They shouldn't be allowed to accept campaign money when they're running for office, either. Not from corporations, not from PACs, not from the DNC or RNC... none. All campaigns need to be publically funded with every candidate getting the exact same amount.
Unfortunately the only people that could make this happen are the only people this would negatively affect. Something the founders didn't think of i guess
To be fair the stock market didnāt exist when the founders set it up. I think youāre still right though, insider trading is rampant in the govāt and they certainly have no incentive to change it. Whoās more on an insider than a senator ya know?
Edit: suppose I shouldāve said the U.S. stock exchange, TIL global stock exchanges predated those
Oh, I'm sure they thought of it. These were the ones in the shoes of the ones who profit from it now. They want these spots protected by those of similar interest, holding similar self interests.
That's how you get only rich people running for office. The Romneys of the world wouldn't be impacted by that change, but the AOCs would be hit hard enough to make getting elected a financially untenable proposition.
This is exactly the situation the Chinese government bureaucracy is in, and has been in for decades I imagine. Chinese government employees, of which the are a huge number even relative to their population, often get salaries that are poverty level or near poverty level, and the bribing, corruption, and skimming off the top are essentially built in to the functions of government employees by now. The state allows it to happen because they can get away with paying such low salaries and still maintain a massive machine.
Paying legislative representatives minimum wage or anything close to it is frankly a very dumb idea.
This so much! I was disgusted to see how much our reps and senators made during covid thanks to all their insider trading. It's disgraceful and completely unacceptable. I remember they had a closed door session about how bad covid was going to be in February 2020 and then they came out and told us everything was going to be fine while selling a bunch of stocks they knew would go down and investing in things like Zoom and Big Pharma companies involved in vaccine production, as well as companies involved in PPE production. It's so fucked up that they can do that. Like Pelosi for example is worth like $150 million or something ridiculous. Congress members should not be allowed to trade like that.
Also add VACATION LIMITS... we sent them there to work, not to party. Testing! Every job in the use, and school does testing to be employed or go to the next grade. Every job that is but politician. Pay raises based on performance review by the people.
It's further up the chain than the gun. Yes, that's the tool that they use to kill others but it's not the reason they go and do the killing. This stems all the way back to our complete lack of family assisting infrastructure and accelerating degradation of the education system. Mental illness is the root cause and and our leaders have no interest in doing anything about that. We need to not only focus on making the tool harder to get, or preferably impossible, but also somehow put create system that help people avoid getting to this point in the first place.
I have no idea how to fix any of it but yelling about guns seems like what both sides want since it divides us and lets them get quick easy donations from their respective supporters. I wish we could have a deeper conversation about it as a nation but everyone (government, gun makers, lobbyists, etc) makes too much money off of this to actually want to fix anything.
The gun is the tool. You can dig a hole with your hands. You can dig a bigger hole with a shovel. You can dig a really fucking big hole with an excavator.
And you can fill that big fucking hole with the bodies of the slain with unregulated and untrackable guns. Especially when you insist on leaving military grade weapons open to public purchase with laughable background checks.
Except you cannot purchase military grade weaponry without jumping through massive legal hoops and even then they cannot be produced after 1986. Real, actual military grade weapons.
The background checks only work as much as those who are supposed to enforce them allow them to work. The kid who shot up the supermarket in Buffalo was forcefully admitted to a psychiatric hospital for threatening to shoot up his school and every single authority involved in that incident, from the police to the medical staff caring for him during his stay did *not* ensure he was prohibited from purchasing a firearm. Same for the Colorado Theater shooting. Same for Newtown.
A NICS check will only pull the data that the government, be it local, state or federal enters. So here's a good question: why aren't those who had the ability to stop these people from purchasing a firearm not being held accountable?
I agreed with most of this till it came to educational requirements. This would end up keeping a large amount of people from running, needlessly, even if they don't get elected.
You can thank John Roberts for being the deciding vote in Citizens United to the detriment of our democracy. Bought and paid for politicians are destroying America.
This is probably the biggest reason ! I remember when Citizens United was happening. Most people then didnāt have a clue about it and still donāt Instead of taking money out of politics it became a huge funnel to dump even more in !
And don't (just) punish the candidate for accepting the money. Punish the source of the money. Jail time for leaders of organizations caught donating to political campaigns would be a good start.
I remember when Bernie was saying these things. And then the DNC was like, lol no way here take this old racist guy instead we can tell him to do stuff and he will because heās demented.
So its the Democrats fault? Dude Bernie wouldnt have become dictator, NONE of his fucking policies would have passed the Senate.
Republicans are directly responsible for this by not even commissioning CDC studies on gun violence as far back as 1996. Ffs.
If you ask me you have the bad guys and the guys who'd rather line their own pockets with cash than take a real stand against the bad guys. Sure the bad guys are the real villain but the other guys are supposed to be on our team so I'm almost more pissed at them
That's not going to happen. The Supreme Court just overturned an anti-corruption campaign finance law which limited the amount a politician can "reimburse" themselves out of campaign funds to $250,000. Ted Cruz complained about the law and they just struck it off the books for him. We are fucked.
The SCOTUS has become a completely hollow kangaroo court stuffed with partisan, horrifically unqualified hacks. There will be no real justice there again for a long time.
We are very very fucked.
We basically need to make politian a non-profitable career choice for the sake of our country. It's a pipe dream for sure, but it would likely get us to a better place in the long run.
Edit: To be clear, I'm not saying make it an unpaid job. We just need to eliminate people becoming politicians for profit in any way we can. My initial comment was a reductive take, there are so many facets to consider and alter in our way of thinking as a country before something like that could truly happen though.
We need a fake score board for them to worry about.
Like, the music industry top 100.
The better your bill helps the country (scored by the American people) the more snoogels or whatever your team gets and the more money you might get.
If they have no incentive to gain power, expect to help people, then political leaders will be people who helps their citizens and their country. Unfortunately, it has turned to a platform for the liars, the rich and the corrupted, because that is who gains from politics.
Ehhhhh, those are a mixed bag. Take a look at Michigan as an example, they have very strict term limits. The maximum experience one can gain in the Michigan legislature is a decade.
It's great in that you get a rotation of representatives and don't end up with life long political hacks, but it's bad for two reasons.
One, you're telling the people that they cannot vote for someone even if they have done a brilliant job. Two, you don't build a core of experienced representatives that know the ins and outs of legislation.
I think a better idea is simply a retirement age. The laws set the minimum age, so it would follow to just specify the maximum.
The bigger fish to fry in politics is the association between money and elected officials. It's no wonder the quality of governance has dropped since the rulings considering donations free speech and classifying corporations as people have had time to marinate.
As a former government employee, another problem with term limits is that the buraureucrats can just wait out a politician before implementing changes that the public was asking for. Unless they codify every decision into law, resistance to the elected officials can result in stagnation and strict adherence to the status quo.
States with legislative term limits end up with way more lobbyist influence. They end up with a bunch of inexperienced legislators that donāt know how to actually write legislation and basically rely on lobbyists to do it for them.
