The people passionate enough to post here ARE going to vote for Biden… but we’re not the ones that need CONVINCING. It’s the normies who are not terminally online like you and me and everyone else here constantly scrolling Lemmy.
And NO… what the Ds are doing now isn’t enough. FDR’s GI bill was. The New Deal was. Passing Civil Rights legislation that let black people vote was. The Rural Electrification Act - which provided safe and reliable electricity to every single neighborhood in America no matter how rural for the first time in history for many people who’d never even seen light outside of a candle… that was enough.
Let me give you a story to explain our dumb monkey brains and why it’s on our REPRESENTATIVES to convince the masses to show up :
Every year, Denny’s - a shitty breakfast joint in the US that’s been around all over the place for decades - does (or at least used to do - I haven’t checked in a while) a “free breakfast day” where they allow anyone who gets in the door that day free breakfast until they run out of food.
Simple, popular, and a good enough thing that people will stand for an hour outside a shitty food place for a $10 plate of lukewarm pancakes, dry powdered eggs, and soggy bacon.
Now let’s pretend that the Democratic Party now runs Denny’s for some reason. First off they’d never do a “free breakfast.” They’d have a “bring a coupon” or a “if you show your ID that proves you’re below X% of the current median salary or X% of the current poverty level adjusted for inflation” or a “mail in your receipt and in 5 weeks we’ll give you a tax write-off you can get to reduce your tax debt as long as you itemize” day. Also you’d only get to do it once per decade or some other bullshit.
So no one would show up. Because all the bullshit instead of just “free breakfast.”
But they don’t even do that. Let’s pretend the abortion issue is Denny’s free breakfast day. Democrats would be saying “IF you don’t come wait in line outside the Denny’s for 2 hours in high enough numbers, we’re going to cancel the ‘bring a coupon for free breakfast that day’ event we do every year.”
…And people don’t show up for that as much… because we have dumb monkey brains that want a candy bar or pancake right now.
Now do you see why it’s not really helpful to tell voters THEY have a responsibility? If you do a good job by telling people what you are going to do and its simple and tangibly beneficial, and then you DO it… or at least LOUDLY proclaim every moment you’re in front of the bully pulpit why you aren’t able to do so by righteously pointing out when the Rs and even the Joe Manchin types blocking it at every moment, turns out people DO show up.
TL;DR - YOU MUST OFFER SOMETHING TANGIBLE TO MOTIVATE THE COMMON MASSES TO WAIT OUTSIDE THEIR 1 REMAINING POLLING STATION FOR 8 HOURS… NOT JUST SCOLD THEM AND TELL THEM THEY’RE GOING TO LOSE <X> IF THEY DON’T OR THEY WON’T SHOW UP… BECAUSE WE ARE ALL DUMB MONKEYS THAT WANT A BANANA RIGHT NOW AND NOT A “ONE-TIME MAIL-IN PARTIAL-REBATE ON OUR MONKEY TAXES, BUT ALSO ONLY FOR MONKEYS WHO HAVEN’T HAD MORE THAN 3 BANAN…”
why it’s on our REPRESENTATIVES to convince the masses to show up
Yes they have a lot of responsibility here but so does every single eligible-to-vote goddamn citizen. It is your DUTY to participate and vote because if you do not it REDUCES YOUR OWN REPRESENTATION which is quite literally the opposite of why this nation was born in the first place.
You present voting as if it is a quid-pro-quo transaction, and to an extent you’re not that far off; party A thinks they can lead better than B and advertises the things they want to do to bring in support. Party A pushes x/y/z policies that voters care about and thus Party A earns votes over B. They are not owed any votes.
That’s all very well and good in a vacuum but we don’t live in a sterile little box and instead we live in a messy blurry complex setting full of voters and non-voters (further offsetting the true voice of the people). Your little story of how voting must be earned by being both enticing/motivating and be easy enough to not be cumbersome in any way does not translate well to reality. We have blatant corruption and we almost lost our democracy in 2020 as Trump planned to simply stay in power, I could go on, but won’t because you are clearly aware of these things.
