09-03-2012, 05:16 AM
This:
http://www.fairvote.org/what-is-irv/#.UEQrUKN0OdF
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.
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.
http://www.fairvote.org/what-is-irv/#.UEQrUKN0OdF
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.
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.
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