Image Transcription:
A tweet from the George Takei Twitter account which states:
"A Democrat was in the White House when my family was sent to the internment camps in 1941. It was an egregious violation of our human and civil rights.
It would have been understandable if people like me said they’d never vote for a Democrat again, given what had been done to us.
But being a liberal, being a progressive, means being able to look past my own grievances and concerns and think of the greater good. It means working from within the Democratic party to make it better, even when it has betrayed its values.
I went on to campaign for Adlai Stevenson when I became an adult. I marched for civil rights and had the honor of meeting Dr. Martin Luther King. I fought for redress for my community and have spent my life ensuring that America understood that we could not betray our Constitution in such a way ever again.
Bill Clinton broke my heart when he signed DOMA into law. It was a slap in the face to the LGBTQ community. And I knew that we still had much work to do. But I voted for him again in 1996 despite my misgivings, because the alternative was far worse. And my obligation as a citizen was to help choose the best leader for it, not to check out by not voting out of anger or protest.
There is no leader who will make the decision you want her or him to make 100 percent of the time. Your vote is a tool of hope for a better world. Use it wisely, for it is precious. Use it for others, for they are in need of your support, too."
End Transcription.
The last paragraph I find particularly powerful and something more people really should take into account.
This would all be resolved if America just changed first past the post voting.
We'll only change it with enough push from citizens
Push for a new system (like ranked choice or STAR) in your state for state elections and we can likely make it popular enough to get it to the national stage
Speaking as an Australian:
I also feel like you need mandatory voting (with enforcement), like what we have. That reframes elections from "riling up your power base so they go out and vote" to "hey average voter, here's why you should vote for me and how things will improve if you do so".
Americans don't even get the day off to vote, and they have to stand in line for 12 to 16 hours to be able to vote.
I think they would revolt if they were required by law to vote.
Mitch McConnell literally called a proposal to give federal workers election day off so they could vote a "Democrat power grab"
In the end my view on it is you're asking yourself what battlefield you want to fight on when you vote for president. Sure both of the likely options are going to be uphill battles but one seems much easier to battle in than the other.
Preaching to the choir, I know, but you'd think it'd be pretty fucking telling to American voters when there's always one party, the same party, fighting against any efforts to make voting and elections easier, more accessible, more transparent, more representative, and more able to accurately reflect the true will of the people.
Not saying that either side is perfect on that scorecard, but one party, over and over and over again has tirelessly worked to prevent any sort of measure that might allow the American people to have their wishes and interests reflected in their elections.
This is exactly why I find it so frustrating when people holler "they're the same"
It shows exactly how uninformed they are or how misleading they are being
It's really easy to see how each member voted in Congress and it's really easy to see who supports what
Not to mention the statements made by the politicians
STAR is great. Ranked choice is, at best, it’s a little better than FPP. At worst, it’s the same as FPP. I hate how many people are pushing for FPP, when STAR is just the best choice, by far. At worst, it’s leagues better than FPP and ranked choice.
I only recently learned about STAR and it really seems great, I'm hoping that I can convince more people in my home state it's a good idea
So far my friends and family are on board, and they've talked with more people they know
So only about 200ish down and a few million to go
That has to happen at the state level, as they control how the elections are conducted.
Something I try to drum up in these sorts of threads is that your state and local elections can be far more important to pushing progressive policy than federal elections. Most of the work for high speed rail, for example, has to be taken up by state government. The federal government might offer some funding, but they only hold that out there for states to choose to take or not. Same with bicycle lanes, housing, or diverting police funding into more comprehensive solutions. That's all state and local government.
Voting for Democrats at the federal level is merely to keep some of that funding sitting out there, and to not actively block progress otherwise. That's it. That's what voting them into the White House and Congress is for. The rest needs to be done in your local community.
Ish.
If each state holds an internal ranked choice election and assigns their electors based on that, almost certainly the result would be that no one has 270 electoral college votes and the house of representatives gets to appoint whoever they want.
You'd have to have a national ranked choice vote. That's because ranked choice is inconsistent; you could have an election where A wins every state, but nationally D wins. More likely, though, you'd have vote splitting across states.
Or if the debates weren't managed by a private entity owned by the other two parties.
Canada has first past the post voting, and 3 active parties. My province has first pas the post and has 4 major parties (with a 5th one that is close but can't get a representative in). I'll agree that ranked voting at least would be a lot better.
Dude using Canada's FPTP system as a positive example is ridiculous, it's barely functioning.
Don't worry, with enough time it will be as dysfunctional as the US's FPTP system
Cries in American
And it's a disaster in Canada. The only reason the Conservatives ever take power up there is because of the giant vote split between NDP and the Liberals. Look how the conservatives are heavy favorites to win their next election despite every poll showing them with less than the combined votes of the Liberals and NDP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_45th_Canadian_federal_election
I mean you assume that a significant number of NDP voters would vote for the libs if they weren't there (or maybe vice-versa). I'm really not sure of that.
Yes I definitely assume that. Maybe not every single person since who knows what goes on in people's heads, but generally we should expect the voters for the two left of center parties to prefer the other left of center one to the right wing one. Particularly since presumably if there was a single party representing those voters it would probably be somewhere in between them ideology-wise.
Sorry for the late reply, the lack of a red envelope makes me not notice replies.
People on election day have to decide if they go voting at all. This is a big deal, it's what most of the campaign in the ridding is focusing on changing (you want to make sure all of your voters go vote, that is top priority in an election).
Having a party that is a bad fit for you is demotivating and likely to reduce turnout. That is what I mean by "likely to vote". It's not the right wing option that people will go for. It's the comfort of staying home and not bothering to vote for a "lib" if you're a progressive, or for a "commie" if you're a lib. For some people, the NDP is already too far right...
So yeah, some of the support of the NDP would transfer over to the liberal party, but definitely not all. And that's not to mention all of the crazy people who can go from NDP to tories at the drop of a hat (voters have shallower roots than the base, or have irrational hatred of specific politicians or parties) or who would just vote Bloq Québécois or something else.