I have a headache so please do me the favor of reading through the links before asking questions, though by the time I check back in I’ll probably be in a better mood to chat.
Those are great concepts, but I’ll ask again, what’s your suggestion for what we do about it?
Listing ideas isn’t anything at all the same as implementing actionable change.
And hey, I’m not trying to argue, I fucking hate the system the way it is and desperately want to see us make some progress in our fight to change it or tear it down so a better one can be built in its place… But I never actually see that. I see a lot of theory, a lot of smart concepts, a whole fuck ton of unproductive disparaging… but I keep waiting for somebody to talk about real world actionable plans. I’m not being insincere, I hope you or anyone does have a viable actionable plan. God that would be incredible.
But until then, I can’t help but feel like these defeatist memes do nothing but further enable the system by disenfranchising and disinteresting noticeably specific demographics that might be likely to vote comparative left, serving mostly only to stifle what little incremental progress we could accomplish in the big races and ensuring these same people don’t get interested or involved enough to be active in the early stages of the process where the choices of actual consequence can be made.
Imo, apathy and enlightened centrism aren’t neutral positions, they’re right-enabling positions, as is the “leftist purity” bullshit position that prioritizes personal uncompromising “integrity” of position at the expense of real world harm reduction.
Join up with the Center for Election Science and volunteer to switch your local elections to approval! Typically this is done through a referendum, like was done in Fargo and St. Louis.
The hardest part is building the organization to collect signatures and run the referendum campaign. But, success breeds success, so you running a successful local campaign (like Fargo and St. Louis) will make it easier to turn around and get neighboring areas to switch, which will make it easier to run a state-level campaign to switch.
As for proportional representation, I don’t know of any US organizations working on it at the moment, and I’m like you, I want actionable change. If you’re willing to spin up a whole political machine on your own, go for it, but I suggest working on furthering the established approval momentum and worrying about proportional representation later.
The electoral college was put in place as a tool of the bourgeois founding fathers who thought they knew better than regular citizens. I’m done playing along, seems like more and more of us are every election cycle.
To stop voting is to throw your hands up and accept your oppression. Voting barely requires even minimal effort on one, maybe two or three days in a year; not realizing it for the harm reduction opportunity it is makes you an idiot.
The problem you’re circling around but missing isn’t voting itself, it’s assuming voting alone will solve things.
The solution isn’t “Stop voting. Burn shit instead.”
The solution is to vote and burn shit until conditions improve.
Anyone trying to convince you not to vote is either an idiot or a charlatan.
Yeah, that’s like the child throwing a temper tantrum because they don’t want to clean the room. That doesn’t actually solve anything. Unless you’re going to start rolling heads and starting an actual violent revolution, you’re not doing anything. And instead you’re just making it more difficult for the rest of us to keep shit together.
The lawyers of one of the options are literally arguing in court that presidential immunity means he could carry out an assignation of their political opponent and be immune as long as his party has enough power to avoid an impeachment conviction.
I mean, that’s what January 6th was about right? Who needs to vote if you can pull off a successful coup.
Trump is literally trying to prove in court that the president of the United States has full dictator status for life.
And if he gets in he isn’t going to give two shitd that you’re burning your neighbor’s house down or burning down businesses. He’ll have no accountability.
We’re not going to get out of this by fire bombing things. We’ll get out of this by stronger anti-corruption stronger anti gerrymandering and an actual bilateral draining of the swamp.
Choosing not to vote in a situation where one party is threatening to never allow free and fair elections ever again and do everything they can to keep and horde their power, is tacitly allowing for such a threat to take hold.
Voting on a third party is just as effective as not voting.
Yep, you’ve successfully identified the problem.
Now what’s your suggestion for what we do about it?
Not what my opponent would have done.
Great question!
Approval Voting
Proportional Representation, which can be anything from party list to multi-winner districts using Sequential Proportional Approval Voting
I have a headache so please do me the favor of reading through the links before asking questions, though by the time I check back in I’ll probably be in a better mood to chat.
Those are great concepts, but I’ll ask again, what’s your suggestion for what we do about it?
Listing ideas isn’t anything at all the same as implementing actionable change.
And hey, I’m not trying to argue, I fucking hate the system the way it is and desperately want to see us make some progress in our fight to change it or tear it down so a better one can be built in its place… But I never actually see that. I see a lot of theory, a lot of smart concepts, a whole fuck ton of unproductive disparaging… but I keep waiting for somebody to talk about real world actionable plans. I’m not being insincere, I hope you or anyone does have a viable actionable plan. God that would be incredible.
But until then, I can’t help but feel like these defeatist memes do nothing but further enable the system by disenfranchising and disinteresting noticeably specific demographics that might be likely to vote comparative left, serving mostly only to stifle what little incremental progress we could accomplish in the big races and ensuring these same people don’t get interested or involved enough to be active in the early stages of the process where the choices of actual consequence can be made.
Imo, apathy and enlightened centrism aren’t neutral positions, they’re right-enabling positions, as is the “leftist purity” bullshit position that prioritizes personal uncompromising “integrity” of position at the expense of real world harm reduction.
Join up with the Center for Election Science and volunteer to switch your local elections to approval! Typically this is done through a referendum, like was done in Fargo and St. Louis.
The hardest part is building the organization to collect signatures and run the referendum campaign. But, success breeds success, so you running a successful local campaign (like Fargo and St. Louis) will make it easier to turn around and get neighboring areas to switch, which will make it easier to run a state-level campaign to switch.
As for proportional representation, I don’t know of any US organizations working on it at the moment, and I’m like you, I want actionable change. If you’re willing to spin up a whole political machine on your own, go for it, but I suggest working on furthering the established approval momentum and worrying about proportional representation later.
Stop voting. Burn shit instead.
The electoral college was put in place as a tool of the bourgeois founding fathers who thought they knew better than regular citizens. I’m done playing along, seems like more and more of us are every election cycle.
To stop voting is to throw your hands up and accept your oppression. Voting barely requires even minimal effort on one, maybe two or three days in a year; not realizing it for the harm reduction opportunity it is makes you an idiot.
The problem you’re circling around but missing isn’t voting itself, it’s assuming voting alone will solve things.
The solution isn’t “Stop voting. Burn shit instead.”
The solution is to vote and burn shit until conditions improve.
Anyone trying to convince you not to vote is either an idiot or a charlatan.
Yeah, that’s like the child throwing a temper tantrum because they don’t want to clean the room. That doesn’t actually solve anything. Unless you’re going to start rolling heads and starting an actual violent revolution, you’re not doing anything. And instead you’re just making it more difficult for the rest of us to keep shit together.
The lawyers of one of the options are literally arguing in court that presidential immunity means he could carry out an assignation of their political opponent and be immune as long as his party has enough power to avoid an impeachment conviction.
I mean, that’s what January 6th was about right? Who needs to vote if you can pull off a successful coup.
Trump is literally trying to prove in court that the president of the United States has full dictator status for life.
And if he gets in he isn’t going to give two shitd that you’re burning your neighbor’s house down or burning down businesses. He’ll have no accountability.
We’re not going to get out of this by fire bombing things. We’ll get out of this by stronger anti-corruption stronger anti gerrymandering and an actual bilateral draining of the swamp.
Statements like this makes me wish ignorance came at an easier to learn price.
Burning shit is less productive than even voting for the same two corrupted political parties.
Just vote third party already.
Choosing not to vote in a situation where one party is threatening to never allow free and fair elections ever again and do everything they can to keep and horde their power, is tacitly allowing for such a threat to take hold.
Voting on a third party is just as effective as not voting.