Our political system. Our legal system. Our police system. Our economic system. Whatever. I’m just going to call it the system. It’s the way things work in America.
Many people are saying we need some changes. But there are widespread disagreements about how deep the changes need to be.
So a poll.
And here I thought this was a question about using vending machines. :eek:
I do not think we need radical changes to the system overall, but some areas of it need more attention than others. For example, the current uproar and outrage over how policing and race intersect needs strong attention and intervention, in a lot of places. But, that interface is symptomatic of issues in the economic system, the legal system, and the political system, where perhaps more subtle changes are needed to make things more equal.
For example, let’s remove the profit motive from the prison system that encourages mass arrests to keep cell blocks occupied, and adjust sentencing for minor drug offenses such that less young, black men are getting incarcerated for such crimes, which may lead to less lives being destroyed by a conviction that has lasting impacts on future job prospects and earnings and participation in our democracy (voting).
I’m in between “changes in the system” and “abolish/replace with a different system.” Most of it needs changes, some very significant. For policing specifically, I think a complete replacement might be the only way to get the necessary changes. I voted for the changes option, but I’d have taken a middle option if you had one.
There is plenty wrong with our system. In many cases it appears to have degraded.
I know the Electoral College is one thing I would love to lose. Easy to say from a populous state.
Our courts & prison systems have too many problems. Actually there are problems everywhere.
Lets see
health care - abolish and replace (preferably single payer, or failing that a system like the netherlands or Switzerland with heavily subsidized exchanges for everyone)
political system - drastically reform since it over values rural voters, blocks out third parties, discourages voting, is heavily financially dependent on private interests, etc
Police - drastically reform
Economic system - reform, pursue a social democracy system with higher taxes and more regulations
+1. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
I thought I had included a middle option. I tried to cover what I thought was the range of possibilities. What’s the middle ground between making changes in the existing system and replacing the existing system?
I see “the system” as a bunch of smaller systems, as you itemized. I’d vote for some of those to be changed and some to be replaced. Grouped all into one system, I wasn’t sure how to vote.
I might be overthinking things. One person’s “rip out and replace” might be another person’s “make big changes.”
The biggest change needs to be to make sure that no one like Trump can be president again.
I don’t know how that could be done. I wish I could suggest a way.
Maybe with a Constitutional Amendment…?
It seems evident that changes need to be made. But abolish and start over? When has that ever worked well? So I am for incremental changes, but change we must.
If you’re a U.S. resident, you can probably think of one time. At least it “worked well” for a while, although that could be debated now.
Which one? 1776 or 1789?
My layman’s analysis would be that 1776 was abolishing the system, and 1789 was establishing a new one.