OMG Politics, I'm over it already.

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Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise.
Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried from time to time.
 
mongooz said:
i forget who said it, but "democracy is absolutely a terrible way to run a country......but it's better than what's in second place"

or sumthin' like that.
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It's the worst, except for all of the others.

It's as good as its citizens. Which vary in quality from region to region.
 
Flamencology said:
Well, a well-informed electorate is critical. You'd have a hopeless nation if it were the United States of Oklahoma.
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How much time have you actually spent in Oklahoma?

Try Alabama for an eye opener. Strike that... Tear jerker.
 
rhino said:
I think this depends on the type of participation.

As more people strive to educate themselves on the issues and have rational discussions, I think that helps.

Sadly, I think the level of involvement for most voters is to have one or two things they really care about and to vote against the "D" or "R" that goes against their feelings about their hot button issues.
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In my opinion, this has a lot of truth in it. But challenges as well. The main challenge seems to be the part about educated themselves. I find it harder and harder to find viable and reliable source of information with which to educate myself or anyone else. This thread is a perfect example and very much what the OP was referring to on Facebook. People are making statements as if they were absolute truth. In reality they are perception and opinion. And if yours differs, you are clearly an idiot. So challenge number one is figuring out what the truth actually is.

Challenge 2 is that the truth doesn't matter to enough people. We have hyped the D and R thing so much that even those who claim to be or are perceived to be well informed root the hardest for their team and are generally the worst at insulting anyone from the other team. I noticed the other day that after I watched a video that was related to current campaigns that when the suggested videos popped up under that post, many of them started with something like "watch so and so destroy some other so and so." It just illustrates that the game of campaigns has just become a reality show. Everyone wants to see someone destroy someone else. And it's not a one side of the isle or the other kind of thing.

I watched another video that is circulating through social media and it is a talk news show host that goes off on the idea that until we don't have a bought Congress, we can't really have the change everyone seems to be looking for. I tend to think this makes more sense than anything else that people are saying.

So the biggest challenge is to figure out how to get involvement in changing that part. Campaign reform is a huge part of it but it extends past that. Candidates profit during a campaign but also in office. We all know it but we keep letting it happen. Seemingly informed people back their candidate with passion even though they know the special interests own that candidate for the length of his/her term. And that applies to the highest office all the way down to the local elections now. And I know that there are those who will say that it is worse with one party than the other but it's not. And that is the biggest issue. The seemingly most informed are the most polarizing and buy into the "my team against your team" aspect of it all. Some on this very board.

So how do we get the "well informed" to stop feeding the hate and ridiculousness? How do we get the less informed to get involved? More importantly how do we get everyone on the same page long enough to clean the slate? We are always going to disagree with each other and there is never perfect but putting faith in elected people in the current situation to do what is right for citizens is really ignorant.

And as far as social media is concerned, we have the option of deleting, blocking or scrolling but also to read it and move along. I have some Facebook friends who's views are way different from mine who make statements that really anger me (including at least one from here). I have often thought about deleting them but I remind myself that I need to be the open minded one and not discount someone because they don't agree with my opinion or stance. It would be great if they would do the same but that's not going to happen. Either way, it's not worth letting it ruin our day.
 
Interesting aside; I watched the Rep debate on Thursday on (shudder) Fox. I do like to be informed of what the issues are in the minds of both sides. The debate was ridiculous fun, then I turned it off. Came home from work Friday and the wife informed me that the cable box was stuck on Fox. So I spent Friday night and Saturday trying to pair the remote and IR receiver to no avail. Tried everything, but I could not fix it. Even went to Comcast and got a new IR receiver for the box. The lady there said it was probably a virus from Fox rotflmao. Called customer support after the new IR wouldn't pair, and he said the box was 'clearly possessed', and he would send me out a new one ASAP. Then he gave me the secret code to bypass the IR and I was finally able to get that crap off my TV. Whew! Beware.
 
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335clone said:
Interesting aside; I watched the Rep debate on Thursday on (shudder) Fox. I do like to be informed of what the issues are in the minds of both sides. The debate was ridiculous fun, then I turned it off. Came home from work Friday and the wife informed me that the cable box was stuck on Fox. So I spent Friday night and Saturday trying to pair the remote and IR receiver to no avail. Tried everything, but I could not fix it. Even went to Comcast and got a new IR receiver for the box. The lady there said it was probably a virus from Fox rotflmao. Called customer support after the new IR wouldn't pair, and he said the box was 'clearly possessed', and he would send me out a new one ASAP. Then he gave me the secret code to bypass the IR and I was finally able to get that crap off my TV. Whew! Beware.
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wow......maybe i should get my tinfoil hat out of the closet. i've never heard of such a thing. i'm not saying it didn't happen, just that this is the first i've heard of it. i wouldn't doubt it though, considering the source.
i have avoided the debates, on both sides, like the plague. i don't have time to listen to all the lies and shit flinging. if you listen to both sides and then take a step back and let your intelligence and logic kick in, you'll find that both sides are full of shit and are trying to scare america into voting for their side. the whole system is broken because of all the money in it.
 
I think the big losers this cycle are the broadcast and printed news media. The tight control that the corporate oligopolies exert over media (over 90% of print and broadcast media in the US are owned by six corporations) is in full view right now.
 
bsman said:
I think the big losers this cycle are the broadcast and printed news media. The tight control that the corporate oligopolies exert over media (over 90% of print and broadcast media in the US are owned by six corporations) is in full view right now.
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yep........freedom of the press my ass. doesn't exist anymore.
 
mongooz said:
wow......maybe i should get my tinfoil hat out of the closet. i've never heard of such a thing. i'm not saying it didn't happen, just that this is the first i've heard of it. i wouldn't doubt it though, considering the source.
i have avoided the debates, on both sides, like the plague. i don't have time to listen to all the lies and shit flinging. if you listen to both sides and then take a step back and let your intelligence and logic kick in, you'll find that both sides are full of shit and are trying to scare america into voting for their side. the whole system is broken because of all the money in it.
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I think it was a coincidence, but an evil one. I have had the remote stop working but either rotating the batteries or resetting the box has always fixed it before.

As for the debates, while I tend to agree with you in general, if you watched you would have seen a spectacular difference in tone and temperament between the 2. The R debate was a clusterfuck of epic proportions the likes of which have not been witnessed before. Amazing.
 
SNL had fun with both parties. These are prime comedy times in a target rich environment.

 
335clone said:
As for the debates, while I tend to agree with you in general, if you watched you would have seen a spectacular difference in tone and temperament between the 2. The R debate was a clusterfuck of epic proportions the likes of which have not been witnessed before. Amazing.
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Ash and I love politics. There is one party that we have a hard time making it through their debates, because it's a fucking shitshow. There is no respect being shown and they don't actually bother to discuss the issues., much less state facts. We normally skip that one and read the transcripts later.
 
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