The trouble with any form of voting is when one group of people get to overrule another group of people with a totally different lifestyle. Like the way large groups of city dwellers can outvote country dwellers, for example. It just highlights how easily any form of democracy can turn into little more than two wolves and a sheep voting on who's for dinner. It's a good reason why government should be as local as possible - the city dwellers can have rules that cover the city that work for them and the country dwellers can have rules for the country that work for them. It's also a good reason why government should be as small as possible, so you don't get two groups who fundamentally don't understand each other trying to legislate their version of reality upon the other.
Done did voted my first presidential election as a US citizen. It's good to be centrist and independent. Although I must say --- really??? These are the main candidates ya came up with? Wowza. Way to toss me into the deep end there. Ha. 8) Now I can sit back, eat popcorn, and enjoy the show. And by "enjoy" I mean weep over whoever we're going to be stuck with until 2020, although I hold the slim hope that third party voting will gain traction due to this year's mess we all got to endure, that the divisive extremists in both major parties will either break off (bye felicia!) or see a large exit of moderates doing their own thing (fingers crossed!), that 2018 will see some major shakeups of the status quo, and that 2020 just *might* look a little brighter, a little more diverse, and a little more (dare I say it?) rational, because this year certainly has been anything but. It would have been entertaining, had it not been so convoluted and terrifying. 0:0
I did have some old deutschmarks, I gave a whole bagful of old foreign coins to one of the kids at my youth club when I realised it had sat in a box for a decade and I'd never even looked at them. When I say "old" I'm talking 1980 and later, nothing old in the "this is solid silver" sense of the word.
They've been using Euros so I'm not even sure it's worth the paper it's printed on, but it's always fun to play with.
Sorry to bust your bubble, but if 3rd party candidates were ever going to become viable alternatives they'd have done so by now. I just don't see it happening. Like it or not, it's always going to boil down to D versus R.
"Why don't we have any viable third party candidates?" "Because nobody will vote them in." "Why will nobody vote them in?" "Because they're being told those candidates can't win and they're wasting their votes."
Yes, except there is a flaw to this thinking. I'm not voting for the "lizard" known as Hillary. But, I can guarantee she will still win the election, despite my not voting for her...
Look, I'm not saying that having a 3rd party candidate choice isn't a good idea. In theory, it is. But we've been having elections for a few hundred years now. Has a 3rd party candidate ever won? Ever come really close to winning? No? Well, that kinda says something.
Traditionally a strong third party candidate usually helps the Republicans win because they take votes from the Democrats. Won't say that this is always the case. But usually is.
I think the popular vote goes reluctantly to Hillary because of her predictability, and not much else. The Cubs merit bigger celebration. I still cannot vote for either, though I fear one more than the other.
I have one Christian friend, in particular, who I've known for 38 years, who will have nothing to do with me because of her deep-seated hatred for Hillary Clinton. She found some commentator and a website that insists Hillary has Parkinson's disease and the prevailing conspiracy is to cover it up. One rumor was that she lost complete control of even her bowels when she fainted. I'm definitely no fan of Hillary or Bill Clinton, but my transgression was to insist upon getting the facts before jumping on yet another bandwagon. Have always gladly held to the ideal that Christians do not rely on accusation and innuendo, but rather insist on a fair treatment of the facts. I didn't even make a big deal about it, but have lost a friend. All day long I hear folks at each other's throats over this election.
I feel bad for the loss of your friend. However, the part about folks being at each other's throats over this election...it's actually quite understandable. People are angry and afraid about the future they see this country heading into. Conservatives fear an ever increasing big and socialistic government intruding into their lives, chipping away at their Constitutional rights, and taking more of their hard earned money through increasing taxes to give to people who, for no legitimate reason, feel entitled to other peoples' money. Liberals, on the other hand, worship big government and want even more government and disparage the idea of decreasing it, are resentful that others "have the nerve" to balk at liberals' desire to have more of other peoples' money, and can't stand the idea of somebody in charge who isn't "politically correct" and has the guts to call things like they are. This conflict is, well, inevitable.
It's amazing how some of the friends I have on FaceBait, who are "Christian", are basically posting that if their friends are voting for Hillary, or don't agree with Trump, to unfriend them. (Of course, the same is going on in the opposite direction). I've been tempted to make a general post that these "Christians" look in the mirror first before saying idiotic crap. Stuff like this makes me lose faith in Christianity, and many people claim to follow Christ.