I included abstention as an option! The problem with abstention is it seems to have no political effect. So if you want to do something that has an effect, you are funneled into voting for one of two options.
Whoops! My glazed eyes missed that the first time.
It''s hammered into us that we absolutely must vote. of course many do not, but it strikes me that us in the liberal bubble think people voting for Trump despite his record or policies not lining up with what they want are doing so irrationally, yet there are a ton of people who are pretty distant from Biden yet voted for him despite the incompatibility of his positions and record with what they claim to believe, but we would probably think of those people as being rational in doing so; indeed the message has been that we are morally commanded to vote for Biden no matter our qualms.
Fully acknowledging that I'm not on the ground there, but I was getting the impression that leftists and left liberals have been pretty clear in treating a vote for Biden as more a vote against Trump, of accepting a known, workable awful versus the distinct possibility of shifting the game into completely untenable territory. This is such an unusual circumstance that you put aside legitimate opposition to the Democrats because the alternative is existentially worse. Normally that kind of rhetoric would be hyperbole—like if it had been applied to Mittens in 2012—but I think it is justified now and on moral grounds.
"Grab some wood, bub.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
I included abstention as an option! The problem with abstention is it seems to have no political effect. So if you want to do something that has an effect, you are funneled into voting for one of two options.
Whoops! My glazed eyes missed that the first time.
It''s hammered into us that we absolutely must vote. of course many do not, but it strikes me that us in the liberal bubble think people voting for Trump despite his record or policies not lining up with what they want are doing so irrationally, yet there are a ton of people who are pretty distant from Biden yet voted for him despite the incompatibility of his positions and record with what they claim to believe, but we would probably think of those people as being rational in doing so; indeed the message has been that we are morally commanded to vote for Biden no matter our qualms.
Fully acknowledging that I'm not on the ground there, but I was getting the impression that leftists and left liberals have been pretty clear in treating a vote for Biden as more a vote against Trump, of accepting a known, workable awful versus the distinct possibility of shifting the game into completely untenable territory. This is such an unusual circumstance that you put aside legitimate opposition to the Democrats because the alternative is existentially worse. Normally that kind of rhetoric would be hyperbole—like if it had been applied to Mittens in 2012—but I think it is justified now and on moral grounds.
The funny part about that hyperbole is that I was cornered by two friends in 2012 and told that it was the most important election ever and I absolutely had to vote for Obama (I had expressed the possibility of abstaining) or disaster would rain down upon our republic!
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman
I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy
I included abstention as an option! The problem with abstention is it seems to have no political effect. So if you want to do something that has an effect, you are funneled into voting for one of two options.
Whoops! My glazed eyes missed that the first time.
It''s hammered into us that we absolutely must vote. of course many do not, but it strikes me that us in the liberal bubble think people voting for Trump despite his record or policies not lining up with what they want are doing so irrationally, yet there are a ton of people who are pretty distant from Biden yet voted for him despite the incompatibility of his positions and record with what they claim to believe, but we would probably think of those people as being rational in doing so; indeed the message has been that we are morally commanded to vote for Biden no matter our qualms.
Fully acknowledging that I'm not on the ground there, but I was getting the impression that leftists and left liberals have been pretty clear in treating a vote for Biden as more a vote against Trump, of accepting a known, workable awful versus the distinct possibility of shifting the game into completely untenable territory. This is such an unusual circumstance that you put aside legitimate opposition to the Democrats because the alternative is existentially worse. Normally that kind of rhetoric would be hyperbole—like if it had been applied to Mittens in 2012—but I think it is justified now and on moral grounds.
The funny part about that hyperbole is that I was cornered by two friends in 2012 and told that it was the most important election ever and I absolutely had to vote for Obama (I had expressed the possibility of abstaining) or disaster would rain down upon our republic!
I’ve encountered that attitude every year since 2000 (and only about the presidency) despite living my entire life in solid blue and/or solid red states. Never once has my vote as an adult come within like 500,000 people of mattering.
