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Kinda makes you think.
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kinda makes me angry.
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Me too!
I guess a lot of people have lost faith in the whole country. I know I have but I intend to keep voting.
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Yeah. As an old anarchist, I am and have always been one of the Did Not Voters. None of the options are ever good (they’re all politicians), and I’ve always resisted being compelled to publicly support someone that I explicitly don’t want in power. The last 4 years though - It really does make me think.
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I voted in 2016, figuring that we needed the strongest possible repudiation of Trumpism at the time. I think we need it even more now. If they get 45% of the vote again, they’re going to take that as a mandate for whatever they want.
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You’re old?
I voted for the first time in 2016. I had justified not voting over the years for various reasons, some of which I will attempt to refute now:
- Neither political party offers me a candidate that sufficiently aligns with my political views.
- This is less an artifact of the state of politics in the US as it is a side-effect of the first past the post voting mechanism. While simple to understand, it discourages contests with more than two candidates since the winner is determined by simple majority. In other words, don’t hate the player(s), hate the game. Also, even in a race with many party platforms, there will likely never be that perfect fit, so compromise will likely be needed.
- There are too many politicians/lawyers in politics.
- I think there’s a specific point here, which is lost due to oversimplification. It would be absurd to suggest that hospitals allow plumbers and auto mechanics to operate on patients. There’s nothing to say that someone who is currently a plumber or auto mechanic couldn’t go to medical school and become a doctor, though. Still, that doesn’t guarantee they’d be any good at it. If you are looking for people who are qualified in the process of creating and interpreting laws, you’d be hard pressed to find people with those skills who aren’t politicians or lawyers. I think the problem is largely two-fold. There are far too many people who are under-qualified to represent the people they were elected to represent, and a long enough career in politics will shift one’s priorities towards preserving that career, which can lead to tactics which do not benefit their constituents fairly.
- Both of the major political parties are basically the same.
- Again, this misses the point due to oversimplification There are certain issues where both parties will fall on the same side, even if they differ in magnitude. Corporate welfare and military spending are good examples. Also, from a purely practical standpoint neither side’s policies have much of an immediate and direct impact on myself, a white hetero cisgender male. Not everyone is the same as me, though, and there are some very clear disparities between the parties when it comes to how they treat anyone who doesn’t match that description, and it’s dishonest to claim otherwise. That’s just one of the easy differences, too.
- I don’t want to be put on a list for Jury Duty.
- I don’t think this is even how they choose eligible participants where I live any more. Just for the sake of argument, avoiding voting just so you can avoid the relatively minor inconvenience of the possibility of being called for jury duty is just a pretty weak justification all around
- I live in Kansas, none of my votes will really matter.
- Kansas hasn’t awarded its electoral votes to a democrat since FDR, and they’re probably not going to any time soon. The only voting schme worse that first past the post is combining it with the electoral college. My vote for president doesn’t matter a whole lot in an immediate sense. My vote is counted, though, and aggregated with other votes from my district, and so on. This can actually provide some interesting data. For example, my district (3) actually had a slight majority vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016, which may have helped in electing a democrat to the house for that district in 2018. Additionally, my vote absolutely counts in local and state elections, and those results will absolutely have a more direct impact on myself and those around me.
- It feels like the world is getting worse, and it seems like the deck is stacked against anyone who genuinely wants to make things better.
- Nothing is ever helped by doing nothing. Voting is a pretty low bar to clear in an attempt to do something.
None of the above should be interpreted and being targeted at anyone other than my (slightly) younger self. If you find it helpful, excellent.
I’ve mentioned it before, but the catalyst for me finally taking a more active role politically was someone pointing out voting doesn’t just affect the current race, it can also show that there is an audience of people like you that are looking for a candidate they can vote for, so I now try to push left where I can, even in Kansas.
I think it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. If every eligible voter were automatically registered and sent a mail-in ballot, our participation numbers would look significantly better. There are certainly other ways to make voting more accessible, and we should pursue that goal in general. I’m not sure I’d be happy with the all of the results of a near 100% participatory democracy, but it would at least be a more honest assessment of our priorities.
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On the subject of voting vs protesting an election, I shall repeat something I wrote on the Other Place back in the summer of 2016:
Your protest is going to cause Trump to get elected, and he’s not going to care what you were standing up for.
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Looks at the minority governments in Canadian politics
Looks at current BC government
Uh, no. We are FPTP, too. FPTP in a republican-style governing system plus the electoral college, maybe. But straight up FPTP, no. Parliamentary-style systems regularly end up with multiple parties. There are issues with FPTP, but it does not guarantee a two party system on its own. You need to dig deeper than that.
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Yes, it can coexist with multiple regional parties, but it usually has 1 or 2 strong parties competing for each position, rarely 3 parties. Since the presidency is a single position, and the electoral college isn’t organized for multi-party coalitions, you end up with 2 strong parties overall.
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I want a woman in the White House. But not so much that I’ll decline to run and endorse her, no.
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I saw a “Biden President 2020” sign on the front lawn of a house.
In Warren, Macomb County, Michigan. About a half-mile northeast of my house.
I don’t like Biden. But I dislike him much less than I despise the current POTUS. I only hope Biden has cronies with better ethics and morals. Hasn’t ANYone read “The Prince” by Machiavelli lately?
And I’ve noticed that the one headshot of Biden that a lot of media outlets use makes it appear that his pupils have swallowed up the irises of his eyes. I’m trying to remember a comic-book story arc that had that same thing happen to humans when their bodies were taken over by aliens. You can see the image I’m referring to somewhere in this video, lol:
Here’s a detail from his vice presidential portrait (2013):
His narrow eyes make him hard to photograph-- especially when blurred through youtube’s bandwidth constricting filters. I think he’s gotten more sensitive to bright light.
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People do get more sensitive to light as we get up there in age.
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It’s creepier-looking when he’s not smiling, when he looks semi-inquisitive.
And I’m surprised the current POTUS hasn’t brought up Biden’s nibbling of his own wife’s fingers. I dunno about anyone else but I found that strangely disturbing. I also wouldn’t be surprised if more sexual-harassment complaints are raised against him in the time leading up to Election Day.
The thing people in power need to understand is if they want to prove to the governed that they are sincerely dedicated to civil/public service, they need to pay more than fucking LIP-service to the table. You can do a great job without screwing anyone over who doesn’t deserve it. The “screwing-over” to those who DO deserve it is logical consequences.
Logical consequences…wow…I haven’t used that term since I when through Systematic Training for Effective Parenting back in the early 1990s!
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Debt/Cops 2020!
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So, the lady I buy my cannabis from doesn’t like the current POTUS, but she believes Biden is a child molester. And so do most of her friends on FB, apparently. If he’s elected, the US is going to become “…like Epstein’s Island”, to quote one.
I understand the fear of sexual molestation and trafficking of children, I honestly do. But how does one try to even change the minds of parents who don’t want to even believe other than what they already do?
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