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Quite simply, it's either revolution or business as usual. Our political system is openly rigged to prevent any real reform. Besides, the elite oligarchs controlling our government would never give up their power (and massive source of money) short of a revolt by the American people. Could any sensible person doubt this?
To change our government from one that's for sale to the highest bidder to a government that looks out for the best interests of the American people is no small change. It's not even a big change. It's a revolutionary change. Our task is to replace night with day, wrong with right. We must replace our political system with its exact opposite. We must overthrow a patently unreasonable political system (by design) and replace it with a political system based on reason that forces congressional accountability and intellectual honesty.
A political system based on reason would turn government upside down
A political system based on reason would destroy the multi-million-dollar lobbying industry because special interests only pay big money for unreasonable legislation (or protection from unreasonable legislation bought by competitors). Philanthropic groups aside, special interests wouldn't pay much for reasonable legislation. Congressional bribe money would virtually disappear under a reasonable political system.
That would mean our "representatives" would lose their major source of cash since they wouldn't be able to sell their political influence for very much ("Psst, give my campaign $100,000 and I'll work hard to get your very reasonable bill through the Senate.")
Of course there would still be competition between reasonable bills for our limited tax dollars, which would bring in modest "special interest" money to members of Congress who could present clear, cogent arguments (insuring reason prevails). But there would be no incentive for special interests to spend big money trying to influence legislation (as they do now) since bills would tend to pass or fail based on their reasonableness, rather than based on who can play the best political game of deal making, coercion, and deceit.
A political system based on reason would tend to recruit members of Congress from a pool of people with sound reasoning skills, unlike our current system that tends to recruit from a pool of people highly skilled at talking out of both sides of their mouths. Currently, if you can't lie through your teeth with a big smile, don't run for Congress. A reasonable political system would put substance ahead of appearance, the exact opposite of our current unreasonable system.
Unlike our current political system, where deception is its lifeblood, a political system based on reason would severely punish those caught using deception. For example, science -- a system based on reason -- would never tolerate scientists falsifying data, evading inquiry, or any other form of deceit. Of course, falsifying data, evading inquiry and many other forms of deceit are standard practice in Congress.
Understanding the mechanics of deception in Congress
Our government can't just give our tax dollars to special interests; it must deceive us into thinking that giving them our money is good for us. For example, our government couldn't say to us, "we're going to invade Iraq to take control of its oil." No, our government needed to deceive us with WMD, aluminum tubes, and vials of anthrax.
Our government's most powerful tool of deception is the lackey mainstream media (essentially the propaganda arm of our government). Mainstream media are supposed to keep us informed about our government's activities. But as profit-driven corporations that get billions from our "representatives" (e.g. for deceptive 30-second TV ads), they're much more motivated to promote and perpetuate government deception than to expose it. It's simply smart business.
Our "representatives" use various mischief mechanisms to deceive us. But all boil down to one thing: evasion. Those supporting unreasonable government policies cannot possibly defend these policies with clear, rational arguments. So they offer shallow, specious justifications -- dutifully passed on to the American people by mainstream media -- and then simply evade responding to the obvious flaws in their justifications.
A simple Internet-based system called Wikiarguments could put an end to Congressional evasion and force Congressional accountability.
The philosophy behind Wikiarguments; why it would revolutionize government
Our current political system, with crucial help from mainstream media, allows and even promotes blatant deception and evasion by our government "representatives." They're never forced to justify their positions with clear, rational arguments (written down so they can be scrutinized).
Currently, sponsors and supporters of unreasonable legislation typically offer shallow, specious justifications and then simply evade inquiry. Mainstream media do little to challenge these specious justifications and when they do, our "representatives" simply spout more specious nonsense until the clock runs out.
