[Common Tator]

You are the quintessential politically ignorant right wing citizen.

Didn't you pay attention in the US History Class when they taught you that The United States has a Government of the people, by the people and for the people"?

Even less than really astute people should be able to figure out that when a majority of Americans want something, their public servants will enact it. Did it ever dawn on you why they are called Public Servants and not Public Rulers? I didn't think so.

Let me give you a clue about how our system works. When a majority of the American voters want something, politicians run for office promising to do it. Then when they get in office they do it. When a significant minority of voters want something politicians promise to do it... But when they get elected they don't do it.

What you want to happen will never happen because you are looking for a politician that will promise to do what you want. If a majority does not want it done, then they will promise you and break that promise.

Here is how you get things done.

First you convince a substantial majority of American voters to your views... That is it. Then just sit back and watch it happen.

What part of "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people" confuses you most?

[The Old Hoosier]

You seem to be the quintessential ignorant left-winger, who thinks our Constitution doesn't make any difference.

[ActionNewsBill]

Even less than really astute people should be able to figure out that when a majority of Americans want something, their public servants will enact it.

Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813). Scottish jurist and historian:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.

From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship

[RockDoc]

This is all the US Constitution authorizes congress to act on:

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

Futhermore:

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

[Sabertooth]

Even less than really astute people should be able to figure out that when a majority of Americans want something, their public servants will enact it...

Here is how you get things done.

First you convince a substantial majority of American voters to your views... That is it. Then just sit back and watch it happen.

Flag me when you see an article indicating that President Bush plans to remove a significant number of Illegals from within our borders, since that is the preference of a substantial majority of Americans.

It's pretty clear that President Bush does what he thinks is right, even when he's abyssmally wrong. Anything the President poses as "compassionate conservatism" is a rather accurate red flag. The President believes, somehow, that Illegals (other than terrorists) are good for the country, so he ignores the will of the people. The President also believes in more spending and bigger government, so he panders to the moochier yearnings of the people. Hence this prescription drug abomination.

Whatever he does, Bush believes in it, which makes him strangely trustworthy.

[AAABEST]

You are the quintessential politically ignorant right wing citizen.

Get bent tator-boy, you and your socialist "apologize at all costs" weirdos.

I don't need a sophomoric lesson on how it's OK for your figurehead/mascott to shake us down to please certain voting blocks. Despite your goofey and patonizing attempt to give us a lesson in civics, we live in a republic not a democracy. The only lessons you need to be giving with your simpleton outlook is to a special ed class in Sweden.

To take money from those who need it and give it to others as a bribe (who DON'T need it) is as MORALLY BANKRUPT as it is indefensible. Now go sell your crap to someone who'll buy it. That mound of dung you just posted got you on my moe-moe list.

[Dataman]

What part of "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people" confuses you most?

You are correct... Not that I want another socialist program... but it seems to be unstoppable right now and opposition to it seems to be political suicide.

During the Revolutionary War, the Brits remained principled and stood in a straight line-- until they discovered that self-sacrifice was no way to win a war.

[Axenolith]

You are the quintessential politically ignorant right wing citizen.

Didn't you pay attention in the US History Class when they taught you that The United States has a Government of the people, by the people and for the people"?

And this crap is EXACTLY why the founding fathers wrote this GOVERNEMENT LIMITING document called the CONSTITUTION. You have to trample over it mightily to get where we are now, and twist the original meaning of phrases like "general welfare". Bread and circus's will keep the politicians in power giving the "people" what they want but it will be tits on a bull when it comes to grinding those citizens you mention into poverty to attempt (and I say attempt because it won't successfully happen) to pay for it...

Haven't you ever heard of the term "mobocracy"? Ya think it will be right when the masses decide to aquiesce on universal citizen disarmament? How about if they decide to send off some minority group to the camps???

[billbears]

The United States has a Government of the people, by the people and for the people"?

Hmmm, didn't find that in the Constitution, only some words in a flowery speech given by a man that could have given a d#mn about the Constitution

Let me give you a clue about how our system works. When a majority of the American voters want something, politicians run for office promising to do it. Then when they get in office they do it. When a significant minority of voters want something politicians promise to do it... But when they get elected they don't do it.

Really? So no matter if it's in the Constitution or not, politicians are supposed to do it if the majority wants it? Good grief, why have the document at all?!? Perhaps because it limits (and I know that's a word 'conservatives' don't understand) the government from doing things limited and reserved for the states?

What you want to happen will never happen because you are looking for a politician that will promise to do what you want.

No, I just want a politician that promises to actually uphold his oath instead of saying it, only to forget it 30 seconds later

Here is how you get things done.

Ahh, I can see words of wisdom coming. Washington, Jefferson, heck at this point even the most worthless Hamilton?!?

First you convince a substantial majority of American voters to your views... That is it. Then just sit back and watch it happen.

Didn't think so. Just more of the status quo crap. Keep convincing people you're in the right and sooner or later they'll come with you. Tell me sunshine, if you keep going along with these crappy plans instead of speaking out against them, why in the heck would anyone want to follow you when just another government plan fails? Unfortunately I fear this one will eventually bankrupt this nation to the point of no return

[carenot]

What you want to happen will never happen because you are looking for a politician that will promise to do what you want. If a majority does not want it done, then they will promise you and break that promise.