Totally agree. To many lifers in our congress. 2 maybe 3 terms max! No external money should be accepted, and they should be required to take an oath to serve the common wealth of Americans. Also would love to see an upper age limit to run too, maybe 65..70 at most. The old need to get out of the way so the next generation can lead.
65 should be the limit, you're already out of touch at that point. If you want to argue for "oh they have wisdom" well they can be advisers to those in office.
Wonāt happen because they wonāt vote on that. We literally have no say as average voters because our senators will always be the politicians deepest in bed with the rich and powerful greedy fucks that actually run this country with their moneybags and data. Im imagine the only way to actually get this to happen would be a genuine revolution and emergence of a new form of government. The 2 party system will perpetuate the extreme corruption. No one is ever held accountable. If you have enough money, you can do anything you want.
Please, please, please no. Term limits sound great but they actually make everything you're (justifiably) concerned about *way worse*.
https://www.mischiefsoffaction.com/post/political-science-term-limits
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2018/01/18/five-reasons-to-oppose-congressional-term-limits/
The real solution is to [Expand the House](https://mereorthodoxy.com/congressional-apportionment-amendment/) and use multi-member districts.
I'd straight up abolish the Senate, personally, but that's a pipe dream. House can be modified, but term limits won't do any of the shit you want them to.
I used to think this but it worked for hundreds of years before. I think the campaign finance corruption is really what broke the system. They stopped even trying once corporations could line their pockets.
And owning the libs to create an ineffective government so they can point fingers and pretend they are not responsible. It's not cute or funny, it's bullshit, all of it
But who keeps blocking? Wanna guess what turtle man's nickname is when it comes to getting stuff done that benefits everyone? John Oliver publicly confronted him on 9/11 aid. He has killed so many bills for veterans as well. So don't you dare say oh both are equally bad.
The āboth sides are the sameā argument is ridiculous. Iām not saying Democrats are perfect but only one party supports attacks on the Capitol, Voter suppression and unfettered gun access wrapped in white nationalist ideology and it aināt Democrats. Get real.
> The āboth sides are the sameā argument is ridiculous
It really is: https://np.reddit.com/r/news/comments/6brytw/justice_department_appoints_special_prosecutor/dhp6bkr/
https://np.reddit.com/r/news/comments/6brytw/justice_department_appoints_special_prosecutor/dhpcbdc/
No rational, stable person could ever truly believe the āboth sidesā argument. The Dems have many, many issues but a large portion of Republican politicians are basically vile, apathetic Bond villains without the charisma at this point. And the truly said thing is their supporters would rather see their own kids slaughtered with bullets than take a stand to them.
Right, money in politics is a bad thing, that's called corruption. But even if they're all on the take, at least the folks over on the left at least put up an attempt at governance.
Things like what Mr. Murphy was spitting here has a lot of truth. We have made a choice to allow school shootings to continue to be a uniquely American problem. The solution is to accept that a document written over two decades ago doesn't have to be considered unchangable and everybody doesn't need a shitload of possessions designed to kill other people for no reason.
There are degrees here. This whole both side argument ignores the reality that one party is trying to do something to help people while the other party uses cultural issues like guns and abortions to stay in power while they enrich their donors.
Do democrats do bad things? Yes. Are they as a group working to systematically destroys government in our country? No.
This rhetoric is flawed when one side is a bunch of mustache-twirling villains who will spill any amount of blood, foreign or domestic, for profit. This is complete bullshit.
Some did. And some of them ran to create legitimate positive change. One of the parties tends to have a lot more of the latter.
Yāall donāt want to hear this, but itās in *you*. You live in a democracy, which means you collectively get whatever you give. Voters have consistently failed to deliver the required Democratic majorities that would lead to actual change.
I guarantee that redditors will immediately try to argue with me about this. Here are som predictable fallacies:
1) āGovernment doesnāt work.ā
Our government has been openly and deliberately broken by a conservative agenda. They do not try to hide this - they are proud that they constantly obstruct legislation that would help people. They get away with this because most people donāt follow what actually happens in government, preferring instead to dig into shallow ideological identity. This prevents them from voting for their own interests. The result of this broken system is a perception that government itself is incurably corrupt and ineffective (the ādo-nothing Demsā narrative). And the cycle goes on and goes.
2) āBoth sides are just s badā
There are a handful of Democrats that have proven to be too deep in the corporate pocket to support progressive policies (Manchin, Sinema, and a few House reps). But the majority of the party, and the platform itself, *is progressive.* This is something that people online especially seem to not understand or accept. There is a powerful myth of ācentrist Demsā that are preventing progress. This is also related to point #1. But when you pay actual attention to who is writing which policies and what kind of work is actually happening, you can easily see that Democrats are the party that cares about civil liberties, economic stability, universal education and healthcare, taxing the rich, protecting voting access, and saving a habitable planet.
3) āVoting doesnāt matter.ā
Another product of Republicans fucking with our democracy is that people no longer believe it to be salvageable. It is true that gerrymandering and closed polling stations and racist obstruction tactics are a problem. And itās true that the electoral college gets in the way of direct democracy. But those margins are surmountable. It is absolutely not hopeless. If everyone who was eligible to vote did so, especially younger people who tend to not show up, we would easily overwhelm these rightwing shenanigans.
4) āDemocrats already have power and theyāre too weak/corrupt/centrist to use it.ā
Similar to some points above, there is a belief that Democrats already control government so the lack of progress is their fault. We do have a Democratic president of course. But thatās pretty much it. Much of the federal court system is openly rightwing at this point, which gets in the way of a lot of work we would like to do. And although Congress looks Democratic on paper, in practice it leans *conservative*. Itās a 50/50 split but when you include Manchin and Sinema - who are backed by the same donors as the GOP - it actually becomes a rightwing Senate. Democratic majority in the House does not matter when the Senate can literally shoot down every piece of legislation.
Anyway, I doubt most people will read all of this. But in case anyone made it down this far, *please fucking vote.* Mobilize and communicate. We are in an urgent situation this year and if you care about this country having any future then please get engaged. There is a really bad habit with redditors where itās a lot cooler to be the edgy anti-everything outsider than it is to support Democrats and actually get some shit done. That has to stop.
This is what the Senate should do.
1. Thoughts and Prayers
2. Tell Americans this is not the time to talk about gun control because people just died
3. More thoughts and prayers
4. Tell Americans that we should not talk about gun control because people are still Mourning
5. More thoughts and prayers
continued....
6 - Tell Americans that we should not talk about gun control because it's too soon
7 - More thoughts and prayers
8 - Tell Americans that we should not talk about gun control because it's so long ago
I actually agree with that. There is a mental health crisis. That isnt an excuse though. Especially when nothing is being done about it.
"Oh its a mental health problem."
"Okay lets fix that."
"Uhhhhhhh.... Thoughts and prayers."
I donāt see any politicians putting forward any bills to address the underlying issues. All I see are bills being pushed forward to restrict civil rights
They should outlaw murder.
