2024 Election - What are your key issues, if you are voting?

[Xzi]

Option three is for everyone to simply be independent. Everyone. No more Super PACs. No more insane ad spends. No more months and months of negative ads. No more infighting. No more partisanship, because there wouldn't BE any parties.

Sounds like option three is eat the rich, lmao. Much as I'm board with that, it's probably even less realistic than abolishing the electoral college and implementing RCV.

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

Sounds like option three is eat the rich, lmao. Much as I'm board with that, it's probably even less realistic than abolishing the electoral college and implementing RCV.

 

[Chris2055]

Do you think that's healthy for any government? Hell, look at the UK. They have fringe parties, too, but it's still Tories and Labour. I don't think that can ever truly represent the will of the People. You HAVE to pick a side, and that never ends well. It's never complete. Unless you are an extremist.

I'm not commenting on the ideal but on the reality. Whether it's healthy or not, third party candidates have single digit support. They have no chance of winning, they can only pull votes from other candidates or join a coalition. Believe me, I understand that more than you probably think, being a progressive.

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

I'm not commenting on the ideal but on the reality. Whether it's healthy or not, third party candidates have single digit support. They have no chance of winning, they can only pull votes from other candidates or join a coalition. Believe me, I understand that more than you probably think, being a progressive.

Hey, buddy, I haven't insulted you at all. I never downplayed what you understand or don't. No need to get defensive. Or to think that being progressive makes you any better, either.

We're all part of the same shitty dung heap, brother.

 

[Chris2055]

I didn't get defensive nor did I say you insulted me.

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

Sounds like option three is eat the rich, lmao. Much as I'm board with that, it's probably even less realistic than abolishing the electoral college and implementing RCV.

You brought up voting rights earlier as one of your key issues. I'd like to dig a bit deeper into that, if you're game.

Which voting laws do you think exist that are unjust?

Do you believe in voter ID as a requirement to vote?

What are your feelings about felons having the right to vote, or having their right to vote restored?

Finally, should the people you quaintly refer to as "undocumented migrants" have the right to vote in US elections?

Bonus question - Should we incorporate Puerto Rico and Guam as a fully recognized US States, with all voting rights accorded to any other US citizen?

Just a few queries for my associate on the far end of the other side.

 

[titan_tim]

Option three is for everyone to simply be independent. Everyone. No more Super PACs. No more insane ad spends. No more months and months of negative ads. No more infighting. No more partisanship, because there wouldn't BE any parties.

Definitely some good ideas there. It would be nice if the ballots don't say the name or party of who you're voting for, but only the proposed policies. That would eliminate the voter who just relies on name or party recognition, and help independents.

Also, the government should DEFINITELY get involved with how much money is spent on elections, and create a level playing field for all candidates. To waste billions of dollars every four years is just obscene.

I think running on THAT as an issue would definitely get people motivated to vote for that candidate. No more robo-calls. No more attack ads every commercial break. Although, it's not like they'd ever run on that, since it's their golden egg.

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

Definitely some good ideas there. It would be nice if the ballots don't say the name or party of who you're voting for, but only the proposed policies. That would eliminate the voter who just relies on name or party recognition, and help independents.

Also, the government should DEFINITELY get involved with how much money is spent on elections, and create a level playing field for all candidates. To waste billions of dollars every four years is just obscene.

I think running on THAT as an issue would definitely get people motivated to vote for that candidate. No more robo-calls. No more attack ads every commercial break. Although, it's not like they'd ever run on that, since it's their golden egg.

Vermin Supreme remains our best and only option, really.

#ponyup

 

[omgcat]

It's amazing. The farther you are to the left, the less you can say anything political without bringing up Trump.

My post literally right up there has zero mentions of trump. This is some lowbrow bullshit. What's the point of asking the question if you just rant and rave anytime someone says something you don't like? You have no functional platform whatsoever. What are YOUR values?

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

My post literally right up there has zero mentions of trump. This is some lowbrow bullshit. What's the point of asking the question if you just rant and rave anytime someone says something you don't like? You have no functional platform whatsoever. What are YOUR values?

I simply confined the discussion to the issues, knowing that ANY political post would just devolve into nothing but "Durr, we hate Trump. We hate him, like, a lot".

So we're discussing ISSUES. Not how bad the Evil Orange Man with Small Hands scares leftists at night.

You were one of the ones I was referencing that DIDN'T mention a politician, so... dunno where the anger comes from, chum. I even gave you a 'Love' reaction.

Calm. Calm. Breathe.

My values are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

I like the seven tenets of Bushido. I like a few of the Ten Commandments. I like a lot of the Sikh faith. Big fan of Fred Rogers and George Carlin in equal measures, for equal reasons. Cats over dogs. Dogs don't purr.

