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IntenselyFocused

Intensely Focused

I'm not obsessed, I'm just intensely focued.

Currently reading

Home Improvement: Undead Edition
Charlaine Harris, Toni L.P. Kelner
Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I
Arthur Conan Doyle
It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the Politics of Extremism - Norman J. Ornstein, Thomas E. Mann This was a good book. I thought the first chapters about how the debt ceiling debacle went down were the most interesting and informative. I was glad to see that two scholars who are known for their objectivity talked about the problem of false equivalence when lazy reporters try to be "fair" by saying both parties are at fault where there's clearly asymmetrical polarization which only contributes to making it worse because it normalizes the behavior of the extremists.

Some of their suggestions for fixing the problem were interesting. They had a few suggestions regarding opening up the vote. One suggestion was to make voting mandatory the way it is in Australia. You either vote or pay a $15.00 fine. One of the voting options is "I choose not to vote" so people aren't required to vote for someone. I can't remember if people were required to go to the polls or if there was a mail-in system.

I've long thought we needed some kind of federal reform of voting. There are all sorts of voter suppression efforts going on mostly involving voter ID but there have certainly been other kinds of shenanigans in the past including manipulating the number and location of poll stations.

ETA: I also thought there was a good discussion of Gingrich's plan to turn the citizenry against Congress to get the Democrats out in 1994 and the terrible fallout from it.