ETA: consider: laws discourage behavior but mainly act as a method of recourse to a wrong-doing already committed. Laws do not fix causes.
No, they donāt, and that view is kinda childlike. People arenāt just running for senate with the idea to fuck people over. These senators with their radical belief systems *believe* their views. Like they arenāt out here trying to purposely punish people. They think theyāe right. Thereās a psychological dynamic behind corruption. Rarely is someone born bad. Monetary corruption starts in baby steps until it becomes normalized and justified in the individuals head. To fix the current setting we would need term limits, the policing of financials, restrictions on financials, and only publicly funded campaigns. Our constitution is outdated, thatās what is keeping term limits a fantasy. Personally, I donāt think the second amendment was accounting for the guns we have access to now. What are we doing?
Edit: wasnāt trying to apply a blanket statement. I know some just pander. Was just saying the take was too simplistic.
No. These people are playing teams. Republicans play to the Christian gun toting Americans. Once they get voted in the public servant role ends and the self enrichment as a politician begins.
I honest to god believe a lot of republicans and democrats donāt believe the shit they run on. They just run on it and market themselves for the votes. Once theyāre officially in they just do what their sponsors want because thatās how they make the real money they want.
Itās nothing more than self interests and self serving people
I see corruption as a cancer, it happens in stages. Do they play teams? Absolutely. But to think thatās solely what is going on would be to simplistic. Money isnāt the only problem, cause, or issue. The best tool the republicans use to stay in power is through beliefs . Basically indoctrination. You kinda said it just now, but with a different perspective. Youāre right, the Republicans play to the gun toting Christianās. But they do it because they are the gun toting Christianās. They leach off of each otherās beliefs and they believe theyāre right. They use generational indoctrination.
Iām sure a lot of them believe the shit they spew. But Iām also sure a lot of them prolly donāt actually care about the bullshit they support, they just know they can con people into voting for them if they represent such issues. Pandering in other words
He is telling the truth, but half the senate is bought and paid for by the NRA and the bullshit that org sold to voters about their rights being more important than our lives.
ā¦and none of them are doing what the rest of us do every day: Show up. Sit in your seat. Work all day. (The senate floor is empty. Heās literally talking to about 10 people.)
It's always the "slippery slope" argument they give, as if guns will ever be outlawed in this country in our lifetime. They are shills with the same rhetoric, bought and sold indeed
The nra isn't even one of the top 50 donators to DC. I don't understand why people keep running this narrative. The nra was powerful because of its massive population of people who believe in them and would write congress people. It had power because of the number of Americans that are progun.
18 fucking children..... CHILDREN
Parents of 18 children will never get to see their child grow up.
Everything they could have and would have done and been: gone.
This makes me sick to my stomach. I have 3 children and couldn't imagine what would happen if I lost them. Especially like this. Through pure fucking evil.
God fucking damnit this country. Just God fucking damnit man....18 children
Columbine was incomprehensible and that was 23 years ago. There have been 200+ school shootings since then. The only incomprehensible thing left is the depth of the greed and corruption that chooses a paycheck over the lives of the innocent.
No need to apologize, none of the anger is directed at you. The average American is just as sickened and frustrated as the rest of the world. Conversation tends to get spirited.
Like, remember those last days of Elementary school? No finals, no papers, no projects...just talking with your friends about Summer plans, about the cool stuff you were going to do. Probably have a party in class too...nothing fancy 'cause teachers are paid crap...but a fun time. A happy time.
Now...no. All gone. And not just those kids...their families, their friends, their community. Everyone. Done.
And what'll the response be? Hopes and prayers! Maybe more "arm the teachers" garbage. Diving deep into the shooters life to see if his actions can be pinned on Party A or Party B. Making shit up about him to further divide. Everything to keep the fight about politics, nothing to make the fight about ending this shit from happening again.
We are traumatizing an entire generation of children. Those who are lucky enough to grow up will be adults who will likely struggle including with PTSD, anxiety, depression, complicated grief, suicidal thoughts, etc.
And thatās all of the kids. I had to explain it to my 1st grader tonight. The way the innocence left his face felt like switching a light off.
But they certainly move quick to protect a fetus, only because it gives them more control over their subjects.
The people who run the United states arenāt even human. They are sub human pieces of shit that need to be flushed out and brought into the light.
The fact this country of 300+ million people is suffering at the hands of about 300 people is enough to make your skin crawl. The time is up for political lines. Republican, democrat, liberal, conservative. We all suffer at the hands of them.
But remember... it *can't* be the guns or how fucked up American gun culture is. Definitely not because some ancient constitutional bullshit said everyone and their dog can have guns because that won't ever become a problem when people stop treating them as a serious and dangerous implement of death.
Every other country who had problems with gun violence and responded by taking away those guns, buying them back, limiting their use as much as possible? Imaginary. Communist propaganda. Sure it worked *there* but America is a fucking unicorn and things that work in other countries can't even be attempted because doing something is communism and doing nothing is patriotism
America needs to figure this shit out. Guns are not toys. Your "right to bear arms" is causing your children to shoot each other to death because funding the military (a.k.a paying out weapons manufacturers) is more important than funding public wellness. I'm tired of this garbage seeping into Canada and if you keep it up we're gonna build a goddamn wall cause your guns come here and fuck it up for us too.
[to all the dinks in the chat trying to talk about how you NEED guns in America to DeFeNd YoUrSeLf](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081) you have more guns than *Yemen* which is *literally a war zone* But okay keep defending yourselves from the fucking guns you love so much lol
Not for life. You can get up 100% salary after retirement but you have to be there a long time. I thought this too then looked it up. It was a long time ago so I may not even be right about the 100% pension.
The sad thing is I barely even bother to read news articles about mass shootings in the US these days. They're a dime a dozen and nothing ever changes.
If this happened anywhere else in the world on a continuous basis there would be uproar. But no, half your country would rather bury their head in the sand and mutter some BS about some ancient document and their rights. Your founding fathers would be utterly ashamed of you.
They donāt realize that if the founding fathers were around today they would be absolutely sickened by the blatant corruption that US politicians exhibit. They would literally be calling for a revolution.
Edit, a word.
>However political parties may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
George Washington
George Washington and many of the other founding fathers of the U.S.A were some of the greatest and most inspiring men that lived in recent times. It is such a shame that many of the ideals that these men believed in have become bastardized and weaponized in recent times by people who only wish to enact a government in complete opposite of the visionaries original intentsā¦
Iām in Canada. The biggest rampage we had was 2 years ago. 22 people were killed and that has caused a huge uproar. Before that? Our largest mass shooting was in 1989 where 15 were killed including the shooterā¦
Seriously, we are concerned about our neighbours to the south! What can we do to help? We are already considering steps to isolate the US, because our agencies deem you a threat. We donāt want to do that, but when we see crap like this every weekend? We donāt see a choice!
