User:Thane/backup

 Kristófur Guðsþegn Hermansson

... is the "Wikiname" of a user that has an affinity for the people and culture of Iceland. ... lives in Groves, Texas. ... grew up in southeast Texas, generally. ... goes to school at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. ... is almost finished with his Master of Divinity degree from RTS. ... went to school at The University of Texas at Austin. ... received a B.S. in Architectural Studies from UT. ... has worked for several architecture firms in Texas and Mississippi. ... is currently working for himself. ... dreams about having a wife and family. ... considers himself a "Catholic Evangelical" of the Reformed Baptist variety (believe it or not; can explain). ... dreams about greater church unity, while maintaining church purity. ... wants to create ecclesial structures that help bring the organic unity of the Church into a significant organizational unity. ... wishes he could vote for a party that wants to save babies, rather than just have an issue. ... wishes he could vote for a party that wants to save American jobs and make workers lives better, rather than providing corporate welfare to send jobs overseas.


 * Catholic Evangelical (Reformed Baptist)
 * My being a Catholic Evangelical (Reformed Baptist) can be taken two ways:
 * (1) It means that I am an evangelical Christian who is a Baptist and who is also Reformed in his theology, particularly regarding soteriology, and loves to learn about and from the historical Church (go Athanasius!), and prefers to hold as close to historical Christian practices as possible without falling into idolatry or man-made religion.
 * (2) It can mean that I am a catholic Christian, that is, a Christian believer who is part of the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church" of Christ, who thinks that the Apostolic scriptures lead him to worship at a Reformed Baptist church; and who thinks that his church and evangelical churches in general could learn something from the Roman Catholic Church, particularly in regard to organizational unity - minus the hierarchy.

= Topics of Interest =
 * Christianity (Portal)


 * Theology (specifically Christian Theology), the "Queen of the Sciences"
 * God
 * The Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)
 * The Lord Jesus Christ (a.k.a. YaHuVeH; the LORD God almighty; the self-existent source and sustenance of ALL BEING)
 * Holy Scripture, a.k.a. the Christian Bible
 * Old Testament
 * Genesis
 * Deuteronomy
 * Book of Job
 * Psalms
 * Book of Jeremiah
 * Book of Ezekiel
 * Book of Daniel
 * New Testament
 * Gospel of Matthew
 * Gospel of John
 * Epistle to the Romans
 * Epistle to the Galatians
 * Epistle to the Ephesians
 * Epistle to the Hebrews
 * Book of Revelation (a.k.a. Apocalypse of John)
 * Salvation
 * Covenant Theology, a.k.a. Federal Theology
 * New Covenant
 * Church and Church History
 * Catholicism
 * The Nicene Creed ... especially the meaning of the "one holy catholic and apostolic Church" of Christ
 * Athanasius
 * The Baptist movement and theology
 * The Reformed Baptist movement and theology
 * The Reformation
 * Reformed Theology
 * Anti-Nicene "Christianity"
 * Mormonism
 * Expansive List of Christian denominations


 * Architecture
 * Medieval Architecture
 * Gothic Architecture
 * Cathedral Architecture, a form of Religious Architecture
 * Urban Design and Urban Planning
 * New Urbanism
 * Christopher Alexander
 * Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
 * Sustainable Architecture


 * Ideology, Politics and Political Thought
 * Communitarianism
 * Christian Democracy
 * Elections
 * Instant-Runoff Voting
 * Proportional Representation
 * Federalism
 * Government
 * Parliamentary Government
 * Political Parties
 * Separation of powers under the United States Constitution
 * Two-Party Political Systems
 * Issues
 * School Choice ... especially fully-funded, federal, school voucher programs
 * Universal Health Insurance
 * Publications
 * The Atlantic Monthly


 * Education
 * Homeschooling
 * School Choice (as mentioned before)


 * Geography
 * North America
 * United States of America
 * Alaska
 * Louisiana
 * Mississippi
 * Texas
 * Utah, the center of Mormonism


 * Miscellaneous
 * Personality testing
 * I am an INTP according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator system.
 * The University of Texas at Austin

Voting System Reform
As with many others trying to break out of the politically oppressive two-party system box that is characteristic of the current American electoral system, the CDP advocates instant-runoff voting (IRV), to replace the current first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) system.

The current American two-party system is created by the convergence of two traditions, one constitutionally mandated and the other simply arbitrary. In the United States, the separated legislative and executive branches are constitutionally mandated. This system was created by the founding fathers to help deter any formation of a monarch, a laudible goal. Though most of the founding fathers despised the idea of political parties in general (a bit near-sighted given the nature of man), the system they created (when combined with FPTP voting) helped create an entrenched two-party system. In contrast, parliamentary systems (as in Britain) tend to deter the emergence of an entrenched two-party system. The other tradition, the seemingly intuitive but actually totally arbitrary first-past-the-post voting system, when combined with the presidential, or separated powers, system of governance almost guarantees an entrenched two-party system.

Replacing the current FPTP system with Instant-runoff voting would require no constitutional or legal change at the federal level (some states may require change if they have enshrined FPTP voting). In addition, (contrary to some criticism by two-party system advocates) IRV could easily work alongside the electoral college system. There is no conflict at all between them. The reason two-party system advocates do not like IRV is because it would move the United States toward having a Congress that to a greater degree proportionally represents the real desires and voice of the American people, and it would cause the powers-that-be to lose some of their power. IRV would almost certainly open the system to parties like the CDP, because it would dissuade voters from engaging in the now common practice of tactical voting, which is exactly the thing that entrenches the two-party system.

Curiously, in FPTP, the post (i.e. the requirement to win) actually moves, according to how many candidates are in the field. With FPTP, a candidate in a field of six could potentially win with just 17% of the vote. In IRV, the requirement to win is always a majority of the vote. The winner in an IRV election may not be the first choice of a majority of the voters (as is also true with the current FPTP system), but the winner will certainly be the candidate desired more than any of the other candidates (unlike FPTP) and a majority winner over the second place candidate. This is to some degree true with all runoff voting, but unlike runoff voting in general (as in Louisiana voting), instant-runoff voting (IRV) does not require any additional voting events. You only go to the ballot box once.

Some positive side effects of going to an IRV system would be that more people would be likely to vote, because they could vote for a candidate that more closely represented their views without feeling like they were totally wasting their time. Moreover, because IRV is a "ranked choice" voting system, it is very likely that there would be much less negative campaigning, because candidates would not only be seeking to be the first choice of the voters, but they would also be seeking to be the second and third choice of voters who actually prefer other candidates. The candidates would not want to offend those voters who prefer an opposing candidate by calling their favorite candidate a "slime bag" because they need some of their second choice votes. This would probably produce a great deal more substantive debate as well, because when personal issues are out of the way, more important issues can fill the gap.

=Links=
 * Christian Democratic Party (USA)
 * Personal Website

=Sub-pages=
 * Question for Alibabs
 * bak