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Fandango’s Provocative Question #229

Fandango47 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. This is going to be my last weekly Provocative Question post. My first one was on November 14, 2018 and I have really enjoyed coming up with interesting, challenging questions to pose each week. Most of all, I have looked forward to your thoughtful, articulate, and often equally as provocative responses. But after four years and nine months of weekly provocative questions, I think it’s time for me to step aside. Perhaps someone else will pick it up. I hope so.

My last provocative question is about something as American as the Electoral College system, and that is it’s two party system.

We are at an interesting time, politically speaking, in America. As we are only about 14 months from the 2024 U.S. presidential election and polls find that most Americans do not want either Biden or Trump to run again. But at this juncture, it’s hard to imagine that they won’t be the respective Democratic and Republican nominees for that election. So what about candidates from other parties?

There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that requires or spells out that the United States must be a political system dominated by two parties. But, since the mid 1800s, every U.S. president has been either a Republican or a Democrat. Because the Electoral College is a winner-take-all system, it strongly reinforces the binary nature of U.S. politics. As I explained here, in every state but Maine and Nebraska, all electoral votes to are awarded to a single candidate. That greatly reduces the chance a third-party candidate could amass the 270 electoral votes that are needed to win the presidency.

There are now, and always have been, third parties in the U.S., but they have historically played a relatively minor role. Democrats and Republicans, the two dominant parties have received at least 94% of votes in all but four presidential elections over the past 100 years. Periodically, outsiders running on other party lines have intentionally or unintentionally served as spoilers, peeling off enough votes to change the winner of the election.

I once voted for a third-party candidate. In 1980, I voted for third-party candidate, John Anderson, when I just couldn’t bring myself to vote for Republican candidate Ronald Reagan or Democratic candidate, Jimmy Carter. Anderson got only 6.6% of the popular vote and no electoral votes and Ronald Reagan easily won the presidency.

There are at least two “third-party” groups that will be fielding candidates for president in 2024, the Green Party and a new entry, the “No Labels” Party, which was formed in 2010 by a group of centrist Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Its members have secured ballot access in 10 states, intend to raise $70 million, and say they will announce by March whether they will launch a bipartisan “unity ticket.”

But analysts are skeptical of No Labels’ claim of having a path to victory. Instead, its candidate could ensure that no candidate gets 270 Electoral College votes, sending the choice of president to the House of Representatives, which has a Republican majority.

Third-party candidacies do not have much of a record of winning elections, but they can take enough votes from a handful of voters within a handful of states to have a dramatic impact.

Former GOP strategist and Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson argues that No Labels’ “centrist do-gooder” positioning is deeply misleading. “What could possibly go wrong?” he asks. “The thing that could go wrong is the election of Donald Trump.”

So this week’s provocative question is this:

If you are American, have you ever voted for a presidential candidate who was neither the Democratic or Republican candidate? Would you like to see more third-party candidates and a movement away from predominantly a two-party system?

If you are not American, what are your thoughts about America’s two party system.

If you choose to participate in Fandango’s Provocative Question, you may respond with a comment or write your own post in response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes

Fandango46 Comments

September is less than a week away, and starting in September, I’m going to be making some changes to my blog. Nothing major, but I will be cutting back on the number of prompts I host. This is subject to change, but at this point, here’s the lowdown:

Prompts I will continue to host:

  • Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (FOWC With Fandango): posted just after midnight PT every night of the week.
  • Fandango’s Flashback Friday: posted at 3:00 am PT every Friday morning.

On the cusp:

  • Fandango’s Story Stater: posted at 3:00 am PT every Tuesday morning — I may continue this for a while longer.

Prompts I will definitely be dropping:

  • Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge: posted at 3:00 am PT every Monday morning — There already are plenty of other photo prompts out their in Bloglandia.
  • Fandango’s Provocative Question: posted at 3:00 am PT every Wednesday morning — I’ve been doing this for more than 4 1/2 years and I’ve run out of steam.
  • Fandango’s Spam Comment of the Week: posted every Sunday morning — Between Pomeranian puppies, the Keto diet, RV repairs, unnamed but fantastic movies, spammers hawking Amazingness (whatever that is), and 40 year old mothers who want to talk and/or show me their naked bodies, it’s pretty much the same thing every week. If something really different, unique, or funny shows up in my spam folder, I’ll post it on an ad hoc basis.

