Finished watching last night's Republican debate.

I can only stomach two of the candidates, and just barely.

You might be wondering why in the fuck I'd do this, which is fair. I plan to take a Republican ballot in the primary, solely to vote against Trump, and unfortunately it's very plausible that the Democrats do not win the presidency in 2024.

I wouldn't subject my fragile sanity to that nonsense, but read that Vivek R. L
proposed a border wall with Canada and called Zelensky a "nazi." I have yet to understand why right-wingers continue to suck off Putin.

Krev wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2023 1:22 pm I wouldn't subject my fragile sanity to that nonsense, but read that Vivek R. L
proposed a border wall with Canada and called Zelensky a "nazi." I have yet to understand why right-wingers continue to suck off Putin.

Yep, that guy talks for shock value. He'd have no fucking clue what to do if he actually won...

I guess we just went through that in 2017-2020.

Anthony Flack wrote: Wed Nov 08, 2023 10:42 pm Is that why people of colour are now swinging towards Trump so hard?

i told you about my filipina coworker's husband. when she said trump can make russia go away i just gave her a blank stare mostly out of habit. i can only give so much of myself to people, and i don't want to know exactly how dumb my coworker is. it's not worth it.
so that's one data point. the more affluent asians that i know who voted for trump did it for economic reasons. they aren't out there bragging about it though.

jfv wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2023 1:18 pm Finished watching last night's Republican debate.

I can only stomach two of the candidates, and just barely.

You might be wondering why in the fuck I'd do this, which is fair. I plan to take a Republican ballot in the primary, solely to vote against Trump, and unfortunately it's very plausible that the Democrats do not win the presidency in 2024.

I live in Texas. Voting is mostly a defensive thing for anyone not batshit, so I've voted in a lot of Republican primaries to keep the loonies out.

I don't understand the "lesser of 2 evils is still evil" thing that a lot of progressives are posturing now RE: Trump v. Biden. I mean, I do, but there's idealism and there are practical considerations to this whole thing.

Maybe it's just a social media thing, but there is a clear difference between the outcomes each will likely produce. Voting in the US will never be a ringing endorsement of a candidate or even a party - it's a recognition that what we have, while incredibly flawed, is still preferrable to christo-fascism.

Not that hard a calculation. We already lost Roe b/c of Trump.

Frankie99 wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2023 2:05 pmMaybe it's just a social media thing, but there is a clear difference between the outcomes each will likely produce. Voting in the US will never be a ringing endorsement of a candidate or even a party - it's a recognition that what we have, while incredibly flawed, is still preferrable to christo-fascism.

Not that hard a calculation. We already lost Roe b/c of Trump.

Yeah, it's odd to see this line of thought you were talking about cropping up again and again.

Who gets to be POTUS is an inherently compromised macro-scale issue with far-reaching implications. If someone thinks both candidates suck, that's valid, but we can't pretend there's nothing at stake, that it makes no difference who wins. Someone can not vote out of spite, or cast a protest vote or something similar, but that's not a neutral position. "Staying out of it" or casting a "fuck you" will only serve the candidate whose party tends to win when voter turnout is lower rather than higher. That's usually the GOP. So not voting for anyone, or writing in "the Ghost of Rip Taylor" would only be casting a vote for Trump.

The conspiracy/skeptic in me thinks that a lot if it is just a RNC thing where they're pumping the narrative "If they're both killers, then who cares" in an effort to further deflate support for Biden, but I have nothing to connect those dots other than the despicable ways that politics are played in the US.

...and, right on cue, there's this. Oh, fuckin' hell.

(Jill Stein announces 2024 bid under Green Party line)

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/09/politics ... index.html

DaveA wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2023 3:24 pm

Frankie99 wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2023 2:05 pmMaybe it's just a social media thing, but there is a clear difference between the outcomes each will likely produce. Voting in the US will never be a ringing endorsement of a candidate or even a party - it's a recognition that what we have, while incredibly flawed, is still preferrable to christo-fascism.

Not that hard a calculation. We already lost Roe b/c of Trump.

Yeah, it's odd to see this line of thought you were talking about cropping up again and again.

Who gets to be POTUS is an inherently compromised macro-scale issue with far-reaching implications. If someone thinks both candidates suck, that's valid, but we can't pretend there's nothing at stake, that it makes no difference who wins. Someone can not vote out of spite, or cast a protest vote or something similar, but that's not a neutral position. "Staying out of it" or casting a "fuck you" will only serve the candidate whose party tends to win when voter turnout is lower rather than higher. That's usually the GOP. So not voting for anyone, or writing in "the Ghost of Rip Taylor" would only be casting a vote for Trump.

Yeah, it's like "How would you like less evil? It's free, it will only take 5-30 minutes depending on where you live and you could actually help sign us up for less evil!"

"But will there still be some evil?"

"Yes, but you could make it less."

"Fuck you, then. I'm not helping."

jfv wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2023 1:18 pm Finished watching last night's Republican debate.

I can only stomach two of the candidates, and just barely.

You might be wondering why in the fuck I'd do this, which is fair. I plan to take a Republican ballot in the primary, solely to vote against Trump, and unfortunately it's very plausible that the Democrats do not win the presidency in 2024.

It is odd to me that the press was saying that DeSantis won that debate. That guy is such a putz. No matter how hard he tries, he is just charmless, and his attempts to sound badass are just laughable. If I had to pick a winner I'd go with Nikki Haley 1st, Chris Christie 2nd. They both seem to push a middle aisle, semi-progressive vibe which I was initially taken aback by. Then I remembered what I told my 12yo at the beginning- "One thing to know is that ALL of these people are full of shit."