The first Tuesday of November is election day in the United States. This is an off year; so there were very few nation changing elections taking place; however, it is good for people to vote whenever there is an election.
My community has switched to mail in ballots. I am not a big fan of mail in ballots. The picture shows two ballots. There was nothing but my own integrity to prevent me from voting both ballots.
The reason I don't like mail in ballots is that they empower "activists" who engage in vote harvesting or intimidation to support their party. There are people in both parties who are likely to engage in such activities.
I live in Utah. There are some large polygamist clans where the patriarch is likely to check all of the votes in the clan so that the clan votes as a block.
I think back on my years in college. I imagine the activists on campus actually forcing people to vote their way rather than just intimidating people.
I think the left is worse than the right. But vote harvesting is negative regardless of the party involved.
Vote harvesting doesn't just negatively affect the final election. It corrupts the entire election process as it empowers those who are use their position of power to influence others.
The positive aspect of mail in elections is that I was able to take my time and do google searches on each of the candidates before casting my vote. This way I can base my choice of elected official on the information that Google wants me to see about each candidate.
Rank-Choice Voting
There was actually only one item on my ballot ... a vote for city council.
This election was using an innovative tool called "rank-choice Voting." With rank-choice voting, one ranks the candidates. If there is not enough votes for a clear winner, the system will hold a series of instant recounts based on the rankings.
This is the type of innovative ideas that I like to see. The primary benefit of rank-choice voting is that it eliminates the need for run off elections.
Some people think that the winner takes all approach that the US currently uses favors candidates who use polarizing rhetoric. It also cuts third parties out of the equation altogether.
The ranking system helps in situations where there is a huge number of candidates for an election. Apparently, many people think that trump wouldn't have won the GOP primary if the system used rank-choice ... which is probably why so many communities are adopting the idea.
IMHO, the political parties are the worst part of the American election system. The political parties gain power through polarizing rhetoric. I welcome any idea that reduces the influence of the parties.
If we really want to reduce the influence of the parties, we need to get politics out of many divisive issues so there isn't always an ideological tug-of-war over the gun in the room. Someone always gets hurt when that happens. I have lost all faith in politics as a means to progress.
I think there is some merit to the approach I was taking that shows that progressivism and conservatism have the same roots. These two ideologies were created by a reaction to the American Revolution.
I don't think the problem is with "ideology" itself. The term "ideology" simply refers to the study of ideas. What matters is the form of the ideology.
Progressivism and Conservatism use oppositional logic. Politicians who use these ideologies gain power by framing their opposition in a negative light. Progressives see conservatives as an evil that needs to be repressed. The adherents of oppositional ideologies eventually get to the place where they are unable to communicate with people outside their tribe.
So, the answer isn't to deride "ideology" but to understand that different systems of ideas have different structures.
I see conservatism and progressivism as fundamentally the same thing. Both camps use division to gain power. The adherents to both ideologies spend more time deriding their opponents than they spend developing their ideas.
Unfortunately, when this left/right split takes hold of a society, the divisions end up destroying the society.
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