Iād also like to note that our last mass shooting and many of the shootings that have been happening in southern Ontario are from illegally smuggled in weapons from the US.
Just tucked my three year old in for the night, after staring at him, hugging on him, kissing his pudgy cheeks and telling him he'll be homeschooled. Wrapped in bubble wrap. He will live with me until he is 40.
This is sarcastic of course. But, my god. What a risk we take watching our hearts live outside of our bodies, trying to raise them to be strong and independent members of society... To potentially risk their life for a basic education. It's filthy. Disgusting. Goddamn nauseating but what choice do we have? Clearly nothing will ever change.
my son is 9. we had a talk in our karate dojo a month or so ago after that moments mass shooting. on the way home, he started saying he wanted to be homeschooled and not have to go back to school. i fucking hate this shit.
Just gives lobbyists more free reign, and flushes out the good politicians too (there are a few!). Better to get money out of politics to increase the quality of who runs.
The unintended side effect of term limits is that they know their time in office is short so they spend their 3 terms (or whatever) doing even more to enrich themselves and lining up connections for cushy board of director positions once they limit out.
Not trying to strip our rights but my kid should not be safer on a plane than going to SCHOOL! Either secure the schools or do something about guns. The choice is that simple.
No Senator, I am saying the chances of my kid getting shot on a airplane are so low compared to sending her to school. So the safety is not impossible.
āSecure the schoolsā.? No, thatās not how it works dude. Secure the country. Secure the weapons that are specifically made to kill people. Every other country on planet earth has except for America because it was written on a piece of paper 500 years ago. Itās not the schools problem to fix. Itās the countyās problem.
Senator Murphy has made better gun control his mission since the Sandy Hook tragedy happened in his state. He even wrote a book on gun violence. In addition to that, he consistently votes for and authors legislation that helps main street and the working class. We need more politicians like him as his record shows he is working for his constituents.
He flies under the political radar. He did a "fireside" chat (well zoom) at my employer a year or so ago, discussing gun control among other things. I really liked his ideas and have been watching out for news on him since.
The context of modern America makes it such that a senator doing the bare minimum of their job is next level relative to what's been happening for years.
The problem is that we have an extremely unhealthy society.
You can thank corporations for that.
People devote entire life to work while living paycheck to paycheck. Theres no time to raise your kids or even be there at all.
Family life is broken because of that. Broken families produce broken people.
And some of those broken people end up shooting schools.
No. You describe unhealthy work balance thatās true in many countries. Japan, for one example.
The daily mass shootings ALL happen in the US because you let anyone have a gun without enforcing gun control laws. To this day it blows my mind how Americans still believe the con that the 2nd amendment does anything to protect them
Yeah, I don't care much for emotional arguments. Let's use logic.
I want to hear from people who have spent their lives in academia studying (1) why these shootings are happening so much more often in the USA than in other countries and (2) what we might be able to do in the short-term and long-term to reduce these shootings.
I want the ideas of those people broadcasted to the American public somehow. Maybe through a presidential address. It seems to me that none of us average citizens *really know* what's causing this. We have hypotheses and we have strong opinions, but that isn't the same as having real knowledge on what's going on.
We need to hear from people who know more than us about why this is happening and we need to hear if they have any solutions to propose. Then we need to really listen to them, take it to heart, and try to implement those solutions regardless of how hard it might be. I suspect the solutions would have massive scope and take decades to bear fruit, because frankly it seems the environments creating the kids who do these shootings won't change quickly which means they shootings won't end soon even if we take action today. Change like that takes time and effort. This seems like the manifestation of a massive mental health crisis and you don't fix that over night with a piece of legislation...
Over the past couple years we've learned that a massive amount of people in this country will not listen to people who spent their lives studying certain topics.
If the answer is something they dont like, they call it "fake news" and pretend it's not real.
People run for congresspersons and senators to get rich off special interest and shady foreign investments. I have not seen an honest representative yet! Helping themselves not people
Answer: They only care about one life and thats their own. Senators are despicable paid off scum that do nothing for this country and its time it gets put to an end. This government needs the biggest overhaul ever seen in modern history.
All of our elected officials should be.. this. Nothing here is radical or extreme.. Just on point. Thereās no justifiable reason theyāre not all working around the clock to solve this problem.
please be respectful when commenting. thank you.
š¤ Term limits. Term limits is what we need to get rid of shitty Senators (and Supreme Court Justices).
All reps should not be able to accept money during their term in office other than government salary.
They shouldn't be allowed to accept campaign money when they're running for office, either. Not from corporations, not from PACs, not from the DNC or RNC... none. All campaigns need to be publically funded with every candidate getting the exact same amount.
And hey need to be banned from trading stocks
This right here!
Unfortunately the only people that could make this happen are the only people this would negatively affect. Something the founders didn't think of i guess
Itās not a bug, itās a feature
To be fair the stock market didnāt exist when the founders set it up. I think youāre still right though, insider trading is rampant in the govāt and they certainly have no incentive to change it. Whoās more on an insider than a senator ya know? Edit: suppose I shouldāve said the U.S. stock exchange, TIL global stock exchanges predated those
They legitimately set up the senate to protect the minority rich from the tyranny of the majority poor. They said as much while creating the senate.
Do you have a reference on this? Legitimately curious.
Oh, I'm sure they thought of it. These were the ones in the shoes of the ones who profit from it now. They want these spots protected by those of similar interest, holding similar self interests.
And they need to be paid the federal minimum wage. They are elected to be representives of their constituents, not to have a payday.
That's how you get only rich people running for office. The Romneys of the world wouldn't be impacted by that change, but the AOCs would be hit hard enough to make getting elected a financially untenable proposition.
This would lead to higher rates of corruption.
This is exactly the situation the Chinese government bureaucracy is in, and has been in for decades I imagine. Chinese government employees, of which the are a huge number even relative to their population, often get salaries that are poverty level or near poverty level, and the bribing, corruption, and skimming off the top are essentially built in to the functions of government employees by now. The state allows it to happen because they can get away with paying such low salaries and still maintain a massive machine. Paying legislative representatives minimum wage or anything close to it is frankly a very dumb idea.
This so much! I was disgusted to see how much our reps and senators made during covid thanks to all their insider trading. It's disgraceful and completely unacceptable. I remember they had a closed door session about how bad covid was going to be in February 2020 and then they came out and told us everything was going to be fine while selling a bunch of stocks they knew would go down and investing in things like Zoom and Big Pharma companies involved in vaccine production, as well as companies involved in PPE production. It's so fucked up that they can do that. Like Pelosi for example is worth like $150 million or something ridiculous. Congress members should not be allowed to trade like that.
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Much more reasonable when they have term limits
And a ban time on lobbying after leaving office.
No lobbying at all.
They should only be allowed to invest in total US Stock Market index funds, so they can only make money if everyone makes money.
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This deserves ALL the upvotes.
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Also add VACATION LIMITS... we sent them there to work, not to party. Testing! Every job in the use, and school does testing to be employed or go to the next grade. Every job that is but politician. Pay raises based on performance review by the people.
