Let's Write A New Amendment Together To Drain The Swamp! Post Your Great Ideas Here.

[PoliTalker]

I wish we could fix the debate problem.

Viable voices are shut out of the debates, shut out of consideration. The two-party duopoly prevents a viable independent voice.

I think debates should be conducted by a nonpartisan nonprofit public entity. Maybe PBS.

[Cypress]

Hello Cypress,



Maybe that could work, but the mechanics of it are unclear. Who would qualify? How would they qualify?

We obviously need experts to sort it out, not arm chair pseudo-experts on an obscure message board.

I would always suggest looking to where it has already been implementing and is reasonalbly successful We could copy what Norway has done for example, or at least consider elements of the Scandinavian model.

[Joe Capitalist]

Hello DonaldvoTrumpovich,

(from another thread)

Term limits!

I have thought about that. I was once a great proponent of term limits. Lately I am not so sure. The problem with no term limits is people who get in there and lose touch with society. They get good at making laws, but do they really know what laws to make? They use the power of incumbency + big money to get re-elected over and over. I like that they get better with experience at legislating, experience is good, but what are they using that experience for? Is that good? If we could really get the big money out of government, maybe we don't want term limits.

I don't know about that one.

I keep waffling.

Take a look at this:

Today the average American is 20 years younger than their representative in Congress. This should come as no surprise, considering that over the past 30 years the average age of a Member of Congress has increased with almost every new Congress. In 1981, the average age of a Representative was 49 and the average of a Senator was 53. Today, the average age of a Representative is 57 and the average of a Senator is 61. This prompted us to take a further look at those graying averages.

Go beyond the age of Congress: learn how bipartisanship has decreased by 30% since 1989.

Democratic leaders in the House are two decades older than Republican leaders.

The average age of the Democratic House leadership is 72 years old, whereas the average age of Republican House leadership is 48 years old. This trend continues in House committee leadership with Republican chairmen averaging 59 years old and ranking Democrats averaging 68 years old.

More than half of the Senators up for reelection in 2018 will be over the age of 65.

18 of the 33 Senators running for reelection in 2018 will be 65 or older. If they win, another six years in office would put Senators Feinstein, Hatch, Nelson, and Sanders well into their 80s. Looking ahead at the 2020 elections, 21 of the 33 Senators running for reelection will be 65 or older. The current chamber is already one of the oldest Senates by some measures according to the Washington Post, and the data suggests this trend would continue in the coming years.

You have to wonder why the age of members of Congress is getting older. I can only surmise that it's because they have such a great gig, they don't want to leave. Along with Term Limits, I would like to see a proposal that they are forced to retire once they turn 75. Commercial Airline pilots are forced to retire once they turn 65 because of the loss of cognitive abilities as one ages. Shouldn't that apply to the people that write our laws and manage our government?

[PoliTalker]

We obviously need experts to sort it out, not arm chair pseudo-experts on an obscure message board.

Oh, but if you listen to some of our posters, they think they know everything, can offer a simple solution to every problem. This thread kind of calls that bluff.

I would always suggest looking to where it has already been implementing and is reasonalbly successful We could copy what Norway has done for example, or at least consider elements of the Scandinavian model.

I have no idea what they are doing. How is campaign finance handled over there?

[PoliTalker]

Hello DonaldvoTrumpovich,

Take a look at this:

Today the average American is 20 years younger than their representative in Congress. This should come as no surprise, considering that over the past 30 years the average age of a Member of Congress has increased with almost every new Congress. In 1981, the average age of a Representative was 49 and the average of a Senator was 53. Today, the average age of a Representative is 57 and the average of a Senator is 61. This prompted us to take a further look at those graying averages.

Go beyond the age of Congress: learn how bipartisanship has decreased by 30% since 1989.

Democratic leaders in the House are two decades older than Republican leaders.

