First round of voting I actually found a candidate I really liked, someone I would actually celebrate if they won but of course the rest of the country is not looking for the best candidate, they only care about electing the worst candidate for ‘the other side’.
So here I am, waiting for the results knowing that if the candidate I picked wins I won’t be happy, just relieved and if the other candidate wins, I need to fear for the future of our country.
I looked for an offmychest community but couldnt find it, I read the rules and I think politics is allowed here? Though really, Im not here to discuss politics, just lament the current state of affairs.
My fear is if it can be worse. I said similar in several recent elections …… but now looking back the bushes were such mild cases of worse for the country, barely a preview of what we have now. Bush was bad for the country but intelligent, poised, and well versed in at least foreign affairs. Bush junior was a bumbling fool but where we lost respect of the international community but at least did limited harm. McCain may have been a hero but had poor ideas for governing and I wouldn’t trust palin to run a stop sign. Pence had well deserved criticism. Then we got Trump. This time “evil” seems well deserved for the first time ever.
Although I have to admit Romney was an interesting possibility. It’s easy to dismiss him as a vulture capitalist but I thought he did well as governor of Massachusetts, he did sign healthcare reform at the state level, and when he talks family values and morality he is one of the few republicans who mean it
This has been a very depressing trend: is it possible to keep getting worse?
I’m not from the US
Oops sorry. I get carried away with our political mess and don’t always follow the thread sufficiently
I’ve never been especially political before but not only is my country in an unprecedented mess but there are like-minded people on Lemmy receptive to my outrage.
Unfortunately we’ve been overshadowing other political messes in other places. All I can really offer is that maybe things will quiet down once my country gets past our collective mental breakdown
Same. I did my civic duty and I feel good about that. I’m getting others to register and vote also, I feel good about that too.
But I know, even if we win this fight, that doesn’t mean victory; it just means taking on the next fight, which is to find and elect (or, failing that, become) candidates who will reject AIPAC, tax billionaires, give people education, healthcare, legal weed, fast internet, and social safety nets, reform the prison system, reform the military industrial complex, forbid stock trading among congresspeople, re-implement corporate regulation, rebuild our institutions, oh and fucking fight climate change before we all kill each other in the water wars, and probably a bunch of other shit too.
At some point, one really has to ask ourselves, “If they’re gonna ignore the rules and do whatever they want, and if we’re going to stop them, why shouldn’t we do the same?”
I’m not American but yeah, we are in a somewhat similar situation. It sucks so much
this is my feeling. I will still be protesting after the election although the messaging I use may change based on outcome.
One whole page of my ballot only had single choices. All of them were Republican. I didn’t fill that page in.
I heard something the resonated with me: “you take the bus to the closest stop to your destination.”
We still need to walk, sometimes pretty far, but it’s right thing to do. Walking is the with we do between voting - primary engagement, community involvement, protests, letters, etc. Most people expect to stop at voting, but even in multi -party systems, there’s rarely a perfect fit.
It makes sense to be tired, for sure, but there are bad folks out there that want you too tired to even vote - screw 'em
Such an ironic choice of allegory …… transit in the US? Still works but the nearest stop is miles from our destination, with no sidewalks. The ride was noisy and smelly and you worry that you might have sat in something. You waited hours for this and you are nearer, but ……
if the candidate I picked wins I won’t be happy, just relieved
Evolution isn’t immediate: we would have to go to a few ‘acceptable’ outcomes if that’s the only way to push the window over to better choice down the line.
People who don’t get that may want to brush up on how evolution works to fix bad systems; and also understand how primates evolved from whales, or something.
The window literally never gets pushed toward the ‘better’ side BECAUSE people keep voting for the lesser evil. The Democrats know that their winning strategy is just to be less bad, so they never even put up any ‘good’ candidates anymore. And the windows just keeps getting pushed further and further right as the republican candidates get worse and so do the Democrat ones. You all need to be willing to withhold your votes from terrible candidates, or vote third party. And yet every election, before the primaries even, there will be a horde of people screaming ‘vote blue no matter who’ and ‘if you dont support Hilary/Joe Biden/Kamala Harris/Gavin Newsom/whatever corporate ghoul then you must be a Russian troll or a secret trump supporter!’. But this strategy has never resulted in a long term improvement for your country, just a long drawn out descent into fascism.
Here in reality the Democratic candidates are getting better.
Maybe not on your specific issue that you decide is more important than everything else, but that’s true for every single issue voter.
But this strategy has never resulted in a long term improvement for your country, just a long drawn out descent into fascism.
Better than a short and immediate descent into fascism, which is option 2. There is no option 3.
Its not evolving, the less bad is the same person that has been in power for 12 years now. Only thing changing is the alternative is getting worse and worse
this year was not to bad for me with the primaries. In many cases there were three front runners. One that was really progressive. One that was a pretty good choice and one that felt like machine or really to much saying what was popular to be heard at the moment of time (based on their political history). Now the very progressive did not win but neither did the mouthpiece. So its not like I have to hold my nose. Its just that there was a better one and it kinda suxs they did not get it.
Fuck the lesser evil, vote for the greater good
there is none
You only vote at the midterm?
They’re not American.
