The Glade 4.0

A public servant should be as the name implies.

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In time, this too shall pass.

Take your radical nonsense elsewhere.

As for the semantic argument: LOL @ all of you. I bet, if you tried really hard and strained yourselves, you could come up with an answer to the question. You may be required to caveat your answer by explaining how you interpret the question, but I bet you could answer without first asking a bunch of follow up questions to dodge and/or distract.

This. Answer the question, and explain why you answer that way

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Holy shitsnacks!

Now who needs to take their radical nonsense elsewhere?

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Commie!

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Holy shitsnacks!

Asking people ask better questions is a dodge or distraction? Gosh, news to me, I'll try to remember to never ask people to clarify ever again.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Well, it depends. Before I answer, please address the following:

1) Define "dodge"
2) Define "is"
3) How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?



Thanks

I see you have nothing to contribute.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Well, you don't know whether I have anything to contribute or not, until you refine your question as I stated.

Then, maybe, if I like the exact way you phrased your question, I might offer a contribution.

Back under your bridge!

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Did you answer the poll DFK?

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No, because the clarification never took place in response to the questions. Instead we got handwaving and people like Aizle and Arathain ***** about "semantics", despite core definitions being key to the response.

I won't participate in even amateur polling that I believe has a skewed intention/bias.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

So you based on the two pages of discussion you can't fathom the subtle intricacies, sinister implications and depth of the poll?

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I did clarify, though, DFK.

The question is the same.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Yes, I clarified in the discussion and in my OP what I meant by "representative democracy" in the thread title. As for the poll question itself, it's limited to 100 characters, so there's no room for defining terms there.

Anyway, you're under no obligation to answer. *shrug* Just pointing out where I made my clarifications in case you missed them.

You don't have to define in the question, you simply would need to revise it. "What it means to [us]" has no validity. "What does "representative democracy mean?" does have validity. Chop the ending.

There may be other ways to word it, depending upon what you're trying to learn. My gut was that you were trying to ascertain whether people here believed that pols should pass healthcare overhaul despite a 'broad' majority of the population being against it, in its current form. This is a laudable item to figure out, given the demonstrated political stances around here. Unfortunately, this poll (and even how I demonstrated to re-word it) doesn't answer that question for you. You need a multi-question poll to do so.



I understand, and I'm simply attempting to point out that clarifications after the fact don't make the poll valid. Only changing the poll makes it valid. I have a strong belief that even amateur polling needs to be done as properly as possible, because you never know who'll attempt to use it as "scientific."

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

I completely disagree.

The poll as listed is much more valid that what you're stating. "We" are the final arbiters on definitions, provided you make that "we" large enough. What RD is trying to get to is what our understanding of the term is. Or perhaps to state it another way...

"You keep saying that word, I do not think it means what you think it means..."

No. Words have meanings. Polling what the meaning of "cock" is "to a certain group" doesn't mean jack squat to anything except that group. You cannot extend the results. Polling what the meaning of "cock" is, as an absolute, can tell you one thing: what percentage of people in a certain population know the meaning of "cock."

Now, given that this is an amateur study, the population cannot be controlled, so we let that slide. That doesn't make the former less extendable than the latter, it just makes the latter invalid for different reasons than the former.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

The world is nowhere near as black and white as you think it is DFK!.

Language cannot be mutable and malable in the way you wish if we are to have the ability to communicate, much less the ability to have a rule of law.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Actually, DFK's assumption is closer to what I was getting at, though I didn't specifically have healthcare reform in mind. Basically, I just wanted to know whether people here felt that elected leaders should generally follow their own judgment or the judgment of their constituents (as revealed by polls) when deciding on policy.

Re the meta-argument, though, I have to admit I do get frustrated with the frequent insistence on defining every conceivable term here. Of course, on the other hand, I'm amazed at how often differences in political philosophy seem to result in differences in word usage/meaning.

I haven't said anything about my wishes. I have only relayed what my observations in the real world have shown to be true. While words have meaning, the meaning changes from person to person. Often by great amounts. This is not my desire or wish, this is truth.

Still not enough information. They are, after all, supposedly still restricted in what they are infact allowed to legislate by a pesky little document.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Which is when it becomes our responsibility to correct, ignore, and or shun them.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20