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Comment by tenpoundhammer | Hacker News Reader

Everyone that knows anything about politics knew this is exactly how it would work out. It has been political theater the enter time. That's why the financial markets didn't flinch, they knew it would never come to default. The politicians are playing stupid games with gullible people, and they aren't doing it to serve their constituents. They are doing it to serve themselves and their corporate donors.

If this isn't proof of a broken system that fails to serve the people, I don't know what is.

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Exactly ... and if you're in the US, you really have to think about who you're voting for. I'm not voting for incumbents in November - period! There's no point in having an agenda when NOTHING is working anyway, so we might as well elect individuals (in either party) who might actually do their jobs!

Thats a relatively close minded approach that may destroy America.

Question: did your Representative contribute to the blocking of the bills? Is it really your representative's fault for the shutdown?

Some Senators, such as Senator McCain have gone against his party and tried to support the bipartisan effort to reopen the government. (Demonstrating that maybe McCain would have served as a decent President).

Research your senators, research your representatives. Learn their names, and what they did during the shutdown. DONT blindly elect them away. Actually do your research and make an informed choice.

Too many Americans don't understand politics. No wonder we have so many idiots in Congress.

It was intentionally close-minded, but intended to counteract the huge number of people that simply vote for the incumbent. And if you truly believe your congressman isn't part of the problem (and you've researched his/her positions enough to know what he/she stands for), by all means reelect the lone competent individual. On the other hand, it's entirely possible that they'd each SEEM competent if viewed individually (http://www.despair.com/meetings.html).

How about this instead ... we pick a high-karma HN'er from each district and elect them. At least we could expect some logic (I hope).

I've already contacted the Koch brothers for money to bribe HN members, just in case this happens. :)

You'd also have to wonder whether how the liberal/conservative labels would work out. Maybe IDE users versus emacs/vi (text editor) users?

Adding more close-minded people to the political system will only hurt us in the long run. What we need now, more than ever, are people who understand the political process and are willing to compromise.

The 2010 election is famous for electing a huge number of close-minded people to the House of Representatives. You see, it is your very "anti-incumbent" mindset that has gotten us to where we are today.

HALF the moderate Blue Dog Democrats were voted out of office in 2010. And need I remind you about the rise of the Tea Party in 2010?

Congress is deadlocked today because close-minded individuals destroyed the moderates. Proven Moderates were voted out of office, and American became more extremist from the 2010 elections, and 2012 elections. We need to work together, find the moderates in Congress and reward them for their efforts.

Blindly attacking incumbents is how we got into this problem in the first place. Continuing the dumb, ignorant, "head in the sand" approach will lead to our ruin in the long term.

Stupid voting is stupid voting. Don't vote against the incumbent unless you've done your research.

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Why can't Representatives get together and hash out a deal? (Even within the Republican Party, they failed to pass a bill this week at all). Maybe... all of the dumb newbies don't know how, they don't have the bipartisan connections that were utterly destroyed as all of the moderates were voted out of office in 2010.

Unfortunately that attitude just incentivizes corruption for any politicians who run against incumbents.

I've also heard it described as a tactic to ensure the public is grateful for whatever deal is ultimately struck.

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