COFFEE 3-28-10: Darrell West on Democracy

See the entire panel discussion at: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/221732

We did something unusual for a Coffee Party event. With two distinguished guests — Linda Killian, senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, columnist for Politico and US World & News Report and the author of The Freshmen: What Happened To The Republican Revolution? and Darrell West, the vice president and director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institute — we decided to do a panel discussion, moderated by Annabel Park, and then open it up to questions and comments. The result was a really productive town hall style discussion.

Busboys was nice enough to provide, not only free coffee, but free tea for participants! There were about 70 people here (we are writing from location before dashing off to Frederick, MD for a 4 PM film festival screening).

C-SPAN, CNN, Fox News, and Voice of America were all there, so look for the news reports. The panel discussion that opened the meeting is available at C-SPAN's website:

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/221732

videography by Dewey Smith

Category:

News & Politics

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• republican
• democrat
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• Darrell
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• Killian
• byler

[Tounushi]

@kevintype

-continued-

I understand a country of 300 million is difficult to legislate thru referendum, but I still think that your form of representational democracy is very open to abuse and corruption, much as we now see with many senators being owned by corporate and special interests.

[Tounushi]

@kevintype

-continued-

The opposition would not function as the devils advocate, making sure the govt. does not mess up, but they're trying to sabotage the party in power, and thus nothing constructive gets done.

But one thing you CAN do rather easily is to put a term cap for your senate and house. Thus new blood gets into the legislative body, and it does not stagnate (as much).

-continued-

[Tounushi]

@kevintype

I am not saying it would be easy, but I am saying it would be best for america to strive for it.

The entire polarisation of the voting populace into "democrat, republican or independent" does not work. It would be like having one liberal democrat (or social democrat) party and one nationalist party (extreme right-wing or otherwise) party vying for control.

-continued-

[kevintype]

@Tounushi - For a multi-party parliamentary system to become practical in the United States, a radical overhaul of the entire electoral system would be necessary. Nearly every parliamentary system in the world uses proportional representation, not the "winner-take-all" system common in nearly every U.S. electoral district.

I am not sure why you think such a thing would be easy.

It would be about as easy to follow George Washington's advice, and get rid of political parties altogether.

[Tounushi]

@kevintype

If they make the filibuster less obstructive, that would be good. But I fear it would not be enough. Whatever system is in place instead will be abused just as easily as the filibuster.

The easiest solution IMO, is to bring a parliamentary system of four or more parties. They do not need to be equal in numbers, but it would be better to have four or five parties of varying ideologies rather than two parties who are polar opposites of each other. Umbrella parties are no solution.

[kevintype]

@Tounushi - There is no need for the filibuster to go away.

As the speaker outlined, all we need is reasonable reform of the filibuster. Let it serve its original intended purpose: to slow down debate, and force the debate to include a wider variety of views. Take away its power to completely stop the work of government from getting done.

This proposed reform is so sensible, so downright conservative, opponents of it would find it tough to sound reasonable, and I'd love to see them try.

[Tounushi]

The filibuster will never go away.

When dems are in power, the reps will filibuster for every bill the dems want to pass.

When republicans have the power, they just want to maintain the status quo and paint any and all opposition as un-american, and basically scaring the dems to shut up.

The system is flawed IN ITS ENTIRETY. If america wants real change in ANYTHING, they should institute national referendums on larger issues, not just assign people who will be bought by corporate money.