”INDER LOCK THE THE KISS THREAD IVE REALISED IM A PRZE IDOOT” - Thomas Jefferson
I included abstention as an option! The problem with abstention is it seems to have no political effect. So if you want to do something that has an effect, you are funneled into voting for one of two options.
Whoops! My glazed eyes missed that the first time.
It''s hammered into us that we absolutely must vote. of course many do not, but it strikes me that us in the liberal bubble think people voting for Trump despite his record or policies not lining up with what they want are doing so irrationally, yet there are a ton of people who are pretty distant from Biden yet voted for him despite the incompatibility of his positions and record with what they claim to believe, but we would probably think of those people as being rational in doing so; indeed the message has been that we are morally commanded to vote for Biden no matter our qualms.
Fully acknowledging that I'm not on the ground there, but I was getting the impression that leftists and left liberals have been pretty clear in treating a vote for Biden as more a vote against Trump, of accepting a known, workable awful versus the distinct possibility of shifting the game into completely untenable territory. This is such an unusual circumstance that you put aside legitimate opposition to the Democrats because the alternative is existentially worse. Normally that kind of rhetoric would be hyperbole—like if it had been applied to Mittens in 2012—but I think it is justified now and on moral grounds.
The funny part about that hyperbole is that I was cornered by two friends in 2012 and told that it was the most important election ever and I absolutely had to vote for Obama (I had expressed the possibility of abstaining) or disaster would rain down upon our republic!
I’ve encountered that attitude every year since 2000 (and only about the presidency) despite living my entire life in solid blue and/or solid red states. Never once has my vote as an adult come within like 500,000 people of mattering.
Only rarely have I seen any pressure for midterms even though one's vote has a bigger impact in a midterm. Insert Zizek on ideology here.
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman
I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy
I included abstention as an option! The problem with abstention is it seems to have no political effect. So if you want to do something that has an effect, you are funneled into voting for one of two options.
Whoops! My glazed eyes missed that the first time.
It''s hammered into us that we absolutely must vote. of course many do not, but it strikes me that us in the liberal bubble think people voting for Trump despite his record or policies not lining up with what they want are doing so irrationally, yet there are a ton of people who are pretty distant from Biden yet voted for him despite the incompatibility of his positions and record with what they claim to believe, but we would probably think of those people as being rational in doing so; indeed the message has been that we are morally commanded to vote for Biden no matter our qualms.
Fully acknowledging that I'm not on the ground there, but I was getting the impression that leftists and left liberals have been pretty clear in treating a vote for Biden as more a vote against Trump, of accepting a known, workable awful versus the distinct possibility of shifting the game into completely untenable territory. This is such an unusual circumstance that you put aside legitimate opposition to the Democrats because the alternative is existentially worse. Normally that kind of rhetoric would be hyperbole—like if it had been applied to Mittens in 2012—but I think it is justified now and on moral grounds.
The funny part about that hyperbole is that I was cornered by two friends in 2012 and told that it was the most important election ever and I absolutely had to vote for Obama (I had expressed the possibility of abstaining) or disaster would rain down upon our republic!
And that's the problem with politics in practice. Elections are so often treated by party loyalists as the choice between eden and the pit, and the effect can be to sour one on the whole thing. So, yeah, I agree completely with you and Wolter here, tho I maintain that it is warranted here (well, not the eden part). I really do think there's a distinct possibility that a Trump win would result in total social breakdown and martial law.
"Grab some wood, bub.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
I included abstention as an option! The problem with abstention is it seems to have no political effect. So if you want to do something that has an effect, you are funneled into voting for one of two options.
Whoops! My glazed eyes missed that the first time.
