Gen X here. I was told I would be a Republican when I got older. I’m still not a Republican and still an atheist in my late 40s… and yet it seems like a lot of Gen Xers, despite living through Reagan, both Bushes and Trump, still vote Republican. I don’t get it.
If you look at the poll in that article apparently every generation leans Democrat, so why aren’t they winning?
A big factor is that gerrymandering means in a given state a majority of voters will vote Democrat but Republicans will get a majority of seats.
Same with national elections, it’s good to remember that Trump didn’t win the popular vote when he “won” the first time.
And each state getting two senators regardless of population means that lesser populated states have an outsized influence, and they’re usually Republican.
So all that to say, it doesn’t mean there’s more of “them” than “us.”
The U.S. should go to proportional ranked choice voting, which would not only avoid gerrymandering it would allow has to vote for third party candidates without throwing our vote away.
This right here is the answer to all questions about this.
The republicans have a much smaller base than it seems. In addition to the gerrymandering we also have the fence sitters who let perfect be the enemy of good and either fall for the bullshit from the likes of Trump or they vote for a 3rd party because they don’t like either of the main candidates.
I wish we lived in a world where I could carefully examine every candidates views, plans for the future and history and vote regardless of the letter beside their name but we have to vote straight party line because even the worst on the left is better than the best on the right and the left is quick to throw out the trash even before it’s actually rotten.
Don’t forget we also had Russia and probably China and others manipulating the most gullible on social media and influencing fox and the outlets that make fox look almost progressive. Without that this time around (hopefully) we will probably see Biden get a larger chunk of the vote.
We definitely need to make some changes. Especially in the senator count. It should be based on population and we could still keep a minimum of two per state to simplify the transition. We also need a national grassroots movement to get another party in power starting at the city level and slowly moving up to the state and federal.
To everyone here who doesn’t want Biden because of his age and/or he’s not progressive enough, etc. If you don’t hold your nose and vote blue down the line you could be the reason why Trump gets a second term and the rest of the maggats gain even more control.
You know that meme that has the bell curve, and the meme guy on the left is a drooling idiot, the meme guy on the top looks like a normal but frantic person, and the meme guy on the right is the smug smart one wearing jedi robes?
I feel like the voting version of that has the drooling idiot saying, “I always vote straight-ticket.” And then the middle guy is like, “Nooooo I have to obsessively think about each candidate for each office and vote for the best one regardless of party!!!” And the genius on the right says, “I always vote straight-ticket.”
I get what you are saying but it’s not that easy. There is a stark difference between the two sides. A republican could (in theory) vote for a right leaning dem and not be disappointed because they voted with the party and against the other side. Those of us on the left, especially those who are way more progressive and liberal than most of our current representatives don’t have that luxury. Why? The Republicans are required to sign a statement of loyalty if they want funding from the RNC, this means that even the few left on the right who aren’t nutjobs likely won’t vote their own beliefs and conscious and they instead will vote the party line lest they be kicked out into the cold.
In addition to the above, the other big difference is that the left “cancels” (fuck I hate that word in this context) politicians for infractions that have no bearing nor effect on how they govern. The right holds up high and pushes to reelect even those who have been to prison for assaulting kids.
Maybe in my lifetime we will have more than 2 main parties and we can pick our representatives based on more than the letter beside their name. But for now, all memes aside, this is how we prevent the next hitler from taking office. My hope is that after Biden wins this election he will push the various people and agencies responsible to start going after the right for all of the crimes they have committed, seize any funds gained through fraud (I’m looking at you trump), etc
I don’t think you really do get what they’re saying - my interpretation is that if you overthink who to vote for, you’re probably missing something. It seems to me that both of you generally agree on the same approach of voting straight down the ticket. In the example, we have 3 voters: one is portrayed as being simple, and they vote straight down the ticket, another is portrayed as wisened and they also vote straight down the ticket, and then you have the third voter who is frantic in their search for the ‘best’ candidate and might split their vote.
