quote:

Originally posted by WhiteKnight77:
If people would wake up and vote and vote for those not an incumbent, politicians would eventually wake up. When wholesale changes are made and new people are in office, slowly, policies would change and the old boy network, not matter on which level, would die.

That would be interesting to see what would happen to the political landscape if election after election, for several cycles in a row, virtually EVERYONE voted for the other guy no matter what. No one would ever be re-elected and although there may be short-term chaos between elections I suspect that this strategy would indeed begin to shake the foundations of the entrenched institutions co-opting the political process these days. That would be fascinating to watch, but it would never happen, not enough people care enough to attempt this.

I brought this up elsewhere and it was stated that it would hurt the institutional knowledge of the government. That is exactly why you would do what I suggested. The entrenched institutional knowledge in government right now is the reason why we have such a mess and is no longer a "government of the people, by the people and for the people."

But you are right. Not enough people care about the shape the country is in to do anything except keep voting for the very people who have messed the country up. Yes, they voted a different party into the office of President, but they also elected most of the same officals to the Senate and House. Does not make sense to me. If people really want change, then everyone needs to go, not just a party in the head honcho's office.