America's next president had better believe in restoring liberty | Hacker News Reader

America's next president had better believe in restoring liberty

theguardian.com

26 pointsrberger6 comments

He won't. Or she, as the case may be. Nobody who is really serious about restoring Liberty has a snowball's chance in hell of getting elected.

The closest thing we have right now, to any kind of shot of getting somebody in the White House who will do more than pay lip service to fundamental issues of Liberty and Freedom, is Rand Paul. If he runs, he might have a shot, IF the mainstream GOP leadership don't decide to go out of their way to marginalize him. If he somehow got the GOP nomination, I'd probably even pinch my nose shut and vote for him (voting for any Republican or Democrat typically gives me the creeps).

It's bigger than the White House though... the President has some power, but if we want real change in this country, we have to elect congressmen / congresswomen who believe in Liberty.

All of that said, as long as we elect using this first past the post / single member district system, I'm pretty doubtful that we're going to get much change. Switch to approval voting and/or implement some sort of proportional representation and maybe...

My issue with politics in general is the lack of sacrifice for the amount of power one gains. Lets take the President as an example, what does a presidential candidate sacrifice upon choosing (of own free will) to run? Aside from 4-8 years of no personal life there really is nothing important.

Becoming a politician and essentially gaining power over people is a free choice, why do we not expect them to make sacrifices? Here in Norway there is currently an ongoing discussion regarding politicians taking jobs at lobbying-firms and PR-firms. Some advocating higher "quarantines", some advocating a life-long ban. Personally, I'll not be voting on for instance a political party (we have 3 major parties and 4 lesser) whose Minister of Trade&Industry is a major player in offshore salmon-farms. (S)he might be a good minister, but with regards to corruption you are as secure as you would be in the olden days of passing power from Regent to Prince.

Americans. Always holding out hope that the next superman will rescue them from themselves.

I blame Hollywood.

Amazing to see the Graun supporting Sarah Palin ;-)

Naive author. The president's beliefs have no meaning. The only thing that is important is what the puppetmasters want.

This "Dan" fellow, author of the article, should be old enough to know this. On the other hand, if Dan wrote the truth he'd be fired.

It is more accurate to say that American interests are American interests, no matter who is in the chair. However the person in the char can only think in 4 year spans, and America's problems are more like 40-year spans. For example it will take at least a generation to restore the trust that the world had in America in the 80s.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com