Proposal/Change US Constitition/Elections

In My Humble Opinion
1

:rolleyes: So I’m Canadian. Bite me.
For some inexplicable reason I’m fascinated by US politics.

Here’s what I’m seeing .

On the tail of a republican adminstration the US economy nose dived like never before in 70 years. The US embroiled in two very very expensive and protracted wars with a no definition of victory.

As a result Democrats win big.

In two years , lets face it, little has changed.

Americans still dying in Afghanistan and Iraq just can’t get its shit together.

Job creation and the economy is stagnating. The deficit is building.The question today?

What do you say?

You like?

Are you happy with the last two years? Fuck no, so lets vote the fuckers out .

I guess that means democrats who are in the majority. They had 18 to 24 months to make a difference.

You think that’s enough to prove out a program ? Just how long has Obama care been in effect? A month maybe more or less depending on the specifics ?

Is don’t ask don’t tell really gonna happen?

Are jobs gonna come back?

the econony today is the number one election issue.

I’m afraid with the republican comeback that seems to be inevitable that the next two years of Obama’s presidency will be rendered ineffective.

I just outlined some of the present situation to present my personal bewilderment with the negative attitudes towards Obama and the Democrats.

Two years to make a judgement call ?:rolleyes: That time was run off like shit through a goose.

How about another two years ?

What if US elections were held every four years. No midterm elections.

The citizenry have the opportunity to deliver a comprehensive result where the nation can move forward. Time for new policies to be felt

50% of senators, 1 of 2 for each state up for election to an 8 year term.

Think of the useless election expenditures saved ?

2

Nope. 2 year terms for Representatives means mid-term elections are a fact of life. Any attempt to change their term of office would be a mistake of the gravest sort.

3

What’s the downside to lengthening their term to 4 years?

4

Poorer response time to changing conditions and feelings. Screw the Senate. The action this election will be in the House. All 435 of them are up for re-election, and there may be some wholesale changes after Nov. 2.

5

I think that’s exactly the point of the OP–he feels the House is too subject to short-term whims, and that’s what’s wrong with America.

Personally, I think 2-year Reps, 4-year President, and 6-year Senators was a good attempt at striking a balance, so we can be responsive to winds of change but not completely adrift. It obviously doesn’t work perfectly, but just abandoning that idea and making all terms the same would probably make things worse, not better.

6

Actually, the democrats have been in power for 4 years, not 18 months.

there is very little that a president can do without Congress.
Congress has the real power. Congress is who appropriates money, it is Congress who decides who much and what spending is done, and it is Congress who makes the tax laws. (the president merely "proposes a budget, but Congress actually makes the budget)

The Democrats, and Nancy Pelosi, have controlled Congress, and controlled the United States, for 4 years.
Everything(unemployment, taxes, healthcare, the wars) that has happened in America since 2006, has been the fault of Democrats.

7

Consider a sizeable chunk removed with attendant loss of blood. Seems to be barely palatable. I think I need a larger sample.

The Dems won a majority back in 2006. That was FOUR years ago, not two. Little has changed.

The time for persuasion and exposition is BEFORE something is voted in, NOT AFTER. And people are PISSED.

You’re so ignorant you don’t even know how long the Dems have been in power. And you expect us to justify our system to YOU?

Immediate effects? Some large companies are making employees pay for the entire costs of their own health insurance. McDonals and other companies are being given 1-year waivers from Obamacare! That’s how great it is! Gee, thanks, Obama! :mad:

If you’re bewildered, you haven’t been paying attention. Find some media other than the CBC and the SDMB.

How long did it take you to write that post? Your goose has explosive diarrhea.

8

What is there to be bewildered about?

There’s a certain segment of the population who already decided long ago that everything Obama does will be a disaster in every possible way. And everything they see on Fox News confirms this.

In the exact same way, there’s a certain segment of the population who had already decided long ago that everything Bush did would be a disaster in every possible way. And everything they heard on NPR confirmed this.

Of course none of this changes the fact that both of them have done (and, in Obama’s case, will do) some things that turn out to be disastrous. But you’re not going to find out about it from the rabid partisans.

The best thing foreigners who want to understand American politics can do is ignore the people that begin fuming in all capital letters at the very start of any discussion. They’re always there, they always say the same things, so you don’t need to keep listening.

9

I do think the two-year term for Representatives is a little unfeasible. It gives them precious little time to get any work done before they have to start fund-raising and campaigning again. I wouldn’t mind seeing four-year terms for Representatives, such that all of them get elected in the even year in the middle of a presidential term. Alternatively, they could stagger things like the Senate, with half the body getting elected every two years.

I like the Senate the way it is.

10

Four years? San Francisco seems to have an election every six months!

11

Well, the real problem in the situation the OP describes is that we don’t have a truly responsible system. Congress is not the government, but either chamber can hamstring the government, then blame dysfunction on the President, who always gets the credit & the blame. If things work an any way at all hopeful or positive for the country, the President is beloved, & all effort in a constructive direction is seen as working against the interests of the opposing party.

I think we will be in trouble unless we go to a more unified system. Short of an actual parliamentary system, abolishing midterms might help. But I’d rather keep frequent elections & go to a Prime Minister system.

12

deleted

13

All those who think the Dems have been running the country for four years: Where was their control of the executive the first two years? Who made legislative appointments in those years? No, the Democrats wasted the first two years of their control of Congress, playing for the Presidency & all the patronage jobs involved in that. Now if the Republicans win either house of Congress, they will do the same.

I’m afraid we have to tie Congress to the Presidency because in the present polarized culture a Congressional majority without the White House will be deliberately dysfunctional as a rule.

14

The original intention of the constitutional framers was to make the House very responsive to trends and changes in electorate desires, but the Senate, with 6 yr terms, was intended to be more stable and less easily swayed. Changing either term length would tend to upset this concept.

15

This is not true. The Senate filibuster rule means that a party must have at least 60 seats in the 100 seat Senate in order to truly have power. From 2006-08 the balance in the Senate was 49 Dems, 49 Rs and 2 Independents. The Dems weren’t in control, it was effectively deadlocked.

16

Because in the past 4 years, the GOP never filibustered anything the Dems tried to pass, but let them have their way on anything they could get 218 House and 51 Senate votes for. And Bush never used his veto in 2007-08.

17

Even if you go through with extending House terms to 4 years, you STILL have mid-term elections for 1/3 of the Senate.

18

I addressed that in the OP

19

Oh - I skipped all the sentence fragments. The four remaining sentences didn’t seem to reflect a very solid understanding of the basic structure of the US government, or the reason why it is the way it is.

20

You didn’t read the four remaining sentences because the didn’t make sense to you?

Are you psychic ?