h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It is primary election day in Missouri. Elections are being held at all levels - county, district and state. Once again, in my backward part of the state, there are no Democrats running for county offices. Nor is there a Democratic candidate for Congress. So in order to have any say at all in the political process on a local level, one has to take a Republican ballot in the primary.

I have long wished that there was a viable third party in the US. At this point, I would settle for a viable two-party system in Southwest Missouri. There is a lone Libertarian candidate for sherrif. He is actually well qualified and would do a good job - like that will make any difference to the voters. And the Libertarian Party has a decent candidate for President this year. I am sorely tempted to ask for a Libertarian primary ballot just to stick a finger up at the local establishment. There aren't any hotly contested state races in the Democratic primary, so the loss of my vote there won't make any difference.

Most frustrating.

Isn't there a state constitutional amendment on the ballot in Missouri, some "defense of religion" initiative or something. I heard about it on NPR yesterday morning and it depressed the out of me. What I heard was basically that no one seems to know what it will actually do. It's a huge document filled with arbitrary legalese that will likely be very damaging. Obviously, it won't provide for any more religious freedom than what is in the 1st amendment of the US Constitution. What it might do is allow students to "opt out" of science education. It may also make certain types of discrimination "protected religious speech". People who have looked at the bill say it is at best unnecessary. And the most depressing thing about it is that it's got overwhelming support.

My sympathy. Sounds like another unproductive year in politics.

> I am sorely tempted to ask for a Libertarian primary ballot

Your political system confuses me. The bits of it I understand also depress me.

And then there was the Democrat nominee for Tennessee: http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2012/08/06/47352 and http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2012/08/07/47396.

TRiG.

I just read this interview and found it enlightening if not uplifting.

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/10661-stone-cold-sober-an-interview-with-mike-lofgren-author-of-the-party-is-over

It definitely won't ease voter depression, but it does make some excellent points.

It does indeed, BG. Thanks for the link.

As for the constitutional amendment on the Missouri ballot, that is a prime example of the lack of understanding of the political process. The 1875 Missouri Constitution, which we still use, clearly protects religious freedom.

Article I, section 5 states: "...all men have an natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences; that no human authority can control or interfere with the rights of conscience." Missourians already have the right to pray in public or private.

The purpose of a constitutional amendment is to redress a problem within the exsisting system of government. The stated purpose of this proposed amendment (public prayer) just reinforces what is already present. It's the rambling, somewhat hidden other points in the proposed amendment that are the true purpose and will cause the damage.

"...that students may express their beliefs about religion in written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of their work; that no student shall be compelled to perform or participate in academic assignments or educational presentations that violate his or her religious beliefs."

It will grant students from elementary school up the right to refuse to pick and choose which assignments they will complete. Science classes immediately come to mind, but it will also affect literature and history classes. It also means that when they do write reports, they can fill them with their own particular religious beliefs and the teachers will not be allowed to grade them lower because of this, even if the information is incorrect.

Living here is absolutely oppressive at times.

That should have been the right to refuse or pick and choose.

Our state GOP's platform explicitly states that it is against the teaching of critical thinking skills. I'm not exaggerating.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/texas-gop-rejects-critical-thinking-skills-really/2012/07/08/gJQAHNpFXW_blog.html

Boggles the mind, doesn't it?

I tried to read the rest of their platform, but I just couldn't do it. It was just so horrible.

They don't want schools involved in early childhood development (no preschool or kindergarten). They want schools to beat your kids. They don't want children of undocumented workers to be allowed in our schools. And legal immigrants need to learn English in three years. They want to give climate denialism and creationism as much validity as actual science and make it illegal for teachers to say otherwise. It just keeps getting worse.

They don't seem to realize they are creating a Christian Taliban.

That's just it. They do. That's how they get the working classes to vote against their better interests. They get them all worked up about "values" and then lower their quality of life for the benefit of the plutocracy.

