view the rest of the comments
politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
Well first they sabotaged the Iowa caucus with the Shadow App, giving a victory to an absolute nobody.
Then Bernie kept winning the early contests. So, all the other centrist candidates dropped out to form Voltron behind Biden while Warren stayed in as a center-left spoiler candidate.
Bernie never stood a chance.
You're getting the 2016 and 2020 primaries confused. The "Shadow App" thing happened in 2016. And it didn't give Iowa to a "complete nobody," but to Pete Buttigieg. Biden didn't even run in 2016, and the app for reporting vote totals wasn't used in 2020.
Furthermore, you just described strategy, not a "fix." If the centrists coalescing behind Biden had the numbers to win, that means Bernie didn't. And he might have, if young people had registered as Democrats and voted. But they didn't.
lolwut
It definitely happened in 2020 - Pete didn't even run in 2016! And he is a nobody, he was a mayor with no other prior office and he never won another contest.
When the entire DNC covertly coordinates together in a strategy to stop a single candidate, it's a fix. That's not a strategy that any candidate could ever use, that's the whole Party working together to stop an outsider.
That, plus the Shadow App (which definitely happened in 2020 wtf I live in iowa I would know!) were what convinced Bernie supporters to stay home after Super Tuesday.
And it's why I'm voting for Cornell West. The Democratic Party is not the path to socialism, we can not ever change it from the inside... I mean the Green Party isn't a path to socialism either, but at least it pisses off Democrats 😘
Yeah, I'll take my lumps. I fucked up. Had both primaries open in different tabs, mixed them up, along with a news story about the app (it was developed in 2016, but you are right that it was used in 2020).
Still, gotta disagree with you on this:
That's not what happened. A bunch of candidates who had no chance dropped out when they were polling at negligible levels of support. It's not like they suddenly added huge percentages of support to Biden.
Ah. So you're a Trump supporter. Got it.
Right before Super Tuesday? While Warren stayed in to play center-left spoiler? Naw, there was pressure coming from inside the Party to coalesce around a single candidate to stop the socialist. I can't speak to the others, but we know that Obama told told Pete to drop out and endorse Biden, and then Pete was rewarded with a post. Pete, who if you recall, "won" the Iowa Shadow App caucus. Sus
Eat my ass.
The Democratic Party made it clear to me that my vote doesn't matter when they wrecked our caucus. They fucked Iowa Democrats out of having a say in the nomination process, and now they want my vote? Fuck off. I'm a revolutionary communist, it's been made very clear that I'm not welcome in your party, and I'm not going to play voteball with a team that stabs people like me in the back when we get in the way.
I don't even think my vote matters. I literally just want to make Democrats mad. Nyaa nyaa~
Nah.
Like I said: Trump supporter.
Whether you like it or not - and I'm sure you don't - any vote for a third party in a state that doesn't have Ranked Choice (RC) voting is a vote for the guy you hate the most. And if that irks you, take it up with MATH, because that's what you're fighting against.
Let's say you've got two major parties, the Kissing Puppies party and the Kicking Puppies party. Along comes a third party, Snuggling Puppies. Now let's say in an election, the Kickers get 33.4% of the vote, the Kissers get 33.39% of the vote, and the Snugglers get 33.21% of the vote. Well, guess what? If you live in a state with First Past the Post (FPTP) voting, the Kickers just won.
So yeah. Trump supporter. Because that's what you'll get if enough people switch from voting Dem to voting Green (or whatever) in FPTP elections, a Trump second term. You are the Republican party's favorite "queermunist," because they understand math.
Maybe you can afford to be that. I can't. I have two kids, both LGBTQ+, and I have to look out for them, which means doing everything I possibly can to ensure Donald Trump never sees the inside of the Oval Office again.
Yeah yeah I've heard it all before - but by this logic, every dollar you don't donate to Biden is a dollar donated to Trump. Every hour you don't spend volunteering for Biden is an hour you volunteer for Trump. There's no difference. Either you do everything you can to help Biden beat Trump or you are the reason Trump gets elected. This "if you're not with us you're with the enemy" cult shit is logically inconsistent and isn't going to work on me anymore.
Fuck that. The only people who should be blamed for Trump getting elected are the people who vote for him.
I'm a trans woman and an open communist, they'll probably try to fucking kill me in a "conversion therapy" death camp.
But you know what? If Democrats win I just get to die slower; do I get to die in nuclear Armageddon because of brinkmanship with China and Russia, or do I die when climate change destroys our habitat, or do I just work for the rest of my life until I die at work? No matter which party wins, as a working class woman my life has no value and no hope. Nothing will fundamentally change.
I can no longer be bullied or terrified into voting for my oppressors, just because they happen to be the lesser of two evils.
Bullshit. What the actual fuck is that response? There's a ton of difference. We don't have FPTP lives, where your only options are "do something that helps Biden" and "do something that helps Trump." FPTP only applies to voting itself. It's fucking bizarre to make the analogies you're making. They don't work at all.
Ideally? Sure. But shit in one hand, put your ideals in the other, see which one fills up faster. Unfortunately - and I really do mean that - our election system is a bunch of antiquated bullshit that guarantees whoever gets a plurality of votes wins, and if you don't want fascists winning, you vote for the non-fascist who can get that plurality. To fix that, push for RC voting at the state level.
And yet you're voting in a way that helps the ones who want to kill people like you - and people like my trans son. Very little in life is a zero-sum game, but FPTP elections are. In those, anything that isn't a vote for the person who can win empowers the asshole who wants you dead because of who you are.
What Democrats are you looking at?!? Russia's nuclear threats are empty, China doesn't want nuclear war either, and Democrats recently pushed through the largest environmental package ever. They're not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but you're behaving like they're Republican-lite, when they're demonstrably not.
I'm not trying to bully or terrify you. I just want you to think about my kids, and what kind of world they'll grow up in if guys like Donald fucking Trump cement their grips on power.
Yeah, which means donating to election campaigns and volunteering for election campaigns, because those things effect how people vote! You just want to find reasons to feel pride and self satisfaction over doing literally nothing at all.
You have done nothing to protect your children from fascism, but you don't want to think about that. Instead you act like playing voteball matters. Under Biden, my State has been targeting trans children and has legalized child labor. What the fuck did my vote for Biden in 2020 do to stop Republicans? Jack shit!
I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but under the two party system your children are going to die no matter what. How the fuck can you look at the direction things have been going, regardless of which party is in power, and conclude "everything will be fine if that dang Cheeto doesn't take the Whitehouse!"
We live in a spiraling shithole and we're all going to fucking die if things don't radically change - and that will never happe through elections.
Whatever. Your mind's made up.
For your kid's sake, arm yourself. No matter who wins, things are going to get much worse.