Trumpite Americans, when will you finally acknowledge your leader is a joke?

I'm all for abolishing civil asset forfeiture and making amends with the community, but that has exactly fuckall to do with the owners defending their shops in the middle of a riot.

No. It was white supremacists trying to discredit the actual protests.

Whoever it was, whatever their excuse, I still prescribe bean bag rounds.

I'm more and more convinced that there needs to be some sort of basic test that has to be taken before you can vote.

Something simple, like naming at least three candidates and the party they're representing.

I know the usual chuckleheads here will cry about infringement of voting rights, but I don't see any way out of the morass the United States is in, when people like this can freely vote.

There is one way. It used to be, every US student had to pass a Government class in their senior year. If you didn't pass it, you couldn't graduate. I suggest reinstating this, then having to have a High School Diploma (or equivalency) to vote. and the Government class curriculum must be evaluated by a non-partisan group.

As well as ability to run for office. This would have prevented trump from becoming president.

I'm not talking about a literacy test. And more voting isn't going to solve the issue. America is quickly becoming a nation where the majority of its population are barely educated conspiracy nuts. The proof is the 2020 election. 70-million Americans voted for Donald Trump. That's a damning indictment of the state of the populace's intelligence.

I'm pretty sure some sort of "eligibility" test could be devised that would be neutral in terms of ethnicity. But the honest answer is that it's not going to happen because, as we've seen in Republican-controlled states, they're already using every means possible to disenfranchise certain voters.

Actually, only about 1/3 of the eligible population votes. and it was half of them that voted for trump. So, 1/6th of the population are "barely educated conspiracy nuts". The reason you only hear about them is because normal people are boring and therefore, not newsworthy.

It's naive to think that people vote for politicians like Trump because they're stupid. Look at some of his biggest apologists on here, they're smart people, they just legitimately want the fucked things he offered.

I’m finding humans are probably the very laziest beings in the universe. Most would rather others think for them. They just want someone to tell them how to think. What to think. When to think. I see this all the time at work. They would rather crawl and beg others to think rather than click their mouse and figure the program out themselves. Hell, I’ve even written pages and pages of step by step instruction, but they still call me and ask when how to do something.

I realize now it’s the same with politics. People can’t or won’t think for themselves. They follow the one who will. This is the problem with progressives. We think if we just give people the means they will seek information themselves.

But they won’t. Because someone else will always give them what they want - hand holding and spoon fed information.

You really underestimate how quickly this would be used against minority voters, especially black and Native Americans voters.

It won't make a single dent in the areas you're thinking about.

Also, this.

No math in the Red Room, but your numbers are way off.

Also, I'd like to see @Bailey @Quincunx and @Shirogayne propose alternate solutions.

I may be an elitist fuck, but there's no way people like the woman in that video should be allowed to vote.

We need to end the mentality that somehow democracy is a universal right. That bullshit was invented by American white slave owners, all in the name of stuff like Manifest Destiny and Pax Americana.

(EDIT: I'm not advocating for totalitarianism or other such regimes, but anyone who doesn't think the American system is broken is fucking nuts.)

Your issue is that the US system gives rural bumfuck areas where folk like her live disproportionate power in the government.

Beat me to it

Abusers gonna abuse and as Bailey said, not everyone who votes right wing is a drooling moron like Dayton3.

We need to expand rights and make it as easy for people to educate themselves on the issues. Not every horse will drink if you lead them to water but the water should be there once they're thirsty.

Because the alternative, in practical terms, would be no power at all. What incentive does that leave for participating, or remaining in the union at all?

I didn't comment on your proposal.

As Churchill said, democracy is the worst system of government, except for all the other ones.

And, yes ... most of the backward shitbaggery in our government comes from having a system that ensures minority rule by privileging rural voters over non-rural voters in pretty much every conceivable way.

Saw your post about "smart" people and assumed you were commenting. My bad.

I was commenting, but purely about the assumption being made by some that politicians like Trump are a result of dumb voters.

Great point. It's a vicious circle in many ways. Trump isn't necessarily the product of voters; but it's voters who help enable him.

Trump wanted two retired military officers recalled to active service just so he could have them court-martialled for badmouthing his idiocy:

https://crooksandliars.com/2022/05/trump-wanted-rehire-then-courtmarhsall-two

Wow! Anyone who is so deeply patriotic that they are truly offended by a footballer kneeling before a game as per military tradition would have to be really pissed at something like this.

Ever notice how Trump's signature looks like the brainwave of a sleep disorder?