Local Politics

[stolen_tea]

Elections are tomorrow, and in Seattle, we've got a couple of very interesting races, and for those of you who don't live around here, a couple of very interesting electoral features that really ought to be more widely adopted

Comments

[pktechgirl]

the Republican party talks a lot about the virtues of federalism and decentralization, and yet it seems that one of the things crippling them the most is their insistence on a homogenous nation-wide ideology, with no room for state-level or local-level experimentation

A few years ago progressives worried that the Democrats could never win anything because they tolerated internal descent and the Republicans moved as a unit. It worked, until it didn't.

[stolen_tea]

I do wonder whether it would be possible to have the organized and disciplined media apparatus that the Republicans have, while still maintaining a fair amount of flexibility in terms of permissible viewpoints. Something along the lines of "these are the disagreements that it's OK to have, and these are the disagreements that are heresy", without devolving into more and more rigid ideology. I have dim memories of the early 80s in which there seemed to be a much bigger tent in the Republican party, although I did still get the impression that everyone had to pay lip service to the Moral Majority. But maybe that was a new thing; maybe that was where it started? (There was an ancient Bloom County cartoon that seemed to encapsulated part of it: "uh, that's 'rope us some fillies' in the strict Biblical sense, of course".)

- stolen "not a member of any organized political party; also not a Democrat" tea

[buhrger]

http://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/1984/07/21

[stolen_tea]

Bingo! Wow.

I remember reading a couple of the collections when I was very young, and not getting about 90% of the humor. I wonder if that would change now...

[pielology]

I am still sort of wistful about mail-in ballots taking away true anonymous voting. There is now nothing to stop you from filling out your ballot while your local pastor or mob boss or feminist consciousness-raising group leader looks over your shoulder.

I don't think it's enough of a loss to offset all the other gains. I'm just wistful.

[stolen_tea]

Yeah. The following is not actually entirely tongue-in-cheek, and I can barely believe that I'm writing it, but: I mean, democracy depends on strong social norms anyway, but how far is too far? If we chip away at the institutions that support those norms, how long before our society collapses?

:/

This certainly wouldn't work in a place where the physical mail is unreliable or untrustworthy. Yet another reason why Cascadia is a wonderful place, I suppose. :/

[pielology]

True story: zzyzx_xyzzy's ballot wasn't counted for the last election because the mail carrier didn't pick it up from the mail box, two days in a row.

[stolen_tea]

Oy. I feel absolutely horrible about this election, because I didn't get my ballot to the dropbox in time. I missed the cutoff by literally 2 seconds. (Stupid depression-induced delays.) I did find a self-service USPS kiosk in Wallingford that was open until 9, and which theoretically would postmark my envelope that day. (Well, the printed stamp technically includes a postmark, but apparently it's up to chance whether the USPS workers will add another postmark the next day, which would override the date.) But I just found out that that didn't work. :( *sigh*

[digitalemur]

Suddenly I'm more interested in the races _you're_ voting on today, than the races _I'm_ voting on today.

[stolen_tea]

And this is why you should advocate for jungle primaries! Break the parties! Down with the kingmakers! :)

[stolen_tea]

She's pulling ahead! Check it out!

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/kshama-sawant-pushes-ahead-of-conlin/Content?oid=18201682

My first year here, the gubernatorial election was in recounts until January (which is part of why we have the mail-in ballots now). I remember posting to -chat about the ever shifting numbers, which had differences smaller than Sawant's current lead! (And I remember wondering, just what kind of electoral system had I gotten myself into. But it's turned out rather nicely...)

[plantae]

Yeah, the velocity of money being more important than the AMOUNT of money is a rather head-breaking concept. Pretty neat, though.

[stolen_tea]

Definitely. To me, it raises all sorts of interesting questions about the nature of "wealth"...

[eub]

I was unhappy that McGinn wasn't more proactively in favor of fixing the Seattle police, but I think Murray will be less. :-/ And I definitely expect Murray will cater more to Downtown Seattle interests, which don't need more> servicing. Sigh.

[stolen_tea]

Yeah. *sigh*

Go Sawant?