maybe holding political office should be like jury duty

[leftofthedial]

each slot should be randomly chosen from among the electorate.

No professional politicians.

[MrCoffee]

1. I rise in opposition to the measure. Exhibit A - This guy

I'm not willing to give him even the slightest chance of a political office. If I could, I'd make a spelling test a prerequisite to the franchise and throw his ass out of the voting booth.

[leftofthedial]

2. how about if there was some sort of vetting process in place?

a civil service exam or some such, to determine one's suitable level of service.

[MrCoffee]

6. Personally, I think 99% of the general electorate should not be allowed anywhere near a

jury box, much less a position of governmental authority.

But that's just me, and that's a teeny tiny minority opinion around here. :hi:

[99th_Monkey]

3. Thanks for cracking me up. Nice one. I needed a good laugh today. ~nt~

[cloudbase]

10. He'd earn his $6 per day.

After paying for parking, he'd have fifty cents left over. A true bargain.

[Kutjara]

4. Depending on how you look at it...

...it's either a great, or a terrible, idea. On the plus side, it would certainly bring democracy down to a grass-roots level. On the minus side, all that would happen is that the civil service bureaucracy would become the de-facto government, because they'd be the only people who had any knowledge of how to get things done. We'd end up with a system where the elected leaders were just reality-tv style celebrity fugureheads, while the real power was wielded behind the scenes.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

5. lottery

Perhaps it should be like a lottery--all registered voters are potential officeholders. Granted, this means that a reasonably intelligent progressive has as much chance of gaining office as some inbred Aryan militia assclown . . . but at least we'd have checks and balances.

[opihimoimoi]

7. Canardly work with a high degree of success/pos results..ya wouldn't want anyone to pilot a 747?

[izquierdista]

8. I agree, but not random

Each political office should have a minimum skills set and people who can meet that level of qualification should be the pool chosen from. There is something like that now, because to run for judge in many localities, you have to be a member of the bar in good standing.

The problem with having an election to determine the office holder is that every towering ego is drawn to public office like a moth toward a flame. That includes FDR and Obama too. The problem then becomes, which towering ego is going to do the best job AFTER they are elected. There is no guarantee that in the race to see whose ego prevails, the candidate who is best at governing will prevail. FDR certainly exceeded expectations and I really think that Obama will as well.

Maybe the best way to weed out the losers is to do it on the way up. Select school board members and county commissioners randomly from qualified members of the electorate and then then those that do an excellent job, they can run for higher office. That would take care of idiot children of wealth who bought their degree making it higher than the first level by trying to jump in at the top.

[Shipwack]

9. I am reminded of a Kurt Vonnegut quote...

There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.
-- Kurt Vonnegut, "Cold Turkey", In These Times, May 10, 2004

[leftofthedial]

11. Ah. Vonnegut.

He had a way of delivering the truth, didn't he?