Losing My Faith in Democracy

[Ray916MN]

Rant on.

As many of you may know, my wife is running for MN House. We just mailed a piece of campaign literature to voters pointing out that her opponent is the least productive legislator in over a decade, having authored or co-authored the fewest number of bills of any full time legislator since 1998.

We are being contacted by people who think this is good. People who don't seem to realize that if you want less regulation, you need to create a bill with less regulation in it and get it passed to replace the existing legislation which has too much regulation. If you want lower taxes, you need to create a bill with lower tax rates. If you want to get dead beats off of social assistance you need to write a bill to change the law so dead beats can't abuse social programs. If you want the thousands of things government does poorly to change or you want government to get out of the way new legislation needs to be proposed to change the way government does things and to get government out of the way. No new legislation, things just stay the same.

What is really funny is these people seem to be the people who are least happy with government and who want the most change, but they think doing the least is good.

If voters don't get the basics on how things get done in government, how the heck can they make decent decisions on who they want in office?

Rant off.

[Chris]

good luck to her.

[mikey]

a good ol fashioned civil war is the only solution!  this country needs a fresh start.

[Mike Duluth]

You might want to be carefull talking about our social services. Our Governor said people coming in from out of state on welfare should receive the same amount they received from the Sate they came from, they wanted to lynch him, he had to back down. These people didn't move here because they loved Mn they came for a pay raise. Most of these people will never pay a dime in Mn taxes. So maybe if someone could explain to me how this will help the tax payers in Mn, that would be a great trick. Answer this, how long does it take to get full benefits coming from out of state in Mn?

[vince]

I think you get full benefits the same day. Does anybody remember when they use to give you a bus ticket back to were you came from.

[RCKT GRL]

Trust me, I work in Social Services for a rather large hospital.  I see people come here every single day expecting a handout.  I'd love to provide them with a bus ticket among other things....  

[Mike Duluth]

Lets up the ante, give them all plane tickets, and a hundred bucks. Then charge it back to the state they came from.

[Elk]

Ray, you are correct; few people understand how the process works.  Productive change only occurs through doing something which, for a legislature, means passing bills.  Nothing can be fixed by sitting on it.

I had not considered the challenge of fighting the public perception that every bill adds complexity.  Repeals however occur only as the result of a successfully passed bill.

[mikey]

Rant on.

As many of you may know, my wife is running for MN House. We just mailed a piece of campaign literature to voters pointing out that her opponent is the least productive legislator in over a decade, having authored or co-authored the fewest number of bills of any full time legislator since 1998.

We are being contacted by people who think this is good. People who don't seem to realize that if you want less regulation, you need to create a bill with less regulation in it and get it passed to replace the existing legislation which has too much regulation. If you want lower taxes, you need to create a bill with lower tax rates. If you want to get dead beats off of social assistance you need to write a bill to change the law so dead beats can't abuse social programs. If you want the thousands of things government does poorly to change or you want government to get out of the way new legislation needs to be proposed to change the way government does things and to get government out of the way. No new legislation, things just stay the same.

What is really funny is these people seem to be the people who are least happy with government and who want the most change, but they think doing the least is good.

If voters don't get the basics on how things get done in government, how the heck can they make decent decisions on who they want in office?

Rant off.

so what issues does your wife stand on? this is what i dont like about politics, all you hear about is what the other guy is doing wrong. 

[Vander]

Trust me, I work in Social Services for a rather large hospital.  I see people come here every single day expecting a handout.  I'd love to provide them with a bus ticket among other things....  

You do?

I used to work for Fairview (2003-2007).  And my wife still works for Allina.

[SilkMoneyLove]

I think it is important to remember that a Democracy is not an efficient form of government.  It is that way on purpose.  Yes, people will try to game the system, whichever system it is, but everyone crying for an "efficent" government that doesn't give handouts and so on is not living in reality.