It's the whole job of the Whip.

consistency, bureaucracy, logistics, party, etc.

Push recalcitrant legislators to toe the party line.

yea committees arent elected btw

^

You really can't hold out forever

The party bosses tend to win out.

Atleast on major issues.

they are essentially in for life if you think about it

its fucked

I wouldn't go that far.

But they do last longer than is probably healthy.

oh def

now despite all this the power still ultimately lies with the voter, the issue with them is lack of information, and even manipulation, although not to the degree of other Countries.

I'm not sure I necessarily blame the voters.

I think apathy actually saves us from alot of the problems.

If more voters were properly informed they could put some of the more corrupt out of power

I think voters are frequently in an awkward position.

I mean, here's the thing.

I want good policy.

yea

If I have to choose between good policy and corruption...

Do I give up all the stuff I value because my preferred candidate did some unsavory things?

I mean, you can spin lots of innocuous activities into scandals. Add in the Three Felonies a Day factor.

Depending on the nature of the scandals and the quality of the policies (or other factors) and I very well might choose a corrupt candidate.

It's an ugly calculus, but it's a thing.

Now, the proper solution would probably be to primary the sucker, but that doesn't always happen.

Suppose I fundamentally don't want to be listed as part of a party because I'd get harassed (this is true in my case)

What are the options?

Frequently, you have political machines that are themselves corrupt or the alternatives are just as corrupt on their own.

yea tbh its often a moral dilemma. I just think if more were informed then the standards might be raised idk

perhaps, but I think you have to factor in stuff like information manipulation. Activists on Reddit. Reddit itself. Partisans controlling and manipulating the media, etc.

This is why stuff like ideological or partisan diversity and balance is so important in stuff like Unis and Media companies.

If you don't have good balance you can fundamentally lie and get away with it.

Or deluge people to where they no longer know what to trust.

yea thats def an issue and ive got nothing against it to some degree but if it gets into censorship territory it becomes and issue, which is essentially what we are dealing with right now. People are ultimately free to believe whatever they want but they should be able to access as much information as possible and not just what is "authoritative sources".

Education is also an issue

Yeah. I do think the real issue is that the "authoritative sources" are not very good though. There shouldn't have been an outcry over hiring, e.g. Kevin Williamson at the Atlantic.

because when it becomes to one sided then people wont event question anything

They actually block hired to try and get a balance of views and then only kicked Williamson and kept his left wing counterparts.

Yeah, and you can see it on this board, even.

CNN, The Atlantic, and so on *should* be better.