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even if someone joins the political process with good intentions isn mind eventually gets tainted and compromises to retain his/her position or rise to higher offices. One is also affected with the feeling of power and privilege that comes with it as well. It is certainly a flawed process, only leading to hubris,corruption, lies and manipulation.

Throw the bums out as soon as you can. This applies to lawyers as well

Which sums up a large component of my view toward the political system. Expecting anything different is the equivalent, it seems to me, of expecting a badly cracked glass not to leak liquid. Not all the patching in the world is going to make a difference, or at least not for any length of time.

Bravo to this thread finally coming around, just barely before the next election.

This last spring my family all took a political test on a website and copied and pasted the results on our family website.

It was a little surprising, mostly to the degree that certain people were what we already thought. I think that came from how closely they held to the precise wording or exact interpretation in context.

All my friends told me I'd get more conservative as I grew older. I think with age and experience, at least for myself, I've become more balanced.

The dilemma is that anyone who has to campaign to achieve office and, worse yet, worry about re-election is going to be concerned about the wrong things and will likely have achieved that office through corruption and affiliations with silent partners and special interest.

But NOT having elections creates fascists and totalitarian governments.

I always liked, in Civilization, how you could begin as an Enlightened Despotism. If only...

Thanks for creating the thread. Shaxper. Since I proposed it, I'll toss out a subject that's not so much about changing other people's minds as just articulating where people stand.

On CBR one poster started a thread-- quickly shut down by Jonah W himself-- to the effect that something like "Gamergate" should happen to comics. I *think* the OP meant that it would act as some big purgative thing, but you can well imagine that Jolly Jonah didn't care for the idea, particularly since some people feel that the Asselin Affair has already served as "Comicsgate."

Re both Asselin and Sarkeesian: of course no one's going to be against them re: being victimized by death-threats. But just because they were victimized, I don't think I'm "blaming the victim" when I say that I find their respective attitudes toward so-called "sexual objectification" have brought about some of the problems.

At the same time, though I don't agree with some of their positions, they have an indisputable right to be heard, so I'm not advocating any restriction. But I don't think that the dialogue about the issues, about sexual representation in comics or games or any other fiction, have been very productive as yet.

And on this eve of election day I share my fervent dream

If we all vote for fringe party candidates, you will see the politicians from both sides of the fence suddenly begin to work for the electorate in a panic. It will be the end of gridlock. They will work for you instead of themselves. Things will improve by throwing the incumbents out. Even if the replacements are lousy they will be scared of the fickleness of the public and won't act stupid.
Voter Fickleness-thats our real power