![]() ![]() (So called "long COVID" cases are not mentioned nor are the other devastating health conditions exacerbated by infections.) The problem is, of course, that the political malpractice of Republicans will rely on the same old toxic brew of denial, deflection, fear and bombast instead of reasoned debate. We have done better than our neighboring states in testing, vaccinations, cases and death rates despite the obvious flaws in these statistics. How wonderful would it be if Minnesotans would actually pay attention to the COVID management metrics the Star Tribune Editorial Board so cautiously endorses? ( "Scoring Minnesota's COVID management," May 22). At a time when political extremism is tearing apart our country, this simple change will provide more influence to the majority and will acknowledge the founders' concern over the divisiveness of political parties. The adoption of RCV in several Minnesota cities, as well as other states, shows that it is a simple system for voters and reduces the incentives for negative campaigning. RCV allows voters to vote for the candidate they most support without worrying about having to vote for the lesser of two evils. So winners are supported by at least half of the electorate and extremists have a more difficult time prevailing. In the event that no candidate achieves 50% of the vote, the lowest candidate drops out and the candidates are reranked until a candidate reaches at least 50%. Under RCV, voters rank three or four candidates. The remedy to this crippling problem is surprisingly simple - ranked-choice voting, sometimes called instant runoff voting. The party extremes prevail in primaries under a plurality winner system. In his commentary ( "The 'primary' cause of our political fevers," Opinion Exchange, May 22), he reviews the history of elections and points to the increasing influence of primaries in our political system as being the primary reason fueling partisan polarization. Lawrence Jacobs is a keen observer of American democracy. Do not vote for a candidate who doesn't support a legislative program for gun safety. Thoughts and prayers have never stopped a shooting. As has been repeated over and over, we need comprehensive federal gun safety legislation that includes a background check on every gun sale, a crackdown on unscrupulous dealers who don't perform a background check in all cases, extreme risk protection orders to temporarily remove guns from dangerous persons, waiting periods for gun purchases, limits on magazine size, serious criminal penalties for straw purchases and a new assault weapons ban. But at its core, the ever-worsening gun violence crisis in this country is the result of a gun in the hands of an individual who should never have had access to one. Better school security, more access to mental health care and adequate law enforcement all have their place. God have mercy on the soul of the politician who utters the phrase "thoughts and prayers" and nothing else at this point. The most shameful aspect about the shooting at Robb Elementary School is that there is not one person in this country who didn't expect this to happen again. After all, freedom doesn't come free - why should our Second Amendment be an exception? In the same way that Gold Star families qualify for federal benefits to honor their children's sacrifices, so too should the families of children who are unjustly and senselessly ripped from their lives to preserve our right to keep and bear firearms. If this is a phenomenon we must get used to moving forward (and if the lack of meaningful change over the last decade is any indication, it is), then the least that we can do as a nation is allocate federal funds to assist surviving family members. We all know that freedom isn't free, and it appears that a sufficient number of our politicians have decided that school shootings at regular intervals are a reasonable price to pay for the protection of our Second Amendment rights. There have also been more than 948 active and nonactive school shooting situations since then, according to data from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security Naval Postgraduate School.
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