In reply to Rosewood (msg # 687):

Unhinged? What is wrong with that? Some folk have been that way their entire adult lives...and they on just fine!

What has unhinged her, if it matters?

No worries.  I'm probably going 3p again like in 2016 (and I've done repeatedly in the past).  Neither Party fills me with hope, and to be honest the 3p candidates don't either, but maybe, maybe this year one of them can hit 5%?  That's a sliver of hope.

A genuine 3rd centrist party  would indeed be welcome ...

If one of them hits 15% this election I'd be beyond overjoyed, but I'm more than willing to settle to for 5%.

Most all are not the least Centrist... all are somewhat extreme.  And 5% would be telling.
As usual, most voters are voting against a candidate, not for one, which says a great deal about how failed the two party system is...

As long as we have the electoral system we have, we'll have a two party system.  The only viable way to three or more parties that have a chance of influencing government (other than as spoilers) is a parliamentary system like the ones in almost every other nation on Earth.

Clear majority is required to form a government, and if no one party has it, parties have to form a coalition that manages it -- and this goes along with votes of confidence/no confidence and all the rest.  I'm a little hazy on what countries do that don't have a House of Lords -- I think they have a unicameral Parliament -- but it doesn't matter relative to the mechanics of a system that gives multiple parties a chance to at least share power if there's no single clear majority.

That said, I fear the level of rewriting the Constitution it would take to implement this in America.  A Constitutional Convention could potentially completely tear down all the protections and checks and balances we have, and a nation in the throes of an internal crisis might ratify a new Constitution that we'd regret for the next few centuries -- or that would lead to civil war as soon as enough of the populace woke up and realized what they'd been saddled with.

I will not argue against any of that...

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 693):
our culture has gotten so aberrant after 50+ yrs of nonstop cultural revolution and rampant, unchecked feminism, and marxist media control, that only a benevolent despot in concordance with the conservatives, can bring about the cultural renaissance that would make necessary the cultural change, that would make our nation, as a whole, one that could once again be sane, responsible, and patriotic, to run our once great republic, the way it was intended to be. but until then... the culture war must be won, and won by force. and then, after about 20-30 yrs perhaps, after fixing our problems, and making much needed, geo-political alliances, the republic can be handed back to the people. otherwise, i fear we are doomed to perish in the coils of global crush!

Good grief, I hope this was intended as sarcasm.  There has never in history been a case of a "benevolent despot" handing power back to the people.  I'd argue that it can't happen, because no matter how benevolent your despot (and this isn't even about that oxymoron), the apparatus of dictatorship, once established, will not let go of power short of an armed revolution or total economic collapse.  Power begets hunger for power.

The beauty of the American Constitution was and is its division of power.  The fault of the American Constitution was and is its dependence on everyone agreeing to play by the (largely unwritten) rules.  We don't even have a set mechanism for dealing with a president who refused to accept the results of a lost election; instead, we have to depend on the military upholding their oaths -- which they don't have a terrific record on.

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 696):
i call it going "franciso fuckin' franco" lol

So the Libertarians and Greens in Congress* aren't influencing our government?  And the Lib and Green and Socialist (hi Bernie!) mayors and governors aren't an influence on the system?

I'll grant you, presidentially we've pretty much been a 2p system from jump, even if they weren't organized that way until after Washington left office.

* FAKE EDIT;  I just checked and was suprised by the lack of 3p in the Congress.  There is just one, Libertarian, in the House and none in the Senate.  Though we have had more 3p in the past, historically this never exceeded 7 members.  Now I am sad.  Though I also wonder how many are 'fake' Dems or Repubs in disguise (like Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders or Libertarian Conservative Rand Paul).

Though we still have a 'decent' number in lower offices scattered across the US.



One could, with some squinting and a healthy dose of cough meds, make the case that Washington was a benevolent tyrant who let the reigns go and set that precedent*.  Thus proving (by default) that he wasn't an actual tyrant, no matter how his detractors cursed him or his supporters cried out for him to be King.


* Autowrong kept fixing my misspelling 'precident' to president.  You have no idea how long it took for me to figure out which letter was wrong... (yes I just started brute forcing the vowels until I found the correct spelling.  Through rubberhose-crytpo probably would have been faster...)

Whe! We have s lot of varied political opinions here!

Mine show clearly (I am mostly down with the Vejovians) but lets look at the "local" politics:
Northport is nominally a barony, but is infact adminstrated by a theocratic beuracracy. Shevnia was a hereditary principality, but underwent a war of succession where both sides hired orcish mercenaries and between the plague and the Horseshoe nail of the pay train, all was lost, and it crumbled into city states at war, and raw banditry.
Veroigne is a barony that became subject to a despot after post-plague feudal warfare. Sonne is more or less a theocracy,  and all of Aral is part of a declining empire. Valdassya is a cluster of small kingdoms under theocratic rule

Faerie is split into two kindoms where the rulers are first among equals in a system of convoluted meritocratic aristocracy (most are immortal, so there isn't too much inheritance.

Sahud is an empire composed of many diverse small kingdoms overseen by the imperial beaurocracy, and proximate to those of the worshippers of the 9 million...

