When you vote for a politician

[wolram]

When you vote for a politician, do you consider your vote worthwhile, if
that politician is not accountable or answerable to public opinion? would
you (if possible) deselect him/her if the policies that he/she campaigned for
and gained your vote changed?
How are politicians different from money grabbing city folk?

 

[AaliyahBlack]

Money gabbing city folk don't plunge the nation into trillions of dollars in federal deficit, invading another country so that their buddies can reap HUGE profits,sending the troops into harms way and killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people , I could go on...

 

[wolram]

Money gabbing city folk don't plunge the nation into trillions of dollars in federal deficit, invading another country so that their buddies can reap HUGE profits,sending the troops into harms way and killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people , I could go on...

Would a politician make a move ,if the (city) were not behind him/her?
one must consider where the real power lies, one elects a politician on
his/her stated policies (at the time) but the (city) corrupts his/her
policies.

 

[russ_watters]

When you vote for a politician, do you consider your vote worthwhile, if
that politician is not accountable or answerable to public opinion?

Doesn't that question contradict the opening phrase? By definition, the accountability of a politician in a representative democracy is the vote. The answer to the question is a straightforward yes!

would
you (if possible) deselect him/her if the policies that he/she campaigned for
and gained your vote changed?

Perhaps, yes.

How are politicians different from money grabbing city folk?

What is a "money grabbing city folk?"

one elects a politician on
his/her stated policies (at the time) but the (city) corrupts his/her
policies.

I'm not quite sure where you are going with that either, but it sounds like you are talking about how politicians spend money locally. Typically most politicians - city, state, federal, whatever - are elected based primarily on 'what can you do for me?' The "corruption" (in quotes because I'm not certain I've interpreted your usage correctly) is practically a campaign promise!

 

[Yonoz]

When you vote for a politician, do you consider your vote worthwhile, if that politician is not accountable or answerable to public opinion?

As Russ said, the accountability is the actual vote.
Anyway, I think the first appropriate question is how people choose for which representative they will vote. Do you elect politicians based on their manifesto? Character? Party? Staff?
After you've established this you can ask to what extent the representative should adhere to each of these factors.

 

[Astronuc]

How's this for accountability? :yuck:

N.J. Pension Fund Endangered by Diverted Billions
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/nyregion/04pension.html

In 2005, New Jersey put either $551 million, $56 million or nothing into its pension fund for teachers. All three figures appeared in various state documents — though the state now says that the actual amount was zero.

The phantom contribution (fraud?!) is just one indication that New Jersey has been diverting billions of dollars from its pension fund for state and local workers into other government purposes over the last 15 years, using a variety of unorthodox transactions authorized by the Legislature and by governors from both political parties.

The state has long acknowledged that it has been putting less money into the pension fund than it should. But an analysis of its records by The New York Times shows that in many cases, New Jersey has overstated even what it has claimed to be contributing, sometimes by hundreds of millions of dollars.

The discrepancies raise questions about how much money is really in the New Jersey pension fund, which industry statistics show to be the ninth largest in the nation’s public sector, with reported assets of $79 billion.

State officials say the fund is in dire shape, with a serious deficit.

:yuck:


How does one get the necessary information on a candidate? How much time and effort?

Well - in some cases - the stakes are high!

Accountability after the fact - i.e. after the damage has been done - is no good!

The status quo must change or we are headed for a crash.

 

[devil-fire]

^^^^^

isnt that illeagal? like breach of contract or something? it strikes me as criminal one way or another.

 

[Astronuc]

It would seem to be a case of fraud or . . . I don't know - 'racketeering and corruption'?

 

[russ_watters]

Fraud is fraud and yes, it is illegal if documents were purposely falsified.