this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2024
303 points (97.2% liked)

politics

19104 readers
3766 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Fades 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

why it’s on our REPRESENTATIVES to convince the masses to show up

Yes they have a lot of responsibility here but so does every single eligible-to-vote goddamn citizen. It is your DUTY to participate and vote because if you do not it REDUCES YOUR OWN REPRESENTATION which is quite literally the opposite of why this nation was born in the first place.

You present voting as if it is a quid-pro-quo transaction, and to an extent you're not that far off; party A thinks they can lead better than B and advertises the things they want to do to bring in support. Party A pushes x/y/z policies that voters care about and thus Party A earns votes over B. They are not owed any votes.

That's all very well and good in a vacuum but we don't live in a sterile little box and instead we live in a messy blurry complex setting full of voters and non-voters (further offsetting the true voice of the people). Your little story of how voting must be earned by being both enticing/motivating and be easy enough to not be cumbersome in any way does not translate well to reality. We have blatant corruption and we almost lost our democracy in 2020 as Trump planned to simply stay in power, I could go on, but won't because you are clearly aware of these things.

It is no longer just about party A's policies vs party B's. It's quite literally a fight for the future of US democracy, it's a fight for SCOTUS control for generations, it's so much more than just the Pres.

But they don’t even do that. Let’s pretend the abortion issue is Denny’s free breakfast day. Democrats would be saying “IF you don’t come wait in line outside the Denny’s for 2 hours in high enough numbers, we’re going to cancel the ‘bring a coupon for free breakfast that day’ event we do every year.”

ONE PARTY is focused on gerrymandering and disenfranchising voters, making voting as hard as possible, and another has been focused on the opposite. You are balancing your little story on the premise that the Rs and Ds set up a bad system that is a pain in the ass for the average voter to get what they want, when that isn't what is happening at all. No D is saying well you weren't willing to wait in line to vote or drop off your ballot or whatever so fuck you we're quitting the rest of the race or the next race or whatever, or even saying well fuck you we won't run on these policies again.

IT IS THE OTHER PARTY WHO ATTACKS VOTING from all angles, making it harder, mixing up districts to silence opposition strongholds, etc.

And with that, we see exactly why your condescending little rant has no real application to reality; it's wholly unrepresentative to the complex situation we find ourselves in. Is Dennys run by two competing factions? Is one of those two factions trying to silence worker and customer majorities to uphold their minority views and hunger for power, causing as much chaos as possible to stop progress when they don't hold the reins? By the way, in that bullshit fake scenario, the Rs would be the ones trying to take away the free breakfast because too many customers come and eat for free.

YES THE POLITICIAN$ HOLD A LOT OF THE BLAME (most of it, even), but THAT DOES NOT MEAN that the people hold no responsibility of the outcome. If you don't vote when you are able, you are unamerican and are hurting yourself along with everyone else. You should not be withholding your vote waiting for someone to come take it on a silver platter. If you live in this country and you can legally vote, YOU HAVE A DUTY TO YOURSELF AND THE REST OF US TO VOTE.

Your comment is so fucking self-centered and shortsighted it's honestly disgusting.