NYT Op Ed: Time To Cancel Midterm Elections

[Anti Federalist]

Just go in the shower and scrub the whiteness off!!

I hate my white privilege.

 

[Anti Federalist]

Wonder where the Times was in 2006?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_elections,_2006

ETA: (like I had to guess)

More Power to Them: Democrats Win Beyond Congress

By Thomas F. Schaller

November 10, 2006 9:37 pmNovember 10, 2006 9:37 pm

http://midtermmadness.blogs.nytimes...tion=Opinion&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body#more-43

 

[Brian4Liberty]

The NYT would change their tune quick enough if the POTUS was GOP.

Wonder where the Times was in 2006?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_elections,_2006

Good question.

The ‘cancel the midterms’ malfunction
By Tom Jackson - November 3, 2014

Mere hours before the electorate is expected to deliver a repudiation of President Obama — related reading on that here — and coming on the heels of William Galston’s lament about midterm elections gumming up the work of government, The New York Times also has weighed in and found the Framers’ wisdom wanting.

Like Galston, Duke Prof. David Schanzer and his student protege, Jay Sullivan, apparently would prefer a quasi-parliamentary arrangement to the current system of checks-and-balances. They, too, endorse four-year terms for members of the House of Representatives, with their elections scheduled at the same time as the president’s.
...
This plea on behalf of efficient (although “expedient” is the superior term) governing is nothing more than our presumed betters telling us to sit down and shut up. It’s also an endorsement of lawmakers maximizing the presidential coattails on which they road to Washington.

The Right Stuff’s opinion about this — what a bunch of cringing, anti-democratic chuckleheads — has not changed from last week.
...
A proper progressive can’t very well sit still when their voters are opting out of an election cycle, allowing the other guys to scatter their carefully arranged blocks, right? Therefore, having accomplished a thorough act of profiling, they recommend amending the Constitution to mute, if not eliminate, the politically energized.

Makes you wonder where they were hiding their angst in 2006.
...
More:
http://tbo.com/news/blogs/the-right-stuff/the-cancel-the-midterms-malfunction-20141103/

 

[Anti Federalist]

This plea on behalf of efficient (although “expedient” is the superior term) governing is nothing more than our presumed betters telling us to sit down and shut up.

Makes sense when looked at that way.

They do that to us all day long anyway.

Why go through the charade of voting?

 

[AuH20]

Makes sense when looked at that way.

They do that to us all day long anyway.

Why go through the charade of voting?

It legitimizes the fraud.

 

[Anti Federalist]

It legitimizes the fraud.

Well, I'm not going to let all these nattering nabobs of negativism get me down.

I'm gonna really concentrate and vote hard tomorrow.

 

[specsaregood]

Wonder where the Times was in 2006?

Maybe they hadn't gotten around to reading the CFR's book "Reforming American Government; The Bicentennial Papers of the Committee on the Constitutional System."
http://www.amazon.com/Reforming-American-Government-Bicentennial-Constitutional/dp/0813370590

The CCS is proposing drastic changes in the Constitution, These were outlined in the 1985 book Reforming American Government;
The Bicentennial Papers of the Committee on the Constitutional System.

Ensuing are some of them:

• One proposal would have us emulate the European parliamentary system; American voters would be unable to cast ballots for individual candidates, restricted instead to choosing a party slate across the board. This would eliminate independent candidates (which would suit the Establishment very well).

• The Congress would be expanded. The party whose nominee became President would designate one-sixth of all representatives in the House and one-third of all senators. This would dimmish the elective power of the voters and the balance between the executive and legislative spheres,

• The requirement for Senate ratification of treaties would be lowered.

• The CCS has also advocated extending representatives' terms from two to four years and senators' from six to eight, and allowing congressmen to serve in the executive branch while still holding their seats in Congress.

--Shadows of power pg. 200

 

[osan]

Oh, wait, I see...



Mid-term elections are racist.

Got it.

Check yo' whaat'prillage at d'do'

 

[euphemia]

I don't know how they would get around mid term elections, seeing that Congressional terms are only two years.