The bouda have a matriarchy.

Shit I need to have more women in power in this game.

But we have it right! when we say screw the leader, we mean it!With enough puppies, she will step aside.

Politically I try hard to stay centrist/moderate liberal.  What frightens me to the core is the number of people who have abandoned the centrist media for one of the following reasons:
* It is nor liberal OR conservative enough for them.
* The overt politics has become far more visible and callous than they have been in my lifetime.
* Racism has taken a very prominent role lately, and many do not want to see it.

People who do not have a root in unbiased news frequently drift more extreme in one direction or another.  I am terrified by the number of people who just don't want to see what's happening because it's just to hard or disagees with their political or religious views.  The bias is real and quite insane.

I personally have majority-conservative friends, so I have maintained an ability to work across the lines.  However, I do consider the current president to be the biggest threat to the existence of the country that I have ever seen.

Amen

I used to consider myself a Libertarian, starting in the late 1970s -- they had it all, liberal views on personal freedoms and equality, but a far right take on personal defensive capability.

Too bad the Libertarian Party a) never went anywhere and b) sold out trying to get into a position to matter.  I'm still libertarian, but the last time I saw my way clear to vote for instead of against was when Rand Paul's dad was running on the L ballot -- when was that, 2004?

Now I'm stuck between a party that's become mired in hate-mongering and pernicious religion, and one that doesn't recognize my right to defend myself, my loved ones, and my home -- but admits the police can't, even if they would.

I've got another twenty or thirty years left in me, most likely (both parents are past 80, my dad's six sisters all lived into their mid-80s) -- but what happens to the USA in the upcoming election won't matter if we don't fix what we're doing to the climate within the next twenty years (which means we need to start last year).

The science is clear: we need to eliminate fossil fuel transportation and power generation, and find more efficient ways to do a lot of things we consider vital (like air conditioning in climates where, by rights, we shouldn't live at all).  Four more years with a government that doesn't believe the science will almost certainly be too late -- if it isn't too late already.

The bigger problem (for me) is that some dunderheads think I am going to pay money for a vehicle that they control with their computer.
I have worked Computers for quite a while, and I will drive the car ... most all of the computer assist crap is slower than I am and less aware.
But them I drive without texting, talking on the phone or concentrating on anything but the car/road/idiots around me.

Electric cars will work when they have charging stations distributed like gas stations, range is 3-400 miles and recharging takes 5-8 minutes.

I agree that Firearms possession needs to be protected, BUT we obviously need to some sort of licensing for different levels of firearms, as common sense is no longer common ... we have real fools using weapons they have no business with.
As much as I would not like to limit ownership, we no longer have a choice. The Russian Financed National Rifle Association not with standing.

As to where we live ... if we cram everyone into places where you are comfortable all the time, New York won't look crowded in comparison.
There are ways to live in places that aren't as comfortable all the time without destroying the planet.

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 703):

we've had the tech to replace fossil fuels for awhile, but it won't happen until every last petro dollar is wrung from the earth, and wars fought over the obsolete energy, all because there's still billions lying under the earth.

I'm pretty much always located opposite Libertarians when I take those tests, despite finding myself most closely aligning with them overall.  Them and the Naderite Greens.  It's a split.

trump doesn't know how to be glib, and he's openly crass. he's also arrogant, but i approve of his nationalism, and his awareness of the encroaching communist/globalist threat. i've always seen him as a symbol of 1970s-80's corporate sleaze, but he's redeemed himself, in my eyes. the left has been absolutely stark raving, foaming-at-the-mouth mad, over his election. outright insurrection...rogue local governments selling out their citizenry to brigandage... i'd predicted this contrived unrest, but i hadn't bargained for the covid schovid blowvid bullshit. i believe the virus is real, but i believe it's an experiment in cooperation with china, teaching the commies in our government how they in communist china, control the world's largest, unwilling populace in the world.

In reply to Chye Isuel (msg # 707):

Having dealt directly with hundreds of people dying, of symptoms I had a handy method of observing, along with having had the virus in one of its milder manifestations, I am glad that you recognize its real.
As to the ravening left, mostly we want everyone to have healthcare and for the pilice to stop murdering folks at random, you know, extreme things like that.



Anyway, can we go back to our little elf game with respect for our wildly differing viewpoints please? I am glad that we all feel comfortable enough to have these discussions in a civil manner.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:03, Tue 08 Sept 2020.

In reply to Jareth Mooncalled (msg # 706):
lol. i took one of those tests, and placed right of margaret thatcher.

In reply to Chye Isuel (msg # 709):

I am not convinced of the accuracy of those tests. I am pretty sure they place Stalin as centralist...

But consciously staying out of the politics. Back to hunting demons we can kill...even if it is with difficulty!

Agreed.  As was written (well before I was born): "I disapprove of what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."  (Helen Beatrice Hall, writing as Stephen G. Tallentyre, an in-character quote misattributed to Voltaire)

Might be coincidence, but the last time we broached politics the boss was missing that day too.  Could be nothing, could be that it stresses him out.  He asked us to desist, let's respect that.