I mean for this to be a general election discussion thread. By all means feel free to post whatever current issues are on your mind. There's a lot of stuff I want to talk about and there are a lot of smart people here who are fun to discuss with.

Who is the better candidate: Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, Gary Johnson, Roseanne Barr?

Someone else?

If it is someone else, are you upset that the winner of the presidential race will not be her/him?

Is it a good idea (theoretically, of course) to have a president? Why not a prime minister?

Is the way we nominate/elect American presidents fair? Is it smart? Is there a smarter way? Is there a way which would be more fair? To whom?

Would you be happier if there would be more candidates with a realistic chance of winning the election?

If you would, how could America change electoral law to better accommodate a variety of choices? Instant runoff elections? Proportional representation? Switching to a parliamentary system? Some combination of these?

Is electoral law even the problem? Could the limited availability of third party candidates who prove to be a serious challenge to Dems/Repubs be the fault of poor media coverage of alternative candidates? Maybe it's just political culture? Some combination of these and other factors?

Anyway, if you're at all interested in these questions (or anything else) as I am, post your thoughts.

---

"But not me,
I'm gonna crawl,
I'm gonna crawl,
I'm gonna crawl,
Back to the sea."

"Goddamit, I love John Coltrane."

dear righty, do you hate blacks or mormons more?

and, would a black mormon woman be your idea of what satan might look like?

would you like abortions if only gay fetuses were aborted?

if obama was white and romney was christian, would you be able to tell the difference?

do you like apple pie with cheese, or without?

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mike10k
and, would a black mormon woman be your idea of what satan might look like?

a black muslim atheist mormon woman, to be exact. (I'd throw in marxist, but I think that's redundant)

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Kathaariancode
If you would, how could America change electoral law to better accommodate a variety of choices? Instant runoff elections? Proportional representation? Switching to a parliamentary system? Some combination of these?

I'd be interested in the viability of instant runoff elections. It seems like a good way to avoid voting for the "lesser of two evils," but I haven't looked into it deeply enough to know the real downsides. Seems like it could make it easier to elect crackpots, though, and the actual implementation of such a system (and educating people so they understand it) could take some work, too.

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dtrom4
I'd be interested in the viability of instant runoff elections. It seems like a good way to avoid voting for the "lesser of two evils," but I haven't looked into it deeply enough to know the real downsides. Seems like it could make it easier to elect crackpots, though, and the actual implementation of such a system (and educating people so they understand it) could take some work, too.

As for the challenge of educating people about how it works, a two round system like the one France uses could potentially do the trick. This system is easy to understand because if no candidate gets a majority, the two top contenders are put on the next ballot. The problem is that although France has had success in being inclusive of multiple parties in parliament, Presidential races in France are still dominated by the center right/left parties of Sarkozy and Hollande.

I don't know that much about the IRV myself, or at least about it's success in Australian parliament.

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mike10k
do you like apple pie with cheese, or without?

I've never had it with cheese. True story.

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Kathaariancode

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mike10k
do you like apple pie with cheese, or without?

I've never had it with cheese. True story.

MARXIST!

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mike10k

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Kathaariancode

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mike10k
do you like apple pie with cheese, or without?

I've never had it with cheese. True story.

MARXIST!

Funny you should say that, I just bought a copy of the Communist Manifesto the other day.

ETA: Actually I'm fairly certain Marx would have disapproved of that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2012 03:26PM by Kathaariancode.

i joined the communist party for a while, but the hangover was terrible.

---

The first thing that distinguishes a writer is that he is most alive when alone. - Martin Amis

ah man.
hit the badum pump.
missed the cymbal.
fell off the drum stool.
hit my head on case of dos equis.

it was the most interesting rimshot in the world.

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Kathaariancode

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mike10k

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Kathaariancode

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mike10k
do you like apple pie with cheese, or without?

I've never had it with cheese. True story.

MARXIST!

Funny you should say that, I just bought a copy of the Communist Manifesto the other day.

ETA: Actually I'm fairly certain Marx would have disapproved of that.

marx would have disapproved of me yelling MARXIST?

or of you never making love with a piece of cheese?

Probably both of those things but especially that I bought an item made by some laborer who is completely estranged from his product or the person who bought it.

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Wild Creature


i joined the communist party for a while, but the hangover was terrible.

I love you for this.

---

[www.last.fm]

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Wild Creature


i joined the communist party for a while, but the hangover was terrible.

I hate you for this.


































































































...wait for it...











































































Not really.

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[hackberrygarage.tumblr.com]
[eavesdroppingvulpine.tumblr.com]

nicely done.

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mike10k
marx would have disapproved of me yelling MARXIST? or of you never making love with a piece of cheese?

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Kathaariancode
Probably both of those things...

aight. this continues to make me laff. it's the "probably."

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Wild Creature


i joined the communist party for a while, but the hangover was terrible.

Yeah, just going to reiterate, this is the best thing ever.

---

My music:
[www.facebook.com]
[jamisonmurphy.bandcamp.com]

If you could have any politician (or otherwise) run for office in 2012, who would it be?

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Kathaariancode
If you could have any politician (or otherwise) run for office in 2012, who would it be?

I'm not American but I genuinely think any country could do a lot worse than being run by John Darnielle.

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Kathaariancode
If you could have any politician (or otherwise) run for office in 2012, who would it be?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2012 05:44PM by mike10k.

i mean, can you imagine the fun!?!