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Jonah said 02/15, 01:47 PM
It is time for our nation's system of government to evolve. Our nation's problems are not rooted in who's in power, but in how that power is achieved, maintained, and executed.

Two parties counterbalance each other, hamstringing too much progress in either direction towards the left or the right. Consider our present state of affairs. We are mired in a war that history will most likely regard as "inconclusive" if and when the democrats roll in to take the Presidency. Likewise, democrats pull strings over various issues like spending for the war or waterboarding, and liberal journalists are all over the war-zone crying foul because war is ugly. Do I support the war? Indeed, I do not. My point is that it might have worked if not for our two party system preventing any one party from achieving too much progress.

The judicial, legisltative, and executive branches of government likewise pull against each other so that no unity of purpose or vision can ever be achieved. Concieved by colonists paranoid about the consolidation of too much power, this division of power is bureacratic and costly with its system of checks and balances. We need a more efficient system.

Jonah said 02/15, 09:28 PM
Our forefathers are gone, and so is the world in which they lived. We need to evolve. Picking up a strand of your argument-civilizations that have endured have changed with the passage of time. Look at China--from monarchies, to feudalism, to communism, that is one civilization that has managed to evolve. Though communism might be diametrically opposed to our ideals, the Chinese are very pragmatic;they use what works. Our nation is not even as old as one of their dynasties, and if we are going to endure, as they have, then we are going to have to evolve, as they have.
There is no reason to assume that we cannot have a more efficient system of government and not be free. You also mention Hitler's vision of government. I agree, whatever one can say was wrong with it, no one can argue against the fact that it was very efficient. A democratically determined charismatic dictatorship might be one way this country could go. Consolodation of power, monitored by a free media, and held accountable via the election process? No more thousands of dollars and man hours just to get a bill to the senate. Im not saying that this IS the answer; we do need to start looking for one though.

Jonah said 02/16, 08:22 PM
So...while we both want change, you want change to come through the established system; I say we need to build another system. America buys whatever folks are managing to sell, and it changes with the winds. A Texas cowboy who likes to shoot em up here, a motivational visionary there, maybe the terminator some day... Its all about the commercials. Americans at large have no sales resistance. I had high hopes that the information age would help our faltering public education system create young people who are better informed and motivated to participate in our democracy, and they do tend to know more now than pre-Internet... about Jaylo's dating history, cheat codes for their newest video games, stats for their sports idols, Brittney's most recent breakdown. Participation in our democracy is incidental, motivated by glitz and pizzazz. Perhaps it should be compulorsy, necessary to obtain and maintain a driver's license. We need to change, make fundamental changes to the way things are, and the power brokers are as a self-perpetuating cult that is resistant to the drastic changes necessary to propel America to prosperity in the 21st century and beyond.