Can I just make this a general rant?

[Pixelated]

Sometimes I swear, we need to go back to a divine monarchy or something and get the majority of the populace OUT of politics. The insanity I'm seeing on my Facebook page just never ends: George Soros, conspiracies from the right/left/centre/Mars, all the "secret Muslims" who are running various countries, plots to depopulate the world, chemtrails -- I just found a video of a bunch of brown-skinned people marching. Supposedly it was in London, England (can't confirm it; I have no idea how to track down a video) and they were supposedly promising to conquer America, which prompted the usual anti-Muslim babble ... and no, you can't blame this one on Trump's 'Murca -- this came from western Canada.

I don't go looking for their stuff but when I see it, I usually leave some kind of mockery in the comments. I'm kinda surprised they haven't booted me out of the group. Yet.

[Greenday]

It's why I'm sometimes onboard with having a supreme overlord. This just so many simple issues that shouldn't be up for debate. Gay marriage shouldn't have been up for debate. Transgender people and bathrooms shouldn't be up to debate. Racist laws shouldn't be a thing. People shouldn't have criminal records for smoking weed. A lot of obvious things that we shouldn't ever put to a vote because it's simple human rights.

[Pixelated]

Exactly. There are some things where "Well, you've got to listen to the other side!" just doesn't apply, nor should it.

Found on my Facebook page: "Maybe we've all been wrong, and strange women lying in ponds distributing swords actually would be a better basis for a system of government."

I'll second that!

[D_Yeti_Esquire]

'Eh.

Fucking leftists and conservatives looking for a Superman.

Sorry, I'm just grumpy on this topic. You can't f'ing morality check everyone for their liberal/conservative bonafides and then once you've sorted them bitch that who you're left with can't actually run a country correctly or even work marginally well.

You MUST have the centrists that lubricate the system. The ones that can go "get" a Democratic voter that's racist or the Republican voter that's pro choice.

In Government, being morally correct means fuck all. People just want to be able to live their lives free from interference and do the best they can. And that really is the problem. The Democrats are so concerned about their moral purity they actually fail their way to Republican control. I'd be fine with that, except that the Republican party seems to be priming their electorate to ALSO want a superman dictator.

I don't want a Monarch. You can possibly talk me into voter testing or voter "use it or lose it" system that places a higher premium on educated voters. But every version of that historically hasn't been used to do anything other than disenfranchise the poor and uneducated. So I'd be curious how you'd do it. I'd like to keep my small degree of control, thanks.

[mjr]

I don't want a Monarch. You can possibly talk me into voter testing or voter "use it or lose it" system that places a higher premium on educated voters. But every version of that historically hasn't been used to do anything other than disenfranchise the poor and uneducated. So I'd be curious how you'd do it. I'd like to keep my small degree of control, thanks.

That seems relatively straightforward.

When someone becomes a citizen of the United States, they must take a citizenship test. Correct?

So why not something similar for actual citizens? You pass the test, you get to vote.

https://my.uscis.gov/en/prep/test/civics/view

The test doesn't care if you're "uneducated" or "poor". You must pass it to become a citizen.

But even if you wanted to make it more simple. Ask simpler questions:

"How long is a presidential term?"

"How many members of Congress are there?"

"How long is a term in the House of Representatives?"

"How long is a term in the Senate?"

"Who is your current Representative, and what political party are they?"

etc.

Things that people ought to know when voting.