Thread

1. nblgbg · 1790263499 · focus · HN ↗

   When I first registered in Texas, they told me that something didn’t match the details with Social Security and that they couldn’t process my registration. Unfortunately, they never told me exactly what didn’t match. After chasing Social Security and the county multiple times, I eventually figured out that someone had put an extra space in my middle name. The staff processing my request were very helpful, but unfortunately, they didn’t even know what exactly was not matching.

   It’s really unfortunate that you have the burden of proving that your information is correct. It took me about 6/7 weeks to complete the entire process.

   They also mail you a voter registration card (which itself isn’t useful anywhere), and if, for any reason, it doesn’t reach you, your name will be suspended from the list.

   The whole process feels like it’s designed to discourage people from voting.

   1. datsci_est_2015 · 1790264013 · focus · HN ↗

      When corporations use similar tactics we call them “dark patterns”. Unfortunately, the only weapon we the people have against these tactics is regulation. But when it’s the government doing these things… anyway. Hope the Democratic Party has learned that conservative leadership won’t evolve their platform, they’ll reject democracy.

      1. someonebaggy · 1790264154 · focus · HN ↗

         I'm not convinced the Democratic Party is capable of learning anything ever at all.

         Or maybe I'm confusing incompetence with malice. Maybe they want to lose and be the spoiler party.

         1. bilbo-b-baggins · 1790264618 · focus · HN ↗

            There’s a good number of sincere democrats who are being hamstrung by an aging and self-interested Democratic leadership.

            The Democrat Party, as an organization, exists first and foremost to fundraise and the best way to do that is to seek corporate donors, thanks to Citizens United, since its easier to court one or two very large donations than hundreds or thousands of small individual donors.

            What happens politically and the resultant laws are basically secondary. You, the taxpayer, doesn’t pay the DNC to do its job. Donors do.

            1. GetTheFacts · 1790296826 · focus · HN ↗

               >The Democrat Party, as an organization

               It's the Democratic Party.

               By purposely misnaming it, you are making it clear that your take is a dismissive and biased one.

               But you don't need me to tell you that -- it's your whole point.

               1. someonebaggy · 1790298395 · focus · HN ↗

                  literally nobody cares what the official title of the party is, which is why they post wrong titles. We all know which one is meant and you're being pointlessly obtuse.

                  1. GetTheFacts · 1790302122 · focus · HN ↗

                     [dead]

         2. horsawlarway · 1790264945 · focus · HN ↗

            I mean - as much as it's the "better" of the two options right now... the modern democratic party is still a center-right party controlled mostly by corporate interests and lobbying money.

            They favor keeping the system that is producing rampant inequity stable. With a laissez faire approach to social issues.

            As opposed to republicans, who favor socially regressive and oppressive policies, double speak, and who's mantra is mostly "Don't get caught. But if you do get caught - deny, deflect, denounce" rather than anything resembling ethical behavior.

            Neither of them are particularly good options for governance. They have no motivations to "learn" anything.

            One is a fast moving, malignant cancer - the other a slow moving auto-immune disease. Both kill the host.

            We desperately need fresh air.

            1. MrDrMcCoy · 1790293599 · focus · HN ↗

               We need to push for ranked choice voting. It's the best way out of this hole we've dug.

               1. someonebaggy · 1790298422 · focus · HN ↗

                  Why would either party agree to implement that?

                  1. MrDrMcCoy · 1790300279 · focus · HN ↗

                     Enough torches and pitchforks can accomplish a lot.
               2. horsawlarway · 1790351931 · focus · HN ↗

                  I generally agree with this.

                  Personally, I'd also like to see party influence removed from elections. Completely removed at the time of actual election (ex - absolutely not allowed to list party on the ballot) but also reduced at the primary level (ex - no more closed primaries, maybe eliminate partisan primaries entirely).

                  Politics isn't a team sport with winners and losers, and this attitude (especially concerning given the recent moves by republican leaders to explicitly disenfranchise and withhold support for locations that trend democratic) is utterly reprehensible (which is fairly in theme with their overall moral character).

                  We're one nation. Politicians serve the populace, regardless of whether those people voted for them or not.

      2. sehw · 1790264173 · focus · HN ↗

         a gun?

         1. pjc50 · 1790264670 · focus · HN ↗

            Against whom?

            1. undersuit · 1790265484 · focus · HN ↗

               Only way to correctly vote on your ballot. Blow away hanging chads
         2. crote · 1790265930 · focus · HN ↗

            The government has bigger guns.
      3. furytrader · 1790267878 · focus · HN ↗

         "The only weapon we the people have against these tactics is regulation"

         That's not true. If it's a company doing it, you have the choice to not be a customer of the company. Don't give them any of your money if you don't like how they do business.

         The same can't be said of government. If you don't give your money, in the form of taxes, you go to jail.

         1. orwin · 1790268103 · focus · HN ↗

            Clearly, Luigi found a far more effective way.

            1. krapp · 1790268582 · focus · HN ↗

               Not really.

               Luigi didn't trigger any sort of mass uprising against the elites, didn't inspire copycats or revolutionaries. No reform of insurance or pharma costs occurred, all of the problems he ostensibly opposed are still there. He just got arrested and became a meme for a while.

               1. datsci_est_2015 · 1790269026 · focus · HN ↗

                  Meh, I think a lot of my people in my cohort are a lot more sympathetic towards people who lash out violently against the Kafkaesque capitalist system that many of us are suffering under. It also engrained a cultural understanding (in my cohort) that profit-seeking is not a shield of innocence: many agree that the leadership of United was inherently evil due to their business practices.

                  So, there has been a shift in our shared reality. Maybe not as significant as something like 9/11, but maybe an order of magnitude or two below it.

         2. jgwil2 · 1790268392 · focus · HN ↗

            The weapon, ostensibly, in a democracy, is the ability to vote your leaders out.
         3. datsci_est_2015 · 1790268807 · focus · HN ↗

            > That's not true. If it's a company doing it, you have the choice to not be a customer of the company.

            Ah yes, 2026 America, famous for its wealth of commercial competition and diversity of business practices. Just the other day I was bragging to my friends how many reasonable options I have for so many of my critical necessities, including televisions and other cheap plastic cheap manufactured in China and white-labeled by glorified dropshippers.

            The corporations are quickly becoming the government you are so quick to demonize. The death panels that FoxNews spoke about 24/7 back in 2010 are now embedded into our insurance industry, except you have no democratic recourse and will be statistically drained of your wealth before your offspring have a chance to inherit it, all while they watch you die and stress over the Byzantine processes that are “economically efficient”.

         4. vinyl7 · 1790272473 · focus · HN ↗

            That would be easier if the US economy wasn't entirely controlled by duopolies

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