 

[TraderPatTX]

We need somebody who will destroy the uniparty, military industrial complex, and the media industrial complex and get us off this fiat slavery system built on debt. When that is done, everything else will fall into place.

This requires a populace that is awake and engaged. A population that can also see through the propaganda of the billionaire corporate media. A lot of people are there. It's not hard to see who isn't there yet.

 

[titan_tim]

This requires a populace that is awake and engaged.

Everyone needs to be woke? Got it!

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

Everyone needs to be woke? Got it!

"Awake and engaged" and "woke" aren't even in the same galaxy.

 

[titan_tim]

"Awake and engaged" and "woke" aren't even in the same galaxy.

How can you tell when nobody can even properly define "woke"?

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

How can you tell when nobody can even properly define "woke"?

I will take a crack at it.

Wokeism is the participation trophy of online social justice warriors everywhere. It's the "sending thoughts and prayers" of social justice issues. It's Matthew 6:5-8, in reverse. It's pretty much nothing more than people wanting to be seen as virtuous and right because they are "fighting for justice", when it's really just a bunch of bitching online, mostly, with a riot or two thrown in there for fun.

It's a bunch of White Saviors trying to assuage their own White Guilt. It's a bunch of folks who REEEEAAAALLLY want to be considered victims and will stop at nothing to attain that coveted title, which gives them absolute invincibility to say and do whatever they want, without recourse, and no one can gainsay them or check them on anything. If they do, that person is a Nazi or a phobe of some kind.

No solutions, just emotions and demands. That is "woke".

 

[titan_tim]

I will take a crack at it.

Wokeism is the participation trophy of online social justice warriors everywhere. It's the "sending thoughts and prayers" of social justice issues. It's Matthew 6:5-8, in reverse. It's pretty much nothing more than people wanting to be seen as virtuous and right because they are "fighting for justice", when it's really just a bunch of bitching online, mostly, with a riot or two thrown in there for fun.

No solutions, just emotions and demands. That is "woke".

You're making my point for me

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

You're making my point for me

You... had a point?

I'd LOVE to hear your definition of "woke". Since apparently I got the wrong answer. Illuminate us.

 

[Chris2055]

I simply confined the discussion to the issues, knowing that ANY political post would just devolve into nothing but "Durr, we hate Trump. We hate him, like, a lot".

So we're discussing ISSUES. Not how bad the Evil Orange Man with Small Hands scares leftists at night.

You were one of the ones I was referencing that DIDN'T mention a politician, so... dunno where the anger comes from, chum. I even gave you a 'Love' reaction.

Calm. Calm. Breathe.

My values are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

I like the seven tenets of Bushido. I like a few of the Ten Commandments. I like a lot of the Sikh faith. Big fan of Fred Rogers and George Carlin in equal measures, for equal reasons. Cats over dogs. Dogs don't purr.

So you support universal healthcare, a huge military budget, free childcare and college? You sound more like a progressive like me than a libertarian~!

 

[titan_tim]

You... had a point?

I did, and other's who read that small snippit of comments will understand it.

I'd LOVE to hear your definition of "woke". Since apparently I got the wrong answer. Illuminate us.

As for the definition, most people who don't create angry definitions for themselves to feel better would consider it to be some form of:
Being aware of systemic injustices and prejudices, and doing what you can to lessen them.

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

So you support universal healthcare, a huge military budget, free childcare and college? You sound more like a progressive like me than a libertarian~!

Absolutely not. I oppose universal healthcare completely, I want the military budget to be decimated (as in, reduced to 10% of what it is today), and if you want childcare, you can pay for it yourself.

I DO support specific programs to help people attend college, with a lot of stipulations and changes to be made. First and foremost, no more Houghton-Mifflin stranglehold on textbooks. No more "patents" on public education. All of the textbooks for all students in every grade in every school should be completely subsidized and absorbed into the same budget that the rest of our education budget goes into, by taking away the massive salaries of some of the highest-end that are way too overpaid for what they do.

Part of the military budget can be appropriated and used instead to provide a few options.

1/ Free (read - subsidized) trade school for up to two years for any American citizen, regardless of criminal history or educational background.
2/ Free ((read - subsidized) four-year college tuition to ANY school in the country, for anyone who enlists in the military, or serves at least a full year as a full-time volunteer for various social programs.
3/ Room and board to be subsidized by again taking money from the military and putting it towards education.

We HAVE the money to do this already. We're just wasting it on perpetuating the Military Industrial Complex and the Permanent War Economy.

I do not agree with anything, ANYTHING, for "free". You earn it, or you don't deserve it. Period. Everyone can contribute in some way. If you won't hunt or gather, and if you WON'T contribute, then fuck you. Starve.