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We'll have a long memory as things get worse for working class Americans, minorities and women (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] 7 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Voting is the feedback part of the system. If people aren't voting honestly, politicians will take the wrong feedback. For example, democrats thinking they should move to the center to reach more republicans, rather than moving the the left to reach more third party voters.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    The feedback part of the system is actually writing (or calling, or participating in public forums) to your representative. Voting is about choosing a representative that will most likely consider your point of view.

    To the left of the Democrats are unreliable voters and everyone knows that. They might vote Democrat, or third party, or be "uncommitted" depending on whatever meme they last saw on social media. The Democrats know that which is why they aren't putting a lot of effort to get those votes because it likely won't bear any fruit. The GOP knows that too, which is why they fund people like Jill Stein.

    Obviously the Democrats are going to shift right to try to entice reliable voters to vote for them. People that are a little more mature and are not living in a fantasy world where voting third party or being uncommitted are going to have any kind of positive outcome. People that understand the system well enough to know that you're supposed to vote for someone that could feasibly win, and then write about their concerns to their representative rather than spending all day whining on social media about the system not being what they want it to be.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I disagree, the feedback comes after their actions, not before.

    As for why the democrats aren't pursuing third party voters, is because to do so would run afoul of AIPAC, and they can get politicians removed from office. Thats something your average voter cannot do. Democrats are hoping to ignore the issue as best they can until after the election, a real lose-lose.

    You are right they are moving right to get voters but not based on maturity or likelihood to vote. They are simply moving right because thats where the numbers are, which is why I argue that the bigger the third parties are the more of a counter balance that is until it tips into a three party system.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    If you can get past antisemitic conspiracy theories about AIPAC you'll find out it's a group of Jewish American citizens and they have exactly as much right to representation as you do. There are a lot of people in the pro-Palestinian movement that are in this "uncommitted" movement which is an attempt to threaten politicians with removal from office if they don't change foreign policy to help their side in a foreign conflict. How is what the pro-Palestinian movement is trying to do any different from what AIPAC does? The only difference is AIPAC is significantly more competent at doing what the pro-Palestinian movement is trying to do. Also the pro-Palestinian movement has an antisemitism problem that they're in denial of which means they're doing nothing to address. So it's obvious to any politician which of these groups they'll be happy to associate with and which group they'll generally avoid. The pro-Palestinian movement has to fix their problems to be able to have any kind of influence.

    Third parties are simply not viable in the current system. There is a proposal to have ranked choice voting at least for congress, but it's currently lacking the votes needed to pass. That would make third parties at least possible in congress. I'll give you one guess about which party has proposed it.

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