this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
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politics

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 2 months ago (76 children)

So Stein is again working to get trump elected

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Echoing this, if no candidate gets a majority of the electoral votes, then the decision goes to the house of representatives, currently majority Republican. Actually voting for Stein or another third party is unlikely to get them elected to office, but introduces multiple potential ways to get Trump back in office.

The Bernie approach of getting into the primaries introduces the opportunity to debate the establishment and better advocate for change from the front runner.

EDIT: Each state gets one vote in the house of representatives when electing the president, so the existing Republican majority doesn't apply. This probably would make it easier for Trump to get elected because populated Democrat states have the same number of votes as less populated Republican states.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Let's be real. Votes for third parties in already decided states such as California or Missouri only help promote in some small way a diversity of parties that the US sorely needs.

I think it's only in battleground states where it would benefit someone to think more tactically about the use of their vote versus participating in the system as intended, i.e. voting for their preferred candidate.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

If your state is deeply in the hands of your closer-aligned party, then probably, though down-ballot races are always important to consider too. Even things like school boards.

If your state is deeply in the hands of your most-opposed party, though, you should be aware that flips can and do happen. Our "swing state" system is by no means stable, which states are "swing" changes pretty steadily, and broad waves are still very possible. Additionally, by making a state come closer to even, you can force your opposed party to devote some of their limited resources to defending it in the future. So, you can hurt a party by voting for their opponents even when they have a strong grip.

It's useful to consider a historical context, where over the 2.5 centuries, the elections have shifted every which way. There really is no predicting what the future holds beyond the most immediate, short-term horizon. It is absolutely not stable, though, never has been. It's not intended to be, after all, otherwise we wouldn't have things like term limits.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (15 children)

A 1% candidate isn't haunting anyone.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (16 children)

Jill Stein is completely irrelevant.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (9 children)

Do y’all in the Green Party have anything to show for yourselves past this person? I’ve never seen a local showing. It seems like y’all do nothing except run for president every four years, then vanish. I mean I know Republicans who do more for local conservation and green initiatives than y’all. Really.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I'm regularly struck by the literal insanity of politics, but this whole deal with Israel is a particularly notable example.

The fact of the matter is that we have no idea what Harris's actual opinion of the situation is. Regardless of what it might actually be, she has to support Israel, which at this point means supporting a government of literal murderous psychopaths who are simultaneously carrying out a genocide in Gaza and a violent incremental illegal land grab in the West Bank while also brazenly trying to provoke, and drag the US into, a war with Lebanon or Syria or Yemen or Iran. And why does she have to support all of that patent evil? Because if she doesn't, AIPAC will spend millions and millions of dollars trying to destroy her, like they already destroyed Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, for daring to have principles.

And what's the likely net result of that? To elect a Republican, which is to say, a member of the party of actual antisemites.

They accuse Democrats of being antisemites merely for calling genocide genocide, and meanwhile, the actual antisemites - the people who comtinue to hold to the notion of Jews as evil, money-grubbing vermin who are conspiring to take over the world, are Republicans, even including Republicans in high office, like "Jewish space lasers" Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Think about how insane that is - a politician has to publicly support a genocidal regime or face being called an antisemite and having an Israeli advocacy group spend millions and millions of dollars to destroy her and instead elect the candidate from the party of actual Jew-hating antisemites.

And as if that isn't enough, we have Jill Stein in the middle of it all, who, with zero chance of actually winning, is free to take the position that any rational person should take, and the position that the majority of the Democratic base takes - that genocide is genocide and is rightly condemned. And that then introduces the risk that she'll draw off enough Democratic voters, merely by taking the position held by the majority, so the position that the Democratic candidate should take, that it will hand the election to the Republican - the candidate of the party of actual antisemites.

The whole thing is bludgeoningly insane. I don't think anyone could've created such a grotesquely dysfunctional and actuslly counter-productive system if they'd deliberately set out to do it.

And yet that's the world we live in - the world we're forced to live in - a world warped by the literal insanity of a wealthy and powerful few.

It boggles my mind.

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