vvilld

joined 3 months ago
[–] vvilld 2 points 3 months ago (7 children)

Because people don't vote on policy, they vote on personality and vibes. It's how it's always been. This list of policies is (mostly) just a copypasta of the Democratic platform. But people have never voted that way. The Democrats put forth the crypt keeper, then replaced him with one of the most boring public speakers to come out of the Democratic Party in a generation. And they were running against someone who is a horrific fascist, yes, but also has stage presences and charisma and knows how to play to an audience. As much as he's one of the worst people on the planet, Trump knows how to make himself entertaining to watch.

That's what drives votes for politically disengaged people who don't pay attention to politics until the middle of October every 4 years. They listen to who is more entertaining and pretend like that candidate is telling them what they want to hear, regardless of whether or not he is.

[–] vvilld 2 points 3 months ago

Which will never happen unless at least 1 of the 2 major parties is co-opted and taken over by people who specifically want to eliminate Citizen's United, put a strong, enforceable cap on private political donations, and block corporations from donating to campaigns.

A 3rd party is never going to be successful enough to accomplish any, let alone all of that. Republicans will never get money out of politics because it benefits them too much. It hurts the Democratic Party overall, but it directly benefits the Vichy wing of collaborationists leading the party, so they won't back campaign finance reform unless the Democratic Party is wholly overtaken.

[–] vvilld -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Naïveté or willful ignorance. Either way, a new 3rd party won't accomplish anything useful.

[–] vvilld 0 points 3 months ago

That's just my point. It wasn't a party like OP here is calling for. It was a movement within the Republican Party.

What OP is calling for here is kinda the exact opposite. The Tea Party movement successfully got a bunch of people who typically don't engage in politics to join and vote for Republicans. The never had a problem of ballot access or competing with an ideologically similar opponent in general elections because they weren't a different party. OP here is calling for people to vote for a new third party. That's a completely different thing.

[–] vvilld 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

What 3rd party did they create? The last significant (and I use that word very loosely here) new US 3rd party was the Green Party formed in the 90s.

[–] vvilld 6 points 3 months ago (27 children)

I appreciate and agree with the sentiment, but I think a call to form an entirely new political party demonstrates a naivety with regards to how the American political system works. It's just not going to happen. A third party will NEVER displace one of the two major parties without massive changes to the electoral system that would likely require a Constitutional Amendment.

Our system and political culture is just not structured to allow for 3rd parties. What's more, the 2 major parties have ingrained themselves into the system so much that they have MASSIVE institutional advantages over a 3rd party.

This will never be a successful effort. I think a better goal would be to co-opt and take over the Democratic Party, booting out all the Vichy collaborationists like Schumer, Jefferies, Newsom, Adams, Pelosi, etc, and remaking the party.

With a new 3rd party, best case scenario is it has 0 impact. If it does get any votes, it'll just divide the anti-fascist vote with the Democrats (and any other 3rd parties) making it even more difficult to win.

[–] vvilld 2 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Given how the American political system works, I think their impact would be even more limited if they did not work within the Democratic Party. I think the only hope for a real national progressive/leftist party is to takeover and co-opt the Democratic Party, much like Trump did with the Republican Party.

[–] vvilld 4 points 3 months ago

Most didn't. Only ~23% of the population voted for him.

[–] vvilld 1 points 3 months ago

Got any more pictures? I was there and would like to show my kids pics of me there, but I have only seen my sign in a half second of a video.

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