Thought experiment: A lottery for presidential candidates?

[Banana]

This is more of a silly idea, but wanted to see what others would think of this.

It has been said by various people, notably Douglas Adams, that the best man for a job is the man who wants it the least. The reasoning is that those who wants the job wants it for all wrong reasons: power, prestige, money, anything but goodwill and benevolence. Then there's been cases cited as examples. Gerald Ford and Harry Truman, for example (but to be honest, I didn't read into them that deep so don't know for sure if they actually were good presidents).

So would we have a much better slate of candidates if they were selected totally randomly from a national pool of eligible citizens then selected by delegates, rather than looking at who is willing to run?

One problem would that be it'd go against the libertarianism, as force is involved (drafting someone to be a president, even if they didn't want; making it voluntary would only mean we re-run lottery until we end up with a slate of wrong kinds of candidate). I'll leave this up to others to debate whether this would be justified (besides, citizenship is a contract so it can be said this is our duty).

So, would we be better off if we had a lottery for selecting candidates?

[yongrel]

Yes! Absolutely! I want this guy to win the lotto:

[Banana]

At least, he'd drink bud every days and do nothing, which is much better than any present candidates, except RP, would do.

[OptionsTrader]

Here's Lewis Black's idea...start around 3:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3_EwUERW1U

[Banana]

Here's Lewis Black's idea...start around 3:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3_EwUERW1U

Summary? It's not captioned.

[OptionsTrader]

Summary? It's not captioned.

OK, I typed it out, it's not perfect, but if you watch from 3:00 on and read this, that's the best I can do:

----------------------------------------------

It is my fondest wish and hope that in the year 2 thousand and 8, that the Democrats and the Republicans take some time off. (applause)

That there will be no conventions, that no one will be nominated that is a Democrat or a Republican.

I can't do it any more. (shakes head)

I don't have the time, and I don't have the energy. (applause and laughter)

I don't know what Democrats or Republicans think they're doin', but it's mmm mmm mmm (stuttering intentionally) more than I can bear.

(laughter)

Every four years I go it can't get worse, and it DOES. (laughter)

So I THINK ... one way we can pick the president next time, to make it simple and cheap is to when American Idol ... when they vote ... and there's a winner ... the winner is immediately blindfolded. (laughter)

(hands waving in the air)

A map of the United States is put in front of them and they are given a dart and they THROW IT. (laughter)

Whereever it hits ... that is where we have (hands waving in air) ... the monkey ... and we put him on a plane ... and we fly him (hands in plane motion) ... and he goes to the spot on the map ... and we put a parachute on him and push the (pushing gesture) ... the little $#@!er out (laughter)

And then he hits the ground and starts walkin' around ... (finger pointing) and whoever's hand he grabs first ... (pointing with both hands) ... that'll be the president (laughter)

[Banana]

OptionsTrader, thanks for the summary!

This is funny- and he got to use American Idol, too!

However, I would be against the idea of lottery for a president; we have a 50% chance of getting an idiot in office, which isn't that good. Lottery for candidates to be voted on, at least gives us a choice...

Oh, well.

[OptionsTrader]

How about a constitution class, and a 1 on 1 student to instructor quiz to verify they understand and will follow the constitution. Ron Paul would be the professor of the course, of course, and would be able to quiz them like Admiral Rickover did to the officers in the beginning of the nuclear Navy. If they pass the knowledge section and the truth section, they are put into a raffle for president...

[Banana]

How about a constitution class, and a 1 on 1 student to instructor quiz to verify they understand and will follow the constitution. Ron Paul would be the professor of the course, of course, and would be able to quiz them like Admiral Rickover did to the officers in the beginning of the nuclear Navy. If they pass the knowledge section and the truth section, they are put into a raffle for president...

It's funny you mention this-

See, China monarchy lasted for so long (admittedly with several different dynasties, but the system was basically the same) because instead of nobility holding political powers, all positions of power required that you first pass a exam.

The higher the position is, the more stringent the exam is. The exams can be multiple days, with limited supply of ink and paper with daily ration of water and rice. They were always essay questions. As a consequence, many of their bureaucrats were actually competent and deserved the position as opposed to simply being just born into the right family. (Mind, exams were expensive, so you still had to be a son of bureaucrat to be one yourself but in theory it's open to anyone else who can pass the exam).

[familydog]

Do we stone the president to death after his/her term?

[Banana]

Do we stone the president to death after his/her term?

Erm... what?

[familydog]

Erm... what?

It's a bad joke I guess

Read the short story "The Lottery" by Shirely Jackson, or at least look at the wikipedia spoiler. But I recomend reading the entire thing

[Banana]

Aha, no, not a bad joke; just my ignorance. Will keep that in mind.