Put another way, in the current American political climate splitting your vote is missing the forest for the trees - an individual tree (politician) is comparatively less likely to bring about radical change, but if you vote for the forest (party platform/fascism or no fascism), you’re more likely to empower the ideals you’d like to see put into action.
I do understand what they are trying to say and that is exactly my point. If we want to live in a world where we can breathe fresh air, have freedom to do what we want with our own bodies, read whatever books we want and avoid living under a dictator, we need to all vote dem even if we can’t stand the person we are voting for. Obvious exception if it’s a Manchin or that other one that flipped assuming we have an idea before hand.
Ah, well then it was I who didn’t understand what you were saying. Sorry about that! We’re all on the same page here - vote blue, no matter who, even if… they stink like poo. 😂
For now, yes. Sadly that’s what we have to do. We have some jackasses on our side but our assholes are better than their best. Hopefully at some point we can get back to voting on merit and not allegiance.
There is a stark difference between the two sides. A republican could (in theory) vote for a right leaning dem and not be disappointed because they voted with the party and against the other side.
I used the words “right” and “left” only because of the physical construction of the meme; I’m really only talking about people on the left in this scenario. There are some people who just vote Democrat because they’ve always voted Democrat, their parents always voted Democrat, they never considered voting for anyone else. That’s pretty derisively represented by the drooling idiot on the meme, though honestly I have nothing against those people. This is just usually the starting place for people who are on the journey (and indeed there are some former straight-ticket Republican voters who go here too, like me–shudder).
Then there are people who have to consider whether the Democrats also deserve their vote; people who will consider voting for the Green Party, or some other left-leaning third party, if the Dem candidate is somehow not up to their standards. For the most part, no shade against these people; there might be some problematic thinking behind it, but it’s probably fine.
And then on the “genius” end of the spectrum (so named merely because it’s where a lot of people are ending up) we have the people who have decided that since everything is broken anyway they may as well just vote straight-ticket Dem because that’s the way to cause the least amount of harm (as you quite rightly put it, “prevent the next hitler from taking office”).
I’m by no means equivocating the two sides. If anything this is about people on the left choosing between Dems and third parties, but it’s more about people moving from naive to complex to simple.
The U.S. should go to proportional ranked choice voting, which would not only avoid gerrymandering it would allow has to vote for third party candidates without throwing our vote away.
We should, but there is a reason the #GOP has started outlawing RCV in states they control.
It’s similar to father’s that abuse their children because they’ve been abused. We must all suffer together instead of let life for the next generation be easier.
John-Burn Murdoch wrote an article about this (you may have to access it via Google or an Archive, I believe FT has a soft paywall), but this graph from the article is basically the tl;dr. The same applies to a couple of other wealthy nations, but I only remember Norway (I think he posted an addendum to the article on Twitter), but it’s certainly not the trend in every country in the “west”.
Jesus. No wonder the GOP is scared shitless of younger folks. That’s a pretty stark lookout for the right. (FWIW, I’m 53 and starting dipping left 10-years ago. Guess I’m a little odd, though not an outlier.)
People go conservative when they are afraid that the status quo can be taken away from them.
Everyone under the Boomers has been eating shit, and licking boots their entire life. What wealth do they have to protect? What status quo do they want to keep?
A wee behind you (recently heard someone refer to my ‘generation’ as the Oregon Trail generation) but I’m with you… if anything age has me not just leaning but charging headlong to the left.
We’re Xennials, sir/ma’am. Best microgeneration! And I agree, in fact when I was younger I was more conservative, now in my very early 40s I’m a filthy progressive, especially in the social sense.
It must be regional, Gen x Republicans seem practically non-existent in California. At least, outside of a few enclaves like redding, crescent City, and some desert towns.
Gen X here. I was told I would be a Republican when I got older. I’m still not a Republican and still an atheist in my late 40s… and yet it seems like a lot of Gen Xers, despite living through Reagan, both Bushes and Trump, still vote Republican. I don’t get it.
If you look at the poll in that article apparently every generation leans Democrat, so why aren’t they winning?
A big factor is that gerrymandering means in a given state a majority of voters will vote Democrat but Republicans will get a majority of seats.
