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In every election since 2004, I just select Democrat without any research on specific individuals
- Thread starter Z-oo31
- Start date
Side A says "We hope to give everyone a better life", side B says "Your life is worse because of these people"
An actual functioning democracy this would be correct However, OP doing research isn't going to suddenly make Republicans not be cunts that are only interested in advancing the cause of the white man.
My take exactly.
In an ideal world OP would be voting irresponsibly and would be contributing to America's increasing partisanship. However, the GOP is so cartoonishly evil and corrupt that any reasonable analysis would tell you to vote straight Dem anyway. That's certainly what I'm going to be doing for at least the next 5 years, most likely longer.
If someone with an R next to their name wants my vote, why do they associate with a party that pushes racism?
I do my research... still do the same as the OP. That is the state of things.
I know that in the broken American politics his choice is correct. Doesn't change the fact that it is not the way to go in a well functioning system.
Obviously it won't. But it shows what is wrong with the American system and American politics. It takes any thought out of politics and a lot of people stop caring as well.
That's the problem with a two party system. If you're truly on the left or the right you really have no choice as the opposing candidate is always going to be too opposite if your views and third party candidates are rarely competitive and voting for them is as good as not voting.
The primaries are when being informed matters more as there are often real differences I care about among candidates there. Generals it's just vote for the Dems, read up on nonpartisan local positions, ballot initiatives etc.
The primaries are when being informed matters more as there are often real differences I care about among candidates there. Generals it's just vote for the Dems, read up on nonpartisan local positions, ballot initiatives etc.
From your post it sounds like you are assigning the blame to the voters and not the parties. It's not the voters fault that one party is so beyond the pale that votes for them aren't dont even need to be considered by anyone other than white people.
Well better to blindly vote Democrat than blindly vote for racists like the rest of the the country seems to do.
Yea same, never voting any Republican, at least on major levels. I have voted a couple local ones that won't obviously affect any political issues.
That is the right move. There's no good R candidate.
Research candidates and vote in primaries, though.
Research candidates and vote in primaries, though.
Sounds like you only vote in major elections since there are plenty of viable 3rd party candidates at a local level. Not really something to be proud of.
I can appreciate someone wanting to support their favored party, but you really should try to do as much research as you can.
Look at the situation where neo nazis have flown under the Republican banner... If you vote straight party ticket, with teh combination of a lack of research, you could support some nasty stuff and just not know.
There's a ton of nuance at the local level that needs to be determined before you can make choices. Always make educated choices, as best you possibly can.
Look at the situation where neo nazis have flown under the Republican banner... If you vote straight party ticket, with teh combination of a lack of research, you could support some nasty stuff and just not know.
There's a ton of nuance at the local level that needs to be determined before you can make choices. Always make educated choices, as best you possibly can.
You're just as bad as the partisan fuckers on the GOP. Party labels are meaningless. That is how we got into this fucked up situation. Either it needs to be eliminated or we need a proportional system
That varies by area. There's rarely any third party candidates in local things here. If there is it's usually some far right libertarian type.
Atlanta is frustrating voting wise as it feels pointless. The democrats, and especially black democrats, dominate the local stuff (which is great) often running unapposed in the general and republicans dominate the state and federal stuff. I always vote, but it's mosrly moot other than the nonpartisan stuff and ballot initiatives/amendments.
In the unlikely event you get, say, a Democratic candidate who has a record of supporting anti-choice legislation, and a Republican candidate who is a prominent champion of human rights and a stalwart anti-racist with a voting record to match, that would make sense. But that's rare.
Even for things like Board of Education? If you are in a big city like Atlanta I guess mayor would really be a 2 horse race but in a smaller town you could easily get a viable 3rd party mayoral candidate.
Right. Just as bad as the party that has an actual nazi up for election. This kind of thinking is juvenile. There is a good side, and a bad side. This is the system we either participate in for change, or sit on the sidelines and pretend that not voting isn't harmful.
Fantastic article and well worth a read. I hold out slightly more hope for the local scene than what is outlined in the piece but that fades a little more each day with threads like these.
Locally I'd consider it, but then again I live in a state where Republican governors do fairly well and have to operate with a largely Democratic legislature.
