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.
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.