It is no longer just about party A’s policies vs party B’s. It’s quite literally a fight for the future of US democracy, it’s a fight for SCOTUS control for generations, it’s so much more than just the Pres.
But they don’t even do that. Let’s pretend the abortion issue is Denny’s free breakfast day. Democrats would be saying “IF you don’t come wait in line outside the Denny’s for 2 hours in high enough numbers, we’re going to cancel the ‘bring a coupon for free breakfast that day’ event we do every year.”
ONE PARTY is focused on gerrymandering and disenfranchising voters, making voting as hard as possible, and another has been focused on the opposite. You are balancing your little story on the premise that the Rs and Ds set up a bad system that is a pain in the ass for the average voter to get what they want, when that isn’t what is happening at all. No D is saying well you weren’t willing to wait in line to vote or drop off your ballot or whatever so fuck you we’re quitting the rest of the race or the next race or whatever, or even saying well fuck you we won’t run on these policies again.
IT IS THE OTHER PARTY WHO ATTACKS VOTING from all angles, making it harder, mixing up districts to silence opposition strongholds, etc.
And with that, we see exactly why your condescending little rant has no real application to reality; it’s wholly unrepresentative to the complex situation we find ourselves in. Is Dennys run by two competing factions? Is one of those two factions trying to silence worker and customer majorities to uphold their minority views and hunger for power, causing as much chaos as possible to stop progress when they don’t hold the reins? By the way, in that bullshit fake scenario, the Rs would be the ones trying to take away the free breakfast because too many customers come and eat for free.
YES THE POLITICIAN$ HOLD A LOT OF THE BLAME (most of it, even), but THAT DOES NOT MEAN that the people hold no responsibility of the outcome. If you don’t vote when you are able, you are unamerican and are hurting yourself along with everyone else. You should not be withholding your vote waiting for someone to come take it on a silver platter. If you live in this country and you can legally vote, YOU HAVE A DUTY TO YOURSELF AND THE REST OF US TO VOTE.
Your comment is so fucking self-centered and shortsighted it’s honestly disgusting.
Well that’s a hell of a tortured metaphor, but point taken. Deliverance from definite fascist destruction of democracy and the planet is not motivating enough.
And when they stop it with their corrupt rich-asshole appointed Supreme Court, point at the Rs and yell “SEE?! THEY DON’T YOU TO HAVE GOOD THINGS! THEY HATE YOU!”
They are doing that. You can see it’s been picked up by corporate news like wildfire. Or - what’s the opposite of wildfire.
I agree. I’ve been arguing this point against decades of Republican-lite tone-deaf dipshit Dem leaders. For those who don’t know, believe it or not, it’s finally moving - just as the “waah dems didn’t give me a pony” crowd are so helpfully parroting russian GRU talking points to depress turnout.
Yeah on the whole Dems have gone through plenty of ineffective and blatantly counter activity in the last 50 years. But they’ve also been the mechanism by which anything good has been legislated. Sometimes with Republicans’ help, usually not.
And because the electoral college is such a lopsided slave-owner cheat device, third party is most definitely only detrimental at this time. Yeah, like last time, yeah like every other time we’ve had to deal with the electoral college which is, uh, at least the last 50 years.
“Weeeahh but why don’t democrats get rid of the electoral college”. FFS. Yeah. Why. It’s probably a grand bougie conspiracy. OR - or, okay, a complicated and massive governmental change which is almost impossible to do without overwhelming public support.
Sarcasm detected loud and clear… but uhh… I kinda think it’s not really that grand a conspiracy to think many people in power are just fucking dragons wanting to sleep on piles of gold motivated purely by greed.
There’s no collaboration or grand plotting needed. Lobbyists just walk up and say “money to not do the thing.”
Plenty of work to do, yes. Within established structures. I have no interest in re-inventing the wheel because someone’s PoliSci course opened their mind to new possibilities.
End Citizens United, end the electoral slaver’s college, impeach crooked justices, and yes severe limits on lobbying. One of the two main parties is capable and interested in those things.
Spoiler alert, it takes a united Congress and more than ten weeks to do that.
