• Liz@midwest.social
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    5 months ago

    Positive change in the American system usually comes from the bottom up. If you’re interested in fixing the system, the first step is to switch your local elections to Approval Voting, probably through a referendum. There’s a whole bunch of reasons, and lots of second and third steps, but that’s the first one.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Whenever people come up with these solutions I’m reminded that it took Jon Stewart over a decade to get money for 9/11 first responders.

      If it takes that long to do something so universally desired, it’s going to take a thousand years to change our voting system.

      But it’s nice to dream.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        If it takes that long to do something so universally desired, it’s going to take a thousand years to change our voting system.

        Things never seem to change, until they do. And then you’re amazed they were ever the old way at all. As someone who remembers walking through an airport pre-9/11, in a state that put Ann Richards in the governor’s office, its funny to think about what was “normal” 30 years ago. Hell, its funny to think about what was normal 20 years ago, under Bush. Or 10 years ago, under Obama.

        I’m old enough to remember when a black President was telling the country he could settle race tensions between a Harvard Professor and a city cop by having a beer with them.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Historically speaking, I have to disagree. One of the most transformative moments of our history since Pearl Harbor. It gave birth to wave after wave of right-wing election wins and a subsequent hard-right shift in voting rights, election policy, and court composition.

    • OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      Maybe I’m just cynical. I still vote every chance I get, even for local stuff. I’m a big supporter of approval voting, but I’m not hopeful that it’ll become the norm in the US.

      • Liz@midwest.social
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        5 months ago

        I mean, you can’t just hope it’ll happen, you have to decide to be the person that switches your local elections. I would have done mine already but I’m too disabled to do work, so this is one of the ways that I try to help instead.