It''s hammered into us that we absolutely must vote. of course many do not, but it strikes me that us in the liberal bubble think people voting for Trump despite his record or policies not lining up with what they want are doing so irrationally, yet there are a ton of people who are pretty distant from Biden yet voted for him despite the incompatibility of his positions and record with what they claim to believe, but we would probably think of those people as being rational in doing so; indeed the message has been that we are morally commanded to vote for Biden no matter our qualms.
Fully acknowledging that I'm not on the ground there, but I was getting the impression that leftists and left liberals have been pretty clear in treating a vote for Biden as more a vote against Trump, of accepting a known, workable awful versus the distinct possibility of shifting the game into completely untenable territory. This is such an unusual circumstance that you put aside legitimate opposition to the Democrats because the alternative is existentially worse. Normally that kind of rhetoric would be hyperbole—like if it had been applied to Mittens in 2012—but I think it is justified now and on moral grounds.
The funny part about that hyperbole is that I was cornered by two friends in 2012 and told that it was the most important election ever and I absolutely had to vote for Obama (I had expressed the possibility of abstaining) or disaster would rain down upon our republic!
And that's the problem with politics in practice. Elections are so often treated by party loyalists as the choice between eden and the pit, and the effect can be to sour one on the whole thing. So, yeah, I agree completely with you and Wolter here, tho I maintain that it is warranted here (well, not the eden part). I really do think there's a distinct possibility that a Trump win would result in total social breakdown and martial law.
And that's the problem with politics in practice. Elections are so often treated by party loyalists as the choice between eden and the pit, and the effect can be to sour one on the whole thing. So, yeah, I agree completely with you and Wolter here, tho I maintain that it is warranted here (well, not the eden part). I really do think there's a distinct possibility that a Trump win would result in total social breakdown and martial law.
Recent piece by Matt Taibbi pointed out that despite opportunities to exercise power in a strongman style, Trump hasn't really lived up to the caudillo image he projects. Instead he threatens and vacillates and seems to wander off target. I think a lot of the seriously fashy alt right are disappointed in Trump's actual governance, which is more haphazard. Saw one mad that Trump didn't take advantage of COVID-19 to stick it to the libs.
If he wins, we'll see if Trump actually governs in the authoritarian style.
Noted dapper nazi Richard Spencer actually voted Biden and a straight Dem ticket because he thought they would be more likely to get Antifa and BLM under control, so Biden was the law and order choice.
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman
I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy
I included abstention as an option! The problem with abstention is it seems to have no political effect. So if you want to do something that has an effect, you are funneled into voting for one of two options.
Whoops! My glazed eyes missed that the first time.
It''s hammered into us that we absolutely must vote. of course many do not, but it strikes me that us in the liberal bubble think people voting for Trump despite his record or policies not lining up with what they want are doing so irrationally, yet there are a ton of people who are pretty distant from Biden yet voted for him despite the incompatibility of his positions and record with what they claim to believe, but we would probably think of those people as being rational in doing so; indeed the message has been that we are morally commanded to vote for Biden no matter our qualms.
Fully acknowledging that I'm not on the ground there, but I was getting the impression that leftists and left liberals have been pretty clear in treating a vote for Biden as more a vote against Trump, of accepting a known, workable awful versus the distinct possibility of shifting the game into completely untenable territory. This is such an unusual circumstance that you put aside legitimate opposition to the Democrats because the alternative is existentially worse. Normally that kind of rhetoric would be hyperbole—like if it had been applied to Mittens in 2012—but I think it is justified now and on moral grounds.
The funny part about that hyperbole is that I was cornered by two friends in 2012 and told that it was the most important election ever and I absolutely had to vote for Obama (I had expressed the possibility of abstaining) or disaster would rain down upon our republic!
And that's the problem with politics in practice. Elections are so often treated by party loyalists as the choice between eden and the pit, and the effect can be to sour one on the whole thing. So, yeah, I agree completely with you and Wolter here, tho I maintain that it is warranted here (well, not the eden part). I really do think there's a distinct possibility that a Trump win would result in total social breakdown and martial law.
