Fife wrote:BjornP wrote:There really is something profoundly stupid about pretending that Russia only became a geopolitical rival to the US after Trump, and that it would be unthinkable for them to try and disrupt, distract and try and sow disinformation among American (and European) citizens. It's like some people's memories only started working after the US election.
Then again, there is also something profoundly stupid about only caring about Russian propaganda, disinformation and shady Kremlin deals,
after your
own candidate fails to win. No wonder so many Americans don't even bother voting.

Is voting so valuable over there?
What's the return on investment looking like in your hood?
85.8% voter participation at last national elections, a drop from the previous which was at 87.7%. Voter participation of municipal and regional elections were at 76% last time. And given that we don't have electors, but instead use proportional representation, less votes are "wasted".
As for return of "investment", though. Well... the last two national governments elected has/have had a thing about constantly creating new regulations for the local governments and the services they provide (anything from unemployed to people needing new passports or social security cards). Problem is they been introducing completely new sets of rules something like 6 times over the last 4 years, all ironically in the name of "efficiency", which they seem to equal with more centralization. I voted for a guy who I found voted on passing those "efficiency" packages, so that was a bit of a downer. Problem isn't the desire to be efficient, of course, problem is these days they seem to ignore local input in favor of some hired theoretical expert, with which they create their new rules. Used to be about dialogue and consensus-building.
Locally, though, my city (Aalborg) has been in near constant growth for about five years or so. No surplus on this year's municipal budget, though no shortfall, either. City's full of construction projects, yet the big political case that local politicians here can't seem to fix, is traffic congestion. Too few roads, too many people travelling to and from work at morning and afternoon, and very little parking space.
Fame is not flattery. Respect is not agreement.