Instant Runoff Voting and a big "Fuck You" to all of the Democrats whining about spoilers
Filed Under : America, Congress, elections, elite, fraud, Minnesota, Shadow Government, videos by vemrion
Nov.9,2006Jesus Criminey Christ on a fucking pogo-stick. The Democrats just swept to power in both houses of Congress and here they are attacking 3rd party voters in Minnesota for not voting for Mike Hatch and Patty Wetterling:
What makes Peter Hutchinson any less hypocritical than the politicians he thinks he is so different from? If he really cared about the issues that will make this a better state for Minnesotans, he would have thrown his support to Mike Hatch.
As for all those who voted for him, you too are sadly self-centered in your approach to the world. I am sorry for the personal, psychological neediness that always seems to manifest with spoiler candidates. Spoiler candidates impact the course of history — sometimes as dramatically as the 2000 presidential election. Is this the goal in the end — to leave your mark no matter how many people you drag down with you?
ELLEN WILCOCK, MINNEAPOLIS
First of all, Fuck you, Wilcock. What gives you the right to tell me how to vote? Why don’t you talk to the Republicans who elected Pawlenty rather than bitching about people who dared to vote for a candidate that wasn’t Hatch or Pawlenty? What so offends you about my right to choose who I vote for? Perhaps you would feel better in a setting more akin to Iran wherein the candidates are selected by the state ahead of time so nobody even has a chance to vote against the approved candidates. Would you prefer that, you fucking fascist?
Do you wanna know why I didn’t vote for Hatch, Mrs. Wilcock? BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU. That’s right, YOU are the reason that Hatch lost. You, and people like you who are so fucking sure that people who vote for independent/3rd party candidates would vote for Democrats if there wasn’t another option on the ballot. Well, guess what: You’re wrong. Don’t ever fucking try to tell me how to vote again you ungrateful, self-righteous bitch.
The Democrats are just as much a part of the problem as the Republicans. Democrats are like the abused wives who continually back down and let — even encourage — abusive husbands (the Republicans) continally beat the shit out of them. In this horrible, yet oddly appropriate analogy the third parties are like their children. The abused wife likes to take out her frustrations by screaming at the children because she’s too weak to take on the abusive father. Get a fucking clue, Wilcock, and move out! Aim your venom at the people who deserve it — the Republicans! Stay the fuck off my back.
And although you may be too stupid and weak to understand, some of my readers are not so I will explain to you how it works. Point 1: There is only one major political party in America: The Business Party. The Business Party (a.k.a. The Corporate Party) has two factions. These factions are called Republicans and Democrats. They serve the same master — the corporate interests that utterly control our country and, by extension, the world. The two-party system is a sham. The corporations simply do not allow anti-corporate candidates into their party, either faction. Try to name me an anti-corporate senator or congressman. There aren’t any. Questioning corporatism is a legitimate (even populist) position, but you won’t find any of those people in the halls of Congress. You will find candidates who are opposed to corporate power, but they are almost all Green Party candidates.
Watch this video clip of Noam Chomsky’s explanation of our political system, starting with The Business Party:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk8pxyAWTBk]
Point 2: Democrats and Republicans have a symbiotic relationship, which is to say that they feed off of each other and support one another. One cannot exist without the other (in their present form — the names of the factions are irrelevant). You notice how the excesses of the Republican Congress/Administration pushed the American people right into the waiting arms of the Democrats? Well, it works both ways, as you’ll remember from 1994. When the Democrats go too far the Republicans step in. They seized power because of the corruption and stupidity of the Democrats in 1994 (sound familiar?). Do you see how they trade power back and forth, like a ping-pong ball? So no matter how inept and corrupt a party (faction) gets the Corporate Party still wins! They win every election. They choose every major candidate and they are never disappointed on election day.
As Chomsky pointed out, this is the way the Republic was designed. We are not a democracy any more than North Korea is. Remember, when this nation was founded the only people who could vote were white males, most of whom were rich landowners. Today, the only people who can afford to run for office are the rich, and the only people who can afford substantial campaign contributions are also rich. Thus, the rich are the only ones who matter. The rest of us merely choose between two rich guys with rich backers, both of whom support the business party and the business class.
So, Mrs. Wilcock, are you still determined to disparage my vote against the Business Party? Well, maybe that’s because you’re a part of the ruling class. Or maybe you’re too stupid to know the difference. Either way you contribute to its continued rule. My vote against the ruling elite had no effect — it’s designed to be that way. But at least I voted my conscience and I did it as an educated person rather than a bandwagon-jumping automaton who doesn’t realize that she’s voting against her own interests — assuming you’re not part of the ruling class. If you are, well then what are you complaining about?
America was never quite what it was advertised as. But over the years it’s gotten better as minorities and women (even women like Mrs. Wilcock) were given the right to vote. If we really want to change the system we have to look honestly at what we have; it’s not so great. People like me are utterly shut out of political decisions and people like Wilcock are so fucking deluded and confused that they might as well live in a completely different country. So why not make a change?
