Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

I'm not sure this is true. According to Wikipedia, through 1845 there was no set election day and states (and even localities) all had different rules. Once communications became advanced enough that this meant people had knowledge of other states' voting prior to casting their votes, the Congress set the first Tuesday in November as the national election day based on the contemporary electoral college rules.

I didn't see anything about it being a federal holiday.

I see no good reason at all to not have it as a federal holiday, or at the very least on a weekend.

Must have been a state law, then. Similar to Vermont's Town Hall Meeting Day.

 

[SJHovey]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

Interesting. I thought it was on a Tuesday in November due to harvest season being over by then (in the 13 colonies) but Tuesday gave everybody a day or so to get to the polls since they weren't supposed to be doing anything but worshiping the Lord on Sunday???

Anyway, back to the subject. I would like to see more uniform voting standards. Not exactly the same mind you, but in terms of acceptable ID's to vote, poll times, etc. States can conduct their own elections as they wish, but federal elections need to be more streamlined.

I disagree. Federal elections are a miniscule part of the actual election process. We get to vote for a President, two senators and a representative. It only happens every two years, and even then I might be casting only one or two federal votes.

That said, I would be on board with all states (perhaps with federal financial assistance) adopting these policies. First, allow same day registration, at the polls. Second, open up the polls for much longer hours, say 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Third, dramatically increase the number of polling places.

With those changes, if you can't figure out a way to cast your vote, forget it. You're lucky to even be alive, and you should just thank the rest of us for keeping society propped up.

 

[Rover]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

Looks like Lindsey Graham can kiss his already small chances goodbye!

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told CNN that he welcomes Caitlyn Jenner into the Republican party.

Said Graham: “I haven’t walked in her shoes. I don’t have all the answers to the mysteries of life. I can only imagine the torment that Bruce Jenner went through. I hope he’s — I hope she has found peace.”

He added: “I’m a pro-life, traditional marriage kind of guy, but I’m running to be president of the United States. If Caitlyn Jenner wants to be a Republican, she is welcome in my party.”

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

Looks like Lindsey Graham can kiss his already small chances goodbye!

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told CNN that he welcomes Caitlyn Jenner into the Republican party.

Said Graham: “I haven’t walked in her shoes. I don’t have all the answers to the mysteries of life. I can only imagine the torment that Bruce Jenner went through. I hope he’s — I hope she has found peace.”

He added: “I’m a pro-life, traditional marriage kind of guy, but I’m running to be president of the United States. If Caitlyn Jenner wants to be a Republican, she is welcome in my party.”

He never had a chance anyway. He's just there to make sure WAR is at the top of the agenda list. In that he will be very successful.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

Looks like Lindsey Graham can kiss his already small chances goodbye!

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told CNN that he welcomes Caitlyn Jenner into the Republican party.

Said Graham: “I haven’t walked in her shoes. I don’t have all the answers to the mysteries of life. I can only imagine the torment that Bruce Jenner went through. I hope he’s — I hope she has found peace.”

He added: “I’m a pro-life, traditional marriage kind of guy, but I’m running to be president of the United States. If Caitlyn Jenner wants to be a Republican, she is welcome in my party.”

I think Jeb would say the same thing. The Neocons have always been aware there will come a time when they jump off the conservative social issues bandwagon. For them that was just a vehicle to get them into office. As soon as it becomes a disadvantage they will jettison it.

One of the interesting things that's happening on the right currently is the tectonic plates are drifting apart again -- we are returning to the early 1970s world where they are each distinct players. Neocons, theocons, corporate cons and libertarians were successful well beyond their relatively meager numbers by banding together, but in the last decade each has been asserting their particular dogma and forgetting Reagan's 11th Commandment. None of those groups share much in common other than opposition to a socialist hallucination, and as they drift out onto their respective spiral arms they become mutually exclusive (how can a Neocon and a libertarian stand to even be in the same room together?)

I would not have guessed that the Thumpers would be the first to lose, however. They are by far the largest group by population, and they were still muscular enough to corrupt the Tea Party (which began as an anti-corporate insurgency without any religious trimmings). I assumed the libertarians would be kicked out, in large part since the libertarians are the only ones among them with any sort of intellectually coherent viewpoint. Maybe things on the right are slightly improving if the Christian Taliban are being excreted.

After the repeal of Prohibition the Thumpers had zero influence on national elections until the mid-70s when Jimmy got elected as a Born Again. We had a good 40 or so years free of them (not coincidentally, the greatest 40 years of American dominance), and maybe they will crawl back under their rocks and be content to ruin rural state legislatures and local school boards again. Post-derp America is an attractive proposition.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

I disagree. Federal elections are a miniscule part of the actual election process. We get to vote for a President, two senators and a representative. It only happens every two years, and even then I might be casting only one or two federal votes.

That said, I would be on board with all states (perhaps with federal financial assistance) adopting these policies. First, allow same day registration, at the polls. Second, open up the polls for much longer hours, say 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Third, dramatically increase the number of polling places.

With those changes, if you can't figure out a way to cast your vote, forget it. You're lucky to even be alive, and you should just thank the rest of us for keeping society propped up.

Same day registration couldn't POSSIBLY create fraud...

As for the hours and polling places, hope you enjoy about seven tax increases to pay for it (as the first six just have the money apportioned to something else).

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

Same day registration couldn't POSSIBLY create fraud...

Ten states currently have same-day registration. There's been no fraudpocalypse. The fraud argument is just another fear tactic with no basis in fact made by people who want to drive voter turnout down.

