politics on db0

hideshow 3 child comments

parent

[–] historicaldocuments@lemmy.world 1 point 1 day ago (2 children)

For no reason at all, did you know that cryptographers have been working on public votes with private ballots for a while? If one were so inclined one could hold a nonbinding (public, filmed) election using existing ballot methods, then immediately after hold another nonbinding (also public, also filmed) election using a cryptographicly enforced method where the results were tallied so that nobody's vote was exposed, but every vote was counted accurately. If OP is right then the two tallies will be the same and everyone's fears were misguided, business could carry on knowing everything was above board, and the big tent party is speaking with one voice.

Of course going through with this would destroy the ability to cut nonpartisan backroom deals because politicians couldn't negotiate behind the scenes to trade something now for a vote in their constituents' favor later. It's not something to consider lightly, but we shouldn't have to pretend that there are no solutions to the problems.

By the way, one of the contributors to that particular system is Lawrence Lessig which you might remember from his pivot away from tech and copyright law to corruption in politics.

It seems to me like the 2026 US midterm results were at least a little due to a loss in confidence in the process itself. The Senate appears to be moving to take care of business (if we're reading articles about Schumer possibly replaced by Van Vollen then something is happening), and there is clearly an apetite in the House to get out from under something that nobody seems willing to discuss.

hideshow 2 child comments

parent

[–] Macchi_the_Slime@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 point 19 hours ago (1 child)

Yeah iirc exit polls had Government Corruption ranking just behind the economy in importance for voters. With it being the most important issue among Democrats. Combine that with the immediate push for new leadership among the Democratic Party from the voters and yeah that tracks.

parent

hideshow 1 child comment

[–] historicaldocuments@lemmy.world 1 point 14 hours ago

tl;dr: Shit's going down publicly that makes me think public opinion doesn't matter anymore, and cryptographic voting methods exist to test if the dems in the House are serious or not.

More and more these days I see shit that I'm certain wouldn't have played out publicly 20 years ago; internal infighting and an outward united face has always been (and will always be) the way groups of people organize. Cutting a backroom deal with an opposing group to get something you want/need is always what it's been about, and scoring a deal that forces someone on the opposing to vote against the will of the people that elected them is part of it: "nevermind that people's lives are at stake, I got X person to vote against Y people!"

The between politics and professional wrestling only get easier to make. One side, with their organization top heavy with dominionists and their project 2025 playbook are out in public telling the crowd, "We're going to cut the US federal government up into tiny pieces, make it unusable, make people's lives miserable, and bring about the book of revelations so jesus can come back." The crowd laughs and cheers because they sure are sticking it to the other guy. Only when gas gets expensive do people start to react, but by that time it's too late. The plans are in place, you knew about them ahead of time, agreed to them by voting for it, and if you get pissy and loud about how it affects you, well you just won't get election funding for the next turn.

The democrats seem hell-bent on maintaining that politics (the wrestling matches) don't have the outcome decided ahead of time, but enough people have enough access to better news sources to know what's going on. Everyone caught on to when that jobber from Maine was going to vote against the repubs, and those predictions about which way she'd vote held up. Then, from under the ring, Thomas Massie with the articles of Impeachment! It's a slam dunk! Oh my god, the dems are shaking hands with the bad guys (eleven democrats didn't show up for the vote)! The explanation (they were busy) might play out in kayfabe, but in the real world that's MORE of the gapping of our expertise in admirals and generals and more of a pivot away from our edge in soft power in favor of an edge in willingness to charge machinegun nests. This was a big concern a month ago, and Massie was convinced he had the votes. Why?

It feels like something went off script in the ring, and the dems in the House are using weaksauce lies to justify it because that's what they think will work. The Senate may take the chance to oust Schumer (a good move IMHO even if only in the sense that it passes the torch to the next generation), but the House is trying to be business as usual? They're doing the thing that people elected the democrats to STOP doing? It doesn't make sense in-ring because it's not going to be a good storyline, and it doesn't make sense in the real world either unless all the allegations about corruption, lobbying, and bribery are completely true.

Whatever. Maybe we're all just smarks who've gone off script (our job is to believe the script), but if politicians are truly serious about citing a Serious Issue about why they need campaign donations, then they can be serious enough to do a cryptographically verifiable public/secret vote.