3 ms·

It is useful for signalling. It is meaningless on the actual election outcome. If everyone disenfranchised voted for people they thought were good but unlikely

It is useful for signalling. It is meaningless on the actual election outcome. If everyone disenfranchised voted for people they thought were good but unlikely to win, you'd maybe get enough of a signal to change the party line in future elections. But that's incredibly hard and similarly meaningless at small scale. Getting people to vote for first order effects is difficult. Try getting them to vote for second order effects. There's no political machine to get out the vote for virtuous ideas that have no chance of winning in the right now.

specialist 6y ago
Voting gives the process legitimacy. Consent of the governed and all that.
- klmadfejno 6y ago
  That is precisely the problem. I don't give either of the two viable presidential candidates consent to govern. They're illegitimate to me. There are also no particularly noteworthy third party candidates on the radar to offer a throwaway signalling vote. MLK said a riot is the language of the unheard. Huge swaths of the country are completely ignored. I'm not one of the ones particularly suffering for that, but it's deeply frustrating.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - specialist 6y ago
    I acknowledge and accept your choice to opt-out. For future, please consider your local-most issues, policies, politics. I guarantee you will have an impact. Ages ago I got worked up about a pet issue, became an activist, then graduated into politics, then policy. Retail, local, face-to-face politics and policy isn't anything like what people assume. It still sucks, because politics. But it's also amazing. My org does endorsement interviews. Dozens every year. Meeting and talking to judicial candidates, ranging from local to state supreme courts, has been the best civics lesson I've ever gotten. For example. And I've also had the chance to support many up-and-comers, some who will surely become Representatives, Senators, and Governors. And they've heard progressive views on election integrity and voting rights from someone they know and trust, during their formative years.
KingOfCoders 6y ago
Voting is not about winning.
- klmadfejno 6y ago
  1) bullshit. Voting is most definitely about winning. Less so in which systems which grant power proportional to the votes received, but true nonetheless. The president affects war, civil rights, corruption, inequality, culture, and numerous essential facets of society. Huge numbers of people don't like Joe Biden but will vote for him simply because they don't want trump to win. I probably would too if I lived in a swing state. 2) I've pretty clearly addressed that the are secondary components to voting like signalling your view. These views are largely ignored by the political process at the presidential level.

specialist 6y ago

Voting gives the process legitimacy. Consent of the governed and all that.

klmadfejno 6y ago
That is precisely the problem. I don't give either of the two viable presidential candidates consent to govern. They're illegitimate to me. There are also no particularly noteworthy third party candidates on the radar to offer a throwaway signalling vote. MLK said a riot is the language of the unheard. Huge swaths of the country are completely ignored. I'm not one of the ones particularly suffering for that, but it's deeply frustrating.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- specialist 6y ago
  I acknowledge and accept your choice to opt-out. For future, please consider your local-most issues, policies, politics. I guarantee you will have an impact. Ages ago I got worked up about a pet issue, became an activist, then graduated into politics, then policy. Retail, local, face-to-face politics and policy isn't anything like what people assume. It still sucks, because politics. But it's also amazing. My org does endorsement interviews. Dozens every year. Meeting and talking to judicial candidates, ranging from local to state supreme courts, has been the best civics lesson I've ever gotten. For example. And I've also had the chance to support many up-and-comers, some who will surely become Representatives, Senators, and Governors. And they've heard progressive views on election integrity and voting rights from someone they know and trust, during their formative years.

KingOfCoders 6y ago

Voting is not about winning.

klmadfejno 6y ago
1) bullshit. Voting is most definitely about winning. Less so in which systems which grant power proportional to the votes received, but true nonetheless. The president affects war, civil rights, corruption, inequality, culture, and numerous essential facets of society. Huge numbers of people don't like Joe Biden but will vote for him simply because they don't want trump to win. I probably would too if I lived in a swing state. 2) I've pretty clearly addressed that the are secondary components to voting like signalling your view. These views are largely ignored by the political process at the presidential level.