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Great Debates
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Two suggestions:

  1. Criminal justice Immediate repeal of all asset forfeiture laws. Is there anyone other than politicians who need to convince voters that “Hey, I’m tough on crime”, that this is justified? The idea that your property can be taken on mere suspicion, and that you are required to prove your innocence rather than the state prove your guilt; who could defend this?

  2. Government spending Gradual reduction and eventual disappearance of all funding in several areas I think are inappropriate to government support. Anybody would probably say that, but the hard part is to identify those areas, and of course everybody disagrees on what they are. I propose the following way to distinguish the good from the bad: if the funding is expected to apply to every appropriate recipient, then it’s good; if not, it’s bad. For example – Education (disclaimer - yes I know some would say that education is not a proper function of government, but if it were…) Public education is supplied to all children; none are excluded. Welfare (same disclaimer as the previous) Welfare is supplied to all who meet easily identifiable objective standards; some people are excluded, but only because they don’t meet those standards.
    Now as to something like funding for the arts, obviously all possible recipients of arts funding don’t get it. Artist A gets a grant; Artist B doesn’t. Artist A might meet some standard, but these are always subjective standards applied by whatever individual bureaucrats are in charge at the time. Thus the ballet gets the funds but my polka band doesn’t. If The Arts are such a great public good that they have to be publicly funded, then every single artist ought to get some of that funding. To my knowledge, no supporter of arts funding proposes this. So maybe it’s not such a great public good after all.

Best new suggestion seen here so far: RTF’s proposal regarding voting rights.

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And a pretty good post yourself, Gilligan. :slight_smile:

I’m with you all the way on asset forfeiture. It’s incredible that the state can take everything you’ve got, on the basis of an accusation. That’s due process of law? Lotta good it does.

They can slap a restraining order, or use some other appropriate technique, to make sure Mr. Rich Drug Dealer doesn’t hide his money before he goes to prison. If they’re interested in him anyway; these days, they seem to give a light sentence to the kingpin if he turns in the small-time crooks, as often as the other way around. :frowning:

I liked the second part of your post too, and will have some thoughts later - but I’d better go do some work now.

“I truly believe that dragging Jesus Christ into partisan politics is a grave mistake. It will do Jesus no good at all to be seen in the company of politicians - apt to ruin his reputation, if you ask me.” - Molly Ivins