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this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
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Leopards Ate My Face
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Thats the wildest thing about American politics to a great deal of the rest of the world. The 2 party system there is so rigidly aligned, what the hell does a gun loving gay man do on polling day?
Vote Democrat. Plenty Democrats are just fine with guns like things are now, others are fine with guns but support things like background checks, waiting periods, and red flag laws so crazy and/or angry people will have reduced ease of access. That you think Democrats don't have a large gun-loving constituency is a testament to the power of Republican propaganda
When I see so many blue state legislatures passing nonsense gun laws like bans on "high capacity" magazines and "assault weapon" bans, I start to think that the Dems maybe don't support gun rights.
I think you're going to find a large number of people who think these are common sense laws rather than "nonsense." Regarding assault rifles, a number of the states that have "banned" them will even still allow you to have one with a license.
Assault rifles and large capacity magazines constitute a very small minority of guns and gun equipment in the US, and equating these two issues with "not supporting gun rights" is again giving in to Republican propaganda. In reality, there are millions of people who support gun rights and who also support limitations on weapons that can be used to kill large numbers of people at once
Assault rifles also constitute a miniscule percentage of gun crime, and yey they're still the specter that legislators go for. To me that just says the people wanting to legislate away our rights aren't informed enough to make these decisions. Thus they spout nonsense
The issue banning or limiting assault rifle ownership is trying to address is mass murders. Banning assault rifles certainly isn't "legislating away your rights," though, because there are still a shit ton of guns you'd still be able to own. By your logic, your rights are being infringed already by not being allowed to own a machine gun, or a grenade launcher, or even a tank on up. In reality, there are no rights that are completely unlimited. For example, see the limitations on every other right outlined in the Bill of Rights. As a society, we determine where that line is drawn to support our social contract. A majority of people wanting to draw the line slightly further in one direction than you prefer isn't "legislating away your rights."
Again, the vast majority or mass murders are committed with handguns. Those stats that say we've had more shootings than days bin the year always include handgun murders.Banningg assault rifles won't noticeably decrease the number of mass shootings.
You're lumping shootings where 2 or more people are killed like gang shootings and family violence in with large-scale indiscriminate shootings of strangers.
I know, that's why I said stats from places like GVA or Everytown tend to include those shootings in their numbers.
You don't want to do anything about that either, so you don't get to argue both points. The sad truth is, we've given up the idea that kids should grow up without needing to have active shooter training in schools. Now we just want to give them a chance while the shooter has to reload.
You're right, I don't support gun control. As a populace, we have a right to our arms, and any attempt to remove them must be opposed.
Dumb
Democrats recognize there is a middle ground between "the government forcibly takes everyone's guns" and "I don't care how many children die from being shot, there ain't no way I'm giving up my gun!"
Republicans don't.
Vote third party, because if they get even like 5% in a general election they qualify for federal funding and might get taken more seriously. Sincerely, a trans girl who likes guns and hates that members of the US government will do anything to keep the narrative away from actual discussions on our crumbling infrastructure including pushing fascism and/or blind pacifist dogma but more importantly: consistently framing human rights not only as dangerous BUT secondary to the economy
The Reform Party proves this statement false, as do the Green and Libertarian Parties, which regularly achieve over 5% in down-ballot races.
In our system of voting, if you're anywhere left of center, a vote for a 3rd party candidate is a vote for the Republican. If we had a parliamentary system, or if you have ranked-choice voting where you live, sure, vote 3rd party. Otherwise, you need to be voting for the Democrat, because the very real alternative is so much worse.
I mean, you're concerned about our crumbling infrastructure, so you should be stoked about what Biden got passed last year, right? I want more of that, and in order to have more of that we need a Democratic House and more Democrats in the Senate
I agree we need to push for ranked-choice voting. But to defend Biden is to defend a segregationist who fell asleep during debates, killed M4A and refuses to do anything about trump's record-breaking fundraising/ongoing attempt at a comeback- I have no confidence at all in democrats, they want RFK or Michelle Obama to run next we are fucking doomed if they're our only hope.
"no confidence at all in democrats, they want RFK"
Not a single real Democrat wants RFK Jr. to run. He's such an obvious spoiler candidate, openly funded by the right wing. C'mon, do better.
Well, RFK aside, I HAVE gotten fundraising emails about if I support Michelle Obama and pete buttigieg as presidential candidates (awful choices as well imo) ntm ones asking If Trump should be acquitted so pardon me if I'm still distrustful of the "left" side of the absolute creepshow that is our government
From who? Are you reading your spam folder? No one is running against Biden seriously.