Oh, I understand now!
They are all liars! Thanks.

[spunkets]

"What part of "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people" confuses you most?"

The purpose of government is to protect life and rights. The purpose of government is not to act as distributor of goods it pilages from the rest of society at gunpoint. So no matter what the people think and conjure up as justification, they are still stealing and it is wrong.

The public servant idea goes out the window when the rulers aquire office though such bribery as this. It is a fact that if these voter folks really were concerned about prescription drugs for others, they would have formed and org, or business to serve the need. They never did, because they don't really want to pay for it. They want someone else to, they are coveting their neibors goods and are selfish to the core. That's why the con artists that utilize and pander to these bozos are not public servants, they are rulers.

Government was instituted to protect folks from criminals, not pander to their desires to aquire the seat of power.

[Lefty-NiceGuy]

Let me give you a clue about how our system works. When a majority of the American voters want something, politicians run for office promising to do it. Then when they get in office they do it. When a significant minority of voters want something politicians promise to do it... But when they get elected they don't do it.
The system where the majority always gets what it wants is called dirrect democracy, which results in "tyrany of the masses" where a ambivalent majority overpowers an interested minority every time.

We have a representative democracy, where politicians have to weigh importance of issues to thier constituents. The idea is that voters then express how important an issue is to them, not just yea/nea. The end result is a small motivated group (as much as we hate some of them) can overpower a larger majority. I like to call this "tyrany of the special interest groups".

Theoreticaly, if the system measured exactly how bad people wanted things, it could optimise utility for people. Government pork wouldn't even be much of a problem and you could run some fairy tail socialist state. But, It doesn't.

Personally I think if there were more than 2 real parties things would work better. We'd probably need something like IRV or proportional representation, both pretty radical ideas though.

[par4]

What part of "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people" confuses you most?

Most people with a small knowledge of American history are not confused by this statement. Unfortunately for your case, it is just that, a statement made during a speech, nothing more. Although I personally think that the speech was one of the best ever written, it carries no weight in law.

Perhaps you might brush up on the Constitution, that's where the laws are.

[MatthewViti]

"You cannot bring prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."
-- Rev. William J. H. Boetcker*

"The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice may distort it; but there it is." -- Winston Churchill

"Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potato as an article of food. Government is just as fallible, too, when it fixes systems in physics. Galileo was sent to the Inquisition for affirming that the earth was a sphere; the government had declared it to be as flat as a trencher, and Galileo was obliged to abjure his error. ... Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them. It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." -- Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on the State of Virginia," 1787

"There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action." -- Bertrand Russell, "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"

"The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level."
-- Norman Mailer

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery."
-- Winston Churchill

"In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other."
-- Voltaire

"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it."
-- Thomas Sowell

"Socialism is the doctrine that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that his life and his work do not belong to him, but belong to society, that the only justification of his existence is his service to society, and that society may dispose of him in any way it pleases for the sake of whatever it deems to be its own tribal, collective good."
-- Ayn Rand

"To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, 'the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.'"
-- Thomas Jefferson

"A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money."
-- G. Gordon Liddy

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
-- C.S. Lewis

[lib-r-teri-ann]

WRONG! What you describe is NOT how our system works, it's how you think it should work! Two totally, radically, different concepts. "Government of the people" simply means representative government, ie. elections and congress, nothing more my publick-skool (mis)educated liberal fellow. It has nothing to do with public funding for drugs, socialism or Medicare, that is an indisputable fact. Please stop polluting the net with your insane drivel.

[wilmington2]

What part of the of, by and for the people granted ripoff rights?

[Roscoe]

First you convince a substantial majority of American voters to your views...

You mean pissing and moaning aren't enough?

[dalereed]

Go back to DU you creep!

SS and MC should be eliminated and if the old folks die in the street tough Sh(*.

Along with all other social programs they are unconstitutional and illegal.

Bush is just another one world socialist!

BTW, i'm a senior citizen.

[Wonder Warthog]

"What part of "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people" confuses you most?"

It's interesting that you quote Lincoln, the man who did the most of any single individual to destroy the Constitution (which document describes a government of strictly LIMITED powers and responsibilities--of which medical benefits is NOT one).

Here's a clue--the US is NOT a democracy, and never has been. The Founding Fathers had no use whatsover for "democracy", which they termed "tyranny of the majority".

[Zack Nguyen]

Even less than really astute people should be able to figure out that when a majority of Americans want something, their public servants will enact it.

I completely disagree with your analysis of our governmental system. The people do not always get what they want, and the Fouders took great care to make it that way. If your analysis was truly the design of our government, then the courts would have no power to judge the Constitutionality of the laws Congress passes. We would live in a pure Democracy. Fortunately for all of us we do not.

There are no excuses for enacting a lunatic policy. We live in a Republic so that the passions of the citizens cannot override logic and common sense.

Our elected officials are there to do the thing, not necessarily the popular thing.

[David Isaac]

I don't believe I've seen the polls that indicate the majority of Americans favor drug benefits for seniors, though I'm sure the Dems could quote many such.

In the schools majority rule has been discouraged for quite some time. I am not sure about today however.

The Founders were wise to establish America as a republic, with most of them realizing the dangers of "pure" democracy.