Clarifying The 95 Theses

2009-10-31 05:35:00

Duke writes:

"I skimmed most of the Revised Theses, and overlooked that you had eliminated some that I'd complained about. What caught my eye were ones that I still disagree with, in particular:

"'36. The term of a supreme court justice should be reduced from life to eight years. At that time they can be re-appointed or replaced by the President. If the majority are not happy with a justice he or she can be removed through a majority vote by a national referendum."

JJ:

Before I comment let me say this. The whole purpose of Molecular Politics as well as the "95 Theses" is that the will of the majority of the people makes more sense in this corrupt age than the will of legislators who are bought off by money and power.

Now, no system is perfect but the will of the majority, properly informed, will lead this nation on a safer trajectory than the will of the minority that has prevailed in the past.

That said, the will of the majority is not perfect and few will agree with such majority on each issue. I will not agree with the majority on each issue.

In writing the 95 Theses I sought to present 95 issues that would be supported by majority will which are generally resisted by the minority who represent us. In creating this I had to not include some of my pet issues which would not be supported by the majority. Also on very controversial issues I did not attempt to prove the majority will one way or another but sought to just leave them up to a majority vote in a referendum.

Overall, I think we have a package here which will be about as palatable to the majority as can be created. To this end I was glad to hear some comments from Duke who sees some things politically through different eyes than myself. My goal is to have both liberals and conservatives look at this and see the idea as good.

That said, Duke does not agree with:

55.  Children should be required to pass a standardized test before being promoted to the next grade and should be required to pass the citizenship test before graduating from high school.

I admit that standardized tests are far from perfect and I do not like them myself but in many cases kids are being promoted who are not ready for the next grade. If they are not ready then their learning will be stunted until they are ready.

If we do not use a standardized tests to determine their progress then how can we prevent this injustice?

88.  We support long sentences where violence or the threat of violence occurred. Where there was no violence, the criminal should be given a chance to pay the victim compensation and not go to prison.

I would think the majority would support this one and it makes sense to me. I cannot recall Duke's comments on it.

  

Duke:

"The following I would not agree to because I don't really know whether that's outrageous or not without knowing where the money goes and what the reasonable alternatives are.'

"'57.  It is also outrageous that we pay an average of over $9000 per student and the teachers do not receive a higher income. The teacher deserves a larger percentage of the $270,000 spent on a class of 30 kids and the taxpayers deserve a break. We therefore, desire to reduce the number of administrators and the perks that they have and increase teacher pay. We also seek to cut out all unnecessary expenses.'"

JJ:

We do know one thing and that is only about 15% of our education budget goes to teachers. Sounds outrageous to me.

  

Duke:

"The following I would agree to if the referendums were held on a smaller than national scale; perhaps on a state-by-state basis, or maybe even a smaller scale:

"'80.  Extremely controversial items such as abortion and gay marriage should be settled by a popular vote of the people. Let the majority rule."

JJ:

I would have no problem with state by state vote and implementation, but there may be a lot of resistance to this.

Concerning the [US Constitution] Second Amendment I think the time will have to come that it gets clearly defined so there is no possibility of misunderstanding. That would require a change in the [US] Constitution which would require a great effort.