Monday, August 2, 2021

Wahl-O-Mat Coming

 Four weeks from today, the Wahl-O-Mat will be published in Germany.

What is it?  Well....political thinkers pick out the 38 (it changes in every election) top topics, study the parties involved in the election (not just the top six parties)....which you respond the poll with 'agree', 'disagree', or 'don't care'.  It measures your responses, then tells you which party comes the closest to your opinion on the 38 topics.

In various ways, it's leading you not to a candidate, but to a policy situation.

The plus or minus to this?

An election in Germany means there's a winner, and you have to 'water-down' your platform....to get a partner signed up for the coalition....getting you to 50-plus percent.   So that topic group that you selected with the SPD or Greens....is crapped upon a good bit.

But you start to think the position of parties, whether you approve or disapprove on them.  You could find yourself being fairly conservative, but just not a CDU-type voter.

I've taken the Wahl-O-Mat test at least five or six times (it occurs with state elections as well).  I tend to agree....just for the sake of the topic areas....you need to sit down and think about how you really feel about some 'free' rides on the local bus/train system, or the immigration issue, or how far you might agree on new autobahn construction.  

Does the Wahl-O-Mat change voters?  There is NO data or factual situation.....to say it even moves 1-percent of the voters to change their voting style.  If I were humble and thinking outside of the box....I would imagine around five to ten percent of voters probably use the gimmick, and maybe a quarter of them think differently about their vote after the final tally.

2 September is the release date, for reference.

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