I won’t jump into the larger debates, but i WILL say that i dont’ think your idea of everybody serving on congress woudl work. There are some people just not meant to make decisions, or vote on them, that affect the lives of millions of people, however i will offer a compromise: limit them to 1 or 2 terms. We limit our presidential terms to 2.5, why not limit a congressman’s to even smaller. It scares me whenever i see somebody who’s been in office as long or longer than i’ve been alive.

That said, here’s one of my biggest beefs with our government, the Prohibition that still exists in the form of anti drug movements. Our government has caused gangwars in almost every metropolitan area, caused the creation of violent cartels, missed out on billions of dollars in tax revenue, and LOSES Billions every year ‘fighting’ drugs. I’m not a fan of drugs. I have never touched them myself. And i don’t think EVERYTHING shoudl be legal, there are some controlled substances that shoudl remain as such. hell, leave’em all controlled, just let people pay to get jacked up legally and tax the hell out of it. Our ‘war on drugs’ has been happening for 30 years, yet numbers say they’re losing ground every year. We need to quit fighting it, legalize it, and pour some of the revenue gained back into education, rehab etc. Meh, that’s my pipe dream. the logistics never work out, but i get sick of hearing about the trouble they cause with nothing obvious being done to attack the source of the problem: the people who USE them. not hte growers, cookers, distributors, or pushers. the users are the root of the problem. Either change how they use it or make the punishments for using stiffer (but then the politicians caught doing it couldn’t weasel their way out as easily), or just HAVE punishments for using, since right now its practically nonexistant.

Like i said, there are a lot of people who don’t need to be makign laws, and i’m probaby one of them…

The direct democracy Kevin is referring to is something I learned watching a History Channel special about Athens. In the ancient Greek city, they didn’t elect their senate representatives; each year, men were chosen at random via a lottery to serve in the senate. It was expected that at some point in his life, every man would sit on the senate at least once.

This made me think: what a fantastic idea. What a great way to get the people directly involved in the government and break the stranglehold the rich and powerful have. Obviously it wouldn’t work for the whole government, but consider Congress. It would be a massive shift in the way things operate, but I think that citizens chosen at random (like for jury duty) could be asked to serve in Congress for a certain amount of time (they would have the option to decline for extenuating circumstances). The Senate could remain a representative (elected) body for the things that require a full-time career politican.

A pleasant fantasy, I think.

I don’t mean to open a can of worms here, but I’m not sure that making abortions illegal is the correct answer. I am a Christian and cringe at the thought of the operation. However, making this illegal could turn into something similar to prohibition. Abortions would probably still happen, but under more unsafe and dangerous conditions. The solution to this problem is encouraging pregnant women to change there minds and realize that this is sin. You’ve heard the saying “you can lead a horse to water…”

As per our discussion, Matt, you should post some information about the direct democracy idea that you were talking about. It sounds interesting.