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[PATV] Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - Extra Credits Season 4, Ep. 17: Politics
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
This week, we offer a handy guide to making your voice heard in U.S. politics (with special guest)!<br /> Come discuss this topic in the <a href="http://extra-credits.net/episodes/politics/#discuss" target="_blank">forums</a>!
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Also, I live in Baltimore City, which is over 70% Democratic. If I vote Democrat, the Democrat gets in. If I vote Republican, the Democrat gets in. If I vote Mickey Mouse, the Democrat gets in. I still vote, for the principal of the matter, but I know my vote doesn't really count in the huge bucket since the largely ignorant masses that populate the city are voting Democrat in such numbers that it's been shown statistically that only if EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTER actually goes to vote and votes Republican does the Republican even have a chance of winning. So, there's no real contest in Baltimore City, and it saddens and infuriates me.
"Wait what huh? That's my representative! Omagosh!"
Jared Polis has now been on the Colbert Report and Extra Credits. Apparently other people are less happy with their elected officials, me I'm in love.
"I have solved this political dilemma in a very direct way: I don't vote. On Election Day, I stay home. I firmly believe that if you vote, you have no right to complain. Now, some people like to twist that around. They say, 'If you don't vote, you have no right to complain,' but where's the logic in that? If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent politicians, and they get into office and screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You voted them in. You caused the problem. You have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote -- who did not even leave the house on Election Day -- am in no way responsible for that these politicians have done and have every right to complain about the mess that you created." --George Carlin
As a student of Game Design and an avid voter, I say many have died for your right to vote and as a man of honor I cannot let their deaths be in vain. Nor can I stand to see utter stupidity in my nation. If we as a nation cannot stand together and unite for the common good, then this nation will fall, it may not be now or for many years to come. Rome did burn and I do pray that we will not meet the same fate. But here I go ranting on, sorry.
Godspeed,
Mizuotaku
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC
You can conctact the Prime Minister's Office using the information here:
http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/contact.asp
To find out how to contact your MLA check out your province's/territory's website under "Goverment of" wherever you are.
Also check with the Post Office as many types of correspondence to government officials through the mail is free of charge.
Also, in regard to the merchandise situation, why not start with the green "G" T-shirt (or long sleeve shirt) with brown sleeves?
They actually DO reply most of the time, either their office staff or even themselves. Takes a bit of time, but as the episode said, make it personnal, and they'll reply (mostly) personnally too. By the way, there are still two steps on the ACTA (for US : that's our version is SOPA/PIPA, but aimed at customs as well as internet stuff) coming, it's the right time to contact them.
As for the episode, it sure was different from usual, but I didn't mind. Its well-done, practical and motivationnal.
Dean Clifford
On the bright side though, this is helpful as I'm currently trying to prevent passage of a state bill in Ohio that's already cleared the house. I've called and written my county's senator. For the record I'm trying to stop a bill that would make it a 4th degree felony to own a car with hidden compartments, on the grounds that people have the right to customize their own property and so long as they aren't using said compartments for anything illegal, it shouldn't be unlawful to have them.
The general assumption that an area is wholly or mostly on one side of the political spectrum or the other is misinformed. In general, most people will vote for the person they think best represents their interests, regardless of party. Which is why you find middle ground republicans in larger cities, middle ground democrats in rural areas and a mixture in between. A republican in a big city is basically the equivalent of a democrat in a small town. Different issues and different demographics mean different representatives. Democrat or Republican is less a division in local politics than we recognize, because we assume the parties are the same and uniform wherever we go.
As an aside.
As a soldier, please do not misconstrue any future death of mine as " dieing for your right to vote " unless I do it guarding a voting booth on US soil on election day.
It matters a great deal more in local elections where people don't bother to show up (outside of presidential elections every 4 years). Cumulatively, all those other elections have a much greater impact on your day to day life than the man in the oval office ever will.
People are correct to generally assert that one vote is worthless. However the danger of that apathy is huge, it allows relatively small well organized groups to hold a disproportional amount of power. Put it a better way just because you stopped organizing and voting does not mean people you disagree with also stopped. Politics currently is not about grand coalitions or going to get new voters it is about mobilizing your bass and supporters we rarely focus on converting voters we after the ones who already agree with us then getting them out to vote. Unless you give a political party a reason to care(votes) they will ignore you as you ignore them.
I also agree with the advice given by the Member of Congress it is bang on. It is generally a policy of Ministries to ignore petitions and forum letters for the reason he stated. Most letter that are sent are responded to, however another tip do not use vulgar language otherwise we think just think you are a troll and throw it in the garbage and not send long winded essays no one is going to read them fully.
They were unfortunately naive in this regard. Groups are inherently stronger than individuals. People are naturally going to band together to get what they want accomplished.
It is a trade off. All of the Anglo Democracies expect America have more then two significant parties and they all use a FPTP system or some variation. Also every system that use something other then FPTP tend to have rigid party structures and centralized control, typically meaning the local candidates mean next to nothing and there is a lot less variance of opinions in the political parties.
