Kinda hack, imo.
I do understand the rationale there, but at the same time, what we end up with is a very crafted system that removes our ability to affect change.
An absurd example. In four years Democrats are facing, say Ted Nugent, or Rush Limbaugh. They run Trump as a Democrat, reformed progressive weeping in repentance, and we’d have to vote for him to protect future SCOTUS nominations? That is ruling by fear as much as the Right attempts. “Accept who we say, or they will overturn Roe v Wade, institutionalize Christianity, etc. etc., ad nauseum.”
You can see how power brokers, the real, truly powerful interests in the world, who channel money into both parties, promoting both candidates through the primary process, can craft circumstances wherein we will always have to choose between someone frightening like Trump, and someone who will actively deny us change, like Clinton.
Good analysis here, imo.
America can still be the beacon upon the hill, but we must stand up to the corporatocracy. We must refuse to be bought and sold like chattel. We must refuse the security’s internet. We must demand equal human standing, and then stand up. We can do this together. We cannot do it alone. Any man who says only he can deliver is a false prophet, for only together can we achieve your promised land. I mean it.
That is the most uplifting political statement I’ve heard this whole election cycle. Seriously, well done. It comes very close to entirely avoiding the tedious fear mongering that has characterized this race, and offers a positive vision of the future that doesn’t require any belief in magical presidential superpowers.
But @LemoUtan is my new hero (sorry, @crenquis) for introducing a Burgess Shale arthropod into a political discussion. I award three Inverted Hallucigenia and my undying admiration.
It’s fucking ridiculous I’m even considering personal safety at a polling location. I guess the good news is that there’s only one known old, white, nutter guy in my neighborhood, and I’m long accustomed to telling anyone who approaches me in the parking lot that they can fuck off. We’re supposed to have a secret ballot, and for damned good reasons.
Can I bring one of my really stiff old wood hockey sticks, just in case?
See?
It’s going to be okay.
Breathe. Seriously, take a deep breath, right now, just do it now, okay, see? whew-hooooo
It’s going to be okay.
I was and still am a Bernie supporter. To some extent I think he nudged her a bit toward the left. However to fail to support HRC at this point is scary beyond thought. Do you have any suggestions for a better option now? For that matter who looms on the horizon, Perhaps Elizabeth Warren or? I’m open for educated thoughts and suggestions. It isn’t too early to think about 2020, perhaps 2024.
The supreme court picks alone put me in HRC’s camp, god only know what trump might nominate…perhaps those dick dynasty dipshits would be wearing black robes instead of white ones.
I drove by Talladega today (race tomorrow, I suppose) and you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a Dixie flag flapping in the breeze.
But let’s be fair: The middle of the country looks like Carrie’s head at the prom it’s so red.
For all of it’s many faults and flaws my home state of Illinois shines pretty blue for the most part. Gotta love the dead of chicago
You oversell your dead; typical industrialist and commercer.
P.S. Just love.
I was and still am a Bernie supporter. To some extent I think he nudged her a bit toward the left. However to fail to support HRC at this point is scary beyond thought.
Isn’t that what we are asking Republicans to do now? Isn’t it mind-boggling to us that they would vote for Trump just to make sure Democrats don’t win? Aren’t they being derided mercilessly for selling their ideals just to ensure Democrats don’t have influence for the next four years?
Yet here we are, voting against our ideals, espousing the same principle.
For that matter who looms on the horizon, Perhaps Elizabeth Warren or? I’m open for educated thoughts and suggestions.
Honestly not offhand. We need people from outside the process, and the process is only open to the status quo. All that is required is they face a Republican in the election, and we are obliged to vote for them. The only alternative is sending the plate back to the chef and refusing to accept what isn’t palatable. We don’t vote for our parties, they lose, and eventually tire of wasting millions on elections they know beforehand they won’t win.
It requires losing elections, and accepting that it doesn’t make the world a better place in the short term. As long as we are bullied by the “Not voting is a vote for Trump!” though, we are obliged to vote for the default Democrat, however unpalatable, against our ideals, against our conscience, and what they do is on our conscience, as well.
This. With all the shit Trump says we haven’t been able to dig into Hillarys and push her the right way, if that were even possible. Climate change, NSA spying, DMCA/copyright overhall, and many other important issues have been ignored in favor of the circus. Not that it would change my vote, but at least the conversations could be happening.
Our two-party system is broken. We need a new one, based in who we are now. I don’t pretend to know what that looks like, but I’m committed to the fact that our current system doesn’t work. Does it? Am I wrong about the last decade plus? Racists have blocked our POTUS, and I will never believe otherwise, AND you haters will pay for your crimes…
For I AM THE LAW, and the people are coming for you…
Bit of a false equivalence there. I’m not enthusiastic about HRC but she’s not a Democratic mirror image of Trump, just as Rachel Maddow is not “Ann Coulter but on the left.” I can’t even think of any leftists in the public eye that are as unhinged and/or repulsive as some of the characters that get popular support on the right. Bill Maher’s kind of an asshole I guess.
Hillary represents the status quo. I’m far from happy with the status quo, but Trump is downright dangerous, and not in some abstract philosophical way. You’d have a better point if we were considering Mittens or Jeb! but we’re not. We’re considering a delusional narcissist with anger management issues and the vocabulary of a fourth-grader.
Maybe we have been set up, but if so it’s been effective. Flipping over the table doesn’t get us out of checkmate.
Wha’ happen’?
I’ll confess that I’m a fan of nonpartisan blanket primaries.
At the moment, there’s a republican primary and a democratic primary, and only registered republicans and democrats can vote in those, respectively. Which means that I, as an independent, have no vote in determining the only two candidates for President with a realistic chance of winning.
Under a nonpartisan blanket primary, there’s just one big primary, instead of one per party. All the candidates get listed, and everybody gets to vote, regardless of your political affiliation. The top two vote-winners advance to the normal election. Both candidates may represent the same party, or may differ, or may not be from one of the Big Two parties at all.
The point is that when you can potentially win votes from somebody who isn’t registered in your political party, you’re less likely to commit hate speech in order to attract the fringes of your own party; there presumably are far more votes in taking a more moderate stance.
…although now that I think about it, that didn’t slow Donald down much, in the general election. Oh well, it was a nice theory. 
Okay, preferential voting. Preferential voting is the thing that would fix everything. Right? Right??
…I need a hug.
I’m going to channel Living Color here: Cult Of Personality?
P.S. I’m playing the song right now, and it rocks.
hugs
