September 28, 2011
Trial Balloons for Tyranny?
North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue's dead-serious suggestion suspend elections wasn't an isolated incident.
Only days ago, former Obama OMB director, Citigroup executive, and current Council on Foreign Relations fellow Peter Orszag published an article in The New Republic entitled "Too Much of a Good Thing: Why we need less democracy."
It is stunning to hear any politician so openly discuss the throttling of democracy and the open suspension of our Constitutional rights. To hear two politicians beholden to the same political party and president make the same suggestion, within days of one another, is no accident.
Lets compromise. Let the current congress serve 4 years, but hold the presidential and senatorial elections as planned.
Posted by: Tregonsee at September 28, 2011 10:08 AMI find it hard to believe that anyone is seriously considering suspending any election. That said it is consistent with the general theme whenever the left doesn't get their way electorally.
The country has become ungovernable or too big for one person to lead etc...You hear it from Tom Friedman and others who point to how China can make things happen because they aren't limited by "too much democracy" etc...
I view this as excuse making more than anything. Their ideas have failed but instead of examining why the public hasn't embraced their ideas or why they have failed it is far easier to blame "too much democracy" or "partisanship".
Trust me, once a Republican President proposes something the left doesn't like, the "voice of the people" will once again be discovered as sacred and the only guiding principle worthy of merit...
At this point to fear that Democrats are serious about any of this should be left in the fever swamps where they belong.
It is of no more merit than the 2008 Ohio/Diebold voting machine conspiracy and we would be wise to avoid any topic that would give the right the appearance of being just as crazy as our opponents...
Posted by: Mick Kraut at September 28, 2011 10:20 AMI'm for suspending elections if and only if we replace them with a jury draft type system. Get the parties out of it, get the corruption of donations for the next re-election out of it (I mean really, the US is circling the drain and Obama is spending more time raising campaign money for his party than anything else!) get career politicians who owe their status/career to supporting their party out of it. Let average american folks who understand how to pay their bills and balance their checkbooks take a whack at it. They can't possibly be worse at it than the professionals. And they'll want to go home and leave you alone in 4 years when the next draft class comes in.
With respect to a well-intentioned idea, styrgwillidar, if you think the way people game the system to get out of jury duty is impressive, wait until you see how they (especially the Left, or as I call them, 'Enemy-Americans') game the system to get onto 'House duty' and thus gain power.
Posted by: Mike James at September 28, 2011 11:22 AM
