the ryan king

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When I first started writing this blog, I set out he topics I thought I’d cover as the categories you see on the left (if you’re not reading this is a newsreader). Little did I know that I’d write most of my entries about politics. Perhaps its now time to move on, but first let me give my final thoughts on Election 2004.

Here’s what I’d like:

1. More choices. I want more than 1 feasible candidate. The best way I see to make this happen is Instant Runoffs.

2. I want politicians to actually answer the questions. Watching the townhall presidential debate made me sick. The candidates hardly ever actually addressed the person’s question. Solution? Let people ask follow-up questions. I think if we allow follow-up questions (even among “soft-supporters”), the candidates will be more inclined to address the topics the voters actually want. Also, if we’d actually let 3rd party candidates into the debates, the major-party candidates would have to be more honest. Like Jon Stewart said on Crossfire, sometimes its the people who can’t win who are the most free to say what they really mean. (he was referring to the Rev. Al Sharpton).

3. I want Americans to understand each other more. I’m from a blue county in a red state. I went to college in a completely red state among some people who are redder than Rudolph’s nose. My family is mostly pretty conservative, I’m not so much. My dad listens to Rush Limbaugh, I listen to NPR. Until people of all persuasions have this kind of contact with people of other outlooks, they won’t really understand. I don’t think most liberals understand conservatives and the liberals I’ve read who seems to “get” conservatives seems to mostly be former-red-state-conservatives themselves. On the other hand, conservative Christians need to stop thinking of liberal as a bad word. It’s not.

We need to be friends. We must. Despite all disagreements, we must be friends. I say this for both the fundamentist Christian and the moralistic liberal.

ArtsJournal: PostClassic

Slate.com is running a series of articles calledWhy Americans Hate Democrats- A Dialogue – Depressed liberals analyze what ails them.

First of all, I think the title of series reveals a weakeness of the Democratic Party. Americans don’t hate Democrats. Over 55 million of us voted for Kerry, who in the minds of some, was not the best of possible Democratic candidates. How can one say, then, that Americans hate Democrats? It seems absurd to me.

Perhaps, in this the hangover from the election binge, Democrats are just crashing emotionally. After riding on such a high for the last several months, it is now depressing to realize that it was all for nothing. My advice to Democrats, next time, don’t be so smug beforehand and give me a better choice, a more compelling choice.

More stuff:

This one hits a little close to home.

A quote from this one.

On some level, the hardest thing that Democratic leaders, activists, and journalists have to do is honestly ask themselves this: Do you hold very religious people in contempt? If you do, religious people will sense it—and will vote against you. And there are more of them than there are of you.

Kerry somehow managed to push religious voters who had voted for Gore away from voting for him (read the above article for specifics).

I just found a collection of interesting election results maps.

My favorites:

Free versus slave states

Purple America

JesusLand

The Kids Are Alright

Some thoughts on. . .

Purple America- I think this map shows that we as Americans are closer geographically and idealogically than much of the rhetoric seems to indicate.

The Kids Are Alright- I’ve been thinking recently about this problem. The problem with democracy is that no one is looking out for the future. Ok, maybe parents will vote for things that will help their kids out, but what about 10 generations down the line? Does anyone think about how our decisions today will affect our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren? Does it matter if we make the world a place not worth living in for them?