There are many problems with #USA #democracy

[beggarmidas@mastodon.social]

@benroyce Whatever led you to believe these midterms will be free & fair in any way? My aren't you a trusting soul. Bought any bridges yet?

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@Beggarmidas

the votes are controlled by the states

red states may do some shit, but they're already red

cynicism isn't intelligence, in fact it's the weak easily pliable mind of willing submission to fascism

what you represent, my good friend, is willing acceptance of the unacceptable. that's all your cynicism means. that's what your cynicism leads to. that's the quality of your mind. a rather garden variety flavor of cognitive weakness, and rather boring of you

loser

[beggarmidas@mastodon.social]

@benroyce *sigh* No, Pollyanna. I'm just aware that a cult of personality is already actively looking to bend the election in every way they accused their rivals of since 2020. That they'll deploy the cambridge analytica 2.0 they used to bend the last election causing MILLIONS to sit out the vote on the midterms too.
Boss Tweeds playbook is back in town, and will curb stomp your california dreaming hippie ass if you presume any part of this upcoming election will be business as usual.
Jackass.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@Beggarmidas

yes it is true reality looks like airhead optimism to a rotten pathetic cynic

but your real crime is just how boring and pedestrian you are

you're typical. a dime a dozen. just another garden variety specimen in the endless sea of midwit cynicism. you all think you have special insight. you're all just articulating the small confines of your dim craniums

very easy, very dull, and very irrelevant

[thad@brontosin.space]

@WhiteCatTamer Or Bush in 2000.

[dotyk@mastodon.social]

@benroyce I am not an #American, but I have worked with Americans a lot, so I consider them mostly very nice, but very specific people.
I would call them "a person who is guaranteed to have a #gun in his pocket".
I completely agree with you that those who won by votes at that time would have won better.
But I never cease to remember what "weapons" the majority has when it is not always right.
So far, your system limits such a majority from the ability to use what #weapons.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@dotyk

the love of guns in the usa is one hell of a delusional, fucked up and deeply weird religion

i understand owning a shotgun on a farm. it makes sense

but hotheads walking around with handguns are introducing a level of jeopardy in their lives, predicated on believing they are some sort of paladin or superhero. when all they are really doing is introducing death, perhaps their own, in situations that never have to go there. or even if it does go there, it's rolling the dice on your life

[gimulnautti@mastodon.green]

@benroyce Yes, kill it with fire! Fractional representation, not first-past-the-post while you’re at it.

There won’t be possibilities for viable third parties unless you make the system actually democratic. As it stands it’s bureaucratic. Literally bureaucracymaxing, compared to actually viable democracies especially in Europe.

[gimulnautti@mastodon.green]

@benroyce @dotyk Some kind of simulation of an identity that’s long since gone. Nostalgia, like a lot of other things that feel like they make sense but don’t.

[opethminded@mstdn.social]

@benroyce The only system more easy to rig than the popular vote is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Just wait til some shitbag TX or FL governor disqualifies a few million early ballots and forces every blue state to turn red. Then its fatal flaw will be apparent. The real solution to fixing the Electoral College is to ban antidemocratic winner-take-all award of electors by 48 states in favor of proportional award of electors. Then the EC always matches the popular vote regardless.

[missconstrue@mefi.social]

@benroyce @xdydx

But Ben my darling man, this does depend on the democrats not being feckless pantywaists who insist on bipartisanship, as they do.

The thing is, the GOP move as a unit, that is why such a small minority of them have such outsized power. No matter how insane dear leader’s demands are, they are right there, slavering to fulfill them.

Democrats cannot, must not be willing to give them cover or assistance. They are cowardly conniving little traitors, and to insist on bipartisanship at this time in history is to concede to the terrorist holding us hostage.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@MissConstrue @xdydx

i dislike this depiction of the situation because it centers the argument on centrist democrats

i agree with you they suck

but

my problem is it doesn't matter. you show up in the primaries and choose left. you show up in the general and forestall MAGA, ideally with a real left candidate

that's it

but centering centrists in the discussion is a voting turnoff. we don't have to think about them, so why care about them?

just ignore them and replace them

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@opethminded

i don't have a problem with your argument, i have a problem with the ease of your argument

we both agree we need to fix it. but *how* do we fix it. and your solution, while cleaner, is a lot harder to achieve

so we go the NPVIC. not because it's cleaner, but because it's more doable

and that doesn't mean we're done, we institute real fixes once we can

and as for stealing votes: that's already what we have with the EC. so we're looking for better, not perfect

[missconstrue@mefi.social]

@benroyce @xdydx Don’t get me wrong, I’m an old yellow dawg dem in Yeehawdist territory, I understand that with this Supremes ruling, electing Left, even centrist left is not an option, it’s a mandate.

I’m just saying, our candidates need to understand that we will hold their feet to the fire. Example, I’m not in Penn, but I will personally travel there to help unseat John Fedderman in the 28 elections. Just from personal animus. Heh. That fucking guy, man. I will work my ass off this year to get Talarico elected, I mean he’s a nice guy and all, but mostly because Cornyn is a right asshole, and has been a thorn in my side since Reagan, and we might actually unseat him this time. Which would be glorious. And such a blow to Exxon, who has kept him in power my entire adult life, and I’m almost old enough to retire.

[missconstrue@mefi.social]

@benroyce @xdydx

Erm, I guess what I’m saying is that I’ve gone from idealism being my driving motivation to spite. I vote out of spite, because I despise everything the gop stands for, and want the party to die on that maga hill they’ve chosen.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@MissConstrue @xdydx

i got nothing but love for you Miss Construe

electing Dems who then act like Fetterman kills the left turnout, 100% agreed. we need to replace such assholes

i'd *like* to assume the stroke changed his personality, but i just don't know enough about the man, and it doesn't matter why he is the way he is, he just fucking sucks and needs to go

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@MissConstrue @xdydx

i don't understand anyone who isn't angry at our predicament

and anger isn't a problem, the problem with anger comes in with how we use it. lots of bad ways to use it. but you're using it in the best possible way

those who use anger to turn to cynicism and therefore acceptance are the real problem

[missconstrue@mefi.social]

@benroyce @xdydx

He was a pretender from word go. He ran in this “man of the people” thing, and paraded his Art School Girl of Doom wife, (I am an ASGoD, I know them when I see them), and said said all the right populist things, but he’s a nepo baby of a massive GOP donor and organizer.

Frankenstein’s monster was a successful psyop.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@MissConstrue @xdydx

[missconstrue@mefi.social]

@benroyce @xdydx

The cynicism is hard to avoid in this, the stupidest timeline. The trick is turning “rolling my eyes at this fucking guy” into “what can I do for his opponent”.

Spite. Spite is the antidote to apathy. ‍️🥳