The political ads here all accuse the opponent of not being conservative enough. Its like the word conservative is the magic cloak. And they try to connect the opponent to Obamacare. I protested Obamacare more than he did! He's a liar who secretly supports Obamacare! Like Obamacare has anything to do with local law enforcement. That sort of thing. They take these hot-button social issues and tack them on to races that have absolutely nothing to do with them. Accusing a person of being a poor candidate because she is pro-choice for example when she's running for an office that doesn't make the laws or have any connection whatsoever to reproductive issues.

*wipes tears of laughter from eyes and catches breath*

We just watched the 'Colbert Report' version of the Texas GOP platform...'I blame Galileo'... Loved it, thanks!

I say this because I have spent way too much time writing around the Texas history standards, and know what he's talking about.

It's like this: conservative people in the US want their kids to get the knowledge to make them competitive in today's society: technology skills, trades, the ability to run a business/run for office, etc. But they do NOT want anybody trying to make them think. They all live in fear that their kids will challenge all their assumptions and turn into Commies, or become gay, or (gasp) embrace multiculturalism. They might even learn a foreign language, and stop insisting that all their neighbours bellow at them in English - or what passes for English around there.

Trying to separate decent IT training, useful office skills, business acumen, etc, from all that pesky Higher Order Thinking is a Sisyphean task. But the GOP keeps trying.

And we keep making up objectives like:

'Students will use the skills of 'understanding multiple causality' and 'contingent moments' to analyse the events that led to the Civil War.'

Yep. looks like you're having the same elections we just had, Hypatia. What was most depressing was our run-off for republican senate candidate to replace Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Hutchinson has been a senator for a couple of decades or close to it. She started off idealistic and intelligent in a time when it was anathema to compromise across the aisles. She's still seems to make considered decisions, but after she lost here run to replace (p)Rick Perry, she decided to retire her seat. She's been catering to the right-wingnuts like any other candidate in a red state but she still seemed to make good choices on occasion. But now... The former Lt. Governor, Dewhurst, a well established conservative in this conservative state was ousted in one of the most expensive state senate races in the history of this nation. He was beat by a tea party candidate, Ted Cruz, mainly because, in the past, Dewhurst had shown he was willing to work with Democrats on a few issues. He was out conservatived, as you said. He ended most of his ads promising to "take back this country". When you ask who they think they're taking this country back from and where they think they're taking it back to, it tells you a lot about our current political system.


And yea, Dmitri, Colbert nailed it.

[edit]"idealistic and intelligent in a time when it *WASN'T* anathema to compromise..."

It has always amazed me how there only seem to be two major political parties in the US, considering the mix of ethnic background. Or that is the only ones you read about in the news over here.

*counts on fingers*

Political parties (of any influence) in Sweden as listed by the CIA world book (and it's pretty accurate and updated as far as I can tell, and public):

Center Party
Christian Democrats
Green Party
Left Party
Liberal People's Party
Moderate Party
Social Democratic Party
Sweden Democrats

The US is a defacto two party system. While there are other parties, for instance, libertarian, green, United We Stand (Ross Perot) and various other fringe parties, all major elections are dominated by Republicans and Democrats. There are a few exceptions in the US House of Representatives and other state elected positions that have been won by libertarians and independents, but they are rare. The two parties control the vast majority of campaign funding. Without one of their endorsements, no candidate can compete against the millions of dollars at the main parties' disposal.

The Republican party ( aka GOP) has a serious problem though, manifesting itself most damagingly in the House of Representatives through the Tea Party Caucus. This is basically a group of anarchists, to judge by their political behavior, and they are led by a representative named Michele Bachmann, and I just don't know where to start in order to describe her.

If only there were a nationwide civics test, to remind voters how our government actually works. Just today I got into discussion with a member of staff here at the nursing facility who even turns accomplishments into reasons to rant against Obama. NASA just landed a rover on Mars, perfect wheels-down landing, and she goes on about how Obama has personally defunded NASA. I kept trying to tell her about the appropriations process and she kept waving away basic non-partisan facts as if they were flies.

Let's just say this administration's relationship with NASA is "complicated".