Typographical errors aside, are you proposing any actual solutions or just trying to discourage people from voting?
this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2024
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Oh no, far from that. Vote Biden all the way (I’m not voting cause I am not an American and not in the US).
But I think that higher levels of political participation would have prevented this in the first place, as it would probably mean that waaaaay better candidates would come out of both parties (and eventually new ones)
I used to think people who voted party above politics were the worst kinds of people. Then Trump won a term and I realized that while party politics were extremely stupid, we have a responsibility to do damage control. Failing to do damage control will result in someone with the IQ of a candy bracelet becoming leader of the free world and doing exactly what you think he'd do with that power.
Failing to do damage control will result in someone with the IQ of a candy bracelet becoming leader of the free world and doing exactly what you think he'd do with that power.
I love this metaphor - after taking a moment to consider whether it's unfair to candy bracelets...
If you are looking for a more perfect reason to abandon a two party system it's going to have to come up to you and put you in a headlock.
"Abandon the two party systen" isn't a solution.
Supporting a 3rd party would be a solution. A terrible solution that has historically proven to only hurt the cause you are trying to support. But bad solutions are at least still solutions.
Changing the election system is another solution. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is one of the many issues I consider when weighing who I vote for. But the reality is that law has not passed and may never pass, so we are stuck with the electoral college and first-past-the-post voting system in the US for the 2024 election.
Then there's coups. If you're advocating for political violence I suggest you visit a nation experiencing it. There's a reason so much of the country was terrified watching the news on January 6th 2021.
Then there's leaving the country, which is basically just an option for the wealthy or otherwise lucky exceptions. Not really fixing the system as much as abandoning it.
If no one supports third parties third parties will never have support. Ultimately campaign finance reforms that allow third parties to have a platform is what I'm looking for. The solution is a long game that not enough voters are interested in playing, but it starts with picking people within the two party system that are willing to make some basic reforms (financing and RCV) that can make room for more diverse candidates.
Your nihilism brings nothing but more of the same clown shows that we have currently.
Tbf voting is a scam thanks to the electoral college
Less the electoral college and more because of faithless electors.
How many faithless electoral have ever happened in history?
Out of the tens of thousands of electors in history, there's been just over a hundred faithless electors.
And, to quote from your link:
They have never swung an election
They have never swung an election
And the source for that comment is a Newsweek article by Alexandra Hutzler that has no cited sources. I guess this is why we don't use Wikipedia in school.
Fair enough, I was just rolling with what you brought.
I think I would agree with you on a lot: faithless electors should be legislated out of existence and the electoral college sucks. Where I disagree is that I don't think this is significant enough to discourage voting. Faithless Electors are more of a trivia question than anything meaningful to American politics.
Oh I'm not discouraging voting I'm just saying that the electoral college is a problem, faithless electors are and can be a big part of that problem, and they need to be addressed. Even if they haven't swung an election all on their own yet, they have the ability to. I personally also don't like the idea of votes being weighed differently because of the state you live in and it's frustrating to see things like the popular vote not line up with the winner of the election.
Come on man the text is a mess
Just like US politics!
Turns out America isn't actually that progressive, unfortunately. We have Biden and other such candidates because they are popular because they are moderate.
But I agree with other comments: what's the point of bitching about Biden at this point? The bed is made, lie in it or not it's not going to get any cozier. The time to complain was when the 2016 primaries happened. And people did and it turns out America doesn't agree with this idea. It sucks but that's the hand we're dealt. Complaining about the moderate without recognizing the incredible harm the actual fascist candidate will cause is deliberately campaigning for the fascist.
Oh and if someone pushes for revolution: You first.
I will not be silent just because the least awful option has already been chosen for me.
Frankly, the system isn't working for the working class. Trusting it to start working at some point in the future is increasingly foolish. We need systemic change and it's about time we start taking it, instead of asking politely. Organize your workplace. Make demands for healthcare and childcare.
The writing is on the wall, they won't stop until we don't have a penny to ourselves. If we're going to end up in poverty then let's fucking take them down with us.
Biden has actually been pretty great considering the limited power he has. I'm absolutely concerned about his age, but I don't think we can get a better president than his first term without shaking up Congress.
I will not be silent just because the least awful option has already been chosen for me.
As long as you understand what consequences your words have.
We need systemic change and it’s about time we start taking it, instead of asking politely
Lol. Are you taking it? Or are you just trying to get others to do the work for you?
Want to see change? Campaign for progressive candidates at the local and state level. Primary moderates in the Demoratic party. Or, you know, complain on Lemmy while making more non-fascist voters apathetic.
More specifically, the people who are progressive don't vote as much as moderates and conservatives.
Is there any evidence of that?
Electoral results for the last 50 years?
You could have just said "no".
Oh fwiw, I agree with your parent comment completely. It's just fairly self-evident that the majority of progressive voters are young, which is a demographic with turnout issues, historically. I think progressives both think that people who think like them are more numerous than they are (which is likely a bias of all citizens, if I had to guess) and that they have fairly unique issues with turnout given their age group. Either way, they have to adjust if they want to actually win or achieve anything on their own. Until then, they're gonna have to rely on those pesky pragmatic party politicians they hate so much.
They aren't the best we're able to come up with; regardless of your political camp there's probably tens of thousands, if not millions, of better candidates in our population of 300,000,000. Biden and DJT aren't even the "best candidates" inside their own parties!
All Biden and DJT represent is what the DNC and GOP want to have in the race and that's all.
It's about winning, that's mostly it. The US elections are more of a popularity contest for way too much of the electorate.
the GOP and RNC are the same
The bottom panel correctly have what they meant.
It isn't the best America can come up with. It's the best they are willing to give us
It's the best they can come up with to somewhat appease people, while still having all their interests catered to.
That's a better way of putting it lol. I thought about rephrasing after but couldn't be bothered