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Author Topic:   A reform I'd like to see
PixieJane
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Posts: 860
From: CA
Registered: Oct 2010

posted September 02, 2012 05:35 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for PixieJane     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I'd like to see this:
http://www.fairvote.org/what-is-irv/#.UEMfS6N0OdE

I got involved with helping to get signatures for this years ago but despite visibility and getting signatures the media ignored us (just as I heard happened everywhere else across the country where similar efforts were taking place)...as a result people didn't remember us and it also burdened us with explaining it (and most people are too busy to listen for more than a minute or prefer politics to be explained in bumper sticker slogans or are just not interested in learning anything new). Of course the people who own the media (and most politicians in both major parties) wouldn't want any kind of reform like this so I'm not surprised.

Most people I know of who refuse to vote refuse because they feel those 2 parties are their only choices and they dislike both (even if they sympathize with one they may still find it too untrustworthy) and so they don't bother...and IIRC, only about 40% of those eligible to vote do so. And even many who vote Democrat or Republican are "voting the lesser evil," not for a candidate they actually believe in, so even if this reform didn't bring in a significant number of new voters eager to vote "third party" it could still shake things up significantly and demand more accountability from the big 2 (who are currently all too willing to throw those who vote for them under the bus because after all, what are you going to do, vote for the OTHER party?).

Of course both major parties and their patrons would fight this to the bitter end so I don't think it will ever happen without a major movement for it (convenient for those opposed to it owning most of the American media). Still, for what it's worth, I'm sharing.

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PixieJane
Knowflake

Posts: 860
From: CA
Registered: Oct 2010

posted September 03, 2012 02:04 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for PixieJane     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Oh, and added bonus, I'd like to see voters have to take a competency test (showing recognition of basic critical thinking skills and propaganda techniques simple enough for a layman to easily understand as well as answering questions showing a voter has read the pros/cons of the issue or at least knows the details of what it's about and stated goals as well as a politicians voting record), though ONLY IF it could be done in such a way as to not disenfranchise voters (I have no doubt the unscrupulous would try to get in on making the test to disenfranchise voters not likely to vote the way they want so this would have to be done with the utmost care to prevent abuse). Of course this would disenfranchise a majority of voters (what some of us call "the stupid vote" that both major parties aggressively pursue), though hopefully those who lost the right to vote would then improve themselves (and come to learn what they're actually voting on as well as how they're being manipulated) so they could vote again and stations like FOX and MSNBC would have to actually INFORM rather than merely manipulate, and viewers would come to see how such sources manipulate rather than inform them.

Before I vote I read up on the measures to be voted on in the Voter Information Guides, including pros & cons and THEN I do further research to try to see past the disinfo and BS, which is really hard because lying & spin is a staple of politics. I also research the politicians to be voted on, and pay attention to their voting record more than their rhetoric. This typically takes me a few days, each day taking me an hour or even hours.

And then I vote and get my sticker. And then other people with a sticker brag to me about voting but then demonstrate that they have no real knowledge of the candidates they voted for or the issues...once a guy bragged he decided IN THE BOOTH how he was going to vote on an issue (measure) and politician.

I also experience people all the time who are passionate about candidates who have a completely false view of the ones they support (it's gotten surreal at times). That is, they think they're voting for someone who is completely different than they are and even a simple visit to VoteSmart would clue them in on it, but no, they're too lazy to do even that. Democrats are as bad as Republicans for doing this. (Btw, Project Vote Smart is a bipartisan site with many independents and "third party" members keeping each other honest and "just the facts" that can't be debated, though many liberals decry it as conservative and many conservatives decry it as liberal as it's much more honest than their usual choices of propaganda.)

And when I joined a certain shooting range back in 2004 it took the liberty to put my name on several conservative mailing & calling lists (without telling me, it was only after I got a friend to join up and she started getting the same crap that I realized it was them, especially as they sent it all to my PO Box, which was the only mailing address I gave the shooting range on my member ap). This included super dumbed down (and deceptive) "facts" with explicit instructions on how to vote. Seriously, the California Republican Party sent me one such flier that actually a tear out section (easily put in a pocket) that clearly marked "yes/no" on all measures on the state ballot that you were to just take in and vote as instructed (save you the trouble of studying & thinking). And if people really vote like that, then, well, I don't care if they're insulted when I say they shouldn't be allowed to vote. And if they can't bother to learn even the basic real facts (as opposed to the spin and outright lies of their choice of propaganda), then why should they be allowed to vote anyway?

And let me add that I'd be ok with lowering the voting age to 15 and very strongly support the right of convicted felons who have served their time to vote...as long as they prove themselves worthy by showing basic awareness of propaganda, manipulation tactics, and willingness to study the candidates and issues before voting.

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