quote Originally posted by cliffw: Candidates first believe the party line, not the "people" line. Coincidence that we have only "two parties" ? Why believe the people? They are just sheep that want. The elected candidate is the one that tells us what we want to hear.

That's why if your representative doesn't vote according to your wishes, you vote them out. And you keep voting them out until one comes along who does vote as you want. Give it a few elections of most encumbants losing their re-election bids and they'll begin to see the light.

Bill probably thinks that's naieve. And perhaps it is. But the only other option is revolution, and I'm not ready to pick up a rifle and attack my government yet.

Not really. Where there is a write in.. I write in. Where there is an encumbant I vote against him favoring an independant.

quote Originally posted by Formula88: Bill probably thinks that's naieve. And perhaps it is. But the only other option is revolution, and I'm not ready to pick up a rifle and attack my government yet.

quote Originally posted by 84Bill: That is if the number of passes by each of us is a set given "per day." However the number of passes by the officer is unknown and very much random. It would have to be in order to catch "bad guys" otherwise a predictable pattern (as your equation indicates) could be deduced.

Police do not decide their "beat" on a random whim. Firstly, the beat is assigned, secondly, the cop's decision to turn down this street or that is predicated on a variety of quantifyable variables such as; expectation of finding a crime going down, time since last visit to an area, 911 call frequency from an area, recent problem that needs regular checking, complaints, proximity to hot spots and availability of back-up, and so on.

NOTHING is random. Not even the Random Number Generator on your computer. It just looks random beause the math is too complex. But in the case of your officer and you coming together at the same time...easy math.

quote Originally posted by Formula88: That's why if your representative doesn't vote according to your wishes, you vote them out. And you keep voting them out until one comes along who does vote as you want. Bill probably thinks that's naieve. And perhaps it is. But the only other option is revolution, and I'm not ready to pick up a rifle and attack my government yet.

It is not naieve but is is a lot harder than just voting. Our electorial system does need to be overhauled at every level. I don't think many would disagree with me that you almost have to have a powerfull lobbying group to affect change. I trhink political parties should be abolished. They are just "clicks". They are for the party, not the people. We choose sides with the ones that most represent our views. They say things we want to hear so they can get more votes. They want power.
Many people will not join the military. Many more do not want to "run" for office. Those that do, who want to affect change, have to allign themselves with a political party. Do the bidding "for the party" to be able to expect help "from the party".
Jeeze. It really is a mess.

quote Originally posted by Formula88: I'm not ready to pick up a rifle and attack my government yet.

I agree but some kind of revolt is necessary I think.
Today, we are a nation of sheep.

quote Originally posted by cliffw: It is not naieve but is is a lot harder than just voting. Our electorial system does need to be overhauled at every level. I don't think many would disagree with me that you almost have to have a powerfull lobbying group to affect change. I trhink political parties should be abolished. They are just "clicks". They are for the party, not the people. We choose sides with the ones that most represent our views. They say things we want to hear so they can get more votes. They want power. Many people will not join the military. Many more do not want to "run" for office. Those that do, who want to affect change, have to allign themselves with a political party. Do the bidding "for the party" to be able to expect help "from the party". Jeeze. It really is a mess.

I agree. And I think one way to achieve this is to have across-the-board term limits. It would make people sit up and pay attention to what their officials stand for, instead of just voting for "the status quo".
It's possible that I would allow for an exception to this, if the incumbent were to receive a 75% (or some other huge percentage) vote. Admittedly, I haven't thought it through completely.

quote Originally posted by Raydar: I think one way to achieve this is to have across-the-board term limits.

They did it with the Presidential office. Also at many local levels. Why was it done at the Presidential level?
I also have no well thought out solution.