Editor,
This latest billion-dollar worldwide embarrassment known as the 2020 presidential election should be a wake-up call to the voters of our country that the one-party corporate millionaire dictatorship does not represent all the people of the United States. Sorry to say, but not everyone is a Democrat or Republican. Many of us are being taxed without representation when our candidates are not included in the debates.
We witnessed the results of this one-party system — people being shot in the streets, neighborhoods being burned down, citizen pitted against citizen — we need fresh ideas of a new way of thinking and a new way of governing where an all-inclusive form of government would be the solution.
It’s time for an all-inclusive parliamentary form of government where every political party that has ballot access, Green Party, Libertarian and Peace and Freedom, have representatives from their party representing them in their state, and all political campaigns are government-financed where billionaires, corporations and foreign governments cannot buy their way into our political system thus influencing the election.
Frank Scafani
San Bruno
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(35) comments
Hello, Frank
I, too, am neither Democrat nor Republican, and would like to see changes to our elections. However, I'm concerned that a parliamentary style of representation would eventually devolve into a single party system (like we presently have in California).
I'm not sure exactly how we can improve the system, but perhaps Congressional term limits would be a place to start. And I'd like to hear what other readers have to say on this topic...
I tend to agree with you, Ray. I think we need to look at terms for starters. Six years seems too long for The Senate, while two years may be too short for The House. Thoughts?
Good morning Ray,
I think we have discussed term limits before but I may have commented on them with someone else. We have always had term limits but people don't use them. They are called votes. If you don't like how the elected person is doing you vote them out. If you do like how they are doing why get rid of them unnecessarily after one or two terms?
Taffy , we can vote out local politicians fairly easily but how do we dislodge those who are backed by their political machines? How do we know whether there are no better candidates than the crop of Democrats who have dominated the scene for decades in the Bay area? New blood simply does not get the exposure by the new media. Speier and Pelosi, for example, have not had to campaign for years. I think we should have a one term presidency of 6 years and term limits for the rest, a total of not to exceed 12 years to keep them from job hopping to other, higher offices.
Yes, I recall you mentioning that elections can be used to determine how long someone stays in office. So... should we set aside the 22nd Amendment (term limits for president)?
Intuitively, we know that someone serving 5, 6 or more terms in the Senate is more than likely less effective than a 2-3 term senator. While there is some comfort for voters in returning an incumbent to his or her office, don't we often hear when a political newcomer unseats an incumbent that it's time for new blood?
While I don't have any stats at my fingertips, it seems that politicians who hold office for decades are more susceptible to approving pork. Maybe not.
Term limits would mean that someone like Don Young... Alaska's only congressman... who has been serving since 1973 would be put out to pasture. He has been rated one of the top bipartisan politicians in DC. But he has also been investigated over the past dozen years or so for bribes and other misdeeds. Don't you think Alaskans could have elected a qualified person in the mid-90s to represent them in the manner they deserved? But Young has been in Congress well over four decades. It just seems like incumbents just have too much of an advantage when election time rolls around. What about Maxine Waters? 'Nuff said.
Remember... term limits would apply to both sides of the political aisle.
Mr. Fowler,
Approval of the A.C.A. was the price paid by long time Alaskans when we replaced Stevens with Begich. I have voted for replacement of Young every primary but will never again risk losing the seat to a Democratic Party candidate. I have learned voting principles can be expensive.
Ray,
I do understand the dilemma of the vote vs term limits. I am just disappointed in the fact that so many people don't bother to use one of our most important privileges. Local elections often times only have less than 30% turnout. Locals are where our vote counts the most. If we had 70-80% or more turnout I think the vote would take care of term limits but under the circumstances I will give in to the limits, if for no other reason than to get rid of some of the existing hypocritical beings in congress now. Graham, McConnell, and Rubio just to start and I know that there are many on the left also.
BTW, just wine with dinner tonight but I don't have a stemmed fishbowl either.
Top of the day Mr. Tafhdyd,
We once succeeded voting Senator Murkowski out during the primaries in. She ran as a write in the general and won re-election. Though I thought as you in the past, I now agree with Mr. Fowler. I decided on a two term rule for three decades, after having peered behind the curtain.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/murkowski-concedes-alaska-senate-primary-to-miller
Wilfred,
Good to here from you. I know you said you read the DJ even if you don't write often so I thought with Alaska in the comment I was looking forward to see if you would fill us in on the northern viewpoint. Thanks!
Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
Tafhdyd,
Thank you for your holiday wishes. I wish the same for you and everyone else here. You all enhance my understanding of how to see things differently.
BTW, Tafhdyd. If you know how to copy and paste, you can insert web addresses to your web browser address line and not get the error message you mentioned to Ray in another thread.
