Phenomephrene

You’re right. Sorry about that. I don’t want to put words in your mouth.

I recognize the problem you bring up, and that’s exactly why I’ve said what else I’ve had to say in this thread. The person you were responding to still has a point in what they’re saying. I’m not convinced they were asking for absolution of the Dems as a whole.

What are your ideas for enacting ranked choice voting that don’t involve leveraging the Democrats to make it happen?

It could maybe happen in individual states that allow citizen introduced ballot measures. That would be great. The scope and efficacy of that idea is pretty stunted though. You’d have to hope the measure passes in the first place, and counting on it to act as a catalyst for every other state to adopt the same is unrealistic. I’d expect a much longer time horizon on that approach than engaging with Democrats as far as making it the standard for the country at large.

That’s the other alternative I can think of to get the foot in the door, but I’m very open to hearing anything else that’s feasible.

The left in the U.S. seemingly has such a poor grasp of coalition oriented politics despite needing exactly that in order to become viable at all as political entities. It’s maddening. If people on the left en masse could put their ideals on the back burner long enough (and we’re only talking a couple/few election cycles) to force through issues of vote reform and campaign finance reform by working through the Democrats they could spend the rest of their lives voting for people that a) actually represent their values and b) actually have a shot at being elected.

Edit: That time frame may be optimistic, but the point stands. Cooperation/consolidation amongst the genuine left as a voting block/political force, and doing so through the currently actionable political channels, is what it’s going to take to get to where we want to go.

RCV will still have an effect on gerrymandered districts. It disrupts the clear funding strategies of lining up behind a single/pair of candidate(s). It becomes either a lot less guaranteed that your funding dollars are being put to good use, or a lot more expensive to make sure that they are. [Caveat: this obviously assumes some depth of a viable candidacy pool in a given district/race.]

Legit, if you have never contacted your reps in Congress before to let them know that they should be supporting a bill this is the time to do it. Make as much noise as possible on this one. It has the potential to be more impactful on every issue than most any other bill concerning a single issue. The only contenders I could think of would be campaign finance reforms or possibly some prohibitive action against regulatory capture.

It would be very on-brand, and probably entertaining, if these two send absolute bottom dollar lawyers to represent their case.

Pro tip: Have other people do the scratching.

The only way to become a billionaire is to exploit the labor of others.

Mostly what I see with any level of frequency is troll posters spamming intentionally inflammatory memes in apparently random communities. I’ve reported and blocked every post like this that I’ve come across.

Sometimes there’s payoff to being a visual learner.

Apparently I’m not as hip to the lingo as I could be. I had to look up everything besides LFG. Well, I knew what “big dick” meant, but I searched that anyway just for fun.

Hey, y’all remember how you were feeling about 4 weeks ago as the news media was eviscerating Biden over his debate performance? What a difference a month can make. I’m pretty jubilant this morning. As the kids say, LFG!!!

That lines up pretty well with my experience. I lived in Wisconsin for about 2-1/2 years. It’s not a state that has nothing going for it. The structure is absolutely there for it to be a successful and enjoyable place that residents could have right to be proud of. With what I encountered though the phrase Wississippi was very apt. And yeah, it’s because too many people there choose for it to be that way.

Ask Wisconsin how that Foxconn contract he helped secure for them turned out.

(For those not familiar, and disinclined to investigate further, the answer is “Not great.”)

Ah, ok. Yeah, I didn’t grok that from the original post.

To still provide something of a counter point, I think the urban rural divide exists as much in the coastal states as it does in the midwest. These attitudes exist to greater it lesser degrees pretty much anywhere you go. On balance though, there is a lot more corn in the midwest than in the coastal states, if you catch my meaning.

Minnesota has designated itself a refuge state for the trans community seeking access to healthcare, so no, not really.

I’m sorry that that’s been your experience. Hopefully you at least remain open to having your mind changed about it. There really are quite a lot of us who contradict that sentiment.

Let’s try to be fair here. He’s at least worth the cost of incarceration for as many years as he has left.

When asked for comment on the ramifications of operating business efficiently upon an already struggling working class, who are finding it increasingly difficult to secure housing and adequate nutrition for themselves and their children, Diller’s lips formed a smile twice as broad as his face, eyes glossing over as he stared dreamily into the distance with eyes twinkling like the night sky.

The above quote may or may not actually appear in the linked article.

Yeah, that’s when the requirement started. I’d tried the app before that and that was when I decided I wouldn’t use it. They kept the policy around long enough for me to completely give up on them. Not actually sure if it’s still a thing around here. Not super urgent for me to find out. I go to Pancheros now for a quick service burrito analogue.

I stopped going there after they required ordering via their app. Not sure if that was a policy everywhere or just around here. I use apps to order at a lot of places, but I’d tried using the Chipotle app previously and found both smaller portions and that their error rate was higher than I was willing to deal with. If I can’t walk in and watch my order being made so I can make sure it’s correct, sorry, I’ll go somewhere else.