3 ms·

People get what they voted for.

• skinfaxi 1mo ago
  The polls have been pretty divisive and relatively narrow, haven't they? A tyranny of the simple majority.
  • api 1mo ago
    Most don’t vote. That’s a form of voting. A lot who don’t vote have this mistaken idea that “well nobody perfectly fits my values.” They never will. It’s always a vote for what you think is a somewhat better outcome, especially if you only have two options.
    • atmavatar 1mo ago
      I suspect many more have realized that unless they live in one of a half dozen or so states, their vote for Presidential (or even Senate) candidates is unlikely to affect the outcome. For example, the state I live in (Kansas) has chosen the Republican candidate in every election in my lifetime, and in only one election has it been by a margin of less than 13% -- due to Ross Perot being a spoiler in 1992, where he took 27% of the state's vote. My vote for President doesn't really matter, no matter which candidate I care to support, because I already know the outcome in my state. As such, back in the days when Presidential candidates both seemed to have the country's best interests at heart, even if I disagreed with one or both candidates' policies to do so, I generally didn't bother.
      • tavavex 1mo ago
        Even with the US electoral system working against you, there is still aspects of game theory here. What if eventually, with young people displacing the old, the group of people who would vote with you but look at the statistics and decide against it reach a critical mass that would guarantee a win for your party if they all just went out to vote? I'm sure there are millions of people who think just like you. Voting isn't an arduous task and it occurs pretty rarely, so even if you don't think your side would win this time, why not just go do it anyway? Older people don't care about the voting record, they'll go out to vote rain or shine. Why can't we be more like them?
      • _DeadFred_ 1mo ago
        The amount of effort non-voters put into justifying not voting is exhausting. People died so you could vote. You know how people put up rainbow flags so that others know they have support in the community? Your non-voting, that is the opposite, and you are telling others to feel exactly how your post feeling, doomer, can't change things, and other bs because the community only votes for shit. Your rationalizing does do damage. Put up a rainbow flag, add another vote not in line. Show people they aren't alone.
  • JohnFen 1mo ago
    Trump lost the popular vote in 2016. He became president because of the electoral college. He did win the popular vote in 2024, though. Both elections were by narrow margins.
• Incipient 1mo ago
  To be fair, some of the democratic options were fairly rubbish too (from a non-US person/perspective). I'd still have preferred you didn't pick a president that'd make my commute more expensive, and drive power/influence/money further to China/Middle East however... Unfortunately I think the US has lost the ability to vote for a moderate/centre person or party...so it's looking pretty grim.
  • Timon3 1mo ago
    How much more "moderate/centrist" could the Democratic candidates be? Id'd strongly argue the issue is exactly that the US only gets to choose between a center-right and a far-right candidate.
• jst1fthsdys 1mo ago
  Yeah, the militarization of police and violation of rights never happened under the “opposition” party.
  • mrtesthah 1mo ago
    You're right. Both parties are exactly the same. Best not to vote at all in protest.
• Zigurd 1mo ago
  That's meant to sound like hard reality, but it is just glib. Poll results show that progressive issues are popular, but don't get enacted in law because we are more of an oligarchy than a democracy. Calling the US an oligarchy sounds dire, even extreme, but how else do you account for the divergence of issue popularity versus legislative performance? Even with elections, we are ruled by men with money, not the will of the people.