False Election Promises

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

Do you think they should be a punishable offense, and if so, how do you think it should be punished? I see it as both fraud and treason. Perhaps there would be a few more sincere politicians with solid values if they weren't able to ignore what they are ethically obliged to do.

[Imperial]

Not really, because factors like the US congress has a big say in what actually happens.

[Tiberios]

Do you think they should be a punishable offense, and if so, how do you think it should be punished? I see it as both fraud and treason. Perhaps there would be a few more sincere politicians with solid values if they weren't able to ignore what they are ethically obliged to do.

No it shouldn't. If a politician is not able to fulfill election promises it isn't automatically because he/she doesn't want to. There could be many reasons: Not being able to get a majority amongst the other Government parties and/or in ones own party, it may also prove not to be feasable to carry out and so on. Of course politicians should strive to keep their election promises, but as I said, sometimes it's simply not possible for one reason or another. If it was a punishable offense you'd just end up with a bunch of inactive policitians that were basicly unwilling to make any kind of promises out of fear of being punish later and people also have somewhat difficult determining who to vote for since no one would be able to present their policies. Besides, then we'd certainly see a lot of politicians with hidden agendas.

Election promises shouldn't be taken too seriously. It's easy to promise to create a utopia when not being in power.

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

No it shouldn't. If a politician is not able to fulfill election promises it isn't automatically because he/she doesn't want to. There could be many reasons: Not being able to get a majority amongst other parties and in ones own party. It may also be too difficult to carry out or simply the state of the economy is so bad that it cannot be implemented.

Election promises shouldn't be taken too seriously. It's easy to promise to create a utopia when not being in power.

That goes without saying. The equivalent of fulfilling promises in the event of being unable to fulfill is to act in favour of them.

[LSJ]

What is important is that the candidate tables the ideas he said he would. You can't blame a congressman for not doing all he said he would when half of congress opposes the idea. It is the same for a president, because even a president cannot autocratically make reforms when the majority of the congress opposes him. In American politics, 2011 was an example of that.

But they at least have an obligation to work toward keeping their promises, like Ron Paul; consistently opposing certain acts like he said he would, even if he ends up being the only congressman voting 'no'. What is wrong is when your representative does a 180 after election.

[removeduser_4536284751384]

That goes without saying. The equivalent of fulfilling promises in the event of being unable to fulfill is to act in favour of them.

There are occasional changes that demand a complete shift in policy. What if someone is elected promising to return all troops home and follow a pacifistic foreign policy, and right after the election the country comes under a massive attack?

[motiv-8]

Campaign promises are more like an outline of the agenda the administration wishes to pursue. Sometimes these are attainable through means available to the Executive branch, others must be achieved through Congress. As such they should be understood as contingent upon what can actually be achieved. Don't like the returns your elected official gave you? Vote him out next time. Criminal punishment for something that isn't illegal anyway ensures that campaigning becomes an even more elaborate, ambiguous, and byzantine kabuki dance than it already is.

[Sir Winston Churchill]

Shouldn't be, sometimes promises have to be broken for reasons. An electorate may say he would avoid war at all costs, but then because of say an ally being invaded or his country being attacked outright, has to break that promise.

If politicians should be punished it is by not being elected again, or if the promise was that important, being ousted by popular demand. It's the job of the voters to decide between what's a flat out lie or not, it's our own stupidity which punished us by having someone dishonest elected.

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

Shouldn't be, sometimes promises have to be broken for reasons. An electorate may say he would avoid war at all costs, but then because of say an ally being invaded or his country being attacked outright, has to break that promise.

If politicians should be punished it is by not being elected again, or if the promise was that important, being ousted by popular demand. It's the job of the voters to decide between what's a flat out lie or not, it's our own stupidity which punished us by having someone dishonest elected.

In that scenario, if they did their best to avoid war, but were forced to by foreign politicians. Nothing dishonest about it.

[Sir Winston Churchill]

In that scenario, if they did their best to avoid war, but were forced to by foreign politicians. Nothing dishonest about it.

But that wouldn't stop people throwing a fit about it, accusing some kind of conspiracy, Zionists, proclaiming the anti-Christ is upon us for the 8,000,000th time, or some other thing.

[Exarch]

yes
and it should be punishable by beheading

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

But that wouldn't stop people throwing a fit about it, accusing some kind of conspiracy, Zionists, proclaiming the anti-Christ is upon us for the 8,000,000th time, or some other thing.

It's a good thing that courtrooms aren't entirely democratic then.

yes
and it should be punishable by beheading

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Exarch]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

a little of both, but i hate being lied to/being taken for a ride/being ed with, as so many lying politicians have done.

now i understand presidents and leaders have to be flexible once they're in office; fair enough; well then i propose that future candidates have a list of 5 items which are 'non negotiable Core promises' which they absolutely cannot break; that breaking one of them results in being fined exactly half of their net worth (for any of the Washington elite, that's in the area of billions of dollars), if they break another campaign promise, that's the other half taken away, and if they break a third, then their liar's tongue should be ripped out.

any other promises not on the list of 5 can therefore be taken with a grain of salt; when i buy somthing (with my vote or money) i expect the item to work 100%, and when i hire someone for a job i expect them to do the ing job.

[florin87]

yes
and it should be punishable by beheading

in that case half of europe would be devoid of politicians, dignitaries, etc.

plus how do you differentiate between those who genuinely don't care about their promises and those unable to fulfill them due to circumstance, incompetence or lack of a wider view of the current situation.

[Yosemite]

silly promises

silly promises everywhere

left? right? feels the same,

[Thorn777]

I think they all need to be kicked out of office, including the departments, CIA etc.

Lets start clean and replace them with people absolutely willing to live for political ideals. Less checks and balances for the ordinary citizen, all checks and balances for those heroines taking the honor of office. Kinda like Platon envisioned it.

[Macunaíma]

Sometimes they just aren't able to make what they said they would. This might happen because they promised something impossible (doesn't regard the post they're candidates to). But, still, it is people that should get informed and know when they're simply lying. The ones that want to vote consciously, of course.

[yupper]

Aristotle was right, 'politics' is just another word for 'lying.'

Would legislators ever legislate laws that make electoral deception/norm a criminal act? Nah.

[magickyleo101]

Our system already provides a remedy for cases where candidates don't keep their word: We don't have to re-elect them. If they really screw up, they can be impeached.

Creating a criminal offense would just encourage politically motivated prosecutors to try to embarrass candidates by bringing charges.

[Exarch]

in that case half of europe would be devoid of politicians, dignitaries, etc.

plus how do you differentiate between those who genuinely don't care about their promises and those unable to fulfill them due to circumstance, incompetence or lack of a wider view of the current situation.

well that's why i proposed the idea of the '5 Core promises' in my previous post; since these candidates are in positions of power; it's up to them to figure a way out to make things happen; it's not my problem if they had diarrhoea or couldn't perform due to excruciating genital herpes, i don't give a . Do the ing job we hired them to do; it would serve us well to remind these politicians that they're public servants not ing 'monarch for 4 years'.

Our system already provides a remedy for cases where candidates don't keep their word: We don't have to re-elect them. If they really screw up, they can be impeached.

Creating a criminal offense would just encourage politically motivated prosecutors to try to embarrass candidates by bringing charges.

for a job as far reaching and impacting as President or Senator, i would think that the country and the people can't afford an incompetant or stupid president, anymore than you want a financial consultant who's right 15% of the time or a doctor who's partially trained;