tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17629790.post4525341322564958597..comments2024-03-29T02:23:04.995-06:00Comments on twin city sidewalks: On Cities and TrumpBill Lindekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11373780012930618768noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17629790.post-82099181135553207182016-11-22T08:29:48.919-06:002016-11-22T08:29:48.919-06:00Cities will eventually have to arm themselves and ...Cities will eventually have to arm themselves and *demand* a democratic system where each person has the same amount of voting power.<br /><br />I've been talking about how fundamentally undemocratic and broken the US federal government system is for a long, long time. People are only listening now. I wish they'd listened earlier.<br /><br />A short program of reform:<br />-- Abolish the Electoral College<br />-- Elect the President by approval voting<br />-- Abolish the Senate, transferring its powers to the House<br />-- Elect the House by Single Transferrable Vote (proportional representation) within each state<br />-- Abolish lifetime tenure for federal judges, in favor of 14-year terms (such as we have in NYS)<br /><br />This would fix most of the major problems with the US federal system. And only two of the items (abolishing the Senate and abolishing lifetime tenure for federal judges) actually require Constitutional amendments; the others have workarounds and can be done without amendments. (For example, National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.)Nathanaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17629790.post-68691937431357530142016-11-17T19:57:35.342-06:002016-11-17T19:57:35.342-06:00Thanks for this, Bill.
It does make you wonder: c...Thanks for this, Bill.<br /><br />It does make you wonder: cities, for the most part, should be fiscally sustainable. To the degree they rely on federal funding, it's because their citizens' tax dollars are shunted upward and then dolled out back down. We know that cities support fundamentally insolvent exurbs and rural areas. So, it seems like cutting the cord to some extent would leave cities the relative winners.<br /><br />Of course, the worst-worst case is that the tax dollars of urbanites continue to fund stroads in the Anokas of the world while simultaneously the faucet is cut to cities. jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00188145457536550242noreply@blogger.com