Trump is going to be reelected....

[Astreja]

A lot of Liberals are overly conscientious brats with an inappropriately idealistic world view, and they don't want to get their feelings hurt, so much that they support policies that go against free speech (a huge no no for me) and take an inordinate amount of pride in trivial/mundane/stupid things, such as their sexual orientation.

How can one be overly conscientious?  

This 64-year-old "brat" was in the front lines when same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada.  I actually cheered when a First Nations community in eastern Manitoba finally got their Freedom Road to connect them to the Trans-Canada Highway and enable them to bring in the equipment necessary to build a water filtration plant.  I always vote centrist or left-of-center, and I never miss an election.

Oh, and someone else's sexual orientation is none of your fucking business.

It pleases me intensely to know that I was more mature at fourteen than you are now, and that your only choice in life is to smarten the fuck up or become metaphorical roadkill in the real world.  You will learn, or you will fail.  Hard.

[Jehanne]

Ranked voting helps to stop that because you get multiple votes and can safety put your favorite candidate first and maybe the most popular candidate 2nd or 3rd.

Stop the corrupt formation of voting districts is another tool.  If a district is 90% Republican, the most extreme Republican will usually win.  If a district is more diverse, the candidates have to appeal to more people than just their nutball base.

Ranked voting has its drawbacks:

Wikipedia -- 2002 French presidential election

Note the first round percentages versus the second round.

[tackattack]

ranked voting is just like saying which pile of poop smells the least as far as I can tell. It may give us a better litmus for what the general populous agrees is the better smelling poo pile, but it doesn't correct the fact it's still 2-4 poo piles. I think this is the type of frustration that led people to want such a radical change... which they found by electing a braggadocios TV personality. It worked for Arnold, but that could be the branding of the shit pile. I'd love to see either candidate as not a pile of shit... then I'd be much more likely to vote for them...

What about outlawing smear campaigns. We all know that no one is perfect or completely good. It seems like their always competing to see who's the worst of the worst though. I think if a candidate came along that disapproved all smear campaigns from their side... worked to build bridges and wasn't a criminal... there'd be a paradigm shift and politicians might start telling themselves... "oh integrity... I never tried that angle before... looks like it's marketable... let's try that" but perhaps that's my idealism poking out

@Mister Agenda - Agreed, no choice is a choice, but there has to be an alternative to "burn it all down" that's not the lesser of 2 evils.

[Spongebob]

We won't get there by outlawing anything related to campaigning because you can't stop private groups from saying whatever they want about a candidate. Anyway, smear campaigns only speak to the base. An intelligent person can see through that stuff but extremists wouldn't see through a clear glass window so they don't really matter. And smear campaigns have been around since the very beginning and have been extremely vicious even long before mass media existed so its not a recent problem either.

What you seem to be concerned about in the first comment is that the candidates themselves are of poor quality. I don't disagree but that is a symptom of the way elections are run. If districts were more competitive, better candidates would emerge. We're now in an era where the most radical loudmouth wins.

[Ahriman]

We're now in an era where the most radical loudmouth wins.

Nah, we aren't. Things would be a lot better if that was the case. People too often keep silent, which is highly problematic.

[Spongebob]

A lot of Liberals are overly conscientious brats with an inappropriately idealistic world view, and they don't want to get their feelings hurt, so much that they support policies that go against free speech (a huge no no for me) and take an inordinate amount of pride in trivial/mundane/stupid things, such as their sexual orientation.

How can one be overly conscientious?  

This 64-year-old "brat" was in the front lines when same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada.  I actually cheered when a First Nations community in eastern Manitoba finally got their Freedom Road to connect them to the Trans-Canada Highway and enable them to bring in the equipment necessary to build a water filtration plant.  I always vote centrist or left-of-center, and I never miss an election.

Oh, and someone else's sexual orientation is none of your fucking business.

It pleases me intensely to know that I was more mature at fourteen than you are now, and that your only choice in life is to smarten the fuck up or become metaphorical roadkill in the real world.  You will learn, or you will fail.  Hard.

Hilarious when someone complains that somebody else is has too idealistic of a world view when they are working their ass off to make life better for people unlike themselves.  Yeah, I suppose selflessness and compassion for others is the worst possible personality trait one could have.  Horrible thing isn't it?

What about the worldview of the extreme Reich?  That anyone not white, protestant and straight should live a prosperous life while oppressing everyone else.

[Deesse23]

We're now in an era where the most radical loudmouth wins.

Nah, we aren't. Things would be a lot better if that was the case. People too often keep silent, which is highly problematic.

Nah, it isnt. Things would be a lot better if the right people would keep silent.

[Astreja]

Hilarious when someone complains that somebody else is has too idealistic of a world view when they are working their ass off to make life better for people unlike themselves.  Yeah, I suppose selflessness and compassion for others is the worst possible personality trait one could have.  Horrible thing isn't it?

*gasp* Having feelz for total strangers! The horror!

If we did a Venn diagram of people who believe "Free speech is more important than respecting others" and "Selfish fucks," it might not be a circle but it would be darn close.

[brewer]

Waiting for this years elections. Based on the lack of dem effectiveness at a grass root level (watch the news) I predict a lot of the forum peeps will not be happy.

[arewethereyet]

Waiting for this years elections. Based on the lack of dem effectiveness at a grass root level (watch the news) I predict a lot of the forum peeps will not be happy.

I hear few ads around here for any elections coming up.

I think that along with COVID fatigue, Americans have politics fatigue.