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@danwentzel@urbanists.socialPresident Reagan and his administration did nothing to fight HIV/AIDS because it was "killing all the right people", including so many people I loved, and they practically rooted for the virus.
I don't ever want to hear any Democrat praise Ronald Reagan in a speech again.
Everything in the US started to get worse in the US with Regan's election.
[FCKPVV] @alienghic @danwentzel
Reagan introduced neoliberalism parallel to Margaret Thatcher in the UK. And you know where else? In The Netherlands. If anything is bad for your country, it is neoliberalism (i.e. Reaganomics, Thatcherism).
@alienghic @danwentzel Wanted to say this as well. From my point of view everything about USA got worse after Reaganonimcs. Democrats were erased from the political sphere and turned into capitalists. Meanwhile Republicans just continued down the slope of hatred for everything.
@alienghic @danwentzel I would say the true impetuous of our downfall was the assassination of Kennedy, but the current plan started with Reagan.
@alienghic @danwentzel There were only four years of not-awful politics between the Nixon/Ford administration and Reagan.
@danwentzel @JTinMI I'm old enough to remember. All! Stop praising Regan!! His first term set the stage for where we are. The Repubs were patient enough to play a long game and wait out Clinton, Obama, and Biden.
@wx1g @danwentzel The day after the election in 1980, a classmate of mine showed up wearing a mourning dress that had belonged to a grandmother (or possibly great-grandmother) of hers. Perfectly encapsulated my feelings at the time. I was so disappointed when he won a second term four years later.
@JTinMI @danwentzel 1980 was the first election in which I could legally vote. I was a high school sophomore with no idea what I was doing. I voted Anderson, the "non-of-the-above" candidate. By Regan II, I cast a smart vote.
@wx1g @JTinMI @danwentzel I am a bit younger, but his second election was the first I remember as a youngin. I wish I had paid more attention in my youth.
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@wrog @JTinMI @danwentzel It's a story of blindness and unspecified learning disability. At one point, I was 3 years behind, having been placed in ungraded programs.
@wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI Exactly right. Generally speaking, an uneducated voter is a conservative voter. Reagan knew that and took the steps to make it hard to become educated.
@_Dreugan_ @danwentzel @JTinMI How do we progressives convince the low-information voters that a vote for us is really in their best interest? Lately, I've been having impure thoughts like, "You should have at least a bachelor's degree to vote".
@wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI I am a centrist. I think the far left has failed the people just as much as the far right. Each of those sides has alienated enough people that they want no part of the political process.
@wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI I am of the opinion that mandatory service should be completed prior to being allowed to vote. The individual would at least have some idea of how a government functions.
@_Dreugan_ @wx1g @danwentzel National service, great. But not as a precondition for voting. I'd argue that such a requirement violates the 24th Amendment.
Two things we absolutely need to do: First, get the rivers of dark money out of politics by overturning Citizens United. I'd also like to see 100% publicly funded elections, where every candidate gets exactly the same amount to spend as every other candidate - and the elimination of attack ads. Make candidates (or parties) give positive reasons why people should vote for them.
Second, bring back the Fairness Doctrine that was another casualty of Ronnie Ray-Gun. With that back in place, the entire right-wing noise machine would be out of business, at least on the public airwaves.
@JTinMI @_Dreugan_ @danwentzel What about ranked choice, as well as publicly funded elections? RCV would encourage parties to send positive messages.
@wx1g @JTinMI @danwentzel I think funding as Norway does and restricting the use of television and radio ads would would the best start.
@wx1g @_Dreugan_ @danwentzel I'm a fan of French election law: Elections are publicly funded, every candidate gets exactly the same amount of funding (and airtime), only positive messaging is allowed, voting takes place over a weekend (Saturday and Sunday both, so there's no religious freedom problem). For the 72 hours before the start of voting, and continuing until the polls have closed EVERYWHERE, no surveys of voters may be taken or results announced, including of exit polling. I wouldn't object to the runoff provisions either, but those would take a constitutional amendment and that's not a bar I think we'll clear in the foreseeable future.
@JTinMI @wx1g @danwentzel I agree. Those are things we need but will never get under a two party system. Too bad President Washington didn't warn us about that.
@_Dreugan_ @JTinMI @danwentzel Even President Washington didn't think of everything. HaHa! Who, back then, would have imagined a convicted felon running for President, nevermind winning.
@wx1g @JTinMI @danwentzel Sorry, forgot my sarcasm emoji. Washington did, in fact, warn of the dangers of a two party system.
@JTinMI @_Dreugan_ @danwentzel I've always been annoyed by the media picking winners and losers while the polls are still open.
@_Dreugan_ @danwentzel @JTinMI I'd be ok with this, provided, the military isn't the only way to serve. Interning in a senator or rep's office, should count. What about having done some like Teach For America? Maybe one should have to have served in order to run for federal office. This is probably better than requiring higher ed.
@wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI Yes. That is my thought as well. Not everyone is qualified for the military so other methods would be required.
@wx1g @_Dreugan_ @danwentzel @JTinMI presumably you were about to say "and college should be free" but you forgot.
@Amoshias @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI Affordable as it was prior to Reagan. It should not be a for profit business and require student loans that take a life time to pay back.
@_Dreugan_ @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI if it's a precondition for voting, free. Period end.
@Amoshias @_Dreugan_ @danwentzel @JTinMI Here come the arguments about what higher ed should be free. Should it only be fields that lead to marketability for employment? I can hear it now:"Why should we pay for someone to be a Classics major"!
@wx1g @_Dreugan_ @danwentzel @JTinMI I'll bite - what in God's name are you talking about?