Will you allow fleeing Americans to Anne Frank in your basement?
We reach the parts other combos cannot reach
We beach the beachheads other armies cannot beach
We speak the tongues other mouths cannot speak
And that's the problem with politics in practice. Elections are so often treated by party loyalists as the choice between eden and the pit, and the effect can be to sour one on the whole thing. So, yeah, I agree completely with you and Wolter here, tho I maintain that it is warranted here (well, not the eden part). I really do think there's a distinct possibility that a Trump win would result in total social breakdown and martial law.
Recent piece by Matt Taibbi pointed out that despite opportunities to exercise power in a strongman style, Trump hasn't really lived up to the caudillo image he projects. Instead he threatens and vacillates and seems to wander off target. I think a lot of the seriously fashy alt right are disappointed in Trump's actual governance, which is more haphazard. Saw one mad that Trump didn't take advantage of COVID-19 to stick it to the libs.
If he wins, we'll see if Trump actually governs in the authoritarian style.
I've seen others make the same argument (and I've strayed into similar observations myself at times). For similar reasons that despite fears, there hasn't been a new war under in his term (if Hillary had won, I don't doubt that you'd have a major military misadventure going on right now). Yes, you've all been lucky that he's incompetent and has the attention span of a toddler on a sugar high. But I fear the combination of "validation" from this election and frustration/despair from the other side would push things into more authentic authoritarianism.
Noted dapper nazi Richard Spencer actually voted Biden and a straight Dem ticket because he thought they would be more likely to get Antifa and BLM under control, so Biden was the law and order choice.
Christ, I can see the logicishness there, but that's still weird as hell on the face of it all.
"Grab some wood, bub.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
Missouri was a bloodbath. An absolute bloodbath. The way this state has been gerrymandered to death pretty much guarantees that no dem can win in my district. Where I live is heavily blue, but my district is so large that it contains bedroom communities and rural areas. No dems won any of the statewide races. Our governor, who wasn't even elected his first term (he came to office when our disgraced former governor resigned), wiped the floor with his challenger. Our governor, who had COVID and then thought it was a good idea to hold a fall hootenanny. Our governor, who is so far up Trump's ass he could give him his colonoscopy results.
65% voter turnout in the city of St. Louis. It's shocking.
I'm in St. Louis County and I voted for the first time yesterday (I was 17 at the time of the 2016 Election). I voted Democrat all around. I know Missouri is very Conservative, but I wanted to do my part and make our state slightly less red. Every vote counts, we can make a difference.
every election is consequential in the sense that the presidency is imbued with a lot of power and so even relatively modest differences between candidates can have consequential results. And we seem to be in sort of an accelerationist phase of the office getting more powerful rather than less. But I don't think that's what folks are usually thinking of when they think of the consequentialness of elections.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead
Missouri was a bloodbath. An absolute bloodbath. The way this state has been gerrymandered to death pretty much guarantees that no dem can win in my district. Where I live is heavily blue, but my district is so large that it contains bedroom communities and rural areas. No dems won any of the statewide races. Our governor, who wasn't even elected his first term (he came to office when our disgraced former governor resigned), wiped the floor with his challenger. Our governor, who had COVID and then thought it was a good idea to hold a fall hootenanny. Our governor, who is so far up Trump's ass he could give him his colonoscopy results.
65% voter turnout in the city of St. Louis. It's shocking.
I'm in St. Louis County and I voted for the first time yesterday (I was 17 at the time of the 2016 Election). I voted Democrat all around. I know Missouri is very Conservative, but I wanted to do my part and make our state slightly less red. Every vote counts, we can make a difference.
Thank you for voting and nice to see a fellow St. Louis Countyian on IMCT! I was really pulling for Jill Schupp and really thought she had a chance. Wagner just sucks.
Got a Rake? Sure!
IMCT: Inane Middle-Class Twats - Dr. M
" *sigh* it's right when they throw the penis pump out the window." -Hoy