Why am I doing this? Almost nine months after fracturing my hip, undergoing emergency partial hip replacement surgery, and fracturing the humerus in my right arm at the shoulder, I’m still going to outpatient physical therapy three times a week, plus spending two hours on other days doing my at home exercises. It’s eating up both time and energy and it’s a little depressing to still be somewhat disabled after all these months.

Also, I would like to get back to writing more flash fiction and to posting political rants when the mood strikes me. If I drop some of these scheduled prompts I may have more time for that.

If any of you want to pick up the gauntlet for the weekly Flash Fiction Challenge or the Provocative Question prompt stating in September, please feel free to do so.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #228

Fandango35 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

California regulators have given approval to two rival robotaxi companies, Cruise (a subsidiary of General Motors) and Waymo (owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet), to operate their driverless cars 24/7 across all of San Francisco and to charge passengers for their services.

The autonomous ride-hailing service offered by Cruise and Waymo allows users to request a ride similar to Uber or Lyft. There is a difference, of course, in that these cars have no drivers.

There have already been two incidents in the city where driverless robotaxis were involved in accidents. In one, the robotaxi had a green light, entered an intersection, and was hit by the emergency vehicle responding to a call. In the other, the robotaxi collided with another vehicle. There were no injuries.

The autonomous car manufacturers are touting their driverless car safety record, pointing out that driverless cars don’t speed, are not using alcohol or drugs, and don’t text while driving. They are saying that humans are notoriously bad and reckless drivers and are claiming that their driverless cars are safer than cars driven by humans.

And that brings me to this week’s provocative question.

How would you feel about having autonomous (driverless) vehicles on the streets where you live? If they were available, would you feel comfortable taking one rather than an Uber, Lyft, or traditional taxicab with human drivers?

If you choose to participate in Fandango’s Provocative Question, you may respond with a comment or write your own post in response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #227

Fandango54 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

As you probably know by now, a grand jury in the state of Georgia indicted former President Donald Trump late Monday, charging him with felony racketeering and numerous conspiracy counts as part of a sweeping investigation into the effort by him and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. This was the fourth sets of indictments involving Donald Trump at state and federal levels and all of these will be headed to jury trials within the next twelve months.

My understanding is that none of the criminal prosecutions of Trump, even if he is convicted, can constitutionally stop him from running in — and winning — next year’s presidential election.

I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that an indicted and convicted person can run for and serve as President of the United States, but apparently America’s founding fathers could not imagine that Americans would even think about such a situation, so they didn’t address it in the U.S. Constitution.

But the results of a new poll from Reuters/Ipsos seem even more ludicrous. According to that poll, three quarters of America’s Republican voters say that they believe the indictments of Trump on criminal charges are politically motivated. 45% of Republicans say they would not vote for Donald Trump if the former president were convicted of a felony crime by a jury, but 35% said they would still support him. 52% of Republicans said they would not vote for Trump if he were in prison on Election Day but 28% said they would.

And that brings me to this week’s provocative question.

Do you think someone who has been indicted or convicted of felonious crimes should be permitted to run for public office? Would you consider voting for a candidate in your country who had been indicted for having committed felonious crimes? Would that individual having been convicted and/or imprisoned have any effect on your vote?

If you choose to participate in Fandango’s Provocative Question, you may respond with a comment or write your own post in response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #226

Fandango20 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

Okay, I admit it. My wife and I use DoorDash (or a similar meal delivery service) maybe three to four times a week. Occasionally for lunches, but mostly for dinners. It could be because my wife is tired and/or just doesn’t feel like cooking one night. Or maybe we are missing some key ingredient that we need for a particular meal, so we use the online apps to order meals to be delivered.

Apparently my wife and I aren’t alone in this. A recent article noted that DoorDash saw record orders in the second quarter of this year, with $2.1 billion in sales, up 33% over the second quarter in 2022 year.

And that brings me to this week’s provocative question.

Do you ever use a meal delivery service such as DoorDash (or whatever local equivalents are available in your part of the world)? If so, how often would you say you have meals delivered to your doorstep?

If you choose to participate in Fandango’s Provocative Question, you may respond with a comment or write your own post in response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.