Some people here just don’t seem to get it.
The people passionate enough to post here ARE going to vote for Biden… but we’re not the ones that need CONVINCING. It’s the normies who are not terminally online like you and me and everyone else here constantly scrolling Lemmy.
And NO… what the Ds are doing now isn’t enough. FDR’s GI bill was. The New Deal was. Passing Civil Rights legislation that let black people vote was. The Rural Electrification Act - which provided safe and reliable electricity to every single neighborhood in America no matter how rural for the first time in history for many people who’d never even seen light outside of a candle… that was enough.
Let me give you a story to explain our dumb monkey brains and why it’s on our REPRESENTATIVES to convince the masses to show up :
Every year, Denny’s - a shitty breakfast joint in the US that’s been around all over the place for decades - does (or at least used to do - I haven’t checked in a while) a “free breakfast day” where they allow anyone who gets in the door that day free breakfast until they run out of food.
…And people go fucking nuts for it.
In every instance you search on Google for “Denny’s free breakfast day crowd” you can see that people lined up for BLOCKS for a shitty Denny’s breakfast.
Simple, popular, and a good enough thing that people will stand for an hour outside a shitty food place for a $10 plate of lukewarm pancakes, dry powdered eggs, and soggy bacon.
Now let’s pretend that the Democratic Party now runs Denny’s for some reason. First off they’d never do a “free breakfast.” They’d have a “bring a coupon” or a “if you show your ID that proves you’re below X% of the current median salary or X% of the current poverty level adjusted for inflation” or a “mail in your receipt and in 5 weeks we’ll give you a tax write-off you can get to reduce your tax debt as long as you itemize” day. Also you’d only get to do it once per decade or some other bullshit.
So no one would show up. Because all the bullshit instead of just “free breakfast.”
But they don’t even do that. Let’s pretend the abortion issue is Denny’s free breakfast day. Democrats would be saying “IF you don’t come wait in line outside the Denny’s for 2 hours in high enough numbers, we’re going to cancel the ‘bring a coupon for free breakfast that day’ event we do every year.”
…And people don’t show up for that as much… because we have dumb monkey brains that want a candy bar or pancake right now.
Now do you see why it’s not really helpful to tell voters THEY have a responsibility? If you do a good job by telling people what you are going to do and its simple and tangibly beneficial, and then you DO it… or at least LOUDLY proclaim every moment you’re in front of the bully pulpit why you aren’t able to do so by righteously pointing out when the Rs and even the Joe Manchin types blocking it at every moment, turns out people DO show up.
TL;DR - YOU MUST OFFER SOMETHING TANGIBLE TO MOTIVATE THE COMMON MASSES TO WAIT OUTSIDE THEIR 1 REMAINING POLLING STATION FOR 8 HOURS… NOT JUST SCOLD THEM AND TELL THEM THEY’RE GOING TO LOSE <X> IF THEY DON’T OR THEY WON’T SHOW UP… BECAUSE WE ARE ALL DUMB MONKEYS THAT WANT A BANANA RIGHT NOW AND NOT A “ONE-TIME MAIL-IN PARTIAL-REBATE ON OUR MONKEY TAXES, BUT ALSO ONLY FOR MONKEYS WHO HAVEN’T HAD MORE THAN 3 BANAN…”
Yes they have a lot of responsibility here but so does every single eligible-to-vote goddamn citizen. It is your DUTY to participate and vote because if you do not it REDUCES YOUR OWN REPRESENTATION which is quite literally the opposite of why this nation was born in the first place.
You present voting as if it is a quid-pro-quo transaction, and to an extent you’re not that far off; party A thinks they can lead better than B and advertises the things they want to do to bring in support. Party A pushes x/y/z policies that voters care about and thus Party A earns votes over B. They are not owed any votes.
That’s all very well and good in a vacuum but we don’t live in a sterile little box and instead we live in a messy blurry complex setting full of voters and non-voters (further offsetting the true voice of the people). Your little story of how voting must be earned by being both enticing/motivating and be easy enough to not be cumbersome in any way does not translate well to reality. We have blatant corruption and we almost lost our democracy in 2020 as Trump planned to simply stay in power, I could go on, but won’t because you are clearly aware of these things.
