48
Pity US voters their choice of leaders. Surely democracy is better than this? | Simon Tisdall
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
48 points (74.5% liked)
politics
19097 readers
3273 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
And when somebody suggests voting third-party, they're told: "Go ahead. Throw your vote away!"
As a result, the humans all end up enslaved because they didn't want to vote third-party.
Voting third party being a waste isn't someone's opinion. It's actual math. 3rd party candidates stand 0 chance in this system. I'd love them to. I believe the last (and possibly only) 3rd party to stand a chance was Teddy Rosevelt with the Bull Moose/ Progressive Party. That was 112 years ago. They merged with the Republicans in less than a decade.
Basically, voting 3rd party in this system is, in fact, throwing away your vote.
If you really want to try and change things, I'd focus on boosting up people in the Democratic Party that are pushing for election reforms, because theres no other way that a 3rd party will ever win
If my preferred party gets more votes this year than they did four years ago, that is a good outcome. Gradually increasing the third-party turnout year over year is how we will chip away at the two-party system.
And if my vote helps my preferred party increase their vote, that is a good use of my vote.
I understand completely, believe me. I've done plenty of work for my local Socialist Party branch. I play board games with the local candidate on a regular basis.
I'm still not voting for him for anything. He isn't voting for himself either. We both know he has 0 chance of winning, partly because he has socialist next to his name, but primarily because he's a 3rd party that struggles to even get on the local ballots. We still raise awareness and spread our causes, but we live in a state that's outlawed anything other than first past the post, and we're both smart enough to know that, mathematically, he stands zero chance.
Well, that's up to you. But keep organizing. Maybe your local Socialist Party branch will one day have enough members that you feel comfortable voting for them.
I hope so, but I doubt it'll happen in my life time. This is a deeply conservative area. It'll take a culture shift like the world has never seen before
And Homer gloats "Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos", not realizing that voting for Kodos instead of Kang makes no difference.
Season 8, Episode 1 - "Treehouse of Horror VII"