comment: >
  
  The FBI tipline for Kavanaugh's sexual assaults sent the calls directly to the White House without investigating them.
context: If the sexual allegations aren't bad enough, Kavanaugh completely disqualified himself for a SC role with his temper tantrum at the hearing. Another privileged little prick who has never paid consequences in his lifetime. >
  
  100%. He should never have been confirmed after that unprofessional display. >
  
  I was with my boyfriend while he was getting a haircut at a barber with that hearing on the television, It was a busy barber shop with about 5 people in chairs and maybe 10 people waiting, plus all the employees. All of us were silent and exchanging glances like WTF the entire time. I will never forget it. >
  
  I was commuting and, for the first time in my adult life, bored enough to wonder what was going on on c-span. It was eye-opening. Up to that moment, I really just assumed our country was run by basically intelligent, mature adults. >
  
  And this is why we aren’t well represented..the phrase “we get the country we deserve” comes to mind. 
  A well functioning nation is a well informed and participatory nation. We are so far removed from that type of nation, that the entirety of the gop decided they can outright lie under oath, or on their campaigns (to the point we get serial grifters like Santos getting positions of power) or wherever else they feel the need to lie…they know their constituents are either not paying attention, dumb as bricks (thanks to their 50 year war on the public education system), or both. >
  
  I once read a sci-fi novel that had a notion of "participatory democracy". You were only allowed to vote on issues you could prove (via a test) that you understood.
  Obviously there are huge practical problems with doing that for real. But the notion of a social democracy where the most influence rested with those who were most engaged, issue by issue, was a compelling vision. >
  
  Yeah... I've tried to think of a practical solution that couldn't easily be perverted, but mostly came up with nothing. 
  Reform of the FPTP system alongside getting rid of the electoral college would be the simplest way to do the most good in general.  Term limits and a ban on stock trading would also help.
  I'd love to see some sort of non-compete type thing, like if you were on a particular committee, you couldn't work in thay industry for at least 10 years. But that's also a big practical problem in terms of implementation that I'm not sure is solvable. >
  
  It is hard to create a robust system when the starting premise requires expecting that corruption and improper influence are the norm.  We need political figures that value the health of the democracy over personal excess financial gain, both during the time of public service plus a modest period thereafter. I don't think humans (at least in Western cultures) have put much serious thought into building better humans for political service since Ancient Greece... and their results were pretty mixed I think.
  Edit: note that I'm not saying there have been no political scientists or moral philosophers considering such matters. I meant as a broad cultural perspective, we don't seem to emphasize evolving people to reach for a lofty ideal. >
  
  Reminder that the FBI received thousands of tips, promised a full investigation and then did nothing.