It is no longer just about party A’s policies vs party B’s. It’s quite literally a fight for the future of US democracy, it’s a fight for SCOTUS control for generations, it’s so much more than just the Pres.
ONE PARTY is focused on gerrymandering and disenfranchising voters, making voting as hard as possible, and another has been focused on the opposite. You are balancing your little story on the premise that the Rs and Ds set up a bad system that is a pain in the ass for the average voter to get what they want, when that isn’t what is happening at all. No D is saying well you weren’t willing to wait in line to vote or drop off your ballot or whatever so fuck you we’re quitting the rest of the race or the next race or whatever, or even saying well fuck you we won’t run on these policies again.
IT IS THE OTHER PARTY WHO ATTACKS VOTING from all angles, making it harder, mixing up districts to silence opposition strongholds, etc.
And with that, we see exactly why your condescending little rant has no real application to reality; it’s wholly unrepresentative to the complex situation we find ourselves in. Is Dennys run by two competing factions? Is one of those two factions trying to silence worker and customer majorities to uphold their minority views and hunger for power, causing as much chaos as possible to stop progress when they don’t hold the reins? By the way, in that bullshit fake scenario, the Rs would be the ones trying to take away the free breakfast because too many customers come and eat for free.
YES THE POLITICIAN$ HOLD A LOT OF THE BLAME (most of it, even), but THAT DOES NOT MEAN that the people hold no responsibility of the outcome. If you don’t vote when you are able, you are unamerican and are hurting yourself along with everyone else. You should not be withholding your vote waiting for someone to come take it on a silver platter. If you live in this country and you can legally vote, YOU HAVE A DUTY TO YOURSELF AND THE REST OF US TO VOTE.
Your comment is so fucking self-centered and shortsighted it’s honestly disgusting.
Well that’s a hell of a tortured metaphor, but point taken. Deliverance from definite fascist destruction of democracy and the planet is not motivating enough.
What about free panninis?
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Part of the problem is the Republican party is pretty unified around being assholes, and the Democrats have a mix of progressive and asshole.
The assholes in democratic party then team up with republican assholes to prevent progressives
They are doing that. You can see it’s been picked up by corporate news like wildfire. Or - what’s the opposite of wildfire.
Well, at best - maybe. Again: Electoral College.
I agree. I’ve been arguing this point against decades of Republican-lite tone-deaf dipshit Dem leaders. For those who don’t know, believe it or not, it’s finally moving - just as the “waah dems didn’t give me a pony” crowd are so helpfully parroting russian GRU talking points to depress turnout.
Yeah on the whole Dems have gone through plenty of ineffective and blatantly counter activity in the last 50 years. But they’ve also been the mechanism by which anything good has been legislated. Sometimes with Republicans’ help, usually not.
And because the electoral college is such a lopsided slave-owner cheat device, third party is most definitely only detrimental at this time. Yeah, like last time, yeah like every other time we’ve had to deal with the electoral college which is, uh, at least the last 50 years.
“Weeeahh but why don’t democrats get rid of the electoral college”. FFS. Yeah. Why. It’s probably a grand bougie conspiracy. OR - or, okay, a complicated and massive governmental change which is almost impossible to do without overwhelming public support.
Sarcasm detected loud and clear… but uhh… I kinda think it’s not really that grand a conspiracy to think many people in power are just fucking dragons wanting to sleep on piles of gold motivated purely by greed.
There’s no collaboration or grand plotting needed. Lobbyists just walk up and say “money to not do the thing.”
…And then they say “ok” and take the money.
Plenty of work to do, yes. Within established structures. I have no interest in re-inventing the wheel because someone’s PoliSci course opened their mind to new possibilities.
End Citizens United, end the electoral slaver’s college, impeach crooked justices, and yes severe limits on lobbying. One of the two main parties is capable and interested in those things.
Spoiler alert, it takes a united Congress and more than ten weeks to do that.
Don’t feed the troll