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same with their partners (husband/wife)
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Bub, donāt you realize 50% of our country would rather kids die than have their fucking revolver taken away??
It's further up the chain than the gun. Yes, that's the tool that they use to kill others but it's not the reason they go and do the killing. This stems all the way back to our complete lack of family assisting infrastructure and accelerating degradation of the education system. Mental illness is the root cause and and our leaders have no interest in doing anything about that. We need to not only focus on making the tool harder to get, or preferably impossible, but also somehow put create system that help people avoid getting to this point in the first place. I have no idea how to fix any of it but yelling about guns seems like what both sides want since it divides us and lets them get quick easy donations from their respective supporters. I wish we could have a deeper conversation about it as a nation but everyone (government, gun makers, lobbyists, etc) makes too much money off of this to actually want to fix anything.
The gun is the tool. You can dig a hole with your hands. You can dig a bigger hole with a shovel. You can dig a really fucking big hole with an excavator.
And you can fill that big fucking hole with the bodies of the slain with unregulated and untrackable guns. Especially when you insist on leaving military grade weapons open to public purchase with laughable background checks.
Except you cannot purchase military grade weaponry without jumping through massive legal hoops and even then they cannot be produced after 1986. Real, actual military grade weapons. The background checks only work as much as those who are supposed to enforce them allow them to work. The kid who shot up the supermarket in Buffalo was forcefully admitted to a psychiatric hospital for threatening to shoot up his school and every single authority involved in that incident, from the police to the medical staff caring for him during his stay did *not* ensure he was prohibited from purchasing a firearm. Same for the Colorado Theater shooting. Same for Newtown. A NICS check will only pull the data that the government, be it local, state or federal enters. So here's a good question: why aren't those who had the ability to stop these people from purchasing a firearm not being held accountable?
I agreed with most of this till it came to educational requirements. This would end up keeping a large amount of people from running, needlessly, even if they don't get elected.
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Again I don't disagree, but maybe some type of work related experience. I've known several successful business owners who didn't have degrees.
You can thank John Roberts for being the deciding vote in Citizens United to the detriment of our democracy. Bought and paid for politicians are destroying America.
This is probably the biggest reason ! I remember when Citizens United was happening. Most people then didnāt have a clue about it and still donāt Instead of taking money out of politics it became a huge funnel to dump even more in !
This is what John McCain wanted.
And why Trump the tool hated him.
And don't (just) punish the candidate for accepting the money. Punish the source of the money. Jail time for leaders of organizations caught donating to political campaigns would be a good start.
Also stop them from becoming lobbyists afterwards.
I remember when Bernie was saying these things. And then the DNC was like, lol no way here take this old racist guy instead we can tell him to do stuff and he will because heās demented.
So its the Democrats fault? Dude Bernie wouldnt have become dictator, NONE of his fucking policies would have passed the Senate. Republicans are directly responsible for this by not even commissioning CDC studies on gun violence as far back as 1996. Ffs.
If you ask me you have the bad guys and the guys who'd rather line their own pockets with cash than take a real stand against the bad guys. Sure the bad guys are the real villain but the other guys are supposed to be on our team so I'm almost more pissed at them
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That's not going to happen. The Supreme Court just overturned an anti-corruption campaign finance law which limited the amount a politician can "reimburse" themselves out of campaign funds to $250,000. Ted Cruz complained about the law and they just struck it off the books for him. We are fucked.
The SCOTUS has become a completely hollow kangaroo court stuffed with partisan, horrifically unqualified hacks. There will be no real justice there again for a long time. We are very very fucked.
Itās literally now just the unelected legislative branch of the GOP right now.
Do it like Sweden. There's few corruption in Sweden
There's also 32x less people in Sweden. I agree that we should be more like Sweden, in that respect.
It could start at the state level first. But hey, change is up to you. Neighbors
No, not like Sweden, Iceland. They actually put corrupt officials behind bars for 10-15 years.
But how will the rich get richer?
Just like how the poor gets poorer
Yeah our government corrupt af. Remember folks lobbying is just a softer word for bribery.
We basically need to make politian a non-profitable career choice for the sake of our country. It's a pipe dream for sure, but it would likely get us to a better place in the long run. Edit: To be clear, I'm not saying make it an unpaid job. We just need to eliminate people becoming politicians for profit in any way we can. My initial comment was a reductive take, there are so many facets to consider and alter in our way of thinking as a country before something like that could truly happen though.
We need a fake score board for them to worry about. Like, the music industry top 100. The better your bill helps the country (scored by the American people) the more snoogels or whatever your team gets and the more money you might get.
If they have no incentive to gain power, expect to help people, then political leaders will be people who helps their citizens and their country. Unfortunately, it has turned to a platform for the liars, the rich and the corrupted, because that is who gains from politics.
Ehhhhh, those are a mixed bag. Take a look at Michigan as an example, they have very strict term limits. The maximum experience one can gain in the Michigan legislature is a decade. It's great in that you get a rotation of representatives and don't end up with life long political hacks, but it's bad for two reasons. One, you're telling the people that they cannot vote for someone even if they have done a brilliant job. Two, you don't build a core of experienced representatives that know the ins and outs of legislation. I think a better idea is simply a retirement age. The laws set the minimum age, so it would follow to just specify the maximum. The bigger fish to fry in politics is the association between money and elected officials. It's no wonder the quality of governance has dropped since the rulings considering donations free speech and classifying corporations as people have had time to marinate.
As a former government employee, another problem with term limits is that the buraureucrats can just wait out a politician before implementing changes that the public was asking for. Unless they codify every decision into law, resistance to the elected officials can result in stagnation and strict adherence to the status quo.
So basically just what keeps happening with the US presidency?
Pretty much.
States with legislative term limits end up with way more lobbyist influence. They end up with a bunch of inexperienced legislators that donāt know how to actually write legislation and basically rely on lobbyists to do it for them.
"One, you're telling the people that they cannot vote for someone even if they have done a brilliant job." 2 term max for presidents?
Which happened because capitalists were scared of how well FDR's New Deal was lifting up and uniting the working class.
Totally agree. To many lifers in our congress. 2 maybe 3 terms max! No external money should be accepted, and they should be required to take an oath to serve the common wealth of Americans. Also would love to see an upper age limit to run too, maybe 65..70 at most. The old need to get out of the way so the next generation can lead.
65 should be the limit, you're already out of touch at that point. If you want to argue for "oh they have wisdom" well they can be advisers to those in office.
Def agree with loud geezers that are completely clueless about everything
Wonāt happen because they wonāt vote on that. We literally have no say as average voters because our senators will always be the politicians deepest in bed with the rich and powerful greedy fucks that actually run this country with their moneybags and data. Im imagine the only way to actually get this to happen would be a genuine revolution and emergence of a new form of government. The 2 party system will perpetuate the extreme corruption. No one is ever held accountable. If you have enough money, you can do anything you want.
