Tuesday, June 2, 2026

James Talarico is called "Talafreako"

Can anything be done to discourage these types of attempts by politicians to make themselves appear to be different from what they really are?

Talarico is fake. But it may be possible to fool the public and win an election. Either by fraud or force (phony ballot trickery and the like).

Perhaps a Constitutional Amendment?

If by amendment, then how do you enforce it? If a politician wants to lie his way into office, then how do you stop it?

There is no fail-safe way, but maybe there is a way to discourage it. Perhaps something like a recall election. This doesn't always work, though. California is an example. They did recall one politician, and simply got another fake--Arnold Swartzenegger.

If democracy is to work, the public has to be on guard. That's a problem. As the saying goes: "You can fool most of the people some of the time, and some of the people most of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time". The trouble with elections is that you only need to fool most of the people some of the time. An election campaign isn't constant. It is for a short time.

Let's suppose you had something like a petition to find facts regarding an issue that the public decides is worthy of setting up. A court of inquiry could be mandated by a recall petition. If the recall petition gets enough votes, the court of inquiry would be convened and hold a trial. The results of the trial is definite like a finding of guilty on not guilty. The finding wouldn't remove an official, but it would be finding of fact that could be used in impeachment proceedings, and in electoral campaigns.

The limited nature of this proposition may insure that it is rarely used. After all, you wouldn't get an automatic removal from office even if malfactor is found guilty. But it could lead to removal. If the supporters of a politician found guilty this way refuse to hold the malfactor accountable, the public can take that into consideration the next time an election is held. Indeed, the refusal to act could result in more findings of fact petitions.

It could be messy, but politicians would not necessarily want to go through all this, and may act more reasonably. That's the hope, anyway.

Quick update:

Directly on point here with this tweet:



Update later in the day:

Big ideas from Democrats

If the ideas are so good, why not make it like a contract? If the politicians fail to live up the contract, they can held accountable for it. Make it to where they can in effect be sued for breach of contract, with the relief being a loss of the power of the office the rascal is holding.

The trouble with these "big ideas" is that they aren't explicitly stated. The ideas need to be explicitly stated and put in an enforceable contract with the voters. That is to say, make their office contingent upon being faithful in executing their contract.

This probably makes too much sense, and why it would never be enacted.

No comments: