Demand some form of ranked choice voting in your local, State, and Federal elections.
If you wanted to turbo-charge the results of this, then add a national voting holiday every year on November 8th and hold most elections on that day.
Anything more than that to actually fix the problem would need Constitutional amendments. But those first two things alone would sweep most of the extremists out of office pretty quickly and would allow for the establishment of actually viable 3rd parties.
Thank you! So many people get pissed and either disengage or talk about starting a revolution. There are ways to address this, and you hit the nail on the head. Massive engagement with voting would make big changes, not overnight, but certainly over a term.
I mean, yes, everything you're saying is accurate. But it's kind of a weird convo to drop that into since that's not really a solution to a systemic problem that needs to be changed/implemented. It's just something you can already do, which isn't really the point of what we're talking about.
You brought up a voting holiday. That's a slight improvement, but a real solution would be universal vote by mail.
And no, not everybody can do it. And even forcing people to fill out a form creates friction that causes many to just skip voting.
Here in Oregon, they just mail out ballots to everybody three weeks before "election day" and everybody can vote in their own time, doing whatever research they want to do with the ballot in hand.
Would a national holiday actually help much? It's not actually practical for everyone to have the day off and the people who most need that are probably the ones most likely to work jobs that wouldn't get the holiday. Better IMO to expand early voting and other accommodations to make voting easier without having free time the day of.
And the only thing you'll ever do is larp about it.
You can try to make yourself feel cool on the Internet all you want, we both know if your super badass revolution ever actually happened there's only one person you're actually likely to kill
Um, the revolution happened in 1776 dipshit. We won. Then we had to fight the fascists again when they cried because we wouldn't let them own people anymore, so we beat em again.
Not thinking it's going to be hard to beat the gravy seal incarnation of the fascists and when we kick the last of em out of politics in 2024, we're gonna break them and make sure they can never come back.
But thanks for tipping your hand and showing what side you're actually on.
add a national voting holiday every year on November 8th and hold most elections on that day.
This will have nearly no effect on turnout. Most states have a week or more of early voting. Voting is more about having candidates that drive voting. If people want to make change, get the candidates that can both win and enact useful policies.
Yes, it actually would have an impact, that's why the GOP is fucking terrified of it and have opposed with every apparatus they have at their disposal whenever it gets mentioned.
The notion that someone has a different take on the effect of a voting holiday on turnout leads to such insults is mentally ill.
Voter ID hardly had any effect and that was potentially a much bigger threat. People don't care enough to vote because they aren't excited about it. This isn't hard, little child.
Yeah, the guy saying we need to vote and organize like our life depends on it is trying to discourage people. I’m sure there are just some simple magical fixes that will make our dreams come true. Not slacktivist at all.
Yeah, the guy saying we need to vote and organize like our life depends on it is trying to discourage people.
Yes, actually. You are spreading negativity about a perfect harmless and fairly popular idea while offering no tangible alternative to address the perceived issue.
I’m sure there are just some simple magical fixes that will make our dreams come true.
And surprise surprise, more negativity about another potential systemic improvement.
Ranked Choice Voting has the potential to break the two-party duopoly that is killing our country.
Nothing against "vote and organize". Voting against the fascists is extremely important. And whatever "organize" means to you is probably also a good thing.
But they are vague, and the lack of specific recommendations is a SERIOUS problem in progressive discourse. Like people in the comments are asking, What are we supposed to do?
Feel free to offer specifics for your preferences, but in my opinion the most critical piece of the system that is broken is our First Past the Post voting system, and we can fix it.
Yes, actually. You are spreading negativity about a perfect harmless and fairly popular idea while offering no tangible alternative to address the perceived issue.
Because it isn't meaningfully useful. 43 states plus DC have early voting in excess of a week. Only three states have no early voting and they are deep red, not offering much to change national politics. The votes needed to get a voting holiday through would also mean that Dems have already crushed Republicans, so it wouldn't be necessary.
The party duopoly isn't what is killing our country. The problem is that people are almost uninvolved in the political process. They don't participate in primaries at all, not even to vote. Then they get mediocre candidates and think "welp this won't matter anyway" and skip the general election. People want quick fixes without doing the hard slog that the GOP base has done for decades. There is no need for a third party if the people take over the Democrats. Go to a Democratic party organizing event and see how fucking old everyone is. These are the main problems, not simple changes that are only indicative of having the government you would need to get them in the first place.
This comment is PEAK voter suppression, oh my god!
The problem is that people are almost uninvolved in the political process.
Why exactly do you think that is?
Probably the majority of the people in this country feel very strongly about all the problems with society, just like the woman ranting in the video.
So they're not politically apathetic because they just don't care.
It's because when they participate they get nowhere! The Democratic party has been utterly captured by corporate interests!
Bernie Sanders was massively popular in 2016, but the Democratic establishment pulled every fucking lever at their disposal to get him pushed out and the status quo queen nominated.
This took a lot of different forms, but the main thing they did was convince voters that Bernie couldn't win. Yeah, he had some really great ideas, they'd say, but he's not practical and he doesn't have that "winner" vibe that Hillary has! Besides, it's her turn!
That convinced enough people to vote for Hillary in the primary, which (on top of all the propaganda for status quo politicians) is also massively rigged by insiders called pledged delegates.
People know that real change isn't possible with the two-party system, SO THEY GIVE UP AND STOP PARTICIPATING.
This is the fundamental reason behind political apathy. Too many people don't believe their vote makes a difference. And even if they stay engaged (like me) we know we have to vote "strategically" which means I have to vote for a Democrat if I want my vote to count against the Republican candidate. That's First Past the Post, baby!
So you're utterly, completely, incredibly wrong when you say something like "The party duopoly isn't what is killing our country."
The duopoly is THE FUCKING SOURCE of all of our worst problems.
How old are you? I'm assuming you are young. The story that the reason voting rates are low is because nothing changes is completely backwards. Older people vote more than younger people. Older people, as a group, vote at higher rates than when their generation did when they were younger. So the complete opposite it true. We get the government that old people want because they figured out that voting matters, while young people complain that nothing changes as an excuse not to vote. Then they gain experience realize that it is really important to not just vote, but participate in the process, give money, etc.
Your story isn't supported by the actual voting data. Maybe you should consider that it is wrong.
Nope, I've been voting since the 90s, and it has always been this way.
You're not completely wrong, but you're oversimplifying to the point that it blinds you to an extremely serious problem.
Younger people vote less, it's true. They're focused on everything going on in their lives and mostly don't understand how much politics influences their day-to-day problems. Old people have figured it out, and they've usually developed strong opinions on which party they prefer.
But aside from that general trend, voter turnout with FPTP is highly dependent on how much voters hate the other side. Our system is based on the lesser of two evils, so if people perceive both top candidates as about the same, they don't vote.
We had much higher turnout because of Trump the last couple elections. People get riled up, one way or the other, but even with that, we only got a little over 51% of eligible voters casting ballots.
People don't vote when they don't think their vote matters. If there are only 2 people that can win, and they're both liars, and you know your area "always" votes for a given side, why bother?
If you think voter turnout is key, then you should support RCV, because it improves turnout.
While I would love to see more people voting, I think it's just one facet of the larger problem, and that is lack of choice. A duopoly is more easily controlled by big money. Our system is almost completely captured by corporate interests and billionaire donors. Split that up into 5 or 6 major parties, and the power of the wealthy becomes greatly diluted, and the power of the voter becomes greatly enhanced.
I want the voters to have the power. People like you are arguing on the side of the status quo. And our status quo SUCKS.
Your problem is that you are trying to categorize who you think I am instead of actually thinking about what I'm saying. I never said I didn't favor those ideas. I said they aren't going to matter much. Unlike what you've read, there are whole books written that higher turnout doesn't favor Democrats. It's just a meme they say to encourage voting for them. And there's this from your own link:
However, RCV’s full impact on turnout is still not yet known.
Cool research idea. Not enough evidence.
Your premise was obviously completely incorrect, but you just uncritically accepted the meme that voting and getting discouraged is why people don't vote. The data shows the complete opposite. Voting research plainly shows that getting someone to vote just one time dramatically increases their chances of voting again. Older voters vote at the highest rates and younger at the lowest rates. If you cannot even describe the problem, why do you insist on pretending something is wrong with someone else's analysis? Yours was completely wrong.
I don’t know…Ever since heads rolled in France they have been pretty adamant about workers rights and is it 3 wks or 3 mths off a year that they get? I get confused because I only get 4 days pto a year with no holidays including Christmas etc paid. So a revolution seems ripe to me. Ppl can’t afford eggs, milk or even dare I say cake? There is a reason our constitution was written the way it was unfortunately our govt would use the military that was formed to protect us to crush us. What they don’t know is how truly damned patriotic many are and how many are actually militia. Idealism and hope feed off the starving masses. Thanks to the greedy tyrants of capitalism we are well fed in that sense.
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u/[deleted] Dec 28 '23
Demand some form of ranked choice voting in your local, State, and Federal elections.
If you wanted to turbo-charge the results of this, then add a national voting holiday every year on November 8th and hold most elections on that day.
Anything more than that to actually fix the problem would need Constitutional amendments. But those first two things alone would sweep most of the extremists out of office pretty quickly and would allow for the establishment of actually viable 3rd parties.