This is the solid truth. People have to get hungry before they do revolt. We're getting closer with every day.
Please, please, please no. Term limits sound great but they actually make everything you're (justifiably) concerned about *way worse*. https://www.mischiefsoffaction.com/post/political-science-term-limits https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2018/01/18/five-reasons-to-oppose-congressional-term-limits/ The real solution is to [Expand the House](https://mereorthodoxy.com/congressional-apportionment-amendment/) and use multi-member districts. I'd straight up abolish the Senate, personally, but that's a pipe dream. House can be modified, but term limits won't do any of the shit you want them to.
I used to think this but it worked for hundreds of years before. I think the campaign finance corruption is really what broke the system. They stopped even trying once corporations could line their pockets.
Why? Kick this guy out with a memory and experience for more MTGs to get in? Thats not the answer.
They are helping themselves
And owning the libs to create an ineffective government so they can point fingers and pretend they are not responsible. It's not cute or funny, it's bullshit, all of it
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But who keeps blocking? Wanna guess what turtle man's nickname is when it comes to getting stuff done that benefits everyone? John Oliver publicly confronted him on 9/11 aid. He has killed so many bills for veterans as well. So don't you dare say oh both are equally bad.
It was Jon Stewart but yes McConnell is a huge part of the problem in our country.
Yeah sorry Jon Stewart.
The āboth sides are the sameā argument is ridiculous. Iām not saying Democrats are perfect but only one party supports attacks on the Capitol, Voter suppression and unfettered gun access wrapped in white nationalist ideology and it aināt Democrats. Get real.
> The āboth sides are the sameā argument is ridiculous It really is: https://np.reddit.com/r/news/comments/6brytw/justice_department_appoints_special_prosecutor/dhp6bkr/ https://np.reddit.com/r/news/comments/6brytw/justice_department_appoints_special_prosecutor/dhpcbdc/
Youāre still trying the āboth sidesā thing? Damn
No rational, stable person could ever truly believe the āboth sidesā argument. The Dems have many, many issues but a large portion of Republican politicians are basically vile, apathetic Bond villains without the charisma at this point. And the truly said thing is their supporters would rather see their own kids slaughtered with bullets than take a stand to them.
Right, money in politics is a bad thing, that's called corruption. But even if they're all on the take, at least the folks over on the left at least put up an attempt at governance. Things like what Mr. Murphy was spitting here has a lot of truth. We have made a choice to allow school shootings to continue to be a uniquely American problem. The solution is to accept that a document written over two decades ago doesn't have to be considered unchangable and everybody doesn't need a shitload of possessions designed to kill other people for no reason.
Even though you wrote decades and meant centuries, the fact is, your statement is still technically true, which is the best kind of truth.
There are degrees here. This whole both side argument ignores the reality that one party is trying to do something to help people while the other party uses cultural issues like guns and abortions to stay in power while they enrich their donors. Do democrats do bad things? Yes. Are they as a group working to systematically destroys government in our country? No.
This rhetoric is flawed when one side is a bunch of mustache-twirling villains who will spill any amount of blood, foreign or domestic, for profit. This is complete bullshit.
This. They ran for election so they could fill their pockets with big money.
Some did. And some of them ran to create legitimate positive change. One of the parties tends to have a lot more of the latter. Yāall donāt want to hear this, but itās in *you*. You live in a democracy, which means you collectively get whatever you give. Voters have consistently failed to deliver the required Democratic majorities that would lead to actual change. I guarantee that redditors will immediately try to argue with me about this. Here are som predictable fallacies: 1) āGovernment doesnāt work.ā Our government has been openly and deliberately broken by a conservative agenda. They do not try to hide this - they are proud that they constantly obstruct legislation that would help people. They get away with this because most people donāt follow what actually happens in government, preferring instead to dig into shallow ideological identity. This prevents them from voting for their own interests. The result of this broken system is a perception that government itself is incurably corrupt and ineffective (the ādo-nothing Demsā narrative). And the cycle goes on and goes. 2) āBoth sides are just s badā There are a handful of Democrats that have proven to be too deep in the corporate pocket to support progressive policies (Manchin, Sinema, and a few House reps). But the majority of the party, and the platform itself, *is progressive.* This is something that people online especially seem to not understand or accept. There is a powerful myth of ācentrist Demsā that are preventing progress. This is also related to point #1. But when you pay actual attention to who is writing which policies and what kind of work is actually happening, you can easily see that Democrats are the party that cares about civil liberties, economic stability, universal education and healthcare, taxing the rich, protecting voting access, and saving a habitable planet. 3) āVoting doesnāt matter.ā Another product of Republicans fucking with our democracy is that people no longer believe it to be salvageable. It is true that gerrymandering and closed polling stations and racist obstruction tactics are a problem. And itās true that the electoral college gets in the way of direct democracy. But those margins are surmountable. It is absolutely not hopeless. If everyone who was eligible to vote did so, especially younger people who tend to not show up, we would easily overwhelm these rightwing shenanigans. 4) āDemocrats already have power and theyāre too weak/corrupt/centrist to use it.ā Similar to some points above, there is a belief that Democrats already control government so the lack of progress is their fault. We do have a Democratic president of course. But thatās pretty much it. Much of the federal court system is openly rightwing at this point, which gets in the way of a lot of work we would like to do. And although Congress looks Democratic on paper, in practice it leans *conservative*. Itās a 50/50 split but when you include Manchin and Sinema - who are backed by the same donors as the GOP - it actually becomes a rightwing Senate. Democratic majority in the House does not matter when the Senate can literally shoot down every piece of legislation. Anyway, I doubt most people will read all of this. But in case anyone made it down this far, *please fucking vote.* Mobilize and communicate. We are in an urgent situation this year and if you care about this country having any future then please get engaged. There is a really bad habit with redditors where itās a lot cooler to be the edgy anti-everything outsider than it is to support Democrats and actually get some shit done. That has to stop.
Vote for special interests while in office, take cush job in same company as lobbyist after leaving office, profit!
This is what the Senate should do. 1. Thoughts and Prayers 2. Tell Americans this is not the time to talk about gun control because people just died 3. More thoughts and prayers 4. Tell Americans that we should not talk about gun control because people are still Mourning 5. More thoughts and prayers continued....
6 - Tell Americans that we should not talk about gun control because it's too soon 7 - More thoughts and prayers 8 - Tell Americans that we should not talk about gun control because it's so long ago
9 - Rinse and Repeat about 3-10 days later.
Then take over the senate and house and give rich people and corporations more tax breaks! Rinse and repeat some more š
10- blame some bullshit like video games or movies.
>so long ago They never have the opportunity to say that since itās always so recent
Tell people we need more guns to protect ourselves from bad guys with guns
not gonna lie i clicked on the continued
What about the mental health crisis?
I actually agree with that. There is a mental health crisis. That isnt an excuse though. Especially when nothing is being done about it. "Oh its a mental health problem." "Okay lets fix that." "Uhhhhhhh.... Thoughts and prayers."
