politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
I like this guy. I’ve liked him for a long time. He’s one of the very few Republicans who, as a leftie, I can look across the aisle and see not an opponent but a fellow American with some differing opinions but who is still a patriot. I see a person who puts country over party.
But I also see a man who is, now, without a party. His version of the Republican Party no longer exists.
Edit: my point in this, I should have gone on to say, is that he, and other classical Republicans like him, should form a new party. This country needs more parties. Like a further-left Progressive party. With ranked choice voting in every state, this could become normalized.
Currently, we have the Libertarian and Green parties, but they’re… weird. If we had 3rd parties that were, well, not weird, politics in this country would be a lot healthier.
I have no opinion on this guy. I've never heard of him before. However, I will say that what you're describing is what I want out of an opposing party. So often the term "the other side" is thrown around, that most people forget it's supposed to be "The other side of the coin" with the coin itself being America. The other party isn't supposed to be your enemies. You're supposed to have a problem that needs solved. This group has this set of ideas to solve it, and that side has that set of ideas on how to solve it. Then the voters come along and say "Oh, l like this set." and another person will say "Well I like THAT set". Then, after the votes are tabulated, and everybody has had their say, a clear winner will come out, and that's what we'll do.
Somewhere along the way, it became more about WHO is in power, rather than WHAT they represent. Then it becomes more about playing a series of immoral games that go against the very fabric of what this country is supposed to stand for. When your play against the spirit of your country, your country becomes a different country.
So now we use things like gerrymandering, and vote manipulation, and using dead people to vote in current elections, and trying a coup against the government itself.
Is this America now?
Is this what America represents? Because if so, I'm NOT a patriot. I'm NOT proud of my country. I'm here because my family is here, and I have a stronger connection to my family than I do leaving the country. But what have we even come to in the modern day?
So for you to say that this guy represents what I've said the other side SHOULD represent, it means that maybe, just maybe, there are still some hard working, moral, honest republicans out there. I still will won't vote for them, but not because I hate them. Simply because they represent THAT set of ideals, and I want THIS set of ideals. Which is how it should be. But I don't see them as my enemy.
Kinzinger lost his job because he was one of the very few Republicans who sat in the Jan 6 Committee and actually did his fucking job. And he did it honestly and well. For that, he got maligned by Trump and the rest of his party and voted out of office.
But, through all of it, he did his job and spoke out against the corruption he faced. The man was an honorable public servant and served his district, state, and country.
I strongly suggest you look into him and even watch some of his interviews.
Very well said. The key question is how do we, as a society, turn politics back onto that course, of considering the what and the how, not the person or the party.
The problem is more widespread than just America, it seems to take root anywhere you have an elected representative system and the electorate forget that they are the key part of the system.
I don't know if there is a polite way of putting this, but 3rd parties are a bit crazy. It's not that 3rd parties are inherently bad, but we're a first past the post system. 3rd parties tend to act as spoilers to whichever party they are closer to. Until the spoiler effect is fixed, you have to be a little crazy to run as a 3rd party candidate.
And like you mentioned, ranked choice is one of the options to making 3rd parties viable. But the leadership for the democrats is luke warm on it and republicans are actively working against it. It's going to take a bipartisan grassroots effort to drag these curmudgeons into a better system.