“Heartbreak and disaster” is the status quo with the two-party system.
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Also perhaps my next album title.
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Which is exactly why I’m imagining a third party taking place as the opposition is a real possibility.
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I’ve been hoping for a 4-way race in the general election, with Trump and Sanders both breaking away from their parties to run independently (and Sanders winning, of course).
(Though I still would not expect Sanders to run independently, nor Stein to make much of a splash at this point unless some incredible coalition materializes.)
I’m still not quite sure what the ideological split between Cruz voters and Trump voters is, aside maybe from “conservative Christian batshit insane” and “angry racist batshit insane” with a lot of overlap.
It seems clear to me that the two fists of socioeconomic injustice and environmental crisis are going to force a transformation of politics, one way or another. If Democrats don’t get on board, all they are is not-Republicans, which means in the presence of a unified and strong progressive movement, the party becomes irrelevant.
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If you’ve seen the flowchart, the question is, “When is Jesus coming back?” If the answer is “dunno” then vote Trump. If the answer is “Next week” vote Cruz.
I wonder how much overlap in support there is for Cruz and Trump. I think a lot of people assume there is plenty because they are both “right wing”. But I think they appeal to two sides of a fracture in the republican party. The religious right likes Cruz, but I think a lot of republicans probably think those religious nut jobs should get out of their party.
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The results in NY showed this to be true.
Cruz got crushed. Dead last. There’s a significant proportion of right wingers who aren’t Evangelicals.
I think that if nothing gives, the more it becomes necessary to use the spoiler effect as part of a long term strategy. The dems can’t count on there always being a Republican Bogeyman.
Meanwhile I highly recommend stepping up direct action.
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Since twitter polls don’t embed here…
- Chug bleach
- Eat maggot-filled pumpkin
- Watch Steven Seagal canon
- All of the above
0 voters
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I think I’ve made the right choice. The Glimmer Man was pretty terrible though…
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Not too far from my house, there’s a place where some crazy old people live. My spouse calls it The Museum of Idiots after the They Might Be Giants song. Google Maps labels it as “The Institute of Christian Metaphysics” but basically, it’s an ugly house with tall white fences all around, an ugly rock garden with no signs of plant life anywhere on the property, and a mix of hand-lettered and hardware store signs advising people to keep out, private property, parents are responsible for childrens’ behavior, you are being recorded, beware of dogs, bricks next to sidewalk are private property, trashcans are private property, etc.
In the 2012 elections they had hand-written signs declaring that Obama was using HIPAA to cover up the secret creation of a race of human-animal robot hybrids.
In 2016 they have Trump signs instead. (But apparently they don’t trust the signs not to be stolen or defaced, so they have them attached to lawn furniture right up against the house. Sometimes one of them will sit in a chair and wave a Trump sign around at people who drive by.)
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Fuck voting for Hillary. I refuse to lie down and vote for a candidate just because I hate the person they are running against more than them. Fuck the status quo. Fuck the Democratic party. Fuck yeah I am writing in Sanders in the general election. I’m done with this shit. I’m done with waiting, it’s now or never.
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There’s always the green party.
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Almost exactly a year ago – after Elizabeth Warren said she wasn’t running, but before Bernie confirmed that he was – I announced I was going to vote in the general election for one of two people: Bernie Sanders or Jill Stein. That I didn’t want to hear any lesser-of-two-evils arguments, any “…but the Supreme Court!” arguments, or any “…but Ralph Nader!” arguments.
It’s still true. If Bernie doesn’t make it through the gauntlet and stands by his original pledge not to run independently, Stein gets my vote. I’m a lefty progressive, not a Democrat.
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I was wondering how Cow might handle people saying that - he has always been pro-voting in the lesser evil in the past - but I’m not sure if Clinton was going to be a bridge too far for him.
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Enh. In his book Bernie says he’s a “lesser evil” voter too. I decided to stop doing that in 2012, for my own sake even though write-ins are not even counted in Missouri except in the case of a recount.
Despite – or because of – the scare tactics the Democratic Party always uses, the extra level of crazy and any supposed extra urgency re: Supreme Court and defending the ACA from the Tea Party, this seems like an ideal time to send a message.
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In most states you can perfectly happily vote with your conscience anyway without having any impact whatsoever.
http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/research/published/probdecisive2.pdf
I’ve always been someone who votes for someone, not against someone. I don’t like tactical voting. I’ve regularly voted for people who had no chance of winning. I support people I want to support, that’s it.
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I can’t see this backfiring at all.
Correct the Record, a super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton’s bid to become US president, has promised to invest more than $1 million to respond to users criticizing its candidate on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and other social media services
ETA: I see this was already mentioned by @ActionAbe in the thread I am no longer following…
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Yeah, the function of the American political system is to have one outright unacceptable party who wants to end human rights so that a corporatist (i.e. fascist) party can say, “Gotta pick us, we’re not them” to people who would like to vote for something better. The endgame of this system is either a revolution of the caring class or the lunatics taking over the asylum.
Could not find prices for adult sealions.
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So accurate it hurts 
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Well, I’ve argued for the value of voting for the least evil in the past, in cases where tactical voting is likely to have an impact. But it can’t help if people don’t do it. For instance it would mean taking advantage when there is a chance for something better than business as usual, and Clinton leading Sanders is a bad sign for that.
But even more so, the function you’re describing only works because the outright unacceptable party is a real threat, because they get voted for half the time. It seems to me that as much as we can argue over tactics, we should keep in mind that’s the real anchor preventing long-term improvement. Not that some compromise to keep them out, or abandon that to vote for better, but that countless more don’t know or don’t care which choices might actually be less evil.
I mean, even where democracy is half-functional, you still only get away with what people are willing to excuse. We can call the Republicans unacceptable – and I sympathize with those who would call corporatist Democrats the same – but things have gone this way because as far as the voting public are concerned, it’s plain they really aren’t.
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I completely agree. Even as I wrote that the Republicans were unacceptable I knew that the truth is that they are acceptable to the American public. I said in some other thread that Donald Trump isn’t scary, America is scary. The story I tell above is from the perspective of those who’d like some progress. I still think the conclusion is the same - the Republicans have turned into the boogeyman that they have been characterized as. The “smartest-people-in-the-room” who are leading the cult for profit are being ousted in favour of true believers.
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