What can we do to make our politicians more honest?

I think one big problem is career politicians. I would wager that most politicians are. They are after power, no way to get around that, and to do that they necessarily have to pander to the group that they think will give them the most votes at that particular point in time, so they change and adapt their stances according to public opinion. That is how you get politicians flip flopping on issues.
The next big problem is campaign financing. A politician needs massive amounts of money for advertising, if he wants a chance to win. That invariably leads to them whoring themselves out to the highest bidder. Campaign “donations” from corporations and other interest groups do not come with no strings attached, they expect you to dance by their flute.
And so they will, but if they openly admitted that, they would not get elected, so the necessarily lie.
And that bribery does not stop once they are elected either.
Since I can not see a feasible way to address the career politicians, the only way to make politicians more honest is to completely redo the campaign financing system (for example, by giving each candidate a set amount public money which will have to do, and outlaw the use of donations for campaigning) and to abolish lobbyists from using money to do their lobbying.

Publicly financed campaigns would minimize the impact of IOU’s politicians are currently beholden to.

If a law is deemed unconstitutional,they get jail time.
I know it’s impractical,but I like it.;)

I think what we can do it pay attention. Nowadays, politicians on both sides bank on their hard-core partisans to get them through, with enough independents. They get away with it because we let them.

I am tired of hearing “I’m too busy” or “I don’t care”. These are the same people that get their info on issues from commercials. The politicians know this and that’s why they talk out of both sides of their mouths.

Read up, get involved. Let the politicians know that we are watching what they do and what they say.

Beheading for malfeasance in office! Mwahahahaha!

I guarantee you that if any one of you were to become a politician, no matter how honest you think you are, half your electorate will think you are dishonest the day after you enter office…. if not before. Do you have any idea what a politician’s day is like? The compromises that must be made? The negotiations? The jockying for air time?

Politicians are people pleasers. They tell people what they think the people want to hear. Or they tell people the same thing in a way they think the people want to hear. Politicians are not much, if any more dishonest than everyone else. It’s the type of work they are in that causes the problems. It is the public scrutiny they are under that makes them look bad. Just imagine if any of you were watched the way they are watched? What would we find out about you?

People love to bash politicians. It’s so easy. It makes you feel better than they are. You call them slimy and dishonest.

If you want to make politicians more honest you better make them inhuman. Gods, perhaps. Or you could set your expectations at a more realistic level. They really aren’t better than you. So why do you expect them to be? It is a myth that politicians are special and can be expected to live to some higher standard. But we do expect that and so, of course, they look more dishonest than the average person.

Pass a Federal Law that requires each politician to take a polygraph examination every six months. Just the fact that this law is in place, will deter many politicians from committing criminal acts. Others, will be caught and arrested.

It’s a shame that it has to come to this, in order to keep the politicans…...honest.

Destroy them with hand grenades & flame throwers, then simply put kids in charge… or monkeys even!

This is easy, but would require a complete upheaval of our current campaigning methodologies. With the internet, there is no excuse for not implementing an entirely new methodology.

No more voting upon promises made by wanna be politicians.

Simply form a government sponsored web poll which tallies the most important issues and positions that the people of our nation believe in. Provide an area to debate the issues amongst the people sans any lobbyist involvement. Another area would be designated for lobyyists and advocacy groups to put forth their positions. People would only be allowed to register their polled opinion after completing a review of all sides of any argument. Verification would be handled by a simple questionnaire confirming that the person has educated themselves completely on whatever it is that they wish to cast their poll.

Politicians would be hired to put forth the will of the people. They would be required to not take a stand on anything themselves. Their entire job revolves around enforcing the poll.

If a particular group doesn’t like the results, then they have an open platform to sway public opinion towards their position. This is a return to public forum debate akin to ancient Greek society where any man could stand in front of his peers and offer well reasoned logical arguments for or against any position. The council is swayed by logic, and not any one mans private agenda.

We live in The Age of the Petabyte where truth is beginning to speak for itself, rather than being interpreted through the jaded eyes of humans. We would do well to accept that truth for what it is, rather than what some private corporation or political posturing would like it to be.

Tape their mouths shut.

I think it could be done but the power to do so resides specifically in the House and the Senate by Constitutional mandate, and the powers that be won’t approve stricter rules.

But my ideas:
1. No voting on any legislation that benefits a campaign contributor from outside your district.
2. No legislation created by a lobbyist.
3. No lobbying by a former legislator for ten years after office.
4. No lobbying by a congressional or White House staffer for 3 years after leaving service, or unless your former boss has left office.

Violation by an office holder would mean immediate expulsion. Violation by lobbyists would be a minimum 5 yrs. in Federal Prison and lifetime ban on lobbying.

And because of the Citizens United ruling, a rewrite of corporation law to remove any civil rights to a corporation.

LOL shakes head
Sorry, GQ.

@zenvelo You forgot. You need to rewrite the constitution in order to make all your legislation possible.

Eh, threaten them with guns?
Seriously, if something could be done, it would have been done already.

@MilkyWay I dunno, we haven’t really given the “threaten them with guns” approach much of a try. Now if only they didn’t have so many themselves…

I don’t think you can. The ones who start out honest are broken down by their party leaders to be loyal to the party first, and if you don’t comply, you are shunted off to oblivion. Once the honest politician discovers this, it breaks down his/her spirit of feeling effective. They end up going along or going away.

