From: alain@elevia.uniforum.qc.ca (W.A.Simon)
Newsgroups: can.politics,soc.culture.canada
Subject: Part II - then what?
Date: 07 Nov 92 12:27:14 EST

Part II

 We have an institutional crisis; our basic trust in the viability
 of the system has been destroyed and our leaders have lost the
 respect of even the most tolerant among us.  Students of history
 will tell you that in times such as we live, charismatic figures
 and populist demagogues come forth to lead their people into
 economic chaos and social authoritarianism.  

 Simple solutions are offered to basic aspirations and likely
 consequences are brushed aside as irrelevant.  Ennemies are
 quickly found and witch hunts come to the rescue of political
 correctness.  It appeals to people who have a deep faith in
 divine justice...  but for those of us who have not abdicated
 rational thought, what next?

 The first idea is to find an honest [wo]man and send this new
 found white knight up against the forces of evil.  It has been
 done before, and these knights have ended on the rubbish heap
 of history, as dangerous idiots, incompetent fools or lamented
 martyrs.  Not much different from the charismatic leaders.  So
 what can we realistically count on, in order to improve the
 situation?

 We know this world has a few constants, such as taxes and death.  
 Other reliable factors are the intellectual myopia and the moral
 blindness of the political phyllum we have evolved.  How can we
 exploit this? We have a crew of highly bendable citizens; let's
 bend them our way.  This will be our guiding principle.  

 Our current government is about to call an election.  They will
 probably first go through a renewal of leadership, but this will
 be for cosmetic reasons.  It doesn't look like their opponents
 (confederates really) have anything better to offer either.

 The initial action plan is therefore to sell the upcoming
 election to the incumbents, in exchange for the following facts,
 enshrined in the law:

         -        election campaigns will last exactly one week;

         -        ballots will have a "None Of The Above" (NOTA) choice,
                  which will count as a valid vote;

         -        when an election is called, elected officials will
                  a) conduct their re-election campaign at their own
                     expenses,
                  b) abstain from using the facilities and privileges
                     of their office or of any other government office,
                  c) cease being remunerated by the public purse (no pay),
                  d) keep their expenses at their own charge,
                  d) cease pretending to take care of government
                     business while campaigning,
                  until a winner is proclaimed (not a NOTA win);

           -      in case of a NOTA win, the election campaign is
                  continued for another week, as many times as necessary;

           -      elected representative will be forbidden from running
                  more than 3 terms, no more than 2 of them consecutive.  

 Failing this, we garantee we give the election to the official opposition.  
 Compliance must be total and it must be done before the election.  

 The consequences are many and obvious on the plus side, but are
 there any on the minus? The net will will tell, I am sure.  

 If you think this could bootstrap us up to a more responsive
 democratic system, tell others about it, but make specially sure
 you tell your elected representatives.



--
 Alain
 [ ... usual disclaimer... ]
Newsgroups: can.politics