American politicians are perhaps one of the least partisan in the world. I willing to bet American politicians are far more likely to vote across party lines them any other Western democracy and that is great thing and only can be produced by FPTP.
WTF?!? They actually require you to say how you're going to vote when you register? Last time we had that in Germany was roughly 70 years ago...
Can someone explain to me why Australia loves Masterchef so much? I don't get it: particularly the eighty-plus episodes per season.
No, it's a fundamental misunderstanding of what a primary is. The primary is where the parties decide on who will be their standard bearer in the general election, which is where the actual seat holder is elected. There are three types of primaries in the US:
Closed primary: Restricted to registered members of the party only. This is the system that the poster was complaining about, and it's their own fault, as they refuse to pick a side.
Open primary: Any person can vote, but you have to choose which party's primary you will participate in. I live in an open primary state, and when I voted last week, I was given both the Republican and Democratic ballots, and chose one to complete.
Jungle primary: Only used in CA, this is a primary only in name, as all candidates are put into a single election regardless of party. The top two candidates move on to the general, regardless of affiliation. In effect, CA has a general election with an automatic mandatory runoff election.
Primaries are just our way of deciding which particular individual will run as the party's candidate for office. Winning the primary does not win you any public office in itself, and there's nothing to prevent someone who lost a primary from entering the general election and winning (other than our political culture that is... third party candidates very rarely win).
No, they require you to be a member of a party to vote in that party's primary. You're still free to vote for whomever you want in the general election. I imagine the ostensible reason is so you don't have Republicans crashing the Democratic primary to vote for a weaker candidate, or vice versa.
I'm not arguing that it isn't stupid, I'm just saying it's not as stupid as you're making it out to be.
your = belonging to you
their = belonging to them
there = not here
they're = they are
Well, no, its the parties using their First Amendment right to freedom of association. And the point is that the original poster needs to figure out if the warm and fuzzies he or she gets from being Broderite is worth not having a voice in how one party chooses its candidates.
I'm not sure what part of my remark you're disagreeing with.
your = belonging to you
their = belonging to them
there = not here
they're = they are
Well, Canada used to have lots of parties:
Left: Liberals, New Democrats
Right: Conservative, Canadian Alliance.
There are some others (Green party), but they don't get any seats in this system, despite getting a not-insignificant percentage of the vote.
The Liberals were winning majorities a lot, so the Conservatives and Canadian Alliance merged into the Progressive Conservative party
Left: Left: Liberals, New Democrats
Right: Progressive Conservatives
Now the conservatives are winning majorities a lot, despite the three major parties getting relatively similar numbers of votes. And there's been talk about the Liberals and NDP merging, though it hasn't happened yet.
So the guaranteeing 2 parties thing is more over the long run- FPTP encourages parties to merge together if they are similar enough, because 2 parties each getting 10% of the vote get 0-ish seats, while those 2 parties combined might get 20 seats with their 20% of the vote etc.
Right now the conservatives don't have to get the majority of the votes, they just have to get more votes than either of the other parties seperately in the majority of ridings. Considering the other 2 have to fight for the left-leaning votes, and the conservatives are the only real right-leaning alternative, they get a majority, even if they only have 35% of the votes or whatever (pulling that number out of my rear, sorry).
If the Liberals and NDPs merged together, the conservatives would need to get more votes than the SUM of the two parties were getting in each riding, which is alot tougher. So eventually they'll merge, if they want to win. And then there will be two, as was prophecized.
Your vote counts exactly as much as all the other votes does: it counts for one.
your = belonging to you
their = belonging to them
there = not here
they're = they are
Even though SOPA was blocked, the very next day Megavideo was shut down. The bill itself was just a smokescreen for an action that had been planned long in advance; as it turns out, the legislation wasn't even needed. The federal government in the US will do what it pleases, when it pleases (just look at how many illegal wars Obama has started, without Senate approval). Let's not forget that the owner of Megavideo was sentenced to 50 years, for defying the oligarchs. Absurd.
Then there's the fact that you keep advocating Democracy; mass democracy is a form of communism, and the Founding Fathers recognized how deadly it is. They were trying to form a Republic, to prevent a Democracy. Democracy inevitably decays to a welfare state, where Group A votes themselves the resources of Group B. Economic and social collapse inevitably follow.
And then you act as if voting for a political party has the capacity to change anything. The POTUS is a figurehead; the real nodes of power are the Universities which train the media (and thus control information), the Civil Service which is ultimately in control of all legislation, and the military/industrial complex which regulate all small businesses out of existence.
There is a massive economic collapse coming, a social collapse, and an energy deficit; campaigning for Romney isn't going to change a damned thing. Voting is nothing more than fiddling while Rome burns.
your = belonging to you
their = belonging to them
there = not here
they're = they are