The DNC. And yeah, it is all spam, they suck at fundraising but still, That's the problem ffs. Biden is running unopposed when the left needs someone who actually cares.
You don’t seem to understand how any of this works.
I don't even want to know what rags you are reading or morons you are listening to to believe any of that.
I don't read "rags", I read blogs and comments because they're the only news sources that aren't owned by billionaires. Sorry my opinions aren't what you want to hear.
Lol no. What I mean is Biden IS a conservative. He was obama's VP ffs. And he DID make pro-segration comments in the past, DID fall asleep at the debates and still manage to steal the candidacy from the vastly more popular, lucid and passionate alternative (specifically Bernie Sanders but even anybody else in the debates, frankly) only to barely beat trump, allow horrible practices at the border to continue AND the construction of that stupid wall... That's all I'm saying here.
a 30 second google search will confirm what they just told you and i suspect you're a shill because only a dumbass could believe that this is misinformation when there are literally videos of biden doing this shit floating around on google.
You're reading bullshit. Some rube repeating what someone else said is not news.
Real life IS bullshit, and I can't stress enough that like 95% of "the news" is propaganda. Believe what you want, I can't stop you from doing anything but IMHO, Joe Biden does not deserve anybody's time and energy. People need to stop licking his wrinkly ass just because he's not Trump- he has continually let us down even in that respect if you ask me. Remember when he joked about running over that reporter? Dude is a rich, unlikeable asshole end of story https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/05/18/biden-jokes-running-over-reporters-while-driving-electric-truck/5152522001/
No one cares.
here's another example of propaganda led group think. biden literally did those things as well as vote against gay marriage and gays serving in military & gov't and so much more that you can see for yourself w a 30 second google search but you and most of the brain dead can't be arsed to bother and promote this kind of very easily disprovable willful ignorance.
Convince your conservative friends to vote third party. They need to realize that by allying themselves with literal Nazi's and other domestic terrorists they are corrupting themselves probably irreversibly. Our grandparents and now great-grandparents generations fought literal Nazi's and decided that they didn't belong in this world as acceptable people.
They've gotten federal funding and continue to act like clowns. The sad fact of the matter is that they don't care about winning. They don't invest heavily in Congressional races. What's a Green president going to do with 0 Green Senators or Representatives?
They aren't the savior you'll looking for. If you want things to improve, it's pretty much only Democrats. Politics isn't dating, it's business.
Third parties are not feasible (at all!) in the US electoral system. In fact, third parties are nothing more than legal voter suppression. Convince the gullible to vote for a third party rather than your opponent, well you just eliminated a vote for your opponent.
If you want something other than Democrat or Republican, first you have to change the system. To do that you have to organize and form a large enough block of voters that you can have influence over the system. If you're not doing that and just promoting third parties, all you're doing is aiding in voter suppression.
But that level of organization takes a lot of effort, and I can't blame anyone for not being able to devote the time and effort to do that. So failing a large scale organization effort, the best option is to vote for candidates in the Primary that are closer to your views, and simply vote to keep the worst option out of power in the general.
If you're voting for a third party you're not doing anything. If you're promoting a third party, you're effectively engaging in voter suppression.
I'm guessing you don't have favorable thoughts about direct action either? Voting doesn't DO ANYTHING, the electoral college does. So if you think of polling as a gauge of public sentiment... (and what the hell else is it?) Regardless, (I guess also implying you consider the U.S government to be corrupt as all hell, like anybody with eyes and ears and more than three brain cells would-) It's indisputably imperative the people hold fire to the feet of the establishment on both sides and make that distrust known at these polls, especially. But really now, voter suppression? Come the fuck on I'm not running for president, really weird you felt the need to write 4 paragraphs just to accuse me of that.
Sure the EC sucks, but it's not going away by voting for a third party which will get zero EC votes. You gotta have a real organized effort for something like that.
A much more significant factor than the EC is voter turnout. 2016 had the lowest voter turnout in decades. That's the election that Trump got voted into office.
With just a five percent increase in voter turnout among young people, the Republican party is done. Finished. Abortion rights enshrined in federal law, student debt cancelled, real spending to fight climate change, rights of trans people (like you!) no longer under threat.
The GOP knows this, so they make efforts to discourage young people from voting. "Both sides are then same, don't bother voting, if you do vote, vote for a third party." It's a strategy. A strategy that you're on the internet repeating, against your own self interests.
You're not running for president, but you've fallen for a scam being done by those that are. And you're propagating that scam. You're doing exactly what those that are working against your interests want you to do.