Same with national elections, it’s good to remember that Trump didn’t win the popular vote when he “won” the first time.
And each state getting two senators regardless of population means that lesser populated states have an outsized influence, and they’re usually Republican.
So all that to say, it doesn’t mean there’s more of “them” than “us.”
The U.S. should go to proportional ranked choice voting, which would not only avoid gerrymandering it would allow has to vote for third party candidates without throwing our vote away.
This right here is the answer to all questions about this.
The republicans have a much smaller base than it seems. In addition to the gerrymandering we also have the fence sitters who let perfect be the enemy of good and either fall for the bullshit from the likes of Trump or they vote for a 3rd party because they don’t like either of the main candidates.
I wish we lived in a world where I could carefully examine every candidates views, plans for the future and history and vote regardless of the letter beside their name but we have to vote straight party line because even the worst on the left is better than the best on the right and the left is quick to throw out the trash even before it’s actually rotten.
Don’t forget we also had Russia and probably China and others manipulating the most gullible on social media and influencing fox and the outlets that make fox look almost progressive. Without that this time around (hopefully) we will probably see Biden get a larger chunk of the vote.
We definitely need to make some changes. Especially in the senator count. It should be based on population and we could still keep a minimum of two per state to simplify the transition. We also need a national grassroots movement to get another party in power starting at the city level and slowly moving up to the state and federal.
To everyone here who doesn’t want Biden because of his age and/or he’s not progressive enough, etc. If you don’t hold your nose and vote blue down the line you could be the reason why Trump gets a second term and the rest of the maggats gain even more control.
You know that meme that has the bell curve, and the meme guy on the left is a drooling idiot, the meme guy on the top looks like a normal but frantic person, and the meme guy on the right is the smug smart one wearing jedi robes?
I feel like the voting version of that has the drooling idiot saying, “I always vote straight-ticket.” And then the middle guy is like, “Nooooo I have to obsessively think about each candidate for each office and vote for the best one regardless of party!!!” And the genius on the right says, “I always vote straight-ticket.”
I get what you are saying but it’s not that easy. There is a stark difference between the two sides. A republican could (in theory) vote for a right leaning dem and not be disappointed because they voted with the party and against the other side. Those of us on the left, especially those who are way more progressive and liberal than most of our current representatives don’t have that luxury. Why? The Republicans are required to sign a statement of loyalty if they want funding from the RNC, this means that even the few left on the right who aren’t nutjobs likely won’t vote their own beliefs and conscious and they instead will vote the party line lest they be kicked out into the cold.
In addition to the above, the other big difference is that the left “cancels” (fuck I hate that word in this context) politicians for infractions that have no bearing nor effect on how they govern. The right holds up high and pushes to reelect even those who have been to prison for assaulting kids.
Maybe in my lifetime we will have more than 2 main parties and we can pick our representatives based on more than the letter beside their name. But for now, all memes aside, this is how we prevent the next hitler from taking office. My hope is that after Biden wins this election he will push the various people and agencies responsible to start going after the right for all of the crimes they have committed, seize any funds gained through fraud (I’m looking at you trump), etc
I don’t think you really do get what they’re saying - my interpretation is that if you overthink who to vote for, you’re probably missing something. It seems to me that both of you generally agree on the same approach of voting straight down the ticket. In the example, we have 3 voters: one is portrayed as being simple, and they vote straight down the ticket, another is portrayed as wisened and they also vote straight down the ticket, and then you have the third voter who is frantic in their search for the ‘best’ candidate and might split their vote.
Put another way, in the current American political climate splitting your vote is missing the forest for the trees - an individual tree (politician) is comparatively less likely to bring about radical change, but if you vote for the forest (party platform/fascism or no fascism), you’re more likely to empower the ideals you’d like to see put into action.
Exactly what I meant, yes. And excellently put, thank you.
This is exactly what I was saying.
I do understand what they are trying to say and that is exactly my point. If we want to live in a world where we can breathe fresh air, have freedom to do what we want with our own bodies, read whatever books we want and avoid living under a dictator, we need to all vote dem even if we can’t stand the person we are voting for. Obvious exception if it’s a Manchin or that other one that flipped assuming we have an idea before hand.
