University of Florida bars professors from testifying in a voting rights case • Hacker News Board

Re: University of Florida bars professors from testifying in a voting rights case

#221

Post by dahfizz » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 4:53 PM UTC

baldeagle wrote: post #131

kodah wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not surprised. Our schools have become increasingly political institutions in left and right form. The question I have is, as an independent, how do you stave it off completely?

Make districts competitive. As long as the measure (votes in an election district) can be shaped such that winning the primary (initial election to determine the rep. for each party) basically promises a win in the general (an election where one rep from each party competes), polarization will go up and moderation will go down. Once districts are competitive, reps will face more pressure to the will of the people, as…

How would this work in deeply red or blue states? If you redraw the districts in California to put all the red voters together, that district will be competitive, but you have gerrymandered all the other districts to be blue forever.

I think districts should represent sections of the geographic population. Its fine for a district to be uncompetetive if the general population in that region have a strong lean one way or the other.

Re: University of Florida bars professors from testifying in a voting rights case

#222

Post by RickJWagner » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 4:53 PM UTC

president wrote: post #211

ianai wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. With all the anti-democratic practices being rolled out across the states it’s pretty scary to imagine things even a year from now and a long time forward. Life threats against election officials and all the way up to Senators. Gerrymandering. Even the SCOTUS is biased. Seems civics in the US are about to be rigged for one party rule.

Serious question, does anyone have any insight into how we got into this mess? It seems like the past few years has seen a whirlwind of anti-democratic rule at almost every level of government - state, local, and federal.

IMHO, it's been an escalation of tit-for-tat from both sides of the aisle.

News sources, 'Community organizers', corporate activists, religious leaders etc. have all been increasingly brazen as they take increasingly polarized positions to counter actions from the other side.

What's missing is common decency and sympathy for the other person's point of view. We won't find it by clinging to our own political party or news sources. We're going to have to interact with real, actual people who are different than we are and learn to strike a balance between their needs and our own.

Re: University of Florida bars professors from testifying in a voting rights case

#223

Post by useragent86 » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 4:54 PM UTC

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #174

mistrial9 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

both parties do this -- specifically, the one and only green party assembly member in California 1990s was doxxed and infiltrated, while getting congratulatory letters from GOP reps.

The criticism is "this is a bad thing the current Republican Party is doing right now in a widespread fashion"; "there are past examples of the Democrats doing this" is not a defense. If it's a bad thing that we should try to stop any party from doing, then right now that means trying to stop the Republicans from doing it. The bad thing we are talking about right now is the Republican Party trying to engineer a de fa…

So the Democratic Party controls both houses of Congress and the White House, and they're trying to pass bills to give the Attorney General control over all federal elections in the country, but you say that it's "the Republican Party trying to engineer a de facto one-party state."

Re: University of Florida bars professors from testifying in a voting rights case

#224

Post by isoskeles » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 4:55 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #146

isoskeles wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty clear not an illegal poll tax since this man is an edge case who uses a name with no proof. It’s sad that this is ultimately his mother’s fault, and he can’t ask her for the $250 to fix this.

It's his mother's fault for not anticipating a policy half a century into the future? Are you prepared to similarly be declared an edge case and not permitted your Constitutional rights?

It's his mother's fault for losing the documentation of his name change.

Am I prepared? Yes. I have all my important identity documents locked in a fire safe. If something should happen to them, I'm willing to pay the $250, etc. amount to fix the problem.

Re: University of Florida bars professors from testifying in a voting rights case

#225

Post by RickJWagner » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 4:55 PM UTC

alistairSH wrote: post #58

jtbayly wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which party? Presumably the one that has control of the House, Senate, and Oval Office?

GOP has the majority of state governors. GOP has the majority of state legislatures. Both of the above are currently drawing Congressional districts based on the latest census data. Both of the above are currently rolling out voting rules that are nominally about preventing fraud (of which there is zero evidence of anything widespread) but will impact the ability of people to vote.

Conservative voter here.

I'll gladly trade you the state-level advantages held by the GOP for the national media machine controlled by the Dems. I think the media is the most powerful over the long haul.

Re: University of Florida bars professors from testifying in a voting rights case

#226

Post by supperburg » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 4:55 PM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #210

supperburg wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pick a random 18 year old and see if they can point to the country of Argentina on a map. The populace can read but not much else.

Speaking as a person confident that I could point out Argentina on a map, why is geographic trivia a very important topic? I'd rather have a population with a good understanding of means and medians, thermodynamics, and the relationship between rates and accumulations, than one that can readily tell me the year that William the Conqueror invaded England.

I agree but the point is that knowledge of the countries of the world is the most basic sign of education besides reading. The average 18 year old knows even less about science than geography. But geography is important because not knowing it is extremely embarrassing.

Re: University of Florida bars professors from testifying in a voting rights case

#227

Post by munificent » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 4:58 PM UTC

supperburg wrote: post #203

ceejayoz wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why do they get public money at all? Because we still believe there to be a societal benefit to an educated populace.

Pick a random 18 year old and see if they can point to the country of Argentina on a map. The populace can read but not much else.

...and before widespread public education, many of them couldn't even read.

Re: University of Florida bars professors from testifying in a voting rights case

#228

Post by spaetzleesser » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 4:58 PM UTC

ianai wrote: post #36

elliekelly wrote: post #10

I have a colleague who does environmental litigation. (Think Erin Brockovich.) They have a big civil case against a large energy company in a southern, “energy-friendly” state. They had an expert witness all lined up - a professor at the (public!) state university. Well this expert happened to be up for tenure and was (allegedly) told in no uncertain terms that, should they testify as an expert witness in this case,…

Agree. With all the anti-democratic practices being rolled out across the states it’s pretty scary to imagine things even a year from now and a long time forward. Life threats against election officials and all the way up to Senators. Gerrymandering. Even the SCOTUS is biased. Seems civics in the US are about to be rigged for one party rule.

We already have one party rule by the super wealthy. The fights between Democrats and Republicans are just show business to distract from the real problems of the country.

Re: University of Florida bars professors from testifying in a voting rights case

#229

Post by dahfizz » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 4:58 PM UTC

chmod600 wrote: post #42

If schools have become as much political institutions as educational institutions -- and there's little doubt about that -- why do they get public money at all? The real conflict of interest here is politicians spending your money for their political goals.

> If schools have become as much political institutions as educational institutions -- and there's little doubt about that -- why do they get public money at all?

I think you've answered your own question. Why wouldn't the politicians in charge want to fund (and control) such a powerful political institution as education?

Re: University of Florida bars professors from testifying in a voting rights case

#230

Post by spaetzleesser » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 4:59 PM UTC

president wrote: post #211

ianai wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. With all the anti-democratic practices being rolled out across the states it’s pretty scary to imagine things even a year from now and a long time forward. Life threats against election officials and all the way up to Senators. Gerrymandering. Even the SCOTUS is biased. Seems civics in the US are about to be rigged for one party rule.

Serious question, does anyone have any insight into how we got into this mess? It seems like the past few years has seen a whirlwind of anti-democratic rule at almost every level of government - state, local, and federal.

I think this is the normal evolution of political systems. Historically it needs something like war, revolution or a big crisis to break things up and start again.