Wilfred,
Thanks, I have copied and pasted before. I don't recall the specifics of the time you mention but I do know once I had problem with a site that every time I tried it would copy everything or nothing, pictures, ads etc. I do know that there are plenty of functions and short cuts on the computer that I don't know about or if I tried them I forgot the details of how they work.
Time to whack the hornet's nest...
Hey, Terence... are you out there? I thought for sure you would add your take on this month's election to the discussion. I was looking forward to it.
Now, everyone who disagrees with Terence is laughing up his sleeve whenever Terence states his opinion about the election. However, trying to poke fun at Terence's point of view does not really address his assertion that there is something rotten in the state of Denmark... er, I mean the state of Delaware.
The Constitution is clear. State legislatures are empowered to enact voting protocols... not state election boards or state governors or state judges. Yet, in the most crucial of swing states... Pennsylvania... a lower court ruled that accepting ballots should continue past the voting deadline, signatures did not have to match, and missing or fuzzy postmarks were OK. What?! (I just love to punctuate with interrobangs)
Now, a state election board in Georgia is setting policy re: drop-off ballot boxes for the Senate run-off on January 5. Again... what?!
Does anyone think the Constitution was set up to allow an appointee or single elected official to create voting policy for an entire state without any oversight? That responsibility is vested only in a state legislature. The fact that such irregularities occurred before and after November 3 has fueled cries from some conservative that the election was rigged. From their perspective, that is an entirely reasonable conclusion.
Right, Terence?
Hi Ray – out for a few days to a no electronic devices/mask optional/distancing optional retreat. We didn’t want to be outed like our hypocritical Governor. As for the election, when Trump concedes, then I’ll concede. Until then, it’s not over. If you bet on a hockey team, would you pay up after the other team scored the first goal? In this election, as an example, we have voter fraud. If voter fraud is allowed to exist with no penalty, then voter fraud will become even more rampant, on all sides, as there are no consequences. Ditto with allowing judges or boards to set policy.
Regarding changes to election policy, I’d recommend we concentrate on what people believe are the primary issues. Let’s say it’s money and time in office. So let’s set a policy where money and time in office become consequential. For example, let’s have candidates sign a slate of promises and positions on issues and if they don’t follow through on working towards those promises, or go against their positions, they immediately lose their office and must send all monies received during their time in office to the government Social Security fund. Money and time in office problem solved.
Terence, welcome back.
Good idea you have there. That would be a sure way to eliminate Trump. It would get rid of him but there would be no monetary benefit to the SS system because all of his money is borrowed, stolen or conned with smoke and mirrors. BTW, I still think you should inquire about your health.
Good to hear from you... and Terence, too.
This is very long set of comments...
I'm pretty sure Donald Trump was talking about a rigged election well before Nov. 3. Yes, it certainly looked like a Republican win in PA before election rules... not enacted by the state legislature as is required by the Constitution... started to shift the totals.
That's one of the things I don't hear discussed on CNN... the Constitution clearly says that only a state legislature can make election rules. A state governor cannot sign an executive order to change the voting process, a state election board cannot implement policy, and judges cannot affirm those policies made out of whole cloth. Yet, that's what happened in PA. The other thing I don't hear is... if it was OK for Al Gore to challenge election results in the courts for over five weeks, shouldn't Donald Trump be allowed the same right?
Let's put this state legislature thing in perspective. Wyoming (again... the Cowboy State enters the discussion). Wyoming is known as the Equality State. Why? In 1869, the all-male territorial legislature approved a measure to allow women the right to vote. What?! Yes... 51 years before the 19th Amendment went into effect. Then, in 1890, Wyoming applied for statehood contingent upon allowing women the right to vote. Congress accepted that deal. The state legislature is driving the bus... not the governor... not an election commission... not a judge. And it's a judge in PA who said it's OK to keep counting late ballots, skip the signature comparison requirement, and said that no postmarks were also acceptable. Wow. That huge irregularity is a good reason to make a claim that PA's results are bogus. The question then becomes... can it be proven?
Arizona... more of the same.
"Should we change the rules so everyone goes home at midnight and call the leader the winner?" No... not quite. With the exception of folks who know they won't be anywhere near the polls on election day, e.g. military, and folks who physically cannot get to the polls... what's wrong with either voting in person or personally dropping off a completed ballot at a county office? Voting is a big deal... voters should take pride in the fact they are participating in the selection of our representatives. But it appears to me that blue staters would rather harvest votes instead of encouraging others to show up at a minimum of once every four years to put a dozen or two dozen marks on a piece of paper then drop that paper into a ballot box to elect someone to the highest office in the land.
