Jumbo Journeys

Musings or shall I say ramblings of an aging yaanai or elephant!

Sunday, November 07, 2021

Changes badly needed in the U.S. political system

IMO, this country made a big mistake when it term limited the President to two terms in the aftermath of what looked like the "forever presidency of FDR." This restricted only the executive branch of the government. My point is, if you want to term limit either do it to all 3 branches of the goivernment or don't do it at all. It is high time that members of congress be term limited. Some of them have served longer than they would have in private or public sector jobs. Some literally sat on their senate or house seat until they went to their graves. I have no idea how sharp their mental and other faculties were at that ripe old age. Likewise, IMO, iot is ridiculous to give life time tenure to judges. They ought to retire at 80 or 85 or some such age and give way to younger, more energetic talent of which there is plenty available. Federal Elections, especially that of POTUS, members of the House and Senate, ought to be a very serious business, conducted and supervised by a federal bi-partisan election commission. The one goal of the process ought to be maximum participation by legitimate citizens of the country who are eligible to vote. This means every voter must present proof of citizenship, either passport, or driver's license, or photo ID. The driver license and photo ID have been recently enhanced to e=include extra security features and it is possible to include citizenship status in the magnetic strip. I find it depressing that both political parties are trying to either suppress the vote or let anyone vote without proof of eligibility. They ought to instead try and increase the likelihood of the genuine voter actually casting their ballot. The constitution of the USA was adopted in 1789, when this country was primarily agrarian, far different from what it is today. There is nothing sacrosanct about the first Tuesday in November. That could be changed to a weekend in late Summer such as in August. All other political activities, such as primaries, conventions, etc. will have to adjust to the new time table. Votes shall not be counted until the entire USA has finished voting. That includes Alaska, Hawaii and Guam. The elctions are not conducted to enable the media to do their exit surveys and blabber endlessly about thde reasons for the results. They are conducted to maintain a robust democracy. It is simply wrong to bias the voting inclinations of the voter in California or Hawaii by releasing the results from New York or Massachussets before voting is over in California. The Federal Election commission should be empowered to punish media that violate these rules. Allowing state legislatures to gerrymander congressional and state legislature constituencies makes a mockery of fair representation. Again, sta-level election commission should conduct and supervise the process. It is ridiculous that the country that started the computer revolution and continues to be the leading edge of high tech, takes so long to conduct the election process and declare the rsults.