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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   Edited 1yr ago   34428 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022

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The current top comment on the /r/politics post on this is:

“Trump just vowed to push for term limits for members of Congress and a lifetime ban on lobbying for former lawmakers, both of which were promises from his 2016 race — and both of which his White House never sought to adopt in any of the four years he was president.” - NYT

(Post did not include a link to NYT, but here is the source from an article titled "Trump Announces 2024 Run, Repeating Lies and Exaggerating Record".)

I pretty much agree. I wasn't happy about Trump being elected but at first I was hoping there may be some silver lining in him actually being serious in his claims to care about corruption. But that hopefulness didn't last long. (Also, I'm not entirely sold on term limits; I think looking at other structural reasons for incumbency like first-past-the-post elections making it difficult to run an ideologically similar campaign is probably a better idea.)

I still don’t understand how the poster child for “draining the swamp” is a billionaire real estate mogul and entertainer from New York City. The constant self-advertising alone surely raised red flags. And that’s before the scandals, the inability to fill offices, the nepotism, the public infighting, and the general inability to pass anything.

Damn it, we need an alternative to FPTP.

Damn it, we need an alternative to FPTP.

I favor approval voting. You vote to "approve" as many candidates as you want; the candidate with the most approving voters wins. Unlike RCV, there aren't situations where you win by being less popular, there are no spoiler effects, it is extremely simple, and you end up with centrist politicians instead of maximally divisive ones.

It’s my single-issue vote.

I will vote for any goddamn candidate who credibly supports approval or even ranked choice. I don’t care if it throws my vote away or if they’re otherwise detestable. I’ll advocate for others to do the same, too.

It hasn’t done any good yet.

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