@Amoshias @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI That there should be some precondition to be able to vote in the US beyond just being 18. It might have a two fold benefit. Voters that know better how their government actually works and more people that actually vote because they had to earn the privilege.
@_Dreugan_ @Amoshias @danwentzel @JTinMI Maybe, a basic requirement should be passing a civics exam, like that required for naturalization? I think it tests your understanding of how the government is supposed to work?
@wx1g @Amoshias @danwentzel @JTinMI That can be a secondary requirement as the test alone doesn't give you a full picture of the government.
@_Dreugan_ @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI who makes the test?
If it's me I think it's a great plan.
If it's literally anyone else on the planet, I don't trust them enough to give them control over who gets to vote and who doesn't.
@Amoshias @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI The test already exists. It is what you have to pass to become a US citizen as an immigrant.
@_Dreugan_ @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI okay, easy! Voting is being controlled by a test I didn't create; per the above, I am very much against it.
@Amoshias @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI As I said, secondary to mandatory service in the federal government. There (well were) a take of places to do that.
There is also the fact that most natural born YS citizens can't pass that test already.
I am assuming by your trolling that you are one.
@_Dreugan_ @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI not at all. Any test you make will disenfranchise people.
@Amoshias @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI Thats the point. Those not willing to do either thing shouldn't vote. To me, that means you are willfully ignorant and do not deserve a voice in the conduct of our government.
@_Dreugan_ @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI that's not the point. You don't get to choose who gets to vote and who doesn't, because I don't want a country ruled by your bias and prejudice.
@Amoshias @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI It isn't either of those things. The fact that anyone can vote based on bias and prejudice is what put us where we are, which is exactly what Reagan intended by dismantling the education system.
The fact that you fail to realize this proves my point. It also highlights that you don't fall into any of the categories being discussed here. Further proof it needs to happen.
@Amoshias @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI Lastly, there can only be two reasons that a US citizen voted for Trump. They are a white nationalist or intentionally ignored facts to remain ignorant to the kind of person he is. I don't know which is worse.
You have a good night.
@_Dreugan_ @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI facepalm.
Look, you sound like a fairly reasonable person - someone who I may disagree with but who I think legitimately wants the best.
You're missing the point in a big way. Please take a day and read this thread again.
@Amoshias @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI Voting is clearly not important to the American public as we just had a neo-fascist, white nationalist, wannabe technocrat/theocratic, Russian asset elected by only 30% of the population old enough to vote.
That apathy toward the institution of voting means it should be a privilege, not a right as people don't think it is important enough to bother with.
@Amoshias @wx1g @danwentzel @JTinMI The countries that have come up in this thread with better campaign laws have far higher voters turnouts the land we ever have.
The 2020 election had one of our highest voters turnouts in our history, and it didn't break 70%.
@wx1g @_Dreugan_ @Amoshias @danwentzel 24th Amendment says no.
@JTinMI @_Dreugan_ @Amoshias @danwentzel I guess the 24th amendment made voding a right, not a privilege. Well, that was quick!
@wx1g @_Dreugan_ @danwentzel No, that was the 14th. The 24th was required to get rid of the Jim Crow enactments that had prevented the guarantees of the 14th Amendment from being effective throughout the former confederacy.
@JTinMI @wx1g @Amoshias @danwentzel Yet another 5hing that will never be changed under a two party system. Especially when one fully embraces white nationalism.
@wx1g @_Dreugan_ @Amoshias @danwentzel @JTinMI They tried something like that in southern states before the civil rights act was passed. The tests were called "literacy tests" with the official rationale being that to vote you should be at least able to read.
Of course it was a sham: I saw a black guy with a master's degree on a TV news program: for some unstated but completely obvious reason he couldn't pass a test that barely literate white guys had no trouble passing.
@bzdev @wx1g @Amoshias @danwentzel @JTinMI Again, that is why I say mandatory service is the best option. Americorps, Jobcorps, the foreign service, and of course the military would help young men and women grow, mature, and learn without the immediate (and unnecessary) push to go to college immediately after high school.
I certainly didn't know what i wanted to be when I started college after high school and wasted a lot of time.
@bzdev @wx1g @Amoshias @danwentzel @JTinMI And instances like this need to be part of standard high school curriculum, as well as the Tulsa massacre, eugenics in the 50s, and the multitude of other examples of institutionalized racism.
But instead, we are going to disband the Dept of Ed tomorrow.
@bzdev @_Dreugan_ @Amoshias @danwentzel @JTinMI Well, yes, those tests were a sham. I read a fictitious account of a high school English teacher who was a black woman in DC. Clerk asked her to read a card with German text. When clerk asked if she could read it, she said, "as well as you can, Dear".
@wx1g @Amoshias @_Dreugan_ @danwentzel That's an easy question to answer: classics majors are EXPERTS at close reading of abstruse texts, correlating multiple sources of information, and by definition understand that their own is not the only culture that ever existed.
(*Truth in advertising: one of my undergraduate majors was in classics.)
@JTinMI @Amoshias @_Dreugan_ @danwentzel I know this, but hear this kind of argument often.
@Amoshias @_Dreugan_ @danwentzel @JTinMI If college were a precondition to vote, then, at least undergrad would have to be free. You're right, I overlooked that part. Here's why I shouldn't run for national office; HAHA!
@danwentzel Indeed & Reagan kicked off his 1st presidential campaign next to the site of a famous murder of civil rights activists
@danwentzel
Seriously. That's just the first of a **pile** of reasons that man should be too toxic to touch. A Democrat praising Reagan should effectively be a retirement speech.
@danwentzel I'm with you. A dear colleague died from AIDS. He is forever in out hearts and his memory is stitched into the AIDS quilt.