy is preserved slow the the process of legislation to a crawl.  Legislation can be slowed or completely blocked by the House, the Senate, or the President.  As a result tedious and time-consuming negotiations take place in order for any legislation to be passed into law.  It sounds very democratic, but it frequently results in political paralysis. 

More to come later - and yes, I know that some of these problems exist in Canada and other nations, but try to stay on topic. 

[bush_cheney2004]

1 hour ago, Iznogoud said:

This is a fairly broad topic given all of the problems that have manifested in the so-called "World's Greatest Democracy," so I will start off with just one; the failure of the American political system to work the way it is supposed to.  There is a lot of history behind this, but let us once again limit the topic to how the present system works or doesn't work.

 

America's founders purposely designed a constitutional form of government that makes it very difficult to pass new legislation without approval by both the Congressional and Executive branches of government.    It is not a bug...it is a feature....90% of bills never become law.

 

 

 

[Boges]

2 hours ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

 

America's founders purposely designed a constitutional form of government that makes it very difficult to pass new legislation without approval by both the Congressional and Executive branches of government.    It is not a bug...it is a feature....90% of bills never become law.

 

 

 

Fair enough but now the Senate is working as a puppet of the President.

Where the leader won't even allow a bill to be voted on for fear of it being vetoed. Or even worse they'd get a share of votes that over-rides the President's Veto. 

A bill that passed the Senate 100-0 was set aside because the President threatened a Veto, how's that treating the 3 branches as equal? 

Edited January 9, 2019 by Boges

[Boges]

What's a concern about this administration and American politics in general. Is that they're so polarized now that drastic measures like Government Shutdowns and Declarations of Emergency are being thought of as tools to pass run-of-the-mill legislation. 

It would be like if a Canadian PM threatened to use the War Measures Act every time it had trouble passing legislation. 

Edited January 9, 2019 by Boges

[Charles Anthony]

You did not have to re-quote the entire previous post with a graphic in your reply.  Please avoid that from now onwards. 

[bush_cheney2004]

45 minutes ago, Boges said:

Fair enough but now the Senate is working as a puppet of the President.

Where the leader won't even allow a bill to be voted on for fear of it being vetoed. Or even worse they'd get a share of votes that over-rides the President's Veto. 

A bill that passed the Senate 100-0 was set aside because the President threatened a Veto, how's that treating the 3 branches as equal? 

 

Then obviously they don't have the votes to override....again, working as designed...long before Trump.

[bush_cheney2004]

44 minutes ago, Boges said:

What's a concern about this administration and American politics in general. Is that they're so polarized now that drastic measures like Government Shutdowns and Declarations of Emergency are being thought of as tools to pass run-of-the-mill legislation.

 

Hardly the first government shutdown in U.S. history, and this one is only a partial as many other appropriations are completed.    Previously, Democrats shut down the government to cater to illegals...didn't go over very well then either.

 

Quote

It would be like if a Canadian PM threatened to use the War Measures Act every time it had trouble passing legislation. 

 

Nothing like that...U.S. prez already has constitutional authority to act.   A Canadian PM with a ruling majority has far more unchecked power than a U.S. president.

[Boges]

5 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

Then obviously they don't have the votes to override....again, working as designed...long before Trump.

That'll change when the true effects of the Shutdown are felt. 

[DogOnPorch]

Just now, bush_cheney2004 said:

 

Hardly the first government shutdown in U.S. history, and this one is only a partial as many other appropriations are completed.    Previously, Democrats shut down the government to cater to illegals...didn't go over very well then either.

 

 

Nothing like that...U.S. prez already has constitutional authority to act.   A Canadian PM with a ruling majority has far more unchecked power than a U.S. president.

 

It should be pointed-out that a certain Canadian Prime Minister DID use the War Measures Act to deal with what were essentially a homicide and kidnappings. Many rounded-up...

[bush_cheney2004]

1 minute ago, Boges said:

That'll change when the true effects of the Shutdown are felt. 

 

I doubt it....shutdowns have been mitigated more recently by passing critical and non-discretionary funding as a matter of course.   So there is less pain this time around.

[DogOnPorch]

Just now, bush_cheney2004 said:

 

I doubt it....shutdowns have been mitigated more recently by passing critical and non-discretionary funding as a matter of course.   So there is less pain this time around.

 

Yes...I see some folks are getting emergency funding.

[Shady]

4 hours ago, Boges said:

Fair enough but now the Senate is working as a puppet of the President.

Where the leader won't even allow a bill to be voted on for fear of it being vetoed. Or even worse they'd get a share of votes that over-rides the President's Veto. 

A bill that passed the Senate 100-0 was set aside because the President threatened a Veto, how's that treating the 3 branches as equal? 

No the Senate isn't working as a so-called puppet.  Which bill are you referring to?

[Iznogoud]

11 hours ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

 

America's founders purposely designed a constitutional form of government that makes it very difficult to pass new legislation without approval by both the Congressional and Executive branches of government.    It is not a bug...it is a feature....90% of bills never become law.