The average age of the Democratic House leadership is 72 years old, whereas the average age of Republican House leadership is 48 years old. This trend continues in House committee leadership with Republican chairmen averaging 59 years old and ranking Democrats averaging 68 years old.

More than half of the Senators up for reelection in 2018 will be over the age of 65.

18 of the 33 Senators running for reelection in 2018 will be 65 or older. If they win, another six years in office would put Senators Feinstein, Hatch, Nelson, and Sanders well into their 80s. Looking ahead at the 2020 elections, 21 of the 33 Senators running for reelection will be 65 or older. The current chamber is already one of the oldest Senates by some measures according to the Washington Post, and the data suggests this trend would continue in the coming years.

You have to wonder why the age of members of Congress is getting older. I can only surmise that it's because they have such a great gig, they don't want to leave.

That is a small part of it. They generally get re-elected because their seats are in gerrymandered districts and they face so little opposition.

Along with Term Limits, I would like to see a proposal that they are forced to retire once they turn 75. Commercial Airline pilots are forced to retire once they turn 65 because of the loss of cognitive abilities as one ages. Shouldn't that apply to the people that write our laws and manage our government?

That sounds like some cherry-picked right-slanted stuff there. And it was apparently from prior to the 2018 election in which the faces of Congress changed radically for younger and more female replacements. Is AOC even 30 years old? (besides being a total hottie)

With age comes wisdom. The job requirements for airline pilot and legislator are quite different. No way I would support an age limit for Congress.

[Joe Capitalist]

Hello DonaldvoTrumpovich,



That is a small part of it. They generally get re-elected because their seats are in gerrymandered districts and they face so little opposition.



That sounds like some cherry-picked right-slanted stuff there. And it was apparently from prior to the 2018 election in which the faces of Congress changed radically for younger and more female replacements. Is AOC even 30 years old? (besides being a total hottie)

With age comes wisdom. The job requirements for airline pilot and legislator are quite different. No way I would support an age limit for Congress.

With age comes wisdom? Does that mean if you needed brain surgery, you'd want a doctor that's about 99 years old?

Of course I'm joking but there's no denying that cognitive ability does decline with age. In fact, 50% of people in their 80s have some form of dementia. Now I wonder how many members of Congress are in their 80s?

Also, the gerrymandered districts only applies to House members. Not Senators.

[ThatOwlWoman]

Money buying politicians is a huge problem.

1. Get rid of Citizens United. Limit campaign contributions to no more than $100 per person per candidate. Corporations are ppl too, my friend, and so are unions, PACs, etc. Better yet, establish a very limited fund that national candidates can draw from. Say $500G per election. Establish a finite limit on what a campaign can spend as well. If a broadcast TV station allows a candidate to purchase air time for a commercial, that station must give equal time to opposing candidates -- gratis. If a TV station gives an interview to one candidate, they have to give all opposing candidates equal time.

2. Have "public housing" in DC for our elected national reps and senators. That's where they stay while serving us. No more multi-million dollar homes/condos. You're there to serve, not flaunt your wealth.

3. Accepting money from lobbyists or others becomes a felony. You are arrested, tried, imprisoned, and lose any perks (such as salary or pension or insurance) garnered during your term.

4. Term limits. Three terms for reps., two for senators.

Just a start.

[domer76]

Hello and greetings,

Since we have so many great minds here, able to solve the problems of the world and all, what say we put our noggins together and come up with the wording for a new Amendment to drain the swamp of big money corruption in Washington DC?

We know that Citizens United greatly expanded the amount of big money being thrown at our government by the rich to buy influence.

A lot of that money has had the desired result.

The rich are getting a lot richer, taking almost all the wealth generated by amazing gains in productivity in recent decades, as workers are getting shoved out of good well-paying jobs and downgraded to lower paying work with fewer or no benefits. Working doesn't pay as much as investing big money, and it's taxed at a higher rate. The rich get richer, the rest find it increasingly difficult to make ends meet.

Where's the shared prosperity?

Clearly, our government is not doing a very good job of Promoting The General Welfare.

