I think both Dems and Republicans suck in very different and not proportionate ways, but I am also a very big proponent of voting. Go vote! It's your duty.
I find that the thing people need to remember is that the general election is purely damage control time. For actual change, and getting candidates that don't suck, the work needs to already be done by the time the election rolls around.
Politics is marketing. Governing is the slow boring of hard boards. You only get there with dilligence, conviction, and commitment to the idea that you are planting the trees that will shade your grandchildren.
This, except that the foundations that lead to change are laid on election night. Yes the cement was mixed and the scaffolding raised, but today sets the tools we have to work with to enact that change for the next 4 (or rarely 2) years.
I find OP's post functionally defeatest. It hinges on this theory that there really is only one choice every election season. You must vote Democrat - whether it's Sherrod Brown or Eric Adams - and you can never question how these officials behave during an election season.
The Dems don't have any real duty towards their voters, or even an obligation to do a particularly good job of governing. They can just point at Republicans, say "Worse! Vote for us or that's who you get", then blast people with anxiety-inducing advertisement until folks panic.
The end result of this system is one in which Dems win by maximizing anxiety, rather than improving quality of life for anyone.
Which is why they lose. People literally tune them out. Unless they're morons like myself who keep trying to help the Democrats.see their nonsense.
If third parties wanted to actually do some good in the country, you'd see them running locally and encouraging either ranked-choice voting or STAR voting (Score, then automatic runoff).
The fact that you only ever hear of third parties every four years really illustrates what their true objectives are.
The fact that you only ever hear about ranked choice voting when you tell Democrat you're thinking of voting third part illustrates what their true objectives are.
(Also, I see third candidate parties in every midterm and local election I vote in at all levels of government. I have no idea what you're talking about).
(Also also, anyone reading this who lives in a swing state and hasn't voted yet, please, just votes for Harris. She sucks, but Trump is even more dangerous now that he has a staff full of enablers and an actual plan. We have to beat him.)
Not having RCV doesn't make anything worse.
Promoting third-parties without RCV in place does.
Well, third parties have always existed and will always exist, so it sounds like the Democrats need to get cracking on RCV. That is, unless they don't actually want RCV because it might disrupt the duopoly that empowers them, and they'd prefer that third-parties remain a boogeyman they can use to bully people I to voting for them (or a scapegoat for their losses).
Third parties run at all levels of government and they would actually benefit from eliminating first past the post polling far more than the major parties.
The bitter fact is that a winning candidate has no incentive to reform the voting system that put them in power.
Why would a dominant party want to give any competitor an advantage?
Yup, they know they’re outnumbered so they try every trick in the book to stop the Democrat bloc surplus from voting.
Some of us are actually not Democrats or Republicans because we really think both sides are bad in different ways. I still voted though.
It's still worth it to register for one of the major parties to vote in their primary and push them towards your actual politics. For example, I wouldn't consider myself "a Democrat", but I am registered to the party and I vote as progressive as I can in primaries.
But then you don't get to brag about your enlightened centrism.
Not all states work the same. In Ohio I can just show up and tell them which one I want to vote in each time. I always vote in the Democrat or Republican primary, I get a voice without committing to one or the other.
From what I've read, the two times Trump won, many Democrats felt that they were denied this choice, which left them disillusioned, and they didn't vote. I don't think that's the main reason for Trump's victory, but what you touched on was definitely a factor in the Democrats' loss.
Its only been 24hrs and this post aged like milk.
Aged like fine wine my dude, ~14mill less dems showed up to vote
And the fault for that lies squarely with Democrat politicians.
would someone like to explain to me why dem turnouts were SO FUCKING ASS this cycle?
Did you guys just like, forget to vote? What the fuck happened?
For anyone who already knows the truth of this meme, or who would like to know more about the vast methods of deception and how to spot and counter them, this DEFCON 32 talk is incredible.
DEF CON 32 - Counter Deception: Defending Yourself in a World Full of Lies - Tom Cross, Greg Conti
The Internet was supposed to give us access to the world's information, so that people, everywhere, would be able to know the truth. But that’s not how things worked out. Instead, we have a digital deception engine of global proportions. Nothing that comes through the screen can be trusted, and even the things that are technically true have been selected, massaged, and amplified in support of someone’s messaging strategy.
Deception isn’t just about narratives - we see deception at every layer of the network stack, from spoofed electromagnetic signatures, to false flags in malware, to phony personas used to access networks and spread influence. They hide in our blindspots, exploit our biases, and fill our egos while manipulating our perceptions.
How do we decide what is real? This talk examines time-tested maxims that teach the craft of effective deception, and then inverts those offensive principles to provide defensive strategies. We’ll explore ways to counter biases, triangulate information sources, detect narratives, and how hackers can build tools that can change the game.
Find your polling location. Go vote!
Your ballot will be deciding much more than just the president. Even if you did theoretically think both presidential canidates were equal in all regards (they aren't), then vote for the down ballot races!
Keep your local school boards from having insane people on it that will ban books and harm your kids or your neighbors's.
Vote for the constitutional ammendment questions and ballot initiatives. For instance, many states have either pro and anti abortion questions on their ballot.
The destruction of the republican party via increased voter and representation rights represents the single greatest possible "progressive" leftward shift of the US political window. Emphasis on "possible". Conservatives are a minority party and their extreme views do not represent modern America.
The road to a more progressive, equitable future is through the democrats. It doesn't end there.
Republicans winning offices means more long lasting legislation to clear, more conservative judicial appointments, etc.
Teaching THIS (2024) democratic party a lesson is worthless if it comes with 30+ years of conservative judicial backsliding.
Teaching THIS (2024) democratic party a lesson is worthless if it comes with 30+ years of conservative judicial backsliding.
And on top of that, when has "teaching the party a lesson" actually worked out in the peoples' favor?
And thus, instead of fighting the actual enemy, the republicans, you're antagonising the people who are more reasonable. Next time you can do it like France and call leftist crazy extremists so you'll seem less hypocritical about it.
Been saying this the whole time. Libs were shaming and harassing undecided voters for weeks instead of acknowledging that the dems were running a god awful campaign and pivoting towards nazi policies.
What are you talking about?!?! The Dems ran a flawless campaign, it's all the voters who are wrong!!! Don't know they know what the Dems tell them is right is right?!? Don't you know you're fucking stupid if you have any qualms about not voting for Harris?!?
Looking to shut up those people complaining about both sides from the sidelines? Put them in the game by passing electoral reform in your state.
Since they seem to know it all, let them show us how it's done by replacing First-past-the-post voting, passing equal access and airtime laws, and switching away from a perpetual election cycle to something shorter and more reasonable.
Get them to prove to us they know how to do things by making third parties viable and doing away with the infamous spoiler effect that is inherent with FPTP voting.
More people involved in the poltical process, more people voting, more people voting = more democratic votes, more chances to defeat the republicans, more people to call out bullshit on the debate stage, no more canceled debates because of giant man babies.
Electoral reform is just win after win for the American people. I know the election season has people exhausted, but things don't have to be this way. We can be free.
100% this.
I voted, that should be enough, same as anyone.
Also, both sides are bad, in different ways.
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