 

 

 

I am afraid I must disagree.  The founding fathers never intended for it to be almost impossible to pass meaningful legislation, which is what the current situation amounts to.  The US desperately needs strong legislative action in a number of areas, many of which I will address later, but currently nothing is being done.

[bush_cheney2004]

5 minutes ago, Iznogoud said:

I am afraid I must disagree.  The founding fathers never intended for it to be almost impossible to pass meaningful legislation, which is what the current situation amounts to.  The US desperately needs strong legislative action in a number of areas, many of which I will address later, but currently nothing is being done.

 

No, today's headlines do not mean that hundreds of years of federal government process and checks need to be scrapped.

Sometimes doing nothing is quite purposeful and intended.

[Zeitgeist]

Love those Schoolhouse Rock songs.  They should bring them back. Brings back childhood. 

[Iznogoud]

8 hours ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

 

No, today's headlines do not mean that hundreds of years of federal government process and checks need to be scrapped.

Sometimes doing nothing is quite purposeful and intended.

I am not quoting today's headlines.  The lack of action by the US government has long been recognized as a problem. 

Historic dysfunction in American politics defines Trump presidency

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/369820-historic-dysfunction-in-american-politics-defines-trump-presidency

[bush_cheney2004]

Just now, Iznogoud said:

I am not quoting today's headlines.  The lack of action by the US government has long been recognized as a problem. 

 

 

It's not a Trump thing...he actually changed the political status quo by defeating 16 GOP pretenders and Hillary Clinton.

Previous "functional" actions by the U.S. government actually led to a civil war that killed more than 600,000 Americans.

[Iznogoud]

Did you read all of the article?  Very little of it is about Trump and a great deal of it is about why the US government gets so little done.  And the Civil War was hardly about government.  Perhaps you should read up on a little cultural practice called slavery. 

[bush_cheney2004]

7 minutes ago, Iznogoud said:

Did you read all of the article?  Very little of it is about Trump and a great deal of it is about why the US government gets so little done.  And the Civil War was hardly about government.  Perhaps you should read up on a little cultural practice called slavery. 

 

The Civil War was very much about government...slavery was just one of the agenda items.

Trump is the antithesis of what has come before, so which "dysfunction" do the Washington critics prefer ?

The U.S. government actually gets a lot done....all that money is going somewhere.

 

[Rue]

As stated below the US political system has a checks and balances system It means neither the Senate, House of Representatives of President on their own, can control the country.It was a deliberate design to safeguard against dictatorship and tyranny and if anything the fact that the Democrats can stand up and challenge Trump proves there is nothing wrong with the US system and it does what it was designed to do.

That said, I think the question is too general. The question would probably be better posed by asking what is wrong with Donald Trump?

Well the easiest explanation for that is that he exhibits:

1-first and second stage Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia as evidenced by his fractured sentences (asphasia), drifting, studdering in the middle of sentences (asphasia), being constantly confused in public as to where he is going, what he is doing, or who he is with, dry mouth-thick tongue, repetitive nose sniffing and nasal congestion (often part of dementia in early stages), hand tremors, bulging eyes (suggesting neurological and physiological issues);

2-narcissistic and anti social personality disorders;

3-untreated urinary infections, high blood pressure, depressive illness leading to aggravation if his dementia;

4-hides the fact he has dyslexia and can not read but it has come out with his inability to read a teleprompter or using blank paper as props for bills.

This President has serious neurological as well as psychiatric issues, i.e., untreated depression.

That said many people do in their late 60's and early 70's but they are not President of the US.

Ronald Reagan as it now turns out was deaf and had dementia from Alzheimer's throughout his entire tenure but his wife whispered what he needed to do in his ear.

FDR had polio and cancer.

Eisenhower had numerous heart attacks.

Teddy Roosevelt had adhd and dyslexia.

Harry  Truman had an anxiety disorder.

Look people have disabilities. In the case of Trump though when you look at interviews of this man in the 80's compared to now you can see the difference.

I personally believe he is such a loose cannon that he has a tight circle covering up his medical issues which in turn makes it difficult to deal with his behaviour and properly treat his issues.

So what you see is someone who lives in a bubble. Anyone that disagrees with him is wrong. Period. In his narcissistic world there is no distiction beween "me" and "you". He can not perceive of a world where someone could not  be of the same opinion as him and therefore any different opinion other than his, is a personal insult.

He also engages in obsessive compulsive behaviour. He needs to wear his sleeves on his suits too long to hide what he believes are small hands (penis anxiety) which he brought attention to. The need for his tie to hang low on his crotch and most often be fire red is another sign of this penis anxiety.

The hair cut is a classic display of aging denial. So is the peroxide in the hair and fake sun tan makeup.

His need to constantly call women fat and men ugly also shows his own penis anxiety.

We are dealing with someone who grew up with distant remote parents who showed no love or affection and would only communicate in rigid, stunted, bursts of criticism and so that is all he knows-harsh, fragmented speech which is critical of everything and anything.

