I think one way that the founding fathers intended to avoid this issues was the size of the House of Representatives. They debated making it 1 representative per 30K or 1 per 40K and even assuming that the population would grow to be in the hundreds of millions, they decided on 1 in 30K. In that ratio, we should have more than 10K reps. With Internet technology, we could do that now.

I think they sh#t the bed on the Senate, though. CA having only 2 Senators sucks for us.

I don't see more democracy as solving any of these issues.

Looking forward to our coming hashpower overlords taking over decision making.

The other was the electoral college, which the most progressive Democrats want to abolish. I would probably push back on the 90% in common idea the more I think about it. Rural life and city life are very different. I would estimate maybe 40% of the same issues between city and rural and 90%+ within each.

It has to do with reducing the influence of money on our politics. We have a system where a 1/3 of reps will always vote left, 1/3 will vote right, and 1/3 can be bought. Multinational corporations are able to buy that influence for practically nothing.

the purchased 1/3 only can be bought along indifference curves

When I say 90%, I'm not talking about only politics. We all want to provide a safe, comfortable place to raise our kids, to put food on the table, make sure they are erll educated and afforded all the opportunities they need to be successful. Recognize the commonality that is the shared human experience.

None of that translates to knowing the polices that would even create that, nor knowing who to even vote for in order to implement it.

No, but if we can't figure out how to get to a point of mutual respect, how do we move forward. What you have been expressing is that you feel that liberals don't share any of your values. You think that they don't respect anything about your values. Mutual respect comes from recognizing ourselves in others. It's a starting point.

I actually believe they share most of my values, they just don't know what would bring about those values.

I think that is an important issue but what does it matter if 3/3 of politicians in DC come from cities and have no idea of the unique issues rural Americans face and I believe conservative values probably are necessary (or at least ideal) in the type of environment and work that needs to be done in that environment. Vice versa for urban areas. Most farmers and ranchers can't image the challenges that come with living in a city. Practically speaking, the Green New Deals and other progressive platforms put a disproportionate burden on rural Americans. IMHO that mechanism is what originally got Trump elected and I don't see anyone trying to fix that. I do see people talking down to each other and having no clue the implications of what each thinks is a good idea. These are policies and ideas that may not impact the 90% you mention for some and devastate it for others and that isn't being represented by the federal government well.

I am 51 years old. I have lived in San Jose CA, IN, OH, Fairfield CA, Wichita Falls, TX, U.P Michigan, Bossier City, LA, Tampa FL, Athens Greece, CA again, The Dalles, OR, Klamath Falls, OR, Portland, OR, Chicago, IL, Virginia Beach, VA, Sasebo, Japan, San Diego, CA... While in the Navy, I was able to visit all over Asia, Australia, and Western Africa. I finally settled in OC. I am fortunate that I have a varied life experience. I come from nothing and have done alright for myself. I can appreciate more than most.

There are different paths to meet those goals in each environment. $6 a gallon gas may not be a big burden for someone who lives in NYC with public transportation but to a farmer in Nebraska or rancher in Colorado, or lumberjack in Wyoming, that is the difference between putting food on the table and going hungry if you get what I'm saying. Those two positions have not been represented well in our federal government and it is a driving factor behind the divisiveness in my opinion. There are people who are in great anxiety right now over Biden's election because it may very well mean the end of their ability to provide for their families or a drastic decline in their standard of living (not to mention the moral and cultural implications).

@linuxace, you just advanced to level 6!

Hmm. Military?

AF Brat and Navy

That's great. I also traveled all over the world. I was also lucky in that I grew up working on ranches and in the Colorado working as a lumberjack, joined the military, now work for a French company in a bigger city doing white collar work. I know many people who have lived in the same 5 mile radius of NYC or SF and some people who have grown and lived in the same town with a population of 3,000 or their whole lives. Those two groups do not understand each other.

@TaLoN132 I was an Army brat (dad was a Russian linguist). 33. Went to Germany, Russia, France, Italy, Spain. Lived in Syracuse NY, Houston TX, now Living near Seattle.

I did training in the AF at Wichita Falls TX so I recognized that as a military town. I would have guessed Navy from the other locations.

Air Force, Germany, Norway, France, Texas, California, Spain, Qatar, Iraq for me.

Shephard AFB... My Dad was in officer's training school there.

Those last two I could have done without but the rest was great. I appreciate now as I am getting older how valuable the experience of traveling and seeing different ways of doing things has been.

We were at Travis, KI Sawyer, Grissom, Barksdale, Athens, and MacDill.

Oh yeah, and Wright Pat for a while, too.

Was in Hanau? Can't remember the base name

Near Frankfurt

Those are all places where I was not stationed. Offutt, Shephard, Lackland, Edwards, Vandenberg, and Spangdahlem.

It was just Hanau Army Airfield when I was there.

In Germany, I never it made it to the base but we had people come over to Spangdahlem for NCO training.

I can totally appreciate where you are coming from regarding differences and fully understand. Progressives have done a horrible job communicating their positions. As with most people, they assume that what is evident to them must be evident to others and treat others that think differently in a condescending manner. It sucks.

Eh, I'm pretty patronizing to them. Comes from being a software engineer dealing with idiot PMs.

Again, I honestly think that was the biggest driver behind the election of Trump. Terrible move for the Republican party but I understand why it happened. Still rather see Trump in office than Biden (Harris really) but that's more because I think some of the most radical left positions are going to be pushed and it's going to cause big problem. I probably would have voted for Tulsi Gabbard or Andrew Yang over Trump but they seem half way reasonable to me.

Tulsi for sure. Yang..... ehhh.... maybe

Honestly #1 priority for me is stop bombing and selling bombs to people bombing.

I would say progressives have done a horrible job representing everybody fairly, mostly because they are ignorant of how many Americans live.

I'll accept any number of progressive policies if that's the result

Well, that was something that Trump actually did well overall minus the whole Solemani incident.

exactly

I also think conservatives have been pretty bad at communicating as well.

I've never liked Trump, but I do appreciate the good things he has done. He would have been much better off to not say really anything at all after he was elected. Many of his policy decisions have been good.