Why worship a constitution?

[Coito ergo sum]

Yes, I know, your aristocracy is a separate crew of privileged folk.

But, yes, I think I'll call my Congressman and tell him to be more like you folks and change the system so that we don't get to vote for President. We'll just let Congress pick the President, that way, if there is a Republican Congress, they'll just pick a Republican President and we'll always have a Congress and President of the same party. Much better system...

[Svartalf]

I must admit that while the Constitution has done a reasonably fair job of protecting the place from overly corrupt politicos, it has done nothing to protect the country from the consequences of a majority of voters being imbeciles.

[mistermack]

Yes, I know, your aristocracy is a separate crew of privileged folk.

But, yes, I think I'll call my Congressman and tell him to be more like you folks and change the system so that we don't get to vote for President. We'll just let Congress pick the President, that way, if there is a Republican Congress, they'll just pick a Republican President and we'll always have a Congress and President of the same party. Much better system...

I agree.

Now, about that disgusting spray-on cheese..............

[Coito ergo sum]

That's right...what we need is less responsiveness to the people...gotcha...

And, I'll call your EasyCheese and raise you But, of course, Brit Spotted Dick is the best spotted dick, I'm sure like all Brits you'll remind us of that...

[Svartalf]

Is this a competition to see which of you two will make me barf first?

[MrJonno]

Well, the "it can't happen here" theory is certainly one way to approach the subject.

The reality is that there is nothing superior about the British electorate. They are not fundamentally different than, say, the German electorate in the 1920's and 1930's. And, neither is the American electorate fundamentally different. Given the right conditions, any group of humans is ripe for engaging in nastiness.

Absolutely so one should be prepared to flee if needed (if the population goes fascist you sure arent going to be fight), best way to reduce the chances of that is a functioning economy and a balanced media.

As for a balanced media does any mainstream news channel gives equal access to Palestinians as they do to Israelis, do any of them report that American health services are appalling, are any of the newspapers openly socialist (none of this liberal shit, talking about openly socialist)

[mistermack]

That's right...what we need is less responsiveness to the people...gotcha...

FINALLY we got there.
That's EXACTLY what you need.
When the people are that dumb.

What if you had MUCH MORE responsiveness to the people?
What would the country be like? What if every major decision was put to a national referendum?
Your precious responsiveness would have the country dropping nukes on China, North Korea, Venezuela, and Russia. You would have the death sentence for abortion, and shoplifting. You would have no trade with any other country, except for oil, which you would take by invasion, same as now, I suppose.

I prefer to let elected politicians make the important decisions. And that includes choosing the leader.
.

[MrJonno]

I prefer to let elected politicians make the important decisions. And that includes choosing the leader.

I actually can't be arsed to run the country and have better things to do which is why I along with the rest of the electorate hire someone to do it for me

[Geoff]

2) The people who elect our next leader will know exactly who and what they are voting for. They are career politicians who know their stuff and can see through the bullshit.

As I said, leave it to your betters. That's what the aristocracy is for. They know what their doing.

I can't believe the crap you are coming out with. Nobody mentioned the aristocracy except you.
We elect politicians to make decisions on our behalf, because we have better things to do, than research every subject. We EXPECT them to make better decisions than we would, because they have the time and resources, and that's why we pay them.

We employ them. They are not our betters, they are chosen by us to work for us.

The biggest decision of all is to elect a leader, and we expect them to make a wise and informed choice.

Indeed. Apart from which, generally speaking, we don't vote for a person but for a party - the leader of that party is pretty much irrelevant. From what coverage we see over here, that doesn't appear to be the case in US. Elections there seem to be described as "Obama v McCain", in contrast to "Conservative v Labour" here.

Google 2008 US election: they all say Obama wins, not Democrats win.
Google 2010 UK election, they all say Conservatives win, not Cameron wins.

[MrJonno]

Indeed. Apart from which, generally speaking, we don't vote for a person but for a party - the leader of that party is pretty much irrelevant. From what coverage we see over here, that doesn't appear to be the case in US. Elections there seem to be described as "Obamma v McCain", in contrast to "Conservative v Labour" here.

There is theory and practice, theory is I elect a MP to represent my local area and he/she chooses the next leader of parliament.

The reality is I don't generally care who my MP is unless he is really good (or bad), and even party manifestos are less important than whoever the leader of the party is who in reality most people are voting for (even if they arent electing)

You also have the theory that the power of the Prime Minister is weaker than the President as a simply majority of MP can get rid of him/hter but in practice this will often force a general election and has a high chance of costing the MP's in the ruling party their job

[mistermack]

If you want to know the real difference between the British and Americans,
ask the grim reaper :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoBTsMJ4 ... age#t=248s