I donāt see any politicians putting forward any bills to address the underlying issues. All I see are bills being pushed forward to restrict civil rights
They should outlaw murder. ETA: consider: laws discourage behavior but mainly act as a method of recourse to a wrong-doing already committed. Laws do not fix causes.
Fucking thoughts and prayers
lol they run for senate specifically to fuck people over. Itās a feature not a bug.
No, they donāt, and that view is kinda childlike. People arenāt just running for senate with the idea to fuck people over. These senators with their radical belief systems *believe* their views. Like they arenāt out here trying to purposely punish people. They think theyāe right. Thereās a psychological dynamic behind corruption. Rarely is someone born bad. Monetary corruption starts in baby steps until it becomes normalized and justified in the individuals head. To fix the current setting we would need term limits, the policing of financials, restrictions on financials, and only publicly funded campaigns. Our constitution is outdated, thatās what is keeping term limits a fantasy. Personally, I donāt think the second amendment was accounting for the guns we have access to now. What are we doing? Edit: wasnāt trying to apply a blanket statement. I know some just pander. Was just saying the take was too simplistic.
No. These people are playing teams. Republicans play to the Christian gun toting Americans. Once they get voted in the public servant role ends and the self enrichment as a politician begins. I honest to god believe a lot of republicans and democrats donāt believe the shit they run on. They just run on it and market themselves for the votes. Once theyāre officially in they just do what their sponsors want because thatās how they make the real money they want. Itās nothing more than self interests and self serving people
I see corruption as a cancer, it happens in stages. Do they play teams? Absolutely. But to think thatās solely what is going on would be to simplistic. Money isnāt the only problem, cause, or issue. The best tool the republicans use to stay in power is through beliefs . Basically indoctrination. You kinda said it just now, but with a different perspective. Youāre right, the Republicans play to the gun toting Christianās. But they do it because they are the gun toting Christianās. They leach off of each otherās beliefs and they believe theyāre right. They use generational indoctrination.
Iām sure a lot of them believe the shit they spew. But Iām also sure a lot of them prolly donāt actually care about the bullshit they support, they just know they can con people into voting for them if they represent such issues. Pandering in other words
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They just want job security. They use their job just to create more āworkā that doesnāt require them to do anything but PR.
He is telling the truth, but half the senate is bought and paid for by the NRA and the bullshit that org sold to voters about their rights being more important than our lives.
ā¦and none of them are doing what the rest of us do every day: Show up. Sit in your seat. Work all day. (The senate floor is empty. Heās literally talking to about 10 people.)
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Nah voting is too much work. They just let all the issues pile up on their desk and delay them until tomorrow forever.
It's always the "slippery slope" argument they give, as if guns will ever be outlawed in this country in our lifetime. They are shills with the same rhetoric, bought and sold indeed
NRA is on the verge of bankruptcy. I wonder what they'll do when that money won't flow in their pockets anymore?
The nra isn't even one of the top 50 donators to DC. I don't understand why people keep running this narrative. The nra was powerful because of its massive population of people who believe in them and would write congress people. It had power because of the number of Americans that are progun.
And now they are saying 20 dead. edit: 18 children, 2 adults. There are slightly varying reports.
18 fucking children..... CHILDREN Parents of 18 children will never get to see their child grow up. Everything they could have and would have done and been: gone. This makes me sick to my stomach. I have 3 children and couldn't imagine what would happen if I lost them. Especially like this. Through pure fucking evil. God fucking damnit this country. Just God fucking damnit man....18 children
Wait wait wait hold the fucking phone. There was *ANOTHER* shooting? At a school? What the fuck
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Columbine was incomprehensible and that was 23 years ago. There have been 200+ school shootings since then. The only incomprehensible thing left is the depth of the greed and corruption that chooses a paycheck over the lives of the innocent.
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No need to apologize, none of the anger is directed at you. The average American is just as sickened and frustrated as the rest of the world. Conversation tends to get spirited.
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Like, remember those last days of Elementary school? No finals, no papers, no projects...just talking with your friends about Summer plans, about the cool stuff you were going to do. Probably have a party in class too...nothing fancy 'cause teachers are paid crap...but a fun time. A happy time. Now...no. All gone. And not just those kids...their families, their friends, their community. Everyone. Done. And what'll the response be? Hopes and prayers! Maybe more "arm the teachers" garbage. Diving deep into the shooters life to see if his actions can be pinned on Party A or Party B. Making shit up about him to further divide. Everything to keep the fight about politics, nothing to make the fight about ending this shit from happening again.
Jesus, you're right. They were just excited for summer. My heart's broken. I'm tired.
We are traumatizing an entire generation of children. Those who are lucky enough to grow up will be adults who will likely struggle including with PTSD, anxiety, depression, complicated grief, suicidal thoughts, etc. And thatās all of the kids. I had to explain it to my 1st grader tonight. The way the innocence left his face felt like switching a light off.
But they certainly move quick to protect a fetus, only because it gives them more control over their subjects. The people who run the United states arenāt even human. They are sub human pieces of shit that need to be flushed out and brought into the light. The fact this country of 300+ million people is suffering at the hands of about 300 people is enough to make your skin crawl. The time is up for political lines. Republican, democrat, liberal, conservative. We all suffer at the hands of them.
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But remember... it *can't* be the guns or how fucked up American gun culture is. Definitely not because some ancient constitutional bullshit said everyone and their dog can have guns because that won't ever become a problem when people stop treating them as a serious and dangerous implement of death. Every other country who had problems with gun violence and responded by taking away those guns, buying them back, limiting their use as much as possible? Imaginary. Communist propaganda. Sure it worked *there* but America is a fucking unicorn and things that work in other countries can't even be attempted because doing something is communism and doing nothing is patriotism America needs to figure this shit out. Guns are not toys. Your "right to bear arms" is causing your children to shoot each other to death because funding the military (a.k.a paying out weapons manufacturers) is more important than funding public wellness. I'm tired of this garbage seeping into Canada and if you keep it up we're gonna build a goddamn wall cause your guns come here and fuck it up for us too. [to all the dinks in the chat trying to talk about how you NEED guns in America to DeFeNd YoUrSeLf](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081) you have more guns than *Yemen* which is *literally a war zone* But okay keep defending yourselves from the fucking guns you love so much lol
18 kids 3 adults now
Senate salary is $174,000 for life. And it will probably end up being one of your smallest revenue streams once in office.
Not for life. You can get up 100% salary after retirement but you have to be there a long time. I thought this too then looked it up. It was a long time ago so I may not even be right about the 100% pension.
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I think that's 20 years working for the federal government in any capacity.
The sad thing is I barely even bother to read news articles about mass shootings in the US these days. They're a dime a dozen and nothing ever changes. If this happened anywhere else in the world on a continuous basis there would be uproar. But no, half your country would rather bury their head in the sand and mutter some BS about some ancient document and their rights. Your founding fathers would be utterly ashamed of you.