The states with the highest level of participation in SDR are Idaho and Minnesota (each just under 18%).

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

Same day registration couldn't POSSIBLY create fraud...

As for the hours and polling places, hope you enjoy about seven tax increases to pay for it (as the first six just have the money apportioned to something else).

Evidence please.

 

[Rover]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

I don't see fundamentalist Christians giving up the ghost all that quickly. As I've often noted, people of faith have been getting exploited and screwed by their so-called champions in gubmint for decades. Look at the roster of frauds: Baker, Swaggert, Bennett, Gingrich, Hastert Hyde, Barr, etc etc etc. However, when you think you're on a religious mission and are whipped into a constant frenzy by a right wing media that the establishment GOP has zero control over, a minor problem like continuing to lose Presidential elections isn't cause to change tactics. Its merely a test of will. 10 years ago Karl Rove told those people gay marriage was The End of Days. How do you turn around and tell people who actually believed that "oh, btw, I was just kidding about that"?

I can easily see Fox Cable and its various hosts pivoting away from an issue their corporate bosses never actually cared about. But the True Believers aren't going to be so willing to come along, which makes 2016 a fascinating race. I'm curious who has the skills to say just enough to keep these people happy, but not enough to turn off the majority of the general electorate? A really thin line to try and walk.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

Ten states currently have same-day registration. There's been no fraudpocalypse. The fraud argument is just another fear tactic with no basis in fact made by people who want to drive voter turnout down.

The states with the highest level of participation in SDR are Idaho and Minnesota (each just under 18%).

SDR increases turnout by an average of about 10%. The thing that may actually lead to widespread adoption is cost: SDR drives down the number of provisional ballots, which are expensive to process.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

Evidence please.

Only dopes like you and the ivy leaguer would actually believe this never happens.

http://www.fbi.gov/sanantonio/press...ultiple-times-in-2012-primary-runoff-election
http://insider.foxnews.com/2013/03/...-multiple-times-in-2012-presidential-election
http://www.examiner.com/article/nor...acebook-about-voting-multiple-times-for-obama

Oh, and then they deny it, thinking people are too stupid to see the bluff:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/201...r-obama-but-says-theres-no-voter-fraud-video/

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

I can easily see Fox Cable and its various hosts pivoting away from an issue their corporate bosses never actually cared about. But the True Believers aren't going to be so willing to come along, which makes 2016 a fascinating race. I'm curious who has the skills to say just enough to keep these people happy, but not enough to turn off the majority of the general electorate? A really thin line to try and walk.

I think the True Believers are more and more withdrawing from public life entirely. Home schooling / home prayer / prepping fetishism is the natural direction for people who think (1) the world is evil, (2) the End Times are coming, and (3) they're persecuted. One of the strains of religious fanaticism is to quarantine yourself from the evils of the world. I think we'll see this more and more with the real crazies. Participation in public policy by sane religious people will of course continue as part of a normal, balanced life, just as it always has. The ones we were temporarily burdened with from the 80s through the 10s were the Dominionists, and happily it looks like they are going to react to their loss of influence by taking their ball and going home, most to a self-exile of inner peace (which actually sounds kinda nice), a handful to pipe bombs and delusions of martyrdom. They're welcome to the South and prairies. Just another type of reservation.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

something silly

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

I see no good reason at all to not have it as a federal holiday, or at the very least on a weekend.

Election Day will never be held on the weekend, it would interrupt the Sabbath. Government doesn't like to do big things during holy periods.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

Cat fight, where for "cat" read "idiot."

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

Cat fight, where for "cat" read "idiot."

Sad thing is Trump is right on Krauthammer. Krauthammer is one of the worst journalists on the planet. He's wrong about everything all the time and no one calls him on it.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

Sad thing is Trump is right on Krauthammer. Krauthammer is one of the worst journalists on the planet. He's wrong about everything all the time and no one calls him on it.

Trump uses the political process as another carrier wave for his branding. He's only "right" in the sense that Dick Cheney's heart was "right" in trying to kill him: an unthinking entity may, at times, have positive collateral consequences.

Kraut's another in the D'Souza / W. Kristol / J Pod school of far right pundits who take a steaming crap on anyone their audience wants them to, without even a pretext of logic or principle. They're grifters with college pedigrees.

 

[Rover]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

Gotta admire these guys' ability to earn a buck, or a few million bucks on the backs of a lot of right wing suckers out there. How any of these guys still gets lamestream media coverage after the Iraq debacle is beyond me. Hilarious that it falls on a Fox News anchor to call their overlord out to his face (Megyn Kelly to Dick Cheney):

"Time and time again, history has proven that you got it wrong as well in Iraq, sir. You said there was no doubt Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. You said we would be greeted as liberators. You said the insurgency was in its last throes back in 2005, and you said that after our intervention, extremists would have to 'rethink their strategy of jihad.' Now, with almost a trillion dollars spent there, with almost 4,500 American lives lost there, what do you say to those who say you were so wrong about so much at the expense of so many?"

I don't care whatever else she does, she belongs in the journalism hall of fame for that one! Anybody picture Chuck Todd, Bob Schieffer or Stephanopolous saying that to Deferment Dick?

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

Election Day will never be held on the weekend, it would interrupt the Sabbath. Government doesn't like to do big things during holy periods.

I'm creating a religion with a spaghetti monster for a supreme being and our holy days falling on a Tuesday. Think they'll move it?

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 -- Don't Let the Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

I don't care whatever else she does, she belongs in the journalism hall of fame for that one!

I've got somewhere else in mind for her...

Do they write Fox News erotic fiction?