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I get voting on party - what scares me is voting on someone because they "paid their dues" - which is especially mind boggling when you look at people's approva
by joelrunyon 11y ago
I get voting on party - what scares me is voting on someone because they "paid their dues" - which is especially mind boggling when you look at people's approval ratings of those same candidates in their previous jobs (typically congress - which is hanging out at around 16%).
- k-mcgrady 11y agoVoting on party scares me - especially in a system where there are only two.
- joelrunyon 11y agoSorry - that also scares me. What is even worse (in my opinion) is people voting on candidates based on last names (which seems to be the trend lately) - especially when that's seen or used as a positive aspect.
- briandear 11y agoOr voting against candidates based on their last names. Let's be intellectually consistent here..
- joelrunyon 11y agoYou can be consistently against dynastic tendencies of an institution.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- rsynnott 11y agoI think the "paid their dues" thing is meant to be necessary but not sufficient. That is, a lot of people would be cautious of voting for someone who had no significant political experience.
- clarky07 11y agoExcept for our current president, when he ran in 2008?
- rsynnott 11y agoHe was a state senator for 7 years, and a US senator for 4.
- clarky07 11y agowhy the downvotes? Most people wouldn't consider half a term in congress significant experience. I can't think of many presidents with less. That doesn't mean he did a terrible job or was completely unqualified or anything of the sort. It's just a statement of fact that he didn't have very much experience at the time. Frankly, even though I disagree with his views on most things, I don't think he's actually done that badly. He hasn't done great IMO mind you, but I'm mostly content with how things have gone the last 6 years.
- Amezarak 11y agoCongress as an institution has an approval rating of 16%. The average Senator or Representative has a much higher approval rating.
- jedrek 11y agoCongress has a shitty approval rating, but the most representatives get voted into office by a decent margin. People hate everybody else's reps.
- jazzyk 11y agoYes, because their reps bring pork from D.C. back to their district. Who does not like a new school built/paid for by Fed money? Voters don't realize that the money is actually the tax money that they themselves paid into the system. It is all very calculated, and in my opinion, is the epicenter of what's broken in the US political system.
- jedrek 11y agoI don't know how calculated it is, it seems it's one of those things that developed and people smart enough to realise what's happening decided it's a-ok with them. But, yeah, the disconnect is huge. I've seen Americans on the internet brag about not taking advantage of unemployment benefits, completely ignoring that they spent years paying into them for that exact reason. And, to be honest, ever since I've started looking at the government as an entity that I've outsourced a lot of my needs/wants to (roads, physical safety, parks, etc), I've been a lot happier paying taxes.
- saalweachter 11y agoPeople disapprove of Congress as a whole, but tend to like their individual Representatives and Senators. You don't vote your guy out of office just because the other 532 jerks in Congress you can't vote for or against don't let things run your way.
- Arnt 11y agoWouldn't you like Alexis Tsipras a little better if he'd spent more time wearing out chairs in Brussels, eating canapés and learning what leads to results and what leads to nothing worthwhile? I mean, before he started attending really serious meetings where failure is serious?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]