1. The absolute best way to keep politicians honest is to take money out of political campaigns.

2. Make all voting open and make back-room deals illegal and punishable by jail time.

3. Forbid corporations from contributing to any part of a campaign including inauguration balls and parties.

4. Make accepting money from corporations or their officers punishable by jail time and eliminate the corporation’s license to practice in the U.S. or its possessions for at least 10 years.

5. Encourage all citizens to vote in every election.

6. Eliminate voting machines.

7. Accept that even these reforms will not insure politicians are honest so make it easy to recall crooked ones.

And I would add to the above, get involved in your own local government or other level, by volunteering your time with those politicians you believe in.

Kill them?

I tend to agree with @wundayatta . If a politician sticks with their principles they are considered inflexible, an ideologue, and stupid. If they compromise, they are considered corrupt, a party politician, and stupid.

There does seem to be some issue with ethics in political office. When Anthony Weiner sent unsolicited naked pictures, with a hard-on, across the Internet to college girls, congress said there wasn’t much they could do. He hadn’t violated their rules of ethics. It seems they should have higher standards than that.

Make lobbying illegal and have all politicians release a manifesto of their views public and updatable. Also by utilizing the various social mediums more could help the sharing of ideas between representatives and whom they represent. I like the idea of eliminating politicians altogether and use social mediums to control the outcomes where everybody votes via that and debates on it via anything. For instance, each area represented would be one group and they’d vote online and list the reasons why, and it’d go from there. But seeing as that’s going to be a clusterfuck once you add reality into the equation, it isn’t viable.

Also. Build a brothel three blocks from Capitol Hill.

Capital is a brothel

@wundayatta most of the rules offered by @zenvelo can be legislation or rules passed by the House on their own members. So, in other words, fuhgettaboutit.

@Jaxk “It seems they should have higher standards than that.”
What are these things you call “standards”? Not only do they go back on campaign promises and then lie bout it, you can’t even trust them to stay bought!

@cletrans2col They could be passed, but they would be immediately litigated and I don’t think they would be found constitutional.

@YARNLADY “And I would add to the above, get involved in your own local government or other level, by volunteering your time with those politicians you believe in.” In this day and age with the ridiculous lack of leadership in Congress there are still people in their 30’s and 40’s that say they don’t follow politics and don’t have time for it. I guess they’ll wait until they’re jobs are shipped overseas or they have to file for medical bankruptcy before they become interested.

@Ron_C I think that some of that apathy is due to cynicism though. It’s not that we weren’t interested so much as feeling that it won’t make much difference. Us Gen X-ers grew up with economic uncertainty, are the first generation to earn less than our parents, often grew up with only one parent, and generally lack the blind enthusiasm of youth or the “we made Civil Rights happen so we can change other things too” mentality of the Baby Boomers.
I think that the new definition of Cynicism ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicism_(contemporary) ) sums it up perfectly. Sorry, but that link may not have formatted properly :(

@jerv

It would seem the guys that are upholding thier campaign promises are the ones you hate the most, the Tea Party Reps. I think you railing against an imaginary monster.

@Jaxk As much as I dislike what the Tea Party stands for, I have always respected them for their courage. Somehow, I think that that gets lost in my rantings, but let me reiterate; I respect them for having the balls to speak up and the integrity to stand by their guns. I may not agree with them as you well know but I do respect them for that.

@jerv

Interesting concession. I appreciate your honesty

@Ron_C Yes, jobs sent overseas is a large part of our current crisis. People simply do not understand that “the government” is us. I see this as a huge failure of the educational system.

@YARNLADY we are going to have to get used to a declining educational system, You will notice that is the first thing attacked in Wisconsin, Ohio, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The tea party conservatives recognize that it is difficult for an ignorant public to oppose their ultra-right (I’m not allowed to say fascist) policies. First on the block are teachers, then attack the schools with vouchers to insure they stay down.

@WillWorkForChocolate You are the most awesome momma ever!
Let’s go on a shopping politician killing spree!

Make everyone in society more honest. On average politicians are no different from normal people. But there’s a lot of dishonesty among normal people too. Just consider how many people think it’s okay to cheat on your tax return. Dishonesty breeds dishonesty. We need to create a culture where people are proud to contribute and pay the taxes they can afford. We need new business models that focus on the well-being of people instead of the bottom line.

Oh Matt, what a dreamer! Do you think we will live long enough to see such a world?

@Ron_C Giving people school choice is not “attacking” the teachers.

Dreamers think big and start small. Fools think small and start big.

People in 1850 dreamed about ending slavery. They lived long enough to see such a world. People in 1900 dreamed about ending child labor in mines. They lived long enough to see such a world. People in 1950 dreamed about ending segregation. They lived long enough to see such a world. People in 2010 dream about societies based on kindness and compassion. They will live long enough to see such a world.

@cletrans2col “Giving people school choice is not “attacking” the teachers.” it is if you are subtracting that money from the public school budget.

@mattbrowne people are now trying to re-segregate schools (see above mentioned voucher system), there is a movement to reduce regulations in industry including limits on child labor. Additionally, despite the murders and lynchings that happened prior to ending segregation, people are a lot meaner now and they have the backing of some really nasty corporate types. The attempt to bankrupt the U.S. is probably mild compared to what else they may have planned.

@Ron_C You are mistaking some people with most people

@Ron_C It is sad to know that you are serious.

Let’s have a careful eye on this minority trying to undo progress and make sure they don’t succeed.