Elsewhere someone suggested it should be mandatory and not an option and I made a similar argument as you. I agree that it shouldn’t be automatic, but people should have the option to recall them for excessive absences in my opinion. I’m not suggesting it be required or anything.
They are basically equivalent, I just figured having an out if desired is better than forcing an out. So collecting signatures for a removal vs making a whole new campaign.
I think the constituency should be able to decide. If there’s a natural disaster or something and the person is either helping locally or somehow affected and the opposition attempts to rush through votes to get a special election where several displaced people may be unable to vote I don’t want them to have that power. At the end of the day the people being represented should be able to decide what to do.
Maybe automatic makes more sense, I just don’t love policies where the people affected have no say. I feel like they are easy to abuse. I know they could technically reelect the same person, but as is people struggle to get to the polls. I can’t imagine rushing a special election during some kind of disaster. It’s a lot of money and stress if people don’t actually want the change.
the Kentucky lawmaker hasn’t voted in nearly a month
Missing X votes per term should be grounds for impeachment or recall or something. Being unable to fulfill your obligations to your constituents and still occupying the position is disgusting. I don’t really agree with his constituents, but we all deserve our constitutionally guaranteed representation. People deserve sick leave, but there needs to be a mechanism to stop this kind of exploitation of basically an unreplaceable position.
It sucks that the world we live in is the way it is because in theory this would be an ideal model for so many people. Older adults I know really just need a Facebook terminal but are required to buy a whole computer. If anything at all goes wrong with it they freak out and buy a brand new one. So much tech waste and so much hardware not being used for the majority of the time. If they had lightweight terminals there’d be less issues on their end but even if they replaced it at the first issue, it wouldn’t be an entire computer getting trashed. Since all they use is the occasional facebook the mandatory internet thing wouldn’t even be an issue. Plenty of younger people might also be good candidates for this since they basically exclusively use online features too.
Obviously I would never trust this kind of service for a variety of reasons, but in theory the world could really benefit from that model.
Considering the right uses social issues as wedge issues and uses that wedge to have people vote against their own interests, I’m not sure what you’re suggesting as a solution.
Xenophobia and Islamophobia are used to justify wars that disproportionately negatively affect working class people. They also are used to justify anti immigrant sentiment that decreases our tax base and increases our food costs.
Anti lgbt rhetoric is used to stoke hatred against people who support women’s liberation which helps working class men and women more than upper class men and women. Caring about safety doesn’t make you “gay” or a “pussy”, it makes you someone in solidarity with your fellow workers.
“No war but class war” only works if both sides understand that and they don’t. The studies show that. They would rather vote against their class interests than vote for someone who doesn’t hate the right people.
We need to continue to stamp out hate so it cannot be used to divide us. If people could move beyond racism and their phobias they could see the way they are being manipulated.