[extropy-chat] Politics: US talks of suspending elections

[J. Andrew Rogers]

Dan Clemmensen <dgc at cox.net> wrote:
> Recall my third reaction: what should we do if someone nukes Washington 
> on election day? As horrible as it sounds, our society really does need 
> to answer this question.


A cynical person would say that this would solve most of the problems we
were voting about in the first place in any given election cycle...


The actual solution is actually quite simple: schedule the elections
earlier in the year.  This would give scheduling flexibility within
Constitutional guidelines.  The reason they moved the schedule so late
over the last two centuries was to minimize the amount of time a lame
duck politician would be in office, mitigating some of the
mischievousness that results if you have a bunch of people in Washington
who know they will be canned and can therefore do things with political
impunity.  In the past, some politicians made a point of having a
scorched earth exit from the political scene.

Actually, putting it that way, I'd risk the nuke and go one with late
elections.


j. andrew rogers