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Region: Forest

Shalotte wrote:-snip-.
Fix the system after the system isn't being dismantled by a lunatic.
-snip-

My point entirely. We need to be united if we want to defeat Trump. And for those who say that voting for a moderate democrat hurts progressives, I’d say that Trump winning hurts way more, and if we all actually turn out and vote for Biden, he might actually realize how many Progressives voted for him, and hopefully he will shift further to the left after seeing this.

Lura wrote:I speak from an outsider's perspective, but from all the discourse I have seen around the Biden vs. Trump 2020 US election, I see no way Biden could win. It seems that many people want Biden to be too radically different from the way he is now or they won't vote for him, but that is a terrible strategy if, first and foremost, you want Trump out of the White House. I get the feeling that if enough people just think "Biden's not really much better, so why bother voting for him", and there may well be enough such people, then Trump's going to sweep Biden in November.

What the problem appears to be to me is that people who like Trump or even just prefer him to Biden will vote Trump, but the reverse does not seem to be true for Biden, and I think that will hurt his chances.

Ultimately, if Trump does indeed win a second term, the world will continue to look at the United States as a joke. I know many people that believe the US is full of idiots already, and I don't think 4 more years of a Trump presidency is going to do anything but strengthen the non-US elitism there appears to be here in Australia and probably in other similar 'Western' nations.

EDIT:
Regarding tactical voting, I think that in a two-party system like that of the United States, tactical voting is the only sensible way to vote ever, simply because you can't rank your choices or something like we can here and voting third-party really is wasting your vote in that system. Principles are generally irrelevant because even if you don't particularly like one candidate, not voting for them on the principle that you don't like them (which is almost as bad as straight-up voting for the other guy) gives only the guy you possibly dislike even more more chance of winning.

I do actually think [read: hope] that Biden has a good chance of winning unlike what you said based off of the Blue Wave in 2018 and polling results, but about your second point about ranked voting, I completely agree. I believe that we must adopt IRV voting for single-winner elections, including the presidential and gubernatorial elections, and either STV or a multi-winner IRV for multi-winner elections, such as the House of Representatives. The Presidency and Gubernatorial elections should be based on the popular vote, and the House should be essentially like a parliament, meaning that it is irrelevant where the votes come from. The whole reason the House exists is because it is more representative of the will of the people than the senate, but if you want real representation, we need to have it based off of the popular vote with no regard to the states, like in a parliament, except with less power than the average parliament, since in most parliamentary systems the parliament gets to choose the PM and has more power than other branches of government.

Kawastyselir wrote:I'd just like to point out that your state is much more of a toss up than you may realize. The average of each poll this year (and, of course, take polls with a grain of salt) has put Biden at 47% to Trump's 43%. I'm aligned with you that there's nothing inspiring about Biden, and in fact, probably more about him that makes me more discouraged than anything. And you have solid reasons for not supporting him unless he met certain conditions, but let's keep in mind, as you mentioned, there are other things to consider. I'm not religious, but if I were, I would pray everyday for RBG to stay alive until the next Democratic president. Having a 6-3 conservative majority on the supreme court would set this country back decades. We have been very fortunate in recent high-profile cases, such as for LGBT worker's rights and DACA, to have a conservative join the liberal justices, but it would be all but futile to expect outcomes like that with a 6-3 conservative majority.

Yes, we want a Green New Deal, progressive policymakers at the table and comprehensive police reform, but we are tiptoeing on thin ice right now and it's just too dangerous to open any door for Trump to walk into a second term. I hope you'll reconsider your vote!

I agree with you on both points, especially the last one. You did however mention that some of the conservative justices supported that LGBTQ rights bill and the DACA bill, which politically are liberal issues, but they still support the conservative narrative when it comes to the Supreme Court. The Republicans are trying to push he narrative that “the conservative justices are interpreting the law, not redefining it”. By supporting the liberals in these cases, they are actually upholding previous legislation, which helps them politically. The republicans have been claiming that the Democratic justices are trying to push for new laws as opposed to interpreting past ones, and so by voting to uphold the meaning of previous legislation, the republicans are actually secretly doing themselves a favor, as it makes them seem less partisan and more pro-constitution. I saw an amazing newscast video about this, but I don’t know where it was from, as a teacher if mine showed it to me. I think it was from NBC, but they did a way better job explaining it. But if you search for why the conservative justices voted for this, you can probably find it.

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One more note, I’m currently listening to music from Alegría (throwback to a past conversation with Verdant Haven) to drown out the sound of Trump’s rally, as I was getting too aggravated by it. I even was yelling at our TV, prompting my family to go watch in another room because they couldn’t hear tRump talk.

I also just got an issue about whether flag burning should be legal (it is legal to burn flags in Middle Barael, but burning property is still illegal of course), and I’m hearing Trump in the other room saying that we should punish flag-burners and flag-stompers with a year in prison. Meanwhile KKK members and the gun-bearing protestors who stormed the Michigan capital are walking freely. Only in America

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