How did Virginians end up without gubernatorial primaries?

Competitive primaries strengthen democracy — they test candidates, build visibility, and give voters a real choice.

localcandidates.org/elections/ge...
#VAPolitics #Democracy

Media companies use the news cycle’s political content to capture our attention for profit.

This attention economy results in amplification of outrage, political polarization, and increasing social isolation, which in turn siphons off energy that could be used for civic engagement and action.

Venture capital is skeptical of political technology. If I'm understanding correctly, it's partially because political tech is "niche" and not particularly profitable.

Morality withstanding, I'm skeptical of this belief. It doesn't line up with the data I'm seeing nor does it pass the smell test:

In 'The Politics Industry,' Katherine Gehl and Michael Porter argue that American politics is a duopoly, dominated by the two parties in power.

If politics is an industry, it is at best a stale one. Seriously, just look at this website:

Mamdami won because he wasn't afraid of using common-sense strategy. He understands the internet and he knows how to use it.

There is tremendous opportunity for technology to engage Americans in democracy -- people are

This “historic turnout” was 7.7%.

That number is reflective of our media environment which fails to engage Americans in democracy.

This is simply not good enough.

These elections impact...

If the free market is American, our elections are laughably un-American. Two choices, often predetermined without legitimate primaries.

While a handful of the most powerful people in America decide what we value, finance, and owe, we should strongly consider building technology that organizes what we (collectively, as Americans) want to value, finance, and owe.

Cause it sure as shit ain't gonna happen here.

To change politics, we need to change technology. BlueSky, X, and the attention economy as a whole divide Americans and fail to facilitate small-d democratic action.

We get caught up in the news cycle and when it comes time to actually change anything (voting) we barely know what's on the ballot.

I am tired and resentful of social media, yet here I am.