re: Women should not have the right to vote

It's almost like our value systems are so utterly different that we are doing a disservice to one another by trying to compete for power within the same polity.

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Isn't this part of the point of pluralistic systems of government?

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It is, but it does not seem to have worked very well, at least in our case.

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It is, but it does not seem to have worked very well, at least in our case.

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I understand your viewpoint, but I disagree. It's worked fairly well for what it is. The essential problem is that geopolitics favors centralized systems, which immediately creates a disconnect within liberal systems, especially large, diverse polities like the US. The pattern of centralization will determine the shape of future polities, until a point comes where centralization isn't beneficial with regards to geopolitics.

It's a hard thing to predict, because the benefits of centralization for governments are numerous, and technology has made it both easier for governments to centralize and made the disconnect centralization and individual freedom even more pronounced.

In a vacuum decentralization sounds perfect, but unless everyone decentralizes in the same manner, the competition for resources will encourage further centralization.

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you don't think the American experiment has done well?

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Not in the context of having decentralized power allowing disparate groups different modes of governance, no. We have been on a long march towards unified (but sadly informal) power since 1789.

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Not in the context of having decentralized power allowing disparate groups different modes of governance, no. We have been on a long march towards unified (but sadly informal) power since 1789.

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so you want less local government, and more national government. But not more global government?

you want a local government monarchy? you want the country to split up?

America was meant to be a loose confederation of states

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is it ironic that people aren't capable of voting in their best interests?

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I guess I always took issue with that line from the left and the right.

It pre-supposes there is an objective hierarchal measurement of what's in a person's perceived best interest in the first place?

I think what research is beginning to show, is that how people make voting decisions is more often than not, not like the robotic process orientated citizens reading down a ballot and weighing the individual pros and cons of policy and candidates that the democratic ideal tells itself.

We are tribal, identity focused, use lots of decision-making shortcuts that undercut decision-making processes, and unconscious or barely conscience influences all play a much larger role than common myth suggests.

The resident fascists or anarchists will likely suggest that is evidence to move toward their preferred arrangements, but the historical records still suggest pretty strongly that while this system is flawed, and we are beginning to se more clearly how flawed, it has done the best job compared to alternatives.

You should have to ownnproperty to vote or hold a mortgage on a piece of property.