The solution to our problem is called Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). There are many ways to structure the system, but most boil down to this: Rank your preferred candidates in order of preference. Don’t rank candidates that you dislike. Then the results are tabulated so that if no candidate gets 50% the lowest vote getter is eliminated and the voter’s second-choice candidates are added to the totals of all remaining candidates. See a Flash demonstration here.
Next time, Mrs. Wilcock, rather than writing into the newspaper and screeching at people who exercised their constitutional right to vote for whomever they wish, you should write in and encourage Minnesota to adopt Instant Runoff Voting. Of course, since I called you a fascist bitch you’re not likely to do that. But the rest of you should know that Instant Runoff Voting is better than having to listen to this lecture again, which is what you’re gonna get if you try and tell me who to vote for. So support IRV!!
You can screech back, or trackback from your own site.
Take that!!! I can only hope that if the Democrats have such a strong claim on your vote and mine that they will have the guts to give us Instant Run off Voting state wide.
The trouble with angry independents (I am guessing you are one) is that you and only you, meaning you individually, the big #1, is right. Everyone else is wrong, nobody who deviates from your narrow world view deserves compromise. Nobody (according to you) can honestly vote for the best version of the likely outcomes. Which means, no one in their right mind would ever compromise with you either. Which (listen and learn) is the end of politics. The end of politics, on your terms, is either totalitarian or anarchy. One leader decides or the mob does. Let us be angry at you. Your candidate, Hutchinson, a decent and smart man, chose to play spoiler, in the Chomskian view that we must break the system before we can fix it. American democracy is flawed, but it has that encouraging history of righting itself, rather than burning itself down at regular intervals. That death and rebirth pattern is so European I am surprised you independents admire it. I happen to think Wilcock got it right, and you and your never-give-in/ never-compromise types gave us another four years of Pawlenty. I can blame you for that.
Hi pasquino. First, when did I go a partisan rant and claim anything close to “nobody who deviates from [my] narrow world view deserves compromise”? I didn’t say anything close to that — I was merely defending my right to vote for whomever I wish without having to go through some sort of inquisition from so-called progressives for my choice. Second, I didn’t vote for Hutchinson. I voted for an even-more-obscure candidate. Assumptions, assumptions. You partisans seem to make a lot of those. It’s only making you look foolish. I suggest that you ask questions and <>listen<> before you think you know me. You think the world divides neatly in half, but it does not. Some people refuse to play by your rules. And I would note that 60% of the pop. refused to vote at all. So please, spare me the “totalitarian or anarchy” histrionics. We already live in a totalitarian state with one party (The Business Party) rule. You voted for Big Brother so if you need to be angry at anyone, be angry at yourself.Wilcock got it wrong. If Hatch had won he would’ve gotten more votes than Pawlenty. Period. He did a poor job of swaying independents of all stripes and he paid dearly for that. Not that I’m assuming the election results are valid. Given Diebold and Republican tricks I certainly concede the possibility that the election was stolen. But a more likely factor was Judy Dutcher’s tremendous fuckup. You can probably lay the blame squarely on her shoulders. Many people were disturbed by her colossal ignorance. Personally, I have to wonder if that was for real. I mean, E85 must’ve been on the top of her list for <>any<> trip to farm country. It’s absolutely shocking that she played dumb. Maybe I’m a conspiratorial type, but I suspect subterfuge.Anyway, I hope you find more constructive things to do with your time than blaming people like me for the many mistakes of your candidate. Just because I hate Bush doesn’t mean I’m going to run screaming into the arms of the Democrats. I’m not such a simple animal. Oh, and don’t hold out any hope for 2008 either. I hate Hilary Clinton almost as much as I hate Bush. Perhaps you should spend more time holding your candidates to their campaign promises and less time trying to exact some sort of uncompromosing ideological purity out of people not even connected to your little party.
God help us if all the current non-voters who come back to the polls have the same lily-pure sense of politics as you have. By all means vote for the cutest or the perfectest or the candidate who shares your birthday, but don’t imagine that it will make a difference if he isn’t otherwise viable. Coalitions are important (instant run-off would help, but it would also enable the neo-Nazis to put Norm Coleman down as their second pick.) Coalitions teach us that no candidate is perfect. We vote for the best we have, the best of the viables. If we don’t and the other jerk wins, we lose. It would have been the same if Hutchinson or your own obscure candidate (who I assume is wonderful) had polled highest against Pawlenty; if Hutchinson had been leading Pawlenty narrowly, I’d have voted for him, gladly. I decline to comment on your snide remark about Judi Dutcher, other than this: she was an excellent candidate, and it would be great to see her run again.
