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Okay, so I think we all pretty much realize that the United states government is nowhere near Pure or perfect. the ideas behind how it is supposed to work are pretty good, but are they really upheld? how much power do we, the people, really have in the longrun?

for example: our elections are run through votes, but after votes are tallied, it is the electoral college who decides who is elected president, not the votes. the votes are used to tell the electoral reps what their states want. they are still free to vote otherwise.

basically, here I would like to intelliegently discuss the obvious corruption of our government.

yes, that is another point of corruption. there is alot of corruption throughout the system, in my opinion.

so let me make another point. this time about the bush elections.

george w. bush election #1:
the election went along like usual. til at last it got to the end. bush was losing, when suddenly, Florida had a "problem" with their voting systems. afterwards, bush ends up winning. tell me, who was the governor of florida then? could it be.... *gasp* ... Jeb bush, George's brother? Why yes, I believe it was......... something is a little fishy here.

george w. bush election #2:
George's approval ratings are unbelieveably low (well, not so unbelievable to me....). yet somehow he ends up winning.

therefore, with him out of the race this time around, I'm hoping that we get a semi-fair election this time around (because a totally fair one is out of the question).

The Electorial College really is bull, and I believe it takes away from our rights. We MUST be registered to vote eventually...but only so that they can call on us if there ever is a draft. The voting part is pretty much only a perk, but they still take that with the College.
I know there is MUCH more corruption elsewhere, and I had many ideas on this topic, but I just forgot them all while typing that first one. sweatdrop

then there should be a separate body of people to specifically do extensive background checks on anyone running for public office (of any kind.. president, congress, governor, mayor, etc). perhaps an anonymous branch of the FBI or CIA.

imo, the *fairest* way to vote is the popular vote. as far as I'm concerned, majority should rule. if 6 billion people vote, the winner should be who the majority of those voters voted for. and to fix the issue with the voting boxes, I think a possible good idea would be to send a mass mailing to all registered voters. let people vote from the privacy of their own homes. 1 ballot per person. I'm sure it's got flaws, but perhaps they could do something could make it work.

yeah, I know there are flaws.. but there's gotta be a better way. obviously the voting boxes can be tampered with as well, and the more digital they get, the more they could be tampered with. I would never suggest emailed ballots, too open for false ballots.

what if, they set up a website to download a ballot from. lets say they issued a unique PIN to every registered voter (that can only be done thru govt offices like the post office, SS office, etc), and that PIN was used along with other personal verification questions, to download a ballot complete with your name on it and ONLY your name on it. and only 1 ballot downloadable per registered voter. lets say that upon registering and obtaining your PIN you designate 1 email address that you are expected to submit your ballot from.. so that if you try to submit your ballot from another email it wont be accepted (to prevent fraud), with the option to snail mail the ballot if your email somehow gets messed up (lets say you lose your internet service provider for example.. some kind of unexpected internet issue).. then you can snail mail it but must sign your name (your signature would be on file from obtaining your registration and PIN). ?

not like these forums are going to change anything lol it's still an interesting thought.

true, but I feel as long as we keep preaching 'democracy! democracy!' we should try to live up to that image -most especially our politicians. sure we have more freedoms than most but that's not really what this thread is about. it's about the corruption of our gov't which takes away from our democratic rights. imo, especially the electoral vote because regardless what they say, it usually does not represent the will of the majority, which is what democracy is supposed to be about.

America is living proof that too much freedom can bring about horrendeous changes, and that ANY form of government can go bad. Monarchies, where te king and queen hold all say, can either be a great form of government if those in power have a good head on thier shoulders and focus on protecting the lives and well-being of thier people, or it can be very bad if those in power are greedy SOBs. Communism was a good idea, but considering everyone got an equal share of things regardless of weather they worked or not, it's an incentive to lazy bums and can be chaotic. Democracy. once for the people, by the people has become for the rich off of the broken backs of the middle class, where money is the one true god of life. And think about this. America is the only country in the world where you have to pay for college, and it costs enough that you could buy a new car per year of college schooling. And on top of that, I think America's become too soft. When you get sent to jail for slapping your son's hand to teach him not to steal, or when you get sued by a burglar who fell through your roof while trying to break in and the burglar wins, or when the boarder patrol gets arrested for doing thier jobs because they didn't fill out some paperwork before trying to stop an illegal immagrant drug smugglar and the courts back the drug smugglar, what does that say? And when people can sue others for even the stupidest of things. yeah, America has gone down the s**t hole. And we always look at the other countries and try and bring democracy to them, when what we need is to focus on straightening out our own act.