Vice President Kamala Harris has been criticized for not having her policy positions prominently available on her website, but that ended Sunday.The media and some conservatives have suggested Harris is relying on "vibes" instead of listing her specific positions on issues facing our nation. But her...
Absolutely. We’ll get the status quo and we’ll like it.
We’re at the restaurant. The waiter is walking towards the table. The menu is in front of you. It’s the dry chicken, or a rusty fork in your eye. Those are the choices. You don’t have to like it, but you will choose or the choice will be made for you. You can complain to the chef, but if you don’t order the dry chicken, you will get the rusty fork stabbed into your eye. You can demand we go to a better restaurant next time, but right now you’re either going to eat some dry chicken and look for ways to make the best of that situation, or someone is going to stab your eye with a mangled fork that is almost certainly covered in tetanus.
When Harris is President, and Trump is in jail, we shall discuss the next election. Until then, you’re either with Harris or you’re with Trump.
Remember, this is what Conservatives are good at. They don’t bitch and moan that their candidates aren’t perfect. They bitch and moan that reality isn’t what they want, and consistently demand that politicians cater to their brand of narcissism. Conservatives have installed acolytes at every level of government, in every judicial system across the country, on every school board and election board. They have achieved this by unwavering devotion to make the world benefit themselves at every turn. They have lost more battles than they have won, but they don’t need to win every time. They just need reasonable people to grow tired and give in a little. That’s how you end up controlling six Supreme Court Justices, two of the three most populous states, and most of the religious institutions in the country.
I’ll try to show why what you’re saying is not entirely accurate.
Here’s the easy reason. Most people don’t live in swing states. If they vote third party, or if they stay home, it’s not likely to change the result of the election. My vote has never made a difference in the presidential race, not once in my life.
Then we get into the more complicated reasons.
Depending on the candidate, I might feel that they don’t plan on pushing any policies that would make my life better or that I think are important. So why would I vote for them? Of course my motivation would be low.
The strategy of triangulation, where the Democrat candidate moves farther to the right because people don’t have any other choice, we saw that fail already. I hope you haven’t forgotten Hillary Clinton’s loss. I think if Clinton had been left wing instead of a centrist hawk, that she would have gotten more votes and she could have won the election. You can blame her loss on people who voted third party, or people who stayed home, but the reality is that it was a predictable situation. She gambled that they would believe in the wisdom that you’re pushing, and she was wrong.
Some people like to say that every vote is equal. And others rebut that with the comment, “everyone’s equal but only on election day”, and yet others note that the electoral college means we’re not even equal on election day. All of which is to say, as voters, we have more power to impact policy before the election than we do after it. You’re suggesting that we throw that power away. Meh.
Finally, I’m not on either candidate’s side, because neither candidate is on my side. We are all on our own sides, advocating for the things that we think are important or good for us and our community. There’s nothing wrong with saying that you disagree with a candidate on several major issues, even if you think they are generally a solid choice. Many of us strongly value honesty and integrity.
You used the expression “bitch and moan”, which is self-destructive. If you’re complaining that other people are complaining, that means you are “bitching and moaning” too. And you’re not going to get any support with that kind of antagonistic hypocrisy. (I’m not trying to attack you here, simply to point out the kind of attack that your position encourages.)
We shall not. When the time comes, we’ll be ordered to vote for Harris again and Trump still won’t be in jail. All the trials currently ongoing will have concluded unsatisfactorily or will still be ongoing. Same for any new ones that arise between now and then. When Trump finally dies, there will be someone even worse to replace him. And we’ll chase the approval of the reasonable-by-comparison trump wing of the party, just like we’re so proud to have Dick Cheney’s vote now.
There is never going to be a time when people get a better choice lol. This has been the same song and dance of the lesser evil for 40+ years. There people celebrating the endorsement of Dick Cheney. This country is cooked. I get denying the Trump admin. But better is never happening.
Progress is about movement, not destinations. Some days you move the ball forward. Some days you stop it from moving backwards. On really shitty days, you just try to slow it down moving in the wrong direction. It takes effort, and dilligence, and I agree it’s exhausting. We may not live to see the mountaintop, but we stand on the shoulders of giants and we try to make the world better for the next group. If we live our lives that way, we can die knowing it was worth being alive. Anything else is just killing time.