I didn’t imagine that my “perfect candidate” was going to win. I knew that he would receive less than 2% of the vote. I voted for him because he was the best, not because he was the most popular. Apparently this is all a big horse-race/popularity contest for you. For me it’s about principles. I know that may be a foreign concept for you…Oh! Was that snarky? Well your own comments bear this out:<>“…if Hutchinson had been leading Pawlenty narrowly, I’d have voted for him…”<>So, uh… could you BE any more of a follower? Could you make up your own mind without the polls to tell you what to think?It’s easy to vote for candidates who are obviously going to win. But what about the issues? What about your beliefs and the candidates beliefs? Apparently you’re just steamed that Hatch lost because you thought you were voting for the winner. When he lost, that made you a… (gasp!) loser!!! Oh noes!!11!1!!1Please. If you’re going to try and tell me to only vote for popular candidates (in other words: candidates that <>the media<> thinks are cutest and perfectest), then I’m going to direct you to TeenBeat.com.BTW, my comments about Judi Dutcher were not snide — I was being completely serious. She either threw the election on purpose or she had a partial lobotomy the day before her comment. I don’t see how she could possibly be ignorant of E85 unless she just wasn’t getting the context. you said:<>God help us if all the current non-voters who come back to the polls have the same lily-pure sense of politics as you have.<>Are you kidding?! That would be a best-case scenario. They’d vote on issues and principles rather than media-driven horse-races. We’d probably end up with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert in the White House, and quite frankly, nothing would please me more. I’d take those two wise-asses over any Democrat in the stable and I include Barack Obama in that list.You just don’t get it, do you? You don’t understand how your choices are railroaded by powerful interests. All they have to do is put forth an extremist candidate and you line up behind anyone who looks moderate in comparison (and polls well). And they’ve pre-selected this candidate too, so either way they win. Bush/Gore, Bush/Kerry, it doesn’t matter. Either way the entrenched power structure wins. The Business Party always wins… except for Jesse Ventura. And when he wins, then suddenly Republicans and Democrats join forces and mock him, insult him, sabotage him, and generally try to fuck him and his party at every opportunity, all gleefully aided by the mainstream media. They managed to run him out of town after only 4 years because he knew he’d be attacked on all sides. Your Democratic leaders are ever-so-eager to hold hands with the Republicans when it comes to destroying 3rd parties. Why do you think there aren’t any “viable” 3rd parties? < HREF="http://www.progress.org/2004/debates08.htm" REL="nofollow">In 2004 the Green and Libertarian candidates for prez were actually <>arrested<> trying to get into a debate<> and the media still didn’t cover them or their arrests. When challenged by 3rd parties the Democrats merge with the Republicans into their true form: The Business Party. My vote was against the Business Party, and it always will be. I will never vote for a Democrat because they have contributed just as much as the Republicans to this evil duopoly and the suppression of third parties. So go ahead and vote for the Business Party, but then you’ll be the one who’s not making a difference. A vote for the Business Party is a vote for the status quo, entrenched business interests,the continued suppression of third parties, and the hijacking of democracy via a system that < HREF="http://www.realchange.org/ballotac.htm" REL="nofollow">limits choice<> rather than protecting it.
Hmm..While IRV would help, I’m not sure that it is any more immune to tampering. As long as voting is done electronically in so many areas, it will fail. That someone thought electronic voting was a good idea serves as further proof that collosal stupidity blossoms in our age.I mean, really, computers have been such reliable devices, we should just trust them for everything. They couldn’t possibly be messed with! That’s just in movies! Yes, and hacking consists of typing really fast on a laptop…We should probably address the disenfranchising factors of the electoral college. This dated concept needs to be changed so that those electoral votes are directed based on proportions of the vote. Right now, I’d guess that a fairly considerable percentage of Americans will have their votes ignored in 2008.Just in case people can’t follow my logic, we’ll put this in simple terms. Right now, states throw all their electoral votes behind the top candidate in their state. What this means is that a close race strips roughly 48 percent of the votes away. You might as well have stayed home. In a system that had even a passing interest in counting votes this state would split their electoral votes according to the ratios. So in the great Gore vs. Bush fiasco, there would have been no fiasco, no embarassment. It would be obvious what is going on and recounts would be much smaller affairs, their likelihood greatly reduced.Some votes still would be meaningless, but that would be a hell of a lot less than we currently see!Oh, and for the record, I would say that once upon a time, the electoral college’s tradition probably wasn’t simply reprehensible. It caused candidates to pay a bit of attention to states that would otherwise be ignored.Since politicians ignore most of us anyway, does it really matter anymore? Might as well have a vote with some value!
I actually agree with you much more than you can imagine and too, have calmed down from my angry outburst. My politics have a history of being radical at times, like in college I was on an FBI list because of being involved in revolutionary, anti-American activities. But that was years ago and with maturity comes the need for me to come to the middle. Tim Pawlenty has raped and robbed Minneapolis of funding. My kids are in classrooms with 42 students. My hatred for him motivated my reaction. Since Hatch came so close and ALMOST won, I guess I was hoping I’d be rid of that snake of a governor we have. You obviously have a much higher tolerance than I do for Tim Pawlenty and haven’t felt as personally f’d over by him as I have. The past 4 years have been straight downhill for city dwellers. BTW, I voted with a wholehearted YES for instant runoff voting and touted it to everyone in earshot. I’m very pleased it won and made my contribution in that direction.