There’s excellent reasons to abstain in this election cycle.
Or vote third party.
Or not vote at all.
The idea your vote is your voice for political will is a way to defuse unrest. The promise of future reforms. And… there’s always excuses.
Right now our country is taxed at the same rate as all the other countries in the world who have universal healthcare and basic income and generally treat people like humans and not exploitable objects.
And we are spending like 70% of the government’s discretionary income on blowing up the world’s shittiest countries over and over.
For made up reasons and lies. Again. Another instance of a government using lies to justify a war for profit.
And Hillary is cool with this. Cool with the TPP. Cool with the surveillance state.
I’m not cool with her. And the only appeal Trump offers to me is leaving America a fucked to death pile of caca and maybe in the long run the world will be better off.
So… if you think the government lies to and exploits it’s people and nothing they say is true… why vote for that under any circumstances?
Don’t rubber stamp your approval of tyrants. This isn’t democracy.
There are less obvious choices… but they are never on the menu.
More accurately, it´s an all you can eat buffet that offers shit sandwiches exclusively. If you don´t finish what you put on your plate, you pay extra.
No, absolutely not, but I most definitely didn’t call anyone an idiot.
I actually retract what I said earlier: I think it’d be far more meaningful in the coming election if people vote for Jill Stein than to write in Bernie (or stay home). I would love to see a strong showing by a third party candidate. I honestly feel that we’re seeing, in real-time, the erosion of the two-party system. And in retrospect, I wish that Bernie had run as an independent, given his balking at the DNC leadership.
I think that when we dismiss someone with a silly label, like “neoliberal” or “war hawk”, we’re parroting what we see in editorials. But if not voting helps you feel better, I can’t argue against your sleep schedule.
I support Sanders for those reasons, too. I voted for him in the primaries, happily. But I’m also pragmatic, and know that voting for someone who’s actually the candidate (or a third-party candidate) makes more sense than refusing to vote.[quote=“rosyatrandom, post:58, topic:79331”]
Why should Berne’s ‘actual, spoken wishes’ mean anything?
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If you believe Bernie when he says he wants to bring Democratic Socialism back to politics, and has the means to do so, why wouldn’t you believe him when he says “please don’t write me in; defeating Trump is paramount”?
One of the things that’s struck me about Clinton is how uncharismatic she is. She’s admitted it herself… she, like Al Gore and John Kerry, is not a firebrand in the rhetoric department… she doesn’t win people over with fiery speeches or force of personality. She’s completely incapable in that department. The fact that the race was this close shows how unpersonable she is… in both 2008 and 2016, she entered the race as the favorite with a massive structural advantage, but when it came to the campaign trail, her lack of charisma, her baggage, her complete incapability of being able to connect with the average American sunk her in 2008 and came close to sinking her in 2016.
Of course, Clinton the primary candidate is different from Clinton the presidential candidate, but still… Donald Trump is charismatic if crazy. Clinton is not crazy and is still completely uncharismatic. I hope that the crazy wins out and Clinton blows Trump out, but still… sometimes I worry.
Well, for some reason, it wasn’t true in this campaign nor in the previous. I mean, look at her rhetorical strategy… lawyerly, defensive, wonkish answers to simple policy questions like “Will you forgive student debt” or “What are you going to do to expand healthcare”. I mean, it’s one thing to not want to be caught out in a lie, but it’s so hard to get enthusiastic over a needs-based student loan adjustable blahdiblah system over “States should eliminate college tuitions”.
I don’t think you would have had any issue if I had labeled Trump a bigot. Sometimes, people actually fit into the categories which are used to label them. In my opinion, I described Hillary correctly.
Knowing that I will be voting for a third-party candidate, did you purposefully say that I wouldn’t be voting, in order to antagonize me? Or was it an honest slip of the keyboard?
I’m actually more hopeful for a viable 3rd party emerging out of this. Not that they will able to win this November, but I do think Sanders has proven that there is an alternative way of acquiring funds without having to beg for it from wealthy donors. I think money has always been the barrier to the 3rd party and that’s no longer the case thanks to fundraising platforms like ActBlue.
I’ll believe a candidate is actually in favor of campaign finance reform when they raise their money from engaged supporters, rather than getting it directly from Goldman Sachs.
Actually, neither set of policy proposals would prevent any candidate from receiving funding from Goldman Sachs. They were both against super-pacs and in favour of transparency of non-public funding.