We agree... as vets and as Americans... no votes of our military personnel should be discarded. Every command has an officer with the responsibility of making sure votes are submitted in a timely fashion. Getting those votes back to the states can be done even from forward deployed areas.
How does Alaska fit into this discussion? In a most interesting way... I hope Wilfredo sees this and can give us some insight. Local governments in AK are largely made up of boroughs and communities. The largest local jurisdiction is the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area... it's the size of Montana with a population of about 6,000. They start their early voting in mid-October and everyone who is eligible to vote, has the opportunity to get their vote in on or before election day. So, coming full circle, without the physical logistic challenges found up around Fort Yukon... why is it so difficult for votes to get counted in PA? .
"My last item on PA is that the Republican legislature specifically said that absentee ballots could not be counted until election day... " Hmmm... "there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio." than your absentee ballots. How many of those ballots were of the absentee variety and how many were mail in ballots that were not signature checked or were accepted without postmarks?
Election Day was Nov. 3. Yet, in PA... we have a range of dates instead of an election date. If that's the new standard, try sending in your tax returns on April 30th with a note saying the IRS filing date is more a concept than a requirement.
Hello Ray,
I am not sure what happened to Terence. I also asked for a clarification on a comment from him a couple of days ago and have not seen a response.
A comment or two about Pennsylvania. I remember Donald claiming victory there Tuesday night and then the next day saying that they were cheating because they were still counting votes Wednesday. He claimed that only the votes counted by the end of election day were valid. Of course he also said that they should keep counting votes in Arizona at the same time. What was the difference? He was leading in PA and behind in AZ.
Should we change the rules so everyone goes home at midnight and call the leader the winner? The US Supreme Court cited delays in the mails as reason to accept ballots until Friday after the election in PA. I am sure Americans would not want the ballots of our military personnel discarded if they were mailed before the close of election day. It is not PA but Alaska has another problem with counting votes by the end of the day. Thousands of their citizens live in remote villages and islands and it takes a significant amount of time to transport the ballots to their county offices.
My last item on PA is that the Republican legislature specifically said that absentee ballots could not be counted until election day thus automatically causing delays in the count due to the labor intensive process and the larger than normal number (2.5 mil) of ballots sent in.
Ray,
I will try and get back to you for some rebuttals on your "long" reply but if you notice I had to resubmit my comment you replied to after a complaint. I also hope Wilfred will check in with some Alaska voting expertise.
I look forward to your reply. They're thoughtful and genuine.
I'll check in later tonight... I'm getting ready to do some family Zoomin' with my nephew and niece in SoCal. If you don't get a chance to send a reply my way... no worries... I'll check tomorrow.
You know... if you take and pass the quiz on the material in my long set of comments, you can get some CEUs.
Hello Ray,
I will take a stab at a few rebuttals and see how it goes. When I first read your reply I wasn’t sure if you were playing devil’s advocate or if you were starting to believe Terence and his OAN, Newsmax, Qanon, Hannity, Carlson and Trump conspiracy theories.
You brought up Gore vs Bush in Florida and I know that someone with your expertise in these matters knows that that was a completely different set of circumstances and challenges. That was only an issue about whether the votes were counted properly due to Florida’s punchcard ballots and the number of “hanging chads” and what the voter really meant to punch. There was no charge of rigging, fraud or other nefarious things that Trump is claiming. It was also only in Florida and not in several states that Gore lost as opposed to Trump complaining about several states he was losing. The recount ended with a difference of 500 plus votes out of several million. Not 20, 60 or 80 thousand votes as is the case in PA and other states. I looked at a few articles to refresh my memory and here is one that I thought summed it up. (My link doesn’t seem to work so I will try at the end.)
As I said, the PA legislature set the rule that votes could not be counted until Nov. 3rd and with 2.5 million absentee ballots, most of which were already in house, it was inevitable that numbers would change after midnight. With regards to how many were postmarked, checked etc. The state has separated all those received after the 3rd, per court instructions, so that if the need arises they can be further scrutinized due to additional law suits.
I do hope we hear from Wilford about Alaska because I was taking my info from an article I read from Alaska, I think, about why they were taking so long to get the final results.
If we don't meet on line tomorrow be sure to have a nice and safe Thanksgiving.
Looks like the link may work this time.
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-al-gore-florida-elections-2fed3442e8298aabb1541d6e3aea43b5
You are correct. The issues in Florida were different. But I am speaking to process. If the swing states were clearly in the Biden column on Nov. 3, then protests from Republicans would just be a lot of noise. Gore had his reasons for challenging results and he did. Trump has his reasons to challenge results and he should be allowed to do so. IMO will it change anything on Jan. 20? Nope.
My point re: PA votes goes to a judge altering criteria for what is an acceptable ballot. The legislature had already set that standard... a judge changed it (signatures, postmarks, etc.). He is not Constitutionally authorized to do so.
