politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
They can worry about the spoiler effect... Or they can worry about the massive amount of people who don't vote because they feel it's pointless or barely muster enough care to do it.
The fact that these experienced politicians whose judgment you appear to trust, have both decided to work within the existing system should probably sway your opinion of what the optimal strategy is at least a bit more.
There are usually two parties because the game-theoretic dynamic of this electoral system has a significant channelizing effect on the likeliest outcomes. Once you've accepted that reality, the (admittedly unsatisfying) optimal strategy becomes apparent.
I say this all with zero rancor - I do not like these arguments either, but the logic of it is difficult to see past. I would prefer the system be overthrown entirely but, and this is key, you go into the revolution with the populace that exists - and they're going to have their own ideas for what comes next. I'm not so sure I'd like what they bring to the table.
I like them but would I don't think I would consider them that successful in respective of their peers. This system is literally against them being successful.
That's so.
A career in politics hasn't attracted much high quality talent in general, I think they'd be more successful if there was more of a sense of politics being a good option for good people. It mainly attracts scum these days.
Unfortunately, you are correct. Politicians [in general, not all of them] suck.
Nobody needs to worry about people who don't vote.
"You don't vote" is what Democrats say to anyone they don't want to listen to, regardless of whether they actually vote.
Democrats need to listen to people who vote.
But the person I replied to said they also need to worry about nonvoters. They don't. Nonvoters don't matter.
If they follow that logic they'll never win, because the number of people who will unconditionally vote Dem is demonstrably not enough to win an election.
They don't care about winning if it means lowering themselves to the level of trying to court voters.
They court voters all the time. They don't court nonvoters.
For the same reason, campaigns don't depend on getting youth to finally turn out to vote. It's a strategy that has never worked.
They conveniently designate those they don't want to listen to as nonvoters, and pay no actual attention to whether the demographics they ignore are voters or not. "They don't vote" is a pretext and has never been anything else.
They don't have to "designate" people as nonvoters. A nonvoter is someone who doesn't vote. Nonvoters designate themselves.
Until the election has passed and they haven't voted, only then are they nonvoters. Before the election, calling them nonvoters is just an excuse to ignore them.
No, there is a specific term for people like that: "First time voters". And they are courted by all parties.
It's never occurred to you that parties need to actually try to retain voters to keep them from staying home in disgust?
Again, the vast majority of nonvoters are politically disengaged. They don't stay home out of disgust, they stay home because they don't care.
Again, they weren't nonvoters until after the election. They were ignored before the election.
Now keep ignoring what I'm saying and repeat yourself. I voted in 2024, but that won't stop you from declaring me a nonvoter so you can ignore me. It's way easier than listening.
I know you aren't a nonvoter, and I never said you were one.
Nonvoters include people who don't bother to register and people who say they don't plan to vote. So they can be identified before an election.
And despite what many seem to think, the vast majority of nonvoters would not become voters even if a candidate had done X, whether X is "support Palestine" or "support trans people" or "stop talking about trans people" or whatever else.
People love to project their personal politics onto nonvoters, but the fact is that nonvoters are nonvoters mainly because they do not care about politics.
It's really no different than other human activities. For example, I don't watch NASCAR races because I do not care about NASCAR. And NASCAR drivers ignore me, which is fine. Because even if they were highly interested in me, there is literally nothing they could do that would make me want to watch NASCAR.
I am a NASCAR "non-watcher". Well, turns out lots of people feel the same about politics as I do about NASCAR.
Democrats won over 200 federal elections last month. Believe it or not, Harris was not the only Democrat on the ballot.
That 200 wasn't enough to keep the Senate or win the House so I'm not sure what your point is.
The point is that "Democrats will never win" is obviously false, since many of them win every year.
Are you fucking serious? I have better things to do than engage with whatever this is, but you should really think hard about a lot of things if you really believe what you just said.
Yes, I'm serious. Are you? Because "Democrats will never win" is about as serious as someone who says "The 49ers will never win" after watching last week's game.
When it's time to decide on policy, they don't. When assigning blame, they're the only thing that matters.
But they are always conveniently whoever the party doesn't want to listen to.
The vast majority of nonvoters are politically disengaged, and there's no evidence that their opinions differ significantly from those of voters.
Ok. So don't gripe when the groups you don't pursue because "they don't vote" don't vote. And especially don't gripe when they prove you wrong by voting for your second choice.
If they vote for my second choice, then by definition they aren't nonvoters.