Ah, well then it was I who didn’t understand what you were saying. Sorry about that! We’re all on the same page here - vote blue, no matter who, even if… they stink like poo. 😂
For now, yes. Sadly that’s what we have to do. We have some jackasses on our side but our assholes are better than their best. Hopefully at some point we can get back to voting on merit and not allegiance.
I used the words “right” and “left” only because of the physical construction of the meme; I’m really only talking about people on the left in this scenario. There are some people who just vote Democrat because they’ve always voted Democrat, their parents always voted Democrat, they never considered voting for anyone else. That’s pretty derisively represented by the drooling idiot on the meme, though honestly I have nothing against those people. This is just usually the starting place for people who are on the journey (and indeed there are some former straight-ticket Republican voters who go here too, like me–shudder).
Then there are people who have to consider whether the Democrats also deserve their vote; people who will consider voting for the Green Party, or some other left-leaning third party, if the Dem candidate is somehow not up to their standards. For the most part, no shade against these people; there might be some problematic thinking behind it, but it’s probably fine.
And then on the “genius” end of the spectrum (so named merely because it’s where a lot of people are ending up) we have the people who have decided that since everything is broken anyway they may as well just vote straight-ticket Dem because that’s the way to cause the least amount of harm (as you quite rightly put it, “prevent the next hitler from taking office”).
I’m by no means equivocating the two sides. If anything this is about people on the left choosing between Dems and third parties, but it’s more about people moving from naive to complex to simple.
We should, but there is a reason the #GOP has started outlawing RCV in states they control.
Can you share more about places outlawing RCV? I had heard of previously enacted systems being repealed, but not made illegal.
There’s a handy map here of which states have outlawed it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranked-choice_voting_in_the_United_States
We need a popular voting system.
Yes, this nation is progressive on the issues. Because of a system which values cons over progressives we keep having minority rule though.
Same! If anything, I’ve gotten more liberal as I’ve gotten older.
I was pretty conservative when I joined the Army. Now I hang out with anarchists. I regret nothing.
I was in the Marines, and boy, did I not fit in at all.
Ditto. I have moved further and further left as time goes on.
I started out as a liberal, flirted with Marxism, moved on to anarchism, and now I don’t even believe countries are real anymore.
they are not. borders arent real. laws arent real. money isnt real.
It’s similar to father’s that abuse their children because they’ve been abused. We must all suffer together instead of let life for the next generation be easier.
Same.
I was a card-carrying Libertarian at 20. Now I want to quite literally outlaw billionaires.
John-Burn Murdoch wrote an article about this (you may have to access it via Google or an Archive, I believe FT has a soft paywall), but this graph from the article is basically the tl;dr. The same applies to a couple of other wealthy nations, but I only remember Norway (I think he posted an addendum to the article on Twitter), but it’s certainly not the trend in every country in the “west”.
Jesus. No wonder the GOP is scared shitless of younger folks. That’s a pretty stark lookout for the right. (FWIW, I’m 53 and starting dipping left 10-years ago. Guess I’m a little odd, though not an outlier.)
People go conservative when they are afraid that the status quo can be taken away from them.
Everyone under the Boomers has been eating shit, and licking boots their entire life. What wealth do they have to protect? What status quo do they want to keep?
A wee behind you (recently heard someone refer to my ‘generation’ as the Oregon Trail generation) but I’m with you… if anything age has me not just leaning but charging headlong to the left.
We’re Xennials, sir/ma’am. Best microgeneration! And I agree, in fact when I was younger I was more conservative, now in my very early 40s I’m a filthy progressive, especially in the social sense.
You must be one of the lucky few to not be contaminated with lead.
It must be regional, Gen x Republicans seem practically non-existent in California. At least, outside of a few enclaves like redding, crescent City, and some desert towns.
Yours is a different experience to mine then. I’ve noticed a fair share in the foothill and valley communities. Plus, pew research center says they’re affiliated with Rs at ~30% in CA.