He can't change, he won't change. What he does not have due to his learned behaviour at home and then in the world is empathy. In his world, you have a tantrum and give ultimatums to get what you want. You don't discuss and achieve consensus, you demand. You scream and bang the desk. It is a world where you are born into amounts of  money that define any values or possibilities.

So now the question is why would Americans buy into this man?

Americans had a President (Obama) they found to feminine and apologist. American culture and history is about military chauvenism, jingoism, pride,. stereotype masculine personifications in any actor, sports hero or politician. This is why Americans love football and their military.

Trump was a backlash to eight years  of a man who  bowed to a foreign King (in Saudi Arabia) nit not a Queen (Liz),  formed alliances and brought into the White House well known Muslim extremists, constantly made speeches apologizing for the US and had a more masculine and larger bodied wife than him making him seem weak and swishy.

America is still very much a nation that wants its John Wayne. Trump engaged in John Wayneisms and still does. He tries to sound brash, tough, brutish, manifestations seen as personifying strength, pride and decisiveness all things that thought Obama lacked.

Trump was a direct reaction to Obama and what was seen as the castrating woman "Hilary Clinton". It was not so much her corruption that turned people off of her, it was her attempt to come across as manly as Margaret Thatcher.

In the Western world if you want to be a leader, like Merkel, Thatcher, or even Theresa May, you have to be clean and not have a husband who slept around on you and like you engaged in corruption. If you go to a country like Israel, Golda Maer was able to lead that nation precisely because Israel is a matriarchal society where grandmothers run the home.

Ghandi in India was in a Hindu nation which has a complex and far different understanding of feminine energy and strength.

The US like all Western nations struggles with its collective identity which is in the middle of a revolution as to how we define gender roles and identity and Trump was a backlash to that confusion and a call to get back to more clearer differentation in the roles.

In Canada we have the most feminine Prime Minister since Pierre Trudeau and we have had some very feminine Prime Ministers, McKenzie King, Lester B. Pearson, Pierre Trudeau , Stephen Harper (who looked like a Lesbian or older Justin Bieber) , Paul Martin, now Justin, but we also have had stereotype males such as the vomit projectile drunk John A. MacDonald, barritone lounge lizard Brian Mulroney, lumberjack car dealer Jean Chretiens, swashbluckler dreamy blue eyed John Turner (actually aMama's boy) and who could forget our one female Prime Minister who made Ellen DeGeneres look soft.

Politics and who are elected reflect how people feel about their own identities, i.e., how powerless or powerful they feel. When people feel secure they vote for feminine types. When they feel  insecure they vote for masculine types. This could be quite simply explained by primal instinct which we see in all simeons (apes) not just homo sapiens.

 

 

 

 

On 1/9/2019 at 6:45 AM, bush_cheney2004 said:

 

America's founders purposely designed a constitutional form of government that makes it very difficult to pass new legislation without approval by both the Congressional and Executive branches of government.    It is not a bug...it is a feature....90% of bills never become law.

[Boges]

21 hours ago, Truth Detector said:

No the Senate isn't working as a so-called puppet.  Which bill are you referring to?

The spending Bill that was passed before Ann Coulter said mean things about Trump. It passed 100-0 and now Mitch McConnell won't allow any of the Bills the House passing to hit the floor of the Senate. 

Ultimately this whole thing should reach a head when a full paycheque is missed by Federal workers this Friday. Either Trump is going to be forced to fold or he'll Declare a fake state of emergency that'll immediately move the debate to the courts. 

[Hal 9000]

I don't understand how it's not a state of emergency.

 

[Boges]

2 minutes ago, Hal 9000 said:

I don't understand how it's not a state of emergency.

Because it's not. 

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/1697D/production/_105114529_border-nc.png

 

[Boges]

It's funny because if the funding was made available tomorrow to build a wall, we'd still have to wait years because all the Eminent domain claims would have to be made. 

All that land would have to be seized and then the construction can begin. 

So if people are streaming across the border, which they aren't, they still would be able to unimpeded for months if not years. 

AND if it was such an emergency, Trump could have dealt with it at any point in the previous two years when Republicans control both houses. If it was that dire a need he could have demanded it get tacked on the Tax Cut he passed and held Republicans hostage on that legislation they needed passed to secure donors. 

Trump doesn't want a Wall, he wants a fight about a wall. Declaring an Emergency just means the government can re-open and the fight goes from congress to the courts.  

Edited January 10, 2019 by Boges

[Hal 9000]

The Dems sure seemed to liken it to a crisis when families were getting "torn apart" and children were getting "caged" at the border.  But, you don't think 100's of thousands of people crashing the border is an emergency?  You don't think people and kids dying in the desert is a crisis, women getting abducted and raped by coyotes?  You don't think there is a financial crisis when that many people have to be sheltered and paid for by taxpayers?  I wont mention drugs or criminals, for obvious reasons.  

Now, I would understand the democrats position somewhat if it wasn't for the fact that they've all agree in the past that a border barrier is essential.  But to go from voting on a wall under Obama to "it's a non-starter" under Trump should indicate to anyone with an IQ over 70, that this is nothing but political games.