 

[specsaregood]

I don't know how they would get around mid term elections, seeing that Congressional terms are only two years.

The answer to that is right in the OP.

 

[euphemia]

I get that. Do they have a clue how the Constitution is amended? Probably not. It is very hard to amend the Constitution, by design. They can't just vote on it in Congress. It needs to also be ratified by the states. I don't see that happening.

The Balance of Power is in the Constituion for a reason.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Want to make voters show ID?

....You racist fascist Koch brother stooge hillbilly!

Want to cancel elections because you don't like who's voting in them?

...Welcome to the NY Times Sir, over there's the employee lounge, have a muffin, they're scrumptious.

 

[euphemia]

What the NYT wants is a more ignorant voter. Voting for a president is easy. Voting for congress and state races/constitutional issues is harder and requires something of the voter.

It's easy to get people to the polls to vote for a president and convince the to vote a party ticket all the way down. The NYT wants coattail elections so it can get out of its job of reporting news.

 

[euphemia]

I also think they are just out of ideas how to defend the current administration.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Well lookie here...

The White House on Monday argued that even a Republican takeover of the Senate in the 2014 midterms would not send as clear a message as the electoral outcome in a presidential year. “It would not be wise to draw as broad a conclusion about the outcome of this election as you would from a national presidential election, simply by virtue of the map and the states where this contest is taking place,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters, trying to minimize the fallout from elections expected to be unkind to President Obama’s party.

Sound familiar?

Methinks somebody got a memo from the DNC this morning.

Watch MSNBC et al follow suit over the next few days.

 

[euphemia]

It was the Republican takeover in 1994 that got things done in Congress under Clinton. Reagan had a Democratic Senate. They got things done.

This president just does not know how to do any useful work. He needs a Congress that will do something instead of blaming the other party. It's just the president is lazy.

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

Soon there will be IQ cutoffs for voting (not there is much in the way of choice). ROFL

OH!, I got it - make it like cop employment tests - if you are too smart, no votie for you!

sooo much easier to control the population that way! - BRILLIANT!

-t

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Whatever they suggest has a particular result in mind. They are hoping to change the rules of the elections to influence the outcome of those elections, rather than any legitimate systematic criticism.

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

I've got it! A perfect new way to elect all our congress critters and prez!

We give each of them a choo-choo, a ton of coal, a boxcar and $5,000 to renovate said boxcar.

They will be voted on a 10 point scale in 3 categories divided by 3, so we get one final score.

First, they must demonstrate a knowledge of logistics by visiting the largest number of their constituents on the 1 ton of coal allowance and make it back to their starting point or be disqualified. This would be purely performance based. 4 Months max travel time. Maybe add distance traveled to the equation.

Second, they must get the best bang for their buck and create the sweetest looking crib out of that boxcar on a 5K budget. Public votes on conserving funds and coming up with something creative and aesthetically pleasing. (negative points if it leaks or falls apart. Critter must do 51% of the renovation personally)

Third, they will be judged by whatever BS comes out of their mouths at campaign stops.

Take these 3 scores and divide by 3 for a final score. Best candidate wins!

-t

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

I've got it! A perfect new way to elect all our congress critters and prez!

We give each of them a choo-choo, a ton of coal, a boxcar and $5,000 to renovate said boxcar.

They will be voted on a 10 point scale in 3 categories divided by 3, so we get one final score.

First, they must demonstrate a knowledge of logistics by visiting the largest number of their constituents on the 1 ton of coal allowance and make it back to their starting point or be disqualified. This would be purely performance based. 4 Months max travel time. Maybe add distance traveled to the equation.

Second, they must get the best bang for their buck and create the sweetest looking crib out of that boxcar on a 5K budget. Public votes on conserving funds and coming up with something creative and aesthetically pleasing. (negative points if it leaks or falls apart. Critter must do 51% of the renovation personally)

Third, they will be judged by whatever BS comes out of their mouths at campaign stops.

Take these 3 scores and divide by 3 for a final score. Best candidate wins!

-t

I think they should fight to the death.