I don’t disagree with you there. That said what both parties want to to is not representative of what the population wants at all and would not be what an actually functional government with popular support might want to accomplish. There are things that need to be accomplished by a government in the US and these things are currently going undone and are not a priority of any current elected official.
That seems dangerously optimistic to me though. If what should be done is not what elected officials will do, and what they will do is what should not be done, then isn’t removing the barriers constraining them from acting just going to make things much worse? Even if you can get a government in office sometimes that is not malevolent, it would still be a net negative.
For it to be worth it, you would have to either have a realistic path to consistently electing people that serve the will of an informed and thoughtful population, or the circumstances are so dire and the need to make positive changes so desperate that things can’t actually get much worse than a course of inaction so you might as well risk it. To me it doesn’t seem like either are the case yet; there is no clear path to that, and things could be much, much worse.
Every other industrialized democracy is able to do this. A government that doesn’t pass legislation isn’t the safety net you think, it is the precursor to authoritarian control and dictatorship. If the only thing keeping you safe is political gridlock then you live in a failed state. If you live in the failed state that you suggest then you should be arming yourself to the teeth right now and storming the government.
Every other industrialized democracy is able to do this
I’m not convinced of this, especially with Europe flirting with stuff like encryption bans and far right extremism, other countries could benefit from more restrictive constitutions.
A government that doesn’t pass legislation isn’t the safety net you think, it is the precursor to authoritarian control and dictatorship
Can you give a specific example of this happening or rationale why it would happen?
If you live in [constitutional gridlock] then you should be arming yourself to the teeth right now and storming the government.
For what should be very obvious reasons this would be a disaster. This is the sort of mindset driving the events of Jan 6 and I hope those sorts of people with no respect for our republic fail.
I don’t disagree with you there. That said what both parties want to to is not representative of what the population wants at all and would not be what an actually functional government with popular support might want to accomplish. There are things that need to be accomplished by a government in the US and these things are currently going undone and are not a priority of any current elected official.
That seems dangerously optimistic to me though. If what should be done is not what elected officials will do, and what they will do is what should not be done, then isn’t removing the barriers constraining them from acting just going to make things much worse? Even if you can get a government in office sometimes that is not malevolent, it would still be a net negative.
For it to be worth it, you would have to either have a realistic path to consistently electing people that serve the will of an informed and thoughtful population, or the circumstances are so dire and the need to make positive changes so desperate that things can’t actually get much worse than a course of inaction so you might as well risk it. To me it doesn’t seem like either are the case yet; there is no clear path to that, and things could be much, much worse.
Every other industrialized democracy is able to do this. A government that doesn’t pass legislation isn’t the safety net you think, it is the precursor to authoritarian control and dictatorship. If the only thing keeping you safe is political gridlock then you live in a failed state. If you live in the failed state that you suggest then you should be arming yourself to the teeth right now and storming the government.
I’m not convinced of this, especially with Europe flirting with stuff like encryption bans and far right extremism, other countries could benefit from more restrictive constitutions.
Can you give a specific example of this happening or rationale why it would happen?
For what should be very obvious reasons this would be a disaster. This is the sort of mindset driving the events of Jan 6 and I hope those sorts of people with no respect for our republic fail.