I'd argue that educated white people should be able to see the modern Republican platforms as an affront to human dignity. That so many educated, wealthy white people presumably see this yet still go for a pact with the devil, perhaps as a tax liability reduction move, is quite horrifying. The defection of some of these voters to Clinton in 2016 was heartening, but of insufficient scale in the states where it would have made a difference to the result.
this is a pretty good argument for paying attention to primaries. if you want a pro-NN candidate you've kinda got to fight for that at the dem primary level, since republican voting records currently stand at 90-100% voting consistency on the "rich get richer at all costs" party line
Same, except I research judges and other non partisan candidates to try to find out which ones are democrats. It's a two party system, get over it and pick the one that most closely aligns with your values. I wonder how many people in the rust belt voted third party thinking they were in a safe state.
I vote predominantly Dem but man there are some grossly incompetent Democrats on the ballot here in houston. You have to work or live in a sphere or be locally curious for that to be revealed, so I don't really blame your average worker bee for not doing anything other than pulling the straight ticket. That is the path of least resistance and people are generally unsophisticated voters.
This so the last go round for straight ticket voting in tx. Lt gov Patrick's son lost a judicial race and they rewrote the law.
This so the last go round for straight ticket voting in tx. Lt gov Patrick's son lost a judicial race and they rewrote the law.
I know people want to finger wag and say that this is a bad thing, however I would love people to give examples of some republican at a local,state or National level that has redeemable qualities and is actually for all people.
now as someone else mentioned primaries is where you do most of the research, but who ever is the candidate vs the republican counterpart. I would be had pressed to find anyone that is remotely decent.
now as someone else mentioned primaries is where you do most of the research, but who ever is the candidate vs the republican counterpart. I would be had pressed to find anyone that is remotely decent.
Actually mayor is a bunch of democrats running in the general. Republicans are so non-competitve they changed the system for that. It's a handful of Dems and usually requires a runoff between the top 2. I live just outside the city limits so I only get to vote in county level stuff.
But yeah, Atlanta and Dekalb County where I live are majority black and very blue. The local stuff is essentially all democrats and often no republicans running, John Lewis wins the congress seat for the district with over 90% of the vote.
Board of Education I often just leave empty. We're not having kids so I'm not invested and when I've tried to read up on candidates the info is very samey and unhelpful anyway. I think those are non-partisan here though.
I don't do this, but my local elections are non-partisan so I have to pay attention to the candidates (what that means is that candidates are not explicitly democrat, republican, green rainbow, libertarian, etc, on the ballot or during their campaigning). I generally pay attention anyway.
I'm an unenrolled voter, and so in Massachusetts if you're independent you get to choose which party primary you want to vote in. In 2016, I voted in the Republican primary because I thought it was more important to vote against Donald Trump than to vote for either Clinton or Sanders (I would have supported either of them in the general election), so even though Trump won my state primary, I put in my protest vote for John Kasich, a guy I wouldn't normally support, but against Trump, absolutely. I hold the tongue-in-cheek proud distinction of voting against Trump twice.
But, even in races that are partisan in Massachusetts, often times a Massachusetts Republican would be a centrist to left liberal in ~46 other states, and so I judge them on merits, experience, and my experience with the candidates in my city. I voted for Charlie Baker for governor in 2014, over Martha Coakley, though voted for Deval Patrick in 2010 over Charlie Baker, and Kerry Healey over Deval Patrick in 2006, and Shannon O'Brien over Mitt Romney in 2002. I've voted for the Democratic congressmen in every election I've voted in, going back to ~2001, but that's because I've liked my congressman, trust his record, like what he does for Massachusetts, and know him personally.
I'm an unenrolled voter, and so in Massachusetts if you're independent you get to choose which party primary you want to vote in. In 2016, I voted in the Republican primary because I thought it was more important to vote against Donald Trump than to vote for either Clinton or Sanders (I would have supported either of them in the general election), so even though Trump won my state primary, I put in my protest vote for John Kasich, a guy I wouldn't normally support, but against Trump, absolutely. I hold the tongue-in-cheek proud distinction of voting against Trump twice.
But, even in races that are partisan in Massachusetts, often times a Massachusetts Republican would be a centrist to left liberal in ~46 other states, and so I judge them on merits, experience, and my experience with the candidates in my city. I voted for Charlie Baker for governor in 2014, over Martha Coakley, though voted for Deval Patrick in 2010 over Charlie Baker, and Kerry Healey over Deval Patrick in 2006, and Shannon O'Brien over Mitt Romney in 2002. I've voted for the Democratic congressmen in every election I've voted in, going back to ~2001, but that's because I've liked my congressman, trust his record, like what he does for Massachusetts, and know him personally.
