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Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

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Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#121

Post by nielsbot »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #14
hanniabu wrote: post #3

It bothers me when they're quick to make empty efforts like this yet when it comes to doing anything that actually matters an overwhelming majority of them (on both sides) will vote against it.

Election reform seems like a meaningful issue to tackle: what could be more fundamental to our Democracy? Democrats seem poised to make their best effort, but it's extremely difficult to do with 50+1 votes in the Senate. I wouldn't characterize D's as not doing anything on this specific issue.

Pretty infuriating that the Senate can only do what monied interests want or don't care about. Making Juneteenth a holiday is one of those things.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#122

Post by caslon »

skissane wrote: post #112
dtnewman wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Make early voting widely available and mail ballots available to anyone who requests one. Stop thinking of elections as a single day. That’ll be much healthier for democracy.

In Australia we always have elections on Saturday. Works well for most people. Of course, there is a minority of people it doesn't work well for, such as people who have to work on Saturdays, and observant Jews. And for those people we have early voting and postal voting too. I never quite understand why voting is such a controversial topic in the US. In many countries (I'm sure Australia is not alone in this) it is…

It's largely because increased voting overwhelmingly (and almost exclusively) benefits one side in the US. While it's obviously good to have increased participation in democracy, the side that's going to more or less cease to exist if we ever get even 80% citizen participation obviously has an incentive to make voting harder.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#123

Post by nightski »

dtnewman wrote: post #105
eganist wrote: post #16

This is a good symbolic gesture, but making election day a federal holiday equivalent in standing with Christmas would have real and positive impact. But the latter never draws the votes in congress, so that should tell us how meaningless this vote truly was.

No. Make early voting widely available and mail ballots available to anyone who requests one. Stop thinking of elections as a single day. That’ll be much healthier for democracy.

Some states already do this. It's not up to the federal government really.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#124

Post by andrepd »

skissane wrote: post #112
dtnewman wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Make early voting widely available and mail ballots available to anyone who requests one. Stop thinking of elections as a single day. That’ll be much healthier for democracy.

In Australia we always have elections on Saturday. Works well for most people. Of course, there is a minority of people it doesn't work well for, such as people who have to work on Saturdays, and observant Jews. And for those people we have early voting and postal voting too. I never quite understand why voting is such a controversial topic in the US. In many countries (I'm sure Australia is not alone in this) it is…

There's a long history of targeted disenfranchisement in the US. Particularly when it comes to black people.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#125

Post by acomjean »

skissane wrote: post #112
dtnewman wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Make early voting widely available and mail ballots available to anyone who requests one. Stop thinking of elections as a single day. That’ll be much healthier for democracy.

In Australia we always have elections on Saturday. Works well for most people. Of course, there is a minority of people it doesn't work well for, such as people who have to work on Saturdays, and observant Jews. And for those people we have early voting and postal voting too. I never quite understand why voting is such a controversial topic in the US. In many countries (I'm sure Australia is not alone in this) it is…

It’s controversial because the party in power sets the voting rules and they tend to try and do so to their advantage. Be it gerrymandering [1]districts or setting voting rules they think will favor their party. These rules are state level functions so we have 50 different sets.

It creates a system where on political party is pretty much guaranteed to win certain districts and they’re aren’t a ton of competitive races. Part of the problem is an electorate that would “vote for a bag of rocks” if it belonged to the right party.

[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#126

Post by ojbyrne »

verst wrote: post #55
tinyhouse wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guarantee you all private companies will make it a day off.

Replying to my sibling comment from @paxys: True, though Juneteenth may be different here. It could be considered the most basic signal of whether a company cares about Diversity & Inclusion. Of course this itself would be meaningless, but perhaps eventually the lack of this holiday may say something about that employer. P.S.: The big tech company I work for has more federal holidays off, but Columbus Day and Veteran…

I'm actually kind of shocked, but there are plenty of companies that don't give MLK day off. So those companies are probably not going to do Juneteenth.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#128

Post by throwkeep »

eganist wrote: post #16

This is a good symbolic gesture, but making election day a federal holiday equivalent in standing with Christmas would have real and positive impact. But the latter never draws the votes in congress, so that should tell us how meaningless this vote truly was.

Make it a holiday and move the election to the day after tax day:

"Elections should be held on April 16th- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders." - Thomas Sowell

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#129

Post by rubyist5eva »

lupire wrote: post #83

Weak article I already know what Juneteenth is. What is a "public holiday", legally? Is is the same as "federal holiday"? What is a "federal holiday"? Is Flag Day a federal holiday? Public holiday?

> What is a "public holiday", legally?

Days off for federal bureaucrats, and that's about it.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#130

Post by ojbyrne »

throwkeep wrote: post #128
eganist wrote: post #16

This is a good symbolic gesture, but making election day a federal holiday equivalent in standing with Christmas would have real and positive impact. But the latter never draws the votes in congress, so that should tell us how meaningless this vote truly was.

Make it a holiday and move the election to the day after tax day: "Elections should be held on April 16th- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders." - Thomas Sowell

Or it would encourage politicians to make sure more of your paycheck is withheld, to make 100% sure you end up with a big refund.
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