What can we do?

Well, if enough of us want to, we can amend the Constitution to make that illegal.

PoliTalker anti-troll thread thief disclaimer: If this thread is stolen, plagiarized, will the thief have the nerve to use the entire OP, word for word? Including this disclaimer? If you want my take on it, you'll have to post to this original PoliTalker thread. I refuse to be an enabler for online bullies, so I won't post to a stolen thread. I won't even read it. If you don't see me, PoliTalker, posting in this thread check the author. This might be a hijacked thread, not the original.

Let's see if we can write as few words as possible, make it succinct, that will accomplish the desired goal but be simple enough that enough Americans will agree it should be part of our Constitution.

We figure we know everything about our country, right? So this should be a piece of cake for us know-it-alls.

Here we sit, wasting time, and we could be putting our minds together and doing something for our nation. We have the perfect tool with this chat room. All we have to do is put our minds together.

OK? OK. Good. Let's get started.

First we need to jot down just what it is we are trying to accomplish. So we need to brainstorm about what this document should do.

Then, after we work that out, we can boil it down to the actual wording.

Then we send it out to the world, hope it goes viral, force our government(s) to ratify it, and we drain the swamp.

Long shot, I know, but you don't know what you can do until you try. One thing is for sure. It won't happen if we don't try.

This is not intended to be an arguing thread. It's a brainstorming thread. So how about drop your guard, accept that each participant really wants a better America, and let's just talk this out, OK?

Good. Alright. Let's work together:

A proper change in the tax code

[Nordberg]

Public financing of elections is the biggest step. No corporate or huge donations. Get rid of lobbyists. They are using their money for self-serving. Trump has lobbyists as head of the agencies that used to regulate them. Or a guy who is totally unqualified and inimical to the agencL,like Perry at the EPA.
No term limits is not the answer. They all can be voted out if they are no good after one term. If they are doing a good job, then they deserve to keep their seats. You get on better committees due to seniority. And, having to bring in new people and have them go through the learning experience is wasteful and inefficient.

[PoliTalker]

Hello DonaldvoTrumpovich,

With age comes wisdom? Does that mean if you needed brain surgery, you'd want a doctor that's about 99 years old?

Of course I'm joking but there's no denying that cognitive ability does decline with age. In fact, 50% of people in their 80s have some form of dementia. Now I wonder how many members of Congress are in their 80s?

Also, the gerrymandered districts only applies to House members. Not Senators.

Most newly elected Democrats are younger women.

The old white men are generally Republicans.

[PoliTalker]

Hello domer76,

A proper change in the tax code

I agree we need to do that but I don't think that will help drain the swamp.

[PoliTalker]

Hello Nordberg,

Public financing of elections is the biggest step. No corporate or huge donations.

So political donations should be illegal?

Get rid of lobbyists. They are using their money for self-serving.

But what if the lobbyists are working for a union or a charity? If we make lobbying illegal those issue-based groups would have no way to try to influence Congress for the good they do.

No term limits is not the answer. They all can be voted out if they are no good after one term. If they are doing a good job, then they deserve to keep their seats. You get on better committees due to seniority. And, having to bring in new people and have them go through the learning experience is wasteful and inefficient.

I agree with that.

[Joe Capitalist]

Hello DonaldvoTrumpovich,



Most newly elected Democrats are younger women.

The old white men are generally Republicans.

So, With age comes wisdom? Does that mean the Republicans are wiser than the Democrats?

[domer76]

Hello domer76,



I agree we need to do that but I don't think that will help drain the swamp.

Perhaps, but the premise was the rich getting richer.

Two things then. Public financed campaigns. No personal money. Term limits.

[Controlled Opposition]

The swamp would have to drain itself, and that isn't going to happen. It would be up to the politicians and, in spite of the popular perception, politicians take office and decide that they prefer the status quo. Of course, some are serious about change, but they soon find that they have to spend at least half of their time raising money.