# Redesigning the United States Government from the ground up - What would a "sensible" government structure look like for America?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/redesigning-the-united-states-government-from-the-ground-up-what-would-a-sensible-government-structure-look-like-for-america/1005234>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 4, 2024, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/redesigning-the-united-states-government-from-the-ground-up-what-would-a-sensible-government-structure-look-like-for-america/1005234 "2024-08-04T15:03:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 10

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**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/redesigning-the-united-states-government-from-the-ground-up-what-would-a-sensible-government-structure-look-like-for-america/1005234/181 "2024-08-22T23:18:51Z")

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> [@DeadTreasSecretaries](#):
>
> At some level accountability alone isn’t enough. It needs to be a value that certain things are apolitical. Just trying to fix selfish actors through oversight means that someone needs to watch the watchmen, and then someone needs to watch those watchmen, and so on.

Oh, I know we need to rebuild our cultural attitude. And that includes the attitude of the judges that they should be apolitical.

So, how did we do it when getting rid of Tammany Hall type appointment corruption? How did we build the civil service Corps in the first place?

My thought is that if we build the mechanism and hammer it hard, it reinforces the expectation. But I could be wrong. There may be a better plan.

But even after we create a new expectation and culture of behavior, we still need the review processes to keep things in line.

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**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/redesigning-the-united-states-government-from-the-ground-up-what-would-a-sensible-government-structure-look-like-for-america/1005234/182 "2024-08-22T23:52:24Z")

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I’m not sure about the Tammany era specifically (although I am listening to a podcast about Robert Moses which is definitely not the model to follow for getting rid of it).

On some level there’s survival of the fittest and systems that have a lot of graft become worse and worse at sustaining themselves until something breaks and a more robust system takes over.

As I said above, the fact that if I don’t like a federal law, it’s easier for me to appoint a judge that interprets it to be unconstitutional or otherwise neuter it than to pass a better law is a pretty big deal. I think it makes it so tempting to start down the road of using the courts rather than playing fair to get what you want.

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**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/redesigning-the-united-states-government-from-the-ground-up-what-would-a-sensible-government-structure-look-like-for-america/1005234/183 "2024-08-23T05:15:32Z")

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> [@DeadTreasSecretaries](#):
>
> As I said above, the fact that if I don’t like a federal law, it’s easier for me to appoint a judge that interprets it to be unconstitutional or otherwise neuter it than to pass a better law is a pretty big deal. I think it makes it so tempting to start down the road of using the courts rather than playing fair to get what you want.

That does seem a reasonable flaw that needs to be addressed.

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