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The tut-tutting isn't about voting Republican or Democrat. It's for the anti-intellectualism aspect of not caring about doing research on who you're voting for. Republicans being racist bastards and knowing you're going to vote Democrat shouldn't preclude you from wanting to know about the Democrats you're voting for. Those are two different aspects
I have done enough research to know the GOP will not change in my lifetime. The party will crumble long before I vote for them them because they refuse to be decent.
So that leaves me with voting Democrat for the rest of my life.
I think what is getting missed here is that people are saying they do their research on the democrats before voting in the primary. Thus they are already familiar with who they're voting for in the general. People are just saying they don't bother researching the other candidates as the republicans are so repugnant and it's rare to have a third party candidate who is competitive in the race.
At least educate yourself for the primaries so you put the best possible name on the ballot. This kinda reckless shit is the reason why we're so fucked now.
On the national scale have Republicans ever ran on a platform that were more favorable to PoC like me than a Democrat?
I think people focus too much on Republican v. Democrat, and so they think "Well, I don't really need to do any research, I'll just go vote my ticket because I know that Republicans are all scumbags, because only scumbags could put an [R} next to their name on a ballot." This may be true for partisan tickets, but it's not true for a lot of local elections which are non-partisan, and those local elections are who give you your state candidates two years later and your national candidates 8 years later.
A lot of people complain about how, in presidential elections, gubernatorial elections, senate and congressman, "the candidates aren't like me! I Feel like I'm choosing the lesser of two evils!" Well, you fucking moron, that's because you never paid attention to any other candidates in your life, so you never chose the candidate who was more like you in their earlier elections. When you picked the candidate that had the most interesting sounding name on the ballot for your local selectman seats, and never knew what he or she stood for, and they didn't have that icon of [D] or [R] or (I) next to their name, and so you just willy nilly went down the list, that's why nobody looks like you, or talks like you, or votes like you when it comes to governors races and senate races, because you never took the time to research people who looked like you, or talked like you, or voted like you when it comes to those positions that set up their career later.
"But that's hard, how am I supposed to know what my town selectman supports!" No, it's easier now than it's ever been, there's more material now, readily available for free than there has ever been at any time in election history. One of the reasons every candidate for high office looks like your grandfather and votes like your grandfather and supports issues that your grandfather supports is because your grandfather does research in every election and, more importantly, votes in every election. Your grandfather doesn't know the latest hubub over Kendell Jenner being a "self-made" billionaire, but he does know that John Smith came to the tree planting at Community Park last August and talked about supporting elderly mobility programs. And, wouldn't ya know it, 2 years later John Smith is running for mayor, and then governor, and now John Smith -- who's okay, the lesser of two evils, but seems to only support the Democratic platforms your grandfather cares about -- is one of the boring candidates in the Democratic primary... WHY ISN'T THERE ANYBODY LIKE ME???
A lot of people complain about how, in presidential elections, gubernatorial elections, senate and congressman, "the candidates aren't like me! I Feel like I'm choosing the lesser of two evils!" Well, you fucking moron, that's because you never paid attention to any other candidates in your life, so you never chose the candidate who was more like you in their earlier elections. When you picked the candidate that had the most interesting sounding name on the ballot for your local selectman seats, and never knew what he or she stood for, and they didn't have that icon of [D] or [R] or (I) next to their name, and so you just willy nilly went down the list, that's why nobody looks like you, or talks like you, or votes like you when it comes to governors races and senate races, because you never took the time to research people who looked like you, or talked like you, or voted like you when it comes to those positions that set up their career later.
"But that's hard, how am I supposed to know what my town selectman supports!" No, it's easier now than it's ever been, there's more material now, readily available for free than there has ever been at any time in election history. One of the reasons every candidate for high office looks like your grandfather and votes like your grandfather and supports issues that your grandfather supports is because your grandfather does research in every election and, more importantly, votes in every election. Your grandfather doesn't know the latest hubub over Kendell Jenner being a "self-made" billionaire, but he does know that John Smith came to the tree planting at Community Park last August and talked about supporting elderly mobility programs. And, wouldn't ya know it, 2 years later John Smith is running for mayor, and then governor, and now John Smith -- who's okay, the lesser of two evils, but seems to only support the Democratic platforms your grandfather cares about -- is one of the boring candidates in the Democratic primary... WHY ISN'T THERE ANYBODY LIKE ME???
thats funny.
whats irresponsible is continuing to vote for shit heel republicans.
exactly.
Even though I consider myself to be a democrat, In the last election I would have voted for Kasich if he was running against Hillary, but besides him there hasn't been a single republican i could even consider voting for so far.