[geeks] One of the things I love about America

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Wed, May 01, 2002 at 05:55:24PM +0100, Mike Meredith wrote:
> I persuaded someone to vote last year by pointing out that if none of
> the choices look good, then vote for the candidate you least dislike.

Or, write in some one, assuming you can do that over there.
 
> I'm sure it doesn't apply to you, but it always amazes me that people
> want things that are pretty much incompatible ... you can't drop taxes
> to 0 *and* improve public services. Or at least you can't without doing
> something unexpected.

You can if you raise import duties.  But whether that is a good idea, I don't
really care to ponder at length.

In recent months I've been changing my mind about Campaign Finance Reform,
at least here in the US.  I'm not sure any of the ideas floated so far are
good ones though.  In particular, an effective reform must leave Sen. 
Fritz Hollings with no incentive to continue playing Hollywood lap dog.  But,
it shouldn't go too far, and I have idea where that border is, and if it is
even possible to draw a line seperating the two points.  Likewise it should
remove tobaco influence, and possibly teachers union influence (where they have
been known to say that they will start representing the interests of children
when children pay dues, till then they look out only for themselves).
 
> What really annoys me about UK elections is how everyone is wondering
> why the turnout is always so low. I'm sure one of the biggest
> contributions is having the election days on a Thursday. People who are
> only mildly interested in voting probably won't be bothered on a
> working day, and what would be the harm in changing to a Saturday when
> many more people aren't working.

Across the pond, it isn't legal to sell liquor on voting day.  So, I bet 
people here would be pissed if voting day was on a Friday or Saturday.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd