3 ms·

Or another thing that could be very healthy for America is to finally have a few election cycles where both the Dem/Rep candidate are not reprehensible. That st

Or another thing that could be very healthy for America is to finally have a few election cycles where both the Dem/Rep candidate are not reprehensible. That stops the narrative from becoming dire as ‘the most important election in our lifetime, and we can’t have a third party candidate stealing votes’. Democrats are particularly guilty of using this excuse over and over, and at some point need to stop resorting to it.

mschuster91 6y ago
The problem is that the Democrats literally can't put up a candidate that would even be considered "social democrat" or "centrist" by European standards. Even Biden is center-right from our point of view. Everyone they could put up would just get smeared and mercilessly attacked by the entire political and media right wing, from the far right Tea Party/QAnon/MAGA/Breitbart/Fox following of the Republicans to the fringes of the Democrats, as "socialist", "communist" or whatever. Even Joe fucking Biden who doesn't support something as basic as M4A gets called an "anarchist ally", it's madness. I am not sure how the US is ever supposed to fix this, given literal decades of red scare brainwashing. I'm afraid that the only real way out of the current mess, assuming that either Trump "wins" (or wins for real) or Biden gets locked by a R-majority Senate under "Moscow Mitch" McConnell may/will be some sort of revolution - when there are millions upon millions of people who are out of a job and homeless, who have nothing to lose any more.
TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
There's some debate whether it actually happened in 2000 with Nader acting as a spoiler who allowed Bush to win. It certainly became a stock Dem talking point, but it's difficult to be sure whether it really made a telling difference. Personally I don't think America can be fixed at this point. The gap between the tribes is now so extreme it's practically evolutionary speciation, and Democrats and Republicans are barely breeding with each other. This is not a joke. The differences seem to be rooted in psychology - strongly correlated with parenting - and perhaps through inherited brain structure. At some point "They are not like us" stops being rhetoric and becomes biological reality. I think we're closer to that point than we realise - in the US, and also the UK.
- leetcrew 6y ago
  > The gap between the tribes is now so extreme it's practically evolutionary speciation, and Democrats and Republicans are barely breeding with each other. > This is not a joke. The differences seem to be rooted in psychology - strongly correlated with parenting - and perhaps through inherited brain structure. I have a hard time believing this. my own two parents are on more or less opposite ends of the mainstream political spectrum. in my generation, it seems pretty common to find right-leaning (especially libertarian) men dating liberal women. the socially conscious girlfriend gently scolding her boyfriend for saying something non-PC is so common, it's almost a trope at this point. the far-left progressives and full-on MAGA types seem incapable of coexisting in the same room for more than five minutes, but I don't think there are nearly as many of either of these as you would conclude from watching the news and reading social media. most people just want to live their lives and don't see a compelling reason to scream their political positions out into the world. I think one of the likely outcomes in the next ten years is that we collectively realize the polarization of US culture was mostly an illusion.
- mschuster91 6y ago
  One of the darkest takes I've ever seen on the topic, and a very realistic one...
C1sc0cat 6y ago
Switching to OMOV One member one Vote for selecting presidential candidates instead of the 18th century open primaries some of which don't even have secret ballots I belive. That is only signed up and dues paying members of the party vote to select candidates

mschuster91 6y ago

The problem is that the Democrats literally can't put up a candidate that would even be considered "social democrat" or "centrist" by European standards. Even Biden is center-right from our point of view. Everyone they could put up would just get smeared and mercilessly attacked by the entire political and media right wing, from the far right Tea Party/QAnon/MAGA/Breitbart/Fox following of the Republicans to the fringes of the Democrats, as "socialist", "communist" or whatever. Even Joe fucking Biden who doesn't support something as basic as M4A gets called an "anarchist ally", it's madness. I am not sure how the US is ever supposed to fix this, given literal decades of red scare brainwashing. I'm afraid that the only real way out of the current mess, assuming that either Trump "wins" (or wins for real) or Biden gets locked by a R-majority Senate under "Moscow Mitch" McConnell may/will be some sort of revolution - when there are millions upon millions of people who are out of a job and homeless, who have nothing to lose any more.

TheOtherHobbes 6y ago

There's some debate whether it actually happened in 2000 with Nader acting as a spoiler who allowed Bush to win. It certainly became a stock Dem talking point, but it's difficult to be sure whether it really made a telling difference. Personally I don't think America can be fixed at this point. The gap between the tribes is now so extreme it's practically evolutionary speciation, and Democrats and Republicans are barely breeding with each other. This is not a joke. The differences seem to be rooted in psychology - strongly correlated with parenting - and perhaps through inherited brain structure. At some point "They are not like us" stops being rhetoric and becomes biological reality. I think we're closer to that point than we realise - in the US, and also the UK.

leetcrew 6y ago
> The gap between the tribes is now so extreme it's practically evolutionary speciation, and Democrats and Republicans are barely breeding with each other. > This is not a joke. The differences seem to be rooted in psychology - strongly correlated with parenting - and perhaps through inherited brain structure. I have a hard time believing this. my own two parents are on more or less opposite ends of the mainstream political spectrum. in my generation, it seems pretty common to find right-leaning (especially libertarian) men dating liberal women. the socially conscious girlfriend gently scolding her boyfriend for saying something non-PC is so common, it's almost a trope at this point. the far-left progressives and full-on MAGA types seem incapable of coexisting in the same room for more than five minutes, but I don't think there are nearly as many of either of these as you would conclude from watching the news and reading social media. most people just want to live their lives and don't see a compelling reason to scream their political positions out into the world. I think one of the likely outcomes in the next ten years is that we collectively realize the polarization of US culture was mostly an illusion.
mschuster91 6y ago
One of the darkest takes I've ever seen on the topic, and a very realistic one...

C1sc0cat 6y ago

Switching to OMOV One member one Vote for selecting presidential candidates instead of the 18th century open primaries some of which don't even have secret ballots I belive. That is only signed up and dues paying members of the party vote to select candidates