Rigging the vote: how the American right is on the way to permanent minority rule

[Cassandra]

Rigging the vote: how the American right is on the way to permanent minority rule

Sometimes it's useful to look at the big picture rather than focusing on Trump's outrage de jour. American democracy is being gradually dismantled by a Republican party that has no respect for a democratic system that does not give it power. Given the general fecklessness of Democratic and democratic forces within America the most likely outcome is the permanent degeneration of the United States into a minority-rule state along the lines of Apartheid-era South Africa.

[Yukaphile]

I blame the purity progressives who sat on their butts in 2016 and sat out the election, or all the third-party voters who didn't commit to either side. Literally everyone who hates the two-party system like Lewis Black have to admit you only have two choices. Didn't stop literally millions of people from wasting their votes. People who knew the stakes, who knew the consequences, but chose to be selfish, thinking it might led the DNC to "bow down to their demands," might actually lead to the revolution they dream of, that no one wants to see happen given the mass suffering it would lead to, are worse than people who support the GOP, as far as I'm concerned.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I blame the purity progressives who sat on their butts in 2016 and sat out the election, or all the third-party voters who didn't commit to either side. Literally everyone who hates the two-party system like Lewis Black have to admit you only have two choices. Didn't stop literally millions of people from wasting their votes. People who knew the stakes, who knew the consequences, but chose to be selfish, thinking it might led the DNC to "bow down to their demands," might actually lead to the revolution they dream of, that no one wants to see happen given the mass suffering it would lead to, are worse than people who support the GOP, as far as I'm concerned.

Stop blaming the far left and start looking at the things that the Right does to prevent democrats from voting and to prevent democrats from mattering. What you said is utterly at odds with the information prevented in this thread.

Bernie isn't the engine of every single evil of mankind.

[Yukaphile]

He really damaged her reputation, fought to the convention, didn't give her his full support, begrudgingly endorsed her with subtle winks and nudges, and could never rein in the mob following on his flank. He kept going too long and it hurt. Yes, it's not all his fault. But it's also true to say that elections are complex and depend on many factors. Russian hacking is one. His blistering scorched-earth campaign tactics are another. And there are many more I could list. I know many people I talked to on Facebook at the time who feel that pain as deeply now as they did then, and we have long memories. The same way we remember Republicans say things like "legitimate rape" and "some girls, they rape so easy" in 2012. This issue won't be resolved until those who went third-party out of spite admit to their role in giving us Trump, however minor some want to argue it is.

[Robovski]

Hi! Third party voter here! Your failure to win an election and my vote is your fault, not mine.

Have a great day!

[Darth Wedgius]

GOP gerrymandering is shitty, but so is Democratic gerrymandering. Don't blame the GOP for doing it better in key states. Come up with strictly geometric methods of dividing up districts and I'll be happy. Also don't blame them for how the electoral college works. Want to get rid of the electoral college? Fine -- we can put an amendment up for a vote. Want to call the rules unfair after the race is over? Sorry.

Requiring accurate voter registration isn't really a very good evil plan for seizing permanent control of the government when the resistance can just provide accurate voter registration. I'm not a genius (ask anyone) and it didn't take me long to see the thermal exhaust port in that particular battlestation.

FWiW, there's a lot messed up, and I think our political parties (both of them) have too many people who want to win power and have long forgotten the reason why politicians were given power in the first place. I've backed term limits wherever I could. And I think having two parties polarizes the voters more by more often making us choose between hard-left and hard-right candidates. If the Blue Wave turns out not to make much of a splash, maybe at least one party will reform into something a bit more centrist, more labor- and working-family-oriented (something it does pretty well), protective of the environment (ditto, relatively anyway) and willing to treat people equally regardless of sex or race (something it does not do). It would be nice not to have to hold my nose as I cast my ballot.

[Admiral X]

I didn't vote for either of them, because I didn't want to vote for either of them. And don't assume that I'd have voted your way in any case. If I was being spiteful in my vote, I'd vote just the opposite of the way some busybody wanted me to.

[Cassandra]

Hi! Third party voter here! Your failure to win an election and my vote is your fault, not mine.

Have a great day!

Totally fictitious election ballot:

[ ] I'd like to be tapped on the the head with a reflex hammer.
[ ] I'd like to be tapped on the head with a hydraulic rock breaker operated by Yuri, the drunk trackhoe operator.
[ ] I'm too pure to care.

Totally real election ballot:

[ ] A center-right government with principles in line with the liberal-democratic principles shared by the rest of the developed world.
[ ] A grasping, racist, oligarchy whose inaction on climate change will likely doom human civilization.
[ ] I'm too pure to care.

When there is a clear choice between the status quo and catastrophe, choosing not to choose has dire consequences.

[Admiral X]

Only in your imagination.

[Yukaphile]

I find it so ironic people think a strong woman President with liberal policies who was wicked smart and would have continued Obama's administration was somehow the "status quo candidate" over the four-plus decade career politician in bed with the NRA, getting nothing done, a beneficiary of white man privilege, etc...