Forum Post: Stop Congressional Gridlock by Removing Blockades.
Posted 12 years ago on Jan. 7, 2012, 10:27 p.m. EST by Toynbee
(656)
from Savannah, GA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Elected and appointed public officials exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business.
The people of this nation do not yield their sovereignty to the government officials and bodies that serve them.
The people of this nation insist on remaining informed about the business of their government.
The people of this nation insist on retaining control over the legislative bodies they have created.
If Tea Party extremists and single-issue ideologues and representatives who want to kowtow to lobbyists want to ignore the general welfare and interest of the public -- a wide and often disparate group -- then they need to step aside and let level-headed adults take over.
I don't think Congressional grid lock is a bad thing at all, especially since both Party's in Congress are really only two factions of the one party of the 1%. Since everything they do is designed to serve the 1% it's best that they do nothing at all. Hooray for grid lock. Solidarity forever,
Gridlock is the death-knell of our democratic process that produces a legislative product aimed at meeting the needs of an extremely diverse group of citizens.
Gridlock is a tactic that is used in unprecedented ways by the Republicans as a way to show that the party occupying the executive office is not capable of conducting business.
But that is an unpatriotic act that threatens to weaken America at a time when our new threats are different than any we have ever encountered.
Gridlock is killing America.
Shameful that a party out of power has stooped to such measures. Hoping that if the President fails, they may in some strange way succeed.
Hey, we are all in the same boat.
There never was a democratic process in the American state nor was their meant to be. That is not to say that America is an undemocratic culture, only that what democracy exists exists outside of a state that was specifically designed to serve the interest of the 1%. If you don't believe that read the Federalist Papers which are very specifically an anti-democratic defense of the Constitution.
What is killing America is the power of the 1% which controls both major political parties which are really nothing more than two factions of the one party of the 1%.
The Democratic President is presiding over the greatest imperial empire in the history of the world and shows absolutely no stomach for dismantling that empire. He's happy to rule over it and to hand that rule over to some other political boss should he loose the election. It's a deal that the elites have with each other. All very convenient and designed to keep them in power and us out. It has absolutely nothing to do with the very real rivalries between Republicans and Democrats. Real as those fights are they are really intramural struggles within the 1% and have nothing to do with the interests of the 99%. Fuck the Democrats. Fuck the Republicans. We don't need Wall Street or politicians (of any party) to build a better world. We need each other and solidarity.
What does that mean?
"We need each other?"
"We need solidarity?"
I don't know what that means.
I don't know how that translates into a better government.
What do we do? Today? Tomorrow? At election time? Throughout this nation?
We need real practical solutions -- not empty rhetoric.
I agree that it is time for the rank-and-file citizens need to take back control of the government. Away from lobbyists. Away from corporations. Away from Wall Street.
But sitting on our butts "Occupying" places, seems futile.
If you read any of the few official pronouncements of OWS or attend a single GA you would realize that active occupiers are not in the least interested in better government. They're much more interested in no government at all. For starters just read the home page of this website where it says that we don't need politicians or Wall Street to build a better world. Or read the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City, which makes not a single demand and is not addressed to any state, but rather to the people of the world.
There is plenty for us to do. In most areas where there are GAs, GAs meet on almost a nightly basis. In many areas where there are well developed GAs there are dozens of working groups to join. If you live too far from a GA to participate in it regularly, start one in your community. If you are not completely secure regarding how to go about that, ask for help from the closest GA. They will help you, though you might have to chip in for transportation, room and board.
In most areas where there are active GAs or occupations there are solidarity demonstrations on an almost daily basis, sometimes more often. A solidarity demonstration is a demonstration in support of someone else's struggle.
There are optimistically, only a few hundred GAs and occupations in the nation. We need a GA in every community, in every work place, in every school, in every military barracks, in every nursing home, in every prison. Our movement is really pathetically small at this point. We need all the help we can get to make the movement as large and powerful as possible. That strikes me as a lot of work. Too much almost. It really is a daunting task, but with such a big nation and so few GAs and occupations there is certainly no reason to be scratching one's head to figure out what to do next. The work is there before us. We have a whole new society to build.
And most of this is quite practical work as two hours spent in any working group or GA would demonstrate. This is by no means empty rhetoric. It is difficult in every way imaginable. Physically in terms of conflicts with the authorities or figuring out how to avoid them. Emotionally. Psychologically, Philosophically. Ethically. and Politically. It is probably the biggest social task ever undertaken by a group of people in history. Far, far bigger than the civil rights movement or the antiwar movement. Really there is no comparison to what OWS is trying to do in living memory.
It is not about something so trivial as taking control of the government. It is about building an entirely new society in which we can all really for the first time govern ourselves democratically.
And it will look much much different from the current system. Of course this is difficult to get your mind around and it can look rather abstract because the tasks we have set before ourselves are so huge, as different from the present system as the present system is from 12th century feudalism.
The only way to begin to answer your questions is to ask that you join the movement and begin to answer those questions for yourself.
the people should have greater access to the legislative process
a significant part of that begins with
if language is important then
. variables should be defined at the top
. exception should be clearly visible
. logic should be nested
I think that is how they craft their bills - but the legalize can be so dense.
law should be presented by line not paragraph
separating each clause visibly
and ordered in a perceivable matter
(alphabetically, exceptions under rules, lists of those effected ...)
they have their method - it is logical - but damn.
and the clauses are numbered - but sometimes, like with 1031 of the Senate version of the NDAA - they hide it a few numbers back.
I'm sure it was just for obfuscation - and I'm also sure they had a likely explanation for it too.
the fukers.
Levin and McCain should both go.
indeed
bills often contain clauses that have nothing to do with their title or intent
often altering other unrelated laws without explicitly list the other laws they alter
How about requiring that bills have a clear single focus?
How about requiring that bills have no hidden lard?
How about requiring that bills be clear and understandable?
perhaps force laws to follow a structured format of precention
something like sub categories
that sounds like a great beginning
the whole thing needs to be simplified
don't ask me how
maybe start with not altering other laws
if a law needs to be changes that should be it's own bill
it looks like Toynbee knows more about the whole process than we do - see above
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