this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
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United States | News & Politics
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Have you lived in areas with both extremes?
The recent GOP under Trump is a total mess, so I'll absolutely give you that. But you have to recognize that this is largely a new thing with the GOP, and the GOP doesn't actually really represent the average conservative these days. I'm in a very conservative area, and most of my neighbors (who are conservative) don't like Trump or the modern GOP and wish we could go back to the old GOP that was more moderate (e.g. people like Romney and McCain). But the media has riled up the extreme base and they're pushing the party to be more extreme. This nonsense started under Obama imo, but really gained traction with Trump.
So I'm not saying both sides are the same. The GOP under Trump is decidedly terrible. But most states don't follow national politics, so we can largely look at them separately from what goes on in Washington DC. I can find examples of gerrymandering on both sides of the aisle, so single party control is the issue there, and it allows far more nonsense to get swept under the rug than if control of the legislature was actually competitive.
Have my upvote. This post is getting hammered for the supreme sin of introducing nuance to a thread where everyone just wants to be righteously indignant. Most or us have parents who qualify as conservative, but not as evil. It's like that.
Yeah, and I think it's unfortunate. I feel I've been constructive and thorough, and my goal was simply to provide a different point of view to hopefully convince others to consider other perspectives and have a good discussion about it.
If there's something I did that isn't appropriate, I'd love to know about it.
It's not you. I don't want to say, "both sides", because one side is clearly worse than the other, but these people are becoming what they despise. If you look at the worst kinda quasi-religious hive-mind discourse they used to have on /r/TheDonald, and shift it left, it would look like this.
I'm kinda disappointed.
Exactly.
But my point here is that the GOP being "worse" (depending on policy, of course) doesn't make the Democratic Party "good," it just makes them "better" (again, depending on the policy).
And that's why I'm not registered with either major party, I vote differently based on the election. If I think we need to shift left or I have a really good option for a Dem, I'll vote Democrat. If I think we need a shift right and I have a really good option for a Rep, I'll vote Republican. Recently, I've been voting more Dem than Rep because I want to send a message that the current signaling just isn't acceptable. But I'll go back as soon as the MAGA nonsense goes away and we start getting good GOP candidates again.