Do I personally think there were some Dem shenanigans on or about Nov. 3? Probably. I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I cannot. Here it is... the left just spent four years demonizing the president and calling for his impeachment from the very beginning. They had no problem fabricating info to suggest Russian collusion, and in the end, no evidence of the treasonous conduct they claimed happened was ever produced. Don't you think those same people would stuff a ballot box here or there in an effort to usher the very devil himself out of office? OK... off the soapbox.
Yeah... I hope Wilfredo can educate us re: the nuances of AK politics. It looks like a very interesting topic.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
Good morning Mr. Fowler and Tafhdyd,
I see veracity and defensible rationale in both your comments. As far as elections go, I wrap myself in the serenity prayer. Empirical evidence leads me to believe there are few patriots in politics nowadays. Instead Government is about gainful employment. And because I believe when it comes to egos, sex and money, all bets are off. My life has taught me that men will do whatever is necessary to achieve their desired ends. Take a look at "The Establishment" and I am sure you'll see as I. Their lives are intertwined. From their days in universities to the graveyard. They employ each other, celebrate together, wed and bury each other...nuf said. Americans, legal, "undocumented" and even some deceased, cast their votes. For me the details, in the big picture, are inconsequential. Thanks be to God, our forefathers provided the framework for the nation to thrive in perpetuity. So I say let's make the best of it using the tools they bequeath us.
Hello, Wilfred
Wise words...
Mr. Fowler,
Thank you for the chuckle your attention to detail provided me. Wilfredo was my pre-naturalization first name. Your thoughtfulness is always noticed and appreciated.
Wilfred & Ray,
As Ray says, Wise words. Don't ask me why but for some reason they also triggered in my mind a few additional words. Where never is heard a discouraging word and the sky is not cloudy all day.
Wilfrred, I am still curious if my understanding of delayed vote totals in Alaska are due to isolated villages and transportation issues or is that just something a reporter put out to keep the lower 48 happy?
Tafhdyd,
Good evening my friend. The following link should provide answers to the questions you have. My wife Barbara has worked as a paid volunteer for the City of Wasilla, Matanuska-Susitna Borough and State of Alaska. She knows people that might elaborate on specific questions you may have. Let know know and I'll do my best.
https://www.elections.alaska.gov/Core/electioncalendar.php
Thanks for the info Wilfred,
It does answer some of the questions. I see that Alaska extends absentee ballots for 10 days for US and it's territories and 15 days for overseas ballots postmarked by election day. The only thing that wasn't clear in the calendar was what happens with in person voting on election day in small isolated villages. Are they radioed or phoned in to the main office or carried by boat, plane, dog sled, etc. Now that I just asked, I think that maybe they don't vote in person in isolated villages. Maybe they vote by mail and the above info would cover that.
Tafhdyd,
I like your additional words.
Wilfred,
Like I said, I don't know why the words popped into my head. I haven't heard the main tune, "Home on the Range" in at least 20 years or more. Have a good Turkey day.
Tafhdyd,
Happy Thanksgiving for you and yours as well. I'll get an answer for you on remote voting on election day. It will be interesting to research.
For Wilfredo and Tafhdyd...
First, let me say, "Happy Thanksgiving!"
Yes, there are a lot of animals up in the Last Frontier, and that includes some interesting political animals.
Here's s song that will fit nicely next to that Home on the Range... "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" by Sons of the Pioneers. It also fits in nicely in the 90s in LA... that's the 1990s not the 1890s.
Mr. Fowler,
Happy Thanksgiving for you and yours as well. Bing took me to a version that included Roy Rodgers and Trigger. Talk about some Americana. Thanks.
Wilfred,
I found the original article that I read that I was questioning/referring to in an earlier comment.
https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/11/05/every-state-except-alaska-has-counted-more-than-60-of-its-votes-heres-why/
Tafhdyd,
Thanks for sharing this article. It parallels what my wife has shared with me. Forgive me but I have zero confidence in media reports; even PBS/NPR affiliates. I will see what I can turn up as soon as possible. Most election workers are burned out right now anyway. I am confident that logistics coupled with legalities will play predominant roles in reporting timelines. Additionally, my mother-in-law passed away today. So there will probably be additional delays. No disrespect intended for the departed, but she was a full blown dementia case. Living with her for three months last year was a nightmare I will never forget.
Wilfred,
Thanks for your information. I sincerely offer my condolences for your loss. I know first hand of your nightmare. At the present time I am the sole caregiver for my wife who has dementia and early stages of Alzheimer's. We still function ok some days but others she does not know who I am or who she is or where she lives, etc. Take care of your needs and don't worry about the election.
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