Political Standpoints?

[LouisTBR]

Just curious I didn't vote 'cause I'm not American

[Der Failer]

Missing the: "Hell yes Bernie, but no American so..." Option :)

[mabor0shi]

Voting is for whitey. I won't participate in The Man's system.

I hate politics 

[PotatoeTater]

I voted for Johnson....

[sadpickle]

Did not vote. Enormous waste of time and energy. Panem et circenses.

Being a libertarian means always losing, so why humor the political class?

[LordMunchkin]

I voted for the lesser evil because even though I knew she was an unashamedly, corrupt politician in bed with Wall Street I couldn't stand the thought of a 10-year old having access to the worlds most powerful arsenal. Now that he's won, I've made it a new hobby of mine to attend every protest against him in my area (the Women's March was fun).  I also make sure to express my rage in the form of a polite phone call to my local representative everyday. Hopefully, with enough pressure and little help from the orange blob himself, the Tyrant will crumble. 

On a sidenote, this past election was really the "Party of Greed" vs the "Party of Stupid." Democrats have been selling out the workers for several decades starting with at least the Clintons. Sadly, as Hillary found out in November, Wall Street checks can't buy you Union voters. The Republicans, meanwhile, have been courting the delusional and racist far right since Nixon. In other words, they let stupid in and gave it a seat at the table. Now stupid is at the head of the table and the rest of the Republican party are tied to their chairs! 

[PotatoeTater]

Did not vote. Enormous waste of time and energy. Panem et circenses.

Being a libertarian means always losing, so why humor the political class?

More votes they get each year, the bigger chance they get at being in the debates. This year if they would have had 100,000 more votes in 2012 they would have gotten to debate.

[KillTyrant]

I think republicans needed to win to wake the left up to the fact that identity politics doesnt win elections. Say what you want about the man but he is keeping his word. Very rare in political arena.

[LordMunchkin]

I think republicans needed to win to wake the left up to the fact that identity politics doesnt win elections. Say what you want about the man but he is keeping his word. Very rare in political arena.

I don't buy that for a second. Instead, what I think it was was Hillary's lack of credibility when it came to her promises. She could parrot Bernie all she wanted but I never met anyone, even her most ardent supporters, who believed she was going to come through on any of those promises. It also didn't help that there were individuals within the DNC who were quite obviously biased towards her and sabotaged her opponents in the primary basically whenever they could. In a way, people like Debbie Schultz actually did more harm than good for her chances at getting elected. So in the end, many Democrats were already feeling disheartened by November.

Then again, there was also the failure of the mainstream press to callout Trump on his major factual fallacies, the failure of the republican party to do a basic sanity check when it came to their candidates, and finally the FBI director who mysteriously went against procedure when it came to Hillary's ultimately fruitless investigation but remained silent on Trump's ongoing one.

I hope Trump will be gone by the end of 2017. According to many constitutional lawyers (both republican and democrat), he's already committed multiple impeachable offenses. And then there's the fact that you don't have to impeached to removed as president. Congress could probably argue that his deranged decisions and proclamations are a sign of mental impairment and have him removed under those grounds. Finally, there's the ongoing investigation into how the Russians influenced the election in his favor. He's most likely never going be found guilty of anything but it'll surely damage his already record low favorability ratings. Ultimately, however, the true test will come from the Republican lead Congress. This government was designed so a strong man could never come to power without the acquiescence of Congress. Will Republicans continue the same strain of destructive partisanship they've had over the last eight years and support a wannabe fascist even if it means burning the Constitution? Being a somewhat of a cynic... I think they probably will unless Trump does something truly ridiculous. Then again, they could just brand it as "Fake News" and tell their voters to ignore the fact that Putin now has a seat in the oval office.

[milon]

The best match for me in the polls is "Hate Trump", but that kind of goes without saying

[LouisTBR]

The best match for me in the polls is "Hate Trump", but that kind of goes without saying

Hehe, join the club

[sadpickle]

More votes they get each year, the bigger chance they get at being in the debates. This year if they would have had 100,000 more votes in 2012 they would have gotten to debate.

I've never heard this before. I did some Googling and was unable to find anything attesting to this. But I do know a bit about the Commission of Presidential Debates (CPD), the group that hosts presidential debates in the US since 1988.

Contrary to some popular belief that the commission is "nonpartisan", the commission is clearly bipartisan, chaired by the heads of the Democratic and Republican parties. From the outset they've been very clear they don't want 3rd parties having any presence in the debates, and they've been very successful at keeping them out. They have an absurd rule about a party candidate "garnering (an average of) at least 15% support across five national polls." This is very clever, because while it looks like they're just trying to keep out the crackpots, hitting 15% is not easy to do if you can't, you know, debate on television. Furthermore, the CPD gets to pick which five polls they will use to determine eligibility, with input from Gallup editor-in-chief Dr. Frank Newport (more details here.) Anyone interested in a 3rd party has to look for independent debates, which the candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties never attend (even if invited). These independent debates are rarely televised if ever, so they reach a very small audience.

I imagine, if a 3rd party was close to reaching the 15% figure, the CPD would simply revise the number up to 20%, or something like that. It's not like there's anything anyone could do to stop them. There is a (likely doomed) legal challenge against the CPD alleging they are bipartisan and unfairly exclude 3rd parties (a naked fact, but these things have to be ruled on). It's not the first time the organization has been challenged, and it won't be the first time they've won this sort of thing either. The system is rigged against third parties.

As for why I didn't vote, really, it's because my vote is mathematically insignificant. If votes for Gary Johnson could have advanced Libertarianism, I might have troubled myself (maybe). But the fact of the matter is the votes hardly matter. 2016 was a banner year for the LP, and we still performed dismally.

[ryanlumley]

Just curious I didn't vote 'cause I'm not American

luckly im not either thank lucifer . oh and on the verification
' you cool a room with an air ____ ' air con ? air cooler ? i dono about u lot but i call it a fan ... XD

[mabor0shi]

' you cool a room with an air ____ ' air con ? air cooler ? i dono about u lot but i call it a fan ... XD

Must be an American thing. The answer "conditioner" seems obvious to me, an American. We don't shorten it to "air con", only to "AC". I hope this extremely important message reaches you Ryan Lumley. 

[dv]

This thread is special.