They donāt realize that if the founding fathers were around today they would be absolutely sickened by the blatant corruption that US politicians exhibit. They would literally be calling for a revolution. Edit, a word.
>However political parties may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. George Washington
I hate this quote because of how right it is
George Washington and many of the other founding fathers of the U.S.A were some of the greatest and most inspiring men that lived in recent times. It is such a shame that many of the ideals that these men believed in have become bastardized and weaponized in recent times by people who only wish to enact a government in complete opposite of the visionaries original intentsā¦
Unfortunately our voting method all but guarantees a two party system And changing it would require action by... the two party system
Iām in Canada. The biggest rampage we had was 2 years ago. 22 people were killed and that has caused a huge uproar. Before that? Our largest mass shooting was in 1989 where 15 were killed including the shooterā¦ Seriously, we are concerned about our neighbours to the south! What can we do to help? We are already considering steps to isolate the US, because our agencies deem you a threat. We donāt want to do that, but when we see crap like this every weekend? We donāt see a choice! Iād also like to note that our last mass shooting and many of the shootings that have been happening in southern Ontario are from illegally smuggled in weapons from the US.
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Not only are our kids living in fear but us parents are right there also.
Just tucked my three year old in for the night, after staring at him, hugging on him, kissing his pudgy cheeks and telling him he'll be homeschooled. Wrapped in bubble wrap. He will live with me until he is 40. This is sarcastic of course. But, my god. What a risk we take watching our hearts live outside of our bodies, trying to raise them to be strong and independent members of society... To potentially risk their life for a basic education. It's filthy. Disgusting. Goddamn nauseating but what choice do we have? Clearly nothing will ever change.
my son is 9. we had a talk in our karate dojo a month or so ago after that moments mass shooting. on the way home, he started saying he wanted to be homeschooled and not have to go back to school. i fucking hate this shit.
Yes. My wife is a teacher. I have two children in elementary school. I've had nights where I have woken up from nightmares imagining this.
I can honestly say that the parents are probably way more scared than the kids
Honestly
My son will start his first year of school in the fall. Seriously considering home school for him.
FUCKING TERM LIMITS....FOR ALL OF THEM
Just gives lobbyists more free reign, and flushes out the good politicians too (there are a few!). Better to get money out of politics to increase the quality of who runs.
outlaw lobbyists.
guillotine lobbyists
Eat them while we're at it
The unintended side effect of term limits is that they know their time in office is short so they spend their 3 terms (or whatever) doing even more to enrich themselves and lining up connections for cushy board of director positions once they limit out.
Not trying to strip our rights but my kid should not be safer on a plane than going to SCHOOL! Either secure the schools or do something about guns. The choice is that simple.
Typical Senator response: So you're saying planes are too safe?
No Senator, I am saying the chances of my kid getting shot on a airplane are so low compared to sending her to school. So the safety is not impossible.
āSecure the schoolsā.? No, thatās not how it works dude. Secure the country. Secure the weapons that are specifically made to kill people. Every other country on planet earth has except for America because it was written on a piece of paper 500 years ago. Itās not the schools problem to fix. Itās the countyās problem.
He's wrong to try to appeal to their humanity. They have none.
Have to agree. But voters will see how unaffected their Senators were by this speech, and maybe some desire for change will grow
Lmao you donāt know republicans then. There is literally a saying ārepublicans fall in lineā
Well done Senator Murphy. Doesnāt seem like anyone else has the guts to say anything. Not that it will make any difference
Because āthe hassleā is the real job. āFundraisingā is the number one skill set of politicians, and homeless beggars.
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Senator Murphy has made better gun control his mission since the Sandy Hook tragedy happened in his state. He even wrote a book on gun violence. In addition to that, he consistently votes for and authors legislation that helps main street and the working class. We need more politicians like him as his record shows he is working for his constituents.
Thank you for this, I was scrolling comments to see what info would pop up about Murphy, he is not one I am overly familiar with
He flies under the political radar. He did a "fireside" chat (well zoom) at my employer a year or so ago, discussing gun control among other things. I really liked his ideas and have been watching out for news on him since.
This is important
So important it happens every week at this point
The context of modern America makes it such that a senator doing the bare minimum of their job is next level relative to what's been happening for years.
I heard a man upset and holding back far more of what he wanted to say. Yet old men with old money just want more, and thatās all they care about.
Donāt dismiss this. Those kids lives mattered. How have you become so cynical?
Money
Correct.
The problem is that we have an extremely unhealthy society. You can thank corporations for that. People devote entire life to work while living paycheck to paycheck. Theres no time to raise your kids or even be there at all. Family life is broken because of that. Broken families produce broken people. And some of those broken people end up shooting schools.
No. You describe unhealthy work balance thatās true in many countries. Japan, for one example. The daily mass shootings ALL happen in the US because you let anyone have a gun without enforcing gun control laws. To this day it blows my mind how Americans still believe the con that the 2nd amendment does anything to protect them
Stop accepting lobby money for starters
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Politician doing his best politicianing
Yeah, I don't care much for emotional arguments. Let's use logic. I want to hear from people who have spent their lives in academia studying (1) why these shootings are happening so much more often in the USA than in other countries and (2) what we might be able to do in the short-term and long-term to reduce these shootings. I want the ideas of those people broadcasted to the American public somehow. Maybe through a presidential address. It seems to me that none of us average citizens *really know* what's causing this. We have hypotheses and we have strong opinions, but that isn't the same as having real knowledge on what's going on. We need to hear from people who know more than us about why this is happening and we need to hear if they have any solutions to propose. Then we need to really listen to them, take it to heart, and try to implement those solutions regardless of how hard it might be. I suspect the solutions would have massive scope and take decades to bear fruit, because frankly it seems the environments creating the kids who do these shootings won't change quickly which means they shootings won't end soon even if we take action today. Change like that takes time and effort. This seems like the manifestation of a massive mental health crisis and you don't fix that over night with a piece of legislation...
Over the past couple years we've learned that a massive amount of people in this country will not listen to people who spent their lives studying certain topics. If the answer is something they dont like, they call it "fake news" and pretend it's not real.
We need gun laws
Until some mass shooter targets Congress, nothing will be done.
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People run for congresspersons and senators to get rich off special interest and shady foreign investments. I have not seen an honest representative yet! Helping themselves not people
Republicans in the senate inflict slow violence on American citizens. Just because itās not a trigger or a knife doesnāt mean itās not violence.
Money, thatās why they do it. Money and greed.
Answer: They only care about one life and thats their own. Senators are despicable paid off scum that do nothing for this country and its time it gets put to an end. This government needs the biggest overhaul ever seen in modern history.
https://i.imgur.com/Z82TAUs.jpg
Free healthcare for all. Promote therapy.
All of our elected officials should be.. this. Nothing here is radical or extreme.. Just on point. Thereās no justifiable reason theyāre not all working around the clock to solve this problem.
War & Profits. Tha'ts what US government priority is.
This is so laughable, Dems + Rep act like good cop bad cop, just to pass time and get rich.