Is Donald Trump his own worst enemy?

[Steve R.]

Sadly, the Republicans are so afraid of being called names that they roll over and play dead rather than actually challenge any of these attempts to subvert our elections. It pains me to have to vote for them.

Unfortunately that is very true. Just tonight a person commenting on the Tucker Carlson show made that type of observation regarding the tidal wave of politically correct insanity sweeping this nation and the reluctance of the Republicans to push-back. The political left is resurrecting the French Revolution.

As an aside that demonstrates Republican gutlessness, none of the those responsible for the implementing and carrying-out the failed coup attempt against the Trump administration have yet to be officially charged or put on trial for their alleged criminal behavior. Contrast this with out the Obama administration holdovers and the Democratic House who were able to quickly appoint Mueller to conduct a witchhunt, crucify Flynn & Stone, and implement a failed impeachment process against Trump evenough there was no impeachable offense. Democrats don't seem afraid to blatantly and aggressively use their political power to criminally charge people, even if there is virtually no evidence on which to base the criminal charge.

 

[Deleted member 147267]

Maybe if there were 5 choices, there would be a lot more participation

I doubt it - from experience.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Personally, I'm beginning to have more and more agreement for something I once saw in the old Harvard Lampoon. Their idea was that ALL ballots at the primary level included an entry "None of the above." If that NOTA choice got the majority, then ALL of the candidates in that election were disqualified from running for public office again for some amount of time, enough to kill their careers. Better still, the position would be left unfilled and there would be no succession rules. We would make do with the office being vacant and it would be run by bureaucrats who were disallowed from making policy changes. Yeah, I know ... impractical. But I could see the NOTA option being exercised for quite a few elections.

 

[pbaldy]

NOTA is an option for some of the ballots in Nevada. Not sure what would happen if it won.

 

[Isaac]

I doubt it - from experience.

What do you mean from experience?

 

[Deleted member 147267]

You know I'm a Cannuck, yes? We have at least 5 parties to choose from in a national election. The Liberals and Progressive Conservatives get the bulk of the votes, NDP usually is a distant 3rd with the fringe parties making up the difference if you ignore the Bloc Quebecois, which is just ludicrous given that you have to be a Quebecer to vote for them. What often happens is that those who are not die hard left or right end up voting for Green Party or NDP unless you support Communist or Christian ideologies. The winner is who gets the majority of seats but it is possible that (e.g.) two thirds of the voting populace didn't vote for them. So the sentiment is often "I don't like A or B and I'm not going to vote for C so I'll stay home". Now you have a government that two thirds of the voters didn't want. I don't know what our average turnout rate is but I would be surprised if it is over 55 percent. I don't like our system and would not want to see us adopt a 2 party system either. There is one I might like to see adopted but at the moment I can't recall what it's called.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I was going to quote Nancy myself but she makes me cringe. Did you see that picture opp of the House people kneeling for 8 minutes while they were wearing African fabric scarves around their necks. Nancy was wearing a lovely orange pant suit that coordinated very well with the colors in the beautiful scarf. The liberals have completely ruined Halloween because of their hysteria over "cultural appropriation". It is just so mind boggling that they can't see their own hypocrisy. Why is it a crime when kids wear Indian head dresses but not a crime when they wear African "costumes"? I spent my childhood dressed either as an Indian or a cowboy as we (the neighborhood children) ran wild through the "woods". Today, parents would be accused of child endangerment for allowing us the freedoms we had.

 

[Isaac]

You know I'm a Cannuck, yes? We have at least 5 parties to choose from in a national election. The Liberals and Progressive Conservatives get the bulk of the votes, NDP usually is a distant 3rd with the fringe parties making up the difference if you ignore the Bloc Quebecois, which is just ludicrous given that you have to be a Quebecer to vote for them. What often happens is that those who are not die hard left or right end up voting for Green Party or NDP unless you support Communist or Christian ideologies. The winner is who gets the majority of seats but it is possible that (e.g.) two thirds of the voting populace didn't vote for them. So the sentiment is often "I don't like A or B and I'm not going to vote for C so I'll stay home". Now you have a government that two thirds of the voters didn't want. I don't know what our average turnout rate is but I would be surprised if it is over 55 percent. I don't like our system and would not want to see us adopt a 2 party system either. There is one I might like to see adopted but at the moment I can't recall what it's called.

Interesting, thanks for sharing. What you are saying makes sense.

 

[Deleted member 147267]

I took a look this morning ( I used my phone to post that last night while in bed ) and what I was thinking of might be called the ranked voting system. In my mind, when there are so many parties it could work such that if Mr. Jones places first in 1/3 of the ballots, but my second choice was Mr. Smith and he gets picked in more than 1/3 of the ballots, then Smith wins. So my second choice can win by virtue of the fact that he was voted for (either as first, second or third place) among all the other ballots more times than any of the other candidates. If that's not how it works in one of the many variations of ranked voting, then I guess I don't understand it.

As for the turnout, I'm surprised to see that the historically low end of turnout (nationally) is around 58%. The last election it was close to 66. I guess more of us wanted to weigh in on Trudeau's first term performance than I had remembered. It doesn't alter the fact that the winner isn't the first pick of the majority of the nation because the vote is split too many ways.

 

[Dick7Access]

I was going to quote Nancy myself but she makes me cringe. Did you see that picture opp of the House people kneeling for 8 minutes while they were wearing African fabric scarves around their necks. Nancy was wearing a lovely orange pant suit that coordinated very well with the colors in the beautiful scarf. The liberals have completely ruined Halloween because of their hysteria over "cultural appropriation". It is just so mind boggling that they can't see their own hypocrisy. Why is it a crime when kids wear Indian head dresses but not a crime when they wear African "costumes"? I spent my childhood dressed either as an Indian or a cowboy as we (the neighborhood children) ran wild through the "woods". Today, parents would be accused of child endangerment for allowing us the freedoms we had.

What a wonderful time I had tieing my sister to a tree. She never learn not to play wild with me in the woods, she would come right back the next time. Silly GIRLS! I was so much smarter, except for the beating I got each time after we got in the house.

 

[Pat Hartman]

My neighborhood was mostly boys but they let the girls play when they needed someone to chase

 

[Jon]

How very binary. Did you exclude the 70 other genders out there?

 

[Isaac]

How very binary. Did you exclude the 70 other genders out there?

And you forgot the 71st one ... Non gender.
What I'm waiting for is a gender-agnostic crowd. (i.e., "how can we be sure gender even exists?").
Or has that fad already started?

 

[Jon]

What useful concepts. Keeps application forms nice and simple. Very progressive.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The ONLY time that physical gender matters is when you have to decide whether you need to see a gynecologist.