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  #1  
Old 10-19-2020, 12:05 PM
bryan bryan is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2020
Posts: 15
Intro from New Member

Just joined, so some background and putting some beliefs/wishes out there.

I'm a mid-50's CA resident, though I lived in TX for a bit back near 2000. I worked in tech for over 20 years in various areas, engineering, marketing, business development, project management.

I'm retired now and spend my time mostly reading, listening to music, and attending to family stuff.

I've been a Democrat for most of my life. Tried to change to Independent a couple of years ago when I moved, mostly because I got tired of being called by the party for fundraising/donations, but also because I got tired of the back and forth and extreme partisanship on both sides. But my paperwork must have gotten lost as I still seem to be registered Democrat. But I decided that's OK as I do tend to lean that way and voting in primaries can be a good option to have.

I don't adopt all my positions/beliefs based on what the official/traditional positions of the party might be. I don't like to be limited that way and don't think we need to fit into predefined belief boxes based on which way we lean or what we've affiliated ourselves with.

Like I'm sure many of you are, I'm disappointed by obstructionist politics and politicians adopting party line positions simply because it favors keeping themselves and their party in power. I'd like to think I'm open minded and will call BS on faulty logic and rationalization simply in an attempt to support a desired outcome, regardless of which side it comes from.

I don't particularly like the electoral college system because I think every vote should count and a winner takes all system (for a state's electoral college votes) doesn't lend itself to all votes counting equally. While it's true that this would currently favor Democrats, I'd feel the same even if it currently favored Republicans.

In my idealistic, simplistic worldview, when it comes to contentious issues that divide us, I wish that both sides could start out with a set of principles/rules/laws they can agree upon (even if the overlap is very small), pass legislation to put those in place, and continue an ongoing process to try and enlarge that overlap (or negotiate some acceptable compromises) so we things could move forward.

The end result may be that very few are extremely happy with the result, but the majority of people are generally satisfied and can live with the tradeoffs.

Look forward to engaging in some healthy debate and conversation, though you'll find me mostly steering clear of threads where the blinders are on and there's more name-calling than real discussion.
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  #2  
Old 10-19-2020, 12:46 PM
RickeyM RickeyM is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2020
Posts: 6,033
Welcome to the fray. Always room for another voice. Are you hailing from AK or did you just happen to wander by?
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Old 10-19-2020, 02:37 PM
bryan bryan is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2020
Posts: 15
Quote:
Originally Posted by RickeyM View Post
Welcome to the fray. Always room for another voice. Are you hailing from AK or did you just happen to wander by?
Thanks RickeyM. I am an occasional lurker on AK, so I'm familiar with the site and heard about this sister site from there. I recognize some of the names from there, but not all.

Glad to be here and thanks for the welcome!
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  #4  
Old 10-19-2020, 03:46 PM
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bobabode bobabode is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Behind the Orange Curtain in California
Posts: 37,188
Welcome Bryan.
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  #5  
Old 10-19-2020, 06:31 PM
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Oerets Oerets is online now
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Derby City U.S.A.
Posts: 8,176
Welcome to PC!
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  #6  
Old 10-20-2020, 07:04 AM
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JJIII JJIII is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Upper East Tennessee
Posts: 5,897
Welcome to PC.

Regarding your last paragraph, if you skip those threads, you will not have much to read here!

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Old 10-20-2020, 09:47 PM
Dude111 Dude111 is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 118
Welcome ashore!!!!!!!
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  #8  
Old 10-21-2020, 07:39 AM
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Not Insane Not Insane is offline
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Join Date: May 2020
Location: South Central KY
Posts: 1,619
Quote:
Originally Posted by bryan View Post
Thanks RickeyM. I am an occasional lurker on AK, so I'm familiar with the site and heard about this sister site from there. I recognize some of the names from there, but not all.

Glad to be here and thanks for the welcome!
Welcome, Bryan! BTW, I'm Robroy on AK.

Like you, I went from party affiliation to independent, except I was Republican.

BTW, I noticed you mentioned the concept of "winner take all". I just thought I'd point out that all democratic elections are "winner take all". The selection of a president is only democratic in how each state chooses which candidate it will support. After that, the fifty states choose, "democratically" through their representatives (the electors) which candidate their state will vote for. The weight of their vote depends on the population of their state (number of congressmen) plus two more (matching two senators). It is why we are called a republic.

And if we elected a president today based on the popular vote, three counties would pretty much select our president. LA, COOK (Illinois) and New York.

That being said, I very much enjoyed your rundown and we are in agreement about a lot of political concepts from a foundational perspective. I get a lot of grief from the children here, but it can be a lot of fun.

I have a feeling you'll see/experience it first hand.
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  #9  
Old 10-21-2020, 07:40 AM
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Not Insane Not Insane is offline
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Location: South Central KY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JJIII View Post
Welcome to PC.

Regarding your last paragraph, if you skip those threads, you will not have much to read here!

Ain't it the truth!
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  #10  
Old 10-21-2020, 07:57 AM
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donquixote99 donquixote99 is offline
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Originally Posted by Not Insane View Post
BTW, I noticed you mentioned the concept of "winner take all". I just thought I'd point out that all democratic elections are "winner take all".
All democratic elections are not 'winner take all' when proportional representation is employed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Not Insane View Post
And if we elected a president today based on the popular vote, three counties would pretty much select our president. LA, COOK (Illinois) and New York.
What is your point? That dirt and rocks deserve representation? The schemes that give extra representation to dirt and rocks, of course, actually give extra representation to those that own lots of dirt and rocks. The Senate is systemic oligarchy.
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