Which underscores the point @PAWG was making (and I think I might having been trying to make) about the 3rd party candidates not getting anywhere near enough to win, but plenty to spoil for the 2 main candidates.
7 Likes
Military and overseas absentee ballots have extra time. Looks like the deadline for GA is tomorrow (step 3, point 2)
Luckily (or not, I suppose, depends how it goes) military and overseas voting is a federal, and not state-level law. Ol’ Boy won’t be able to kick up much of a stink about counting them.
6 Likes
Jorgensen by herself currently has 1.6M votes 1.2% of the totals nationwide. Once you add in other 3rd party candidates/write-ins, you nudge up to 1.7%.
2 Likes
It sounds like such huge numbers! Right up until you look at how many people voted.
To @Elle’s point, it does seem like something nearly 2M people voted for should be represented, doesn’t it?
4 Likes
Also a snickers bar
1 Like
They should, but in our current system it is difficult to see a 3rd party vote at the national level as a call for participation rather than a protest vote against the 2 main candidates or parties.
I feel I would not lean my thoughts this direction if there was any mobilization of 3rd party candidates at a more local level where it would not require much to get involved and make an impact. Instead we see this big blowup every 4 years at the presidential election.
2 Likes
Don’t worry, you’ll also end up ignoring the wishes of like 69 million if I’m reading right. But I think that most countries need updates. And open borders. And all kinds of fun stuff
5 Likes
I’ve been trying to get myself to eat for a bit. Too nervous.
2 Likes
What is husboo’s whatsapp? I need him to put a milkshake with straw an inch from your mouth
5 Likes
To be fair, he did put a bowl of lovely homemade soup in my hands about 3 hours ago.
5 Likes
I slept 10 hours and woke up to find that you guys still don’t have a president. Hope you’re doing better though. I know I am.
Before sleeping I was watching a documentary on French television showing Trump supporters getting more arms, learning how to treat burns to get ready for the ‘socialist protesters’ who would soon take over the country. There was a Sheriff in an Arizona (I think it was 10pm and I was sleepy) town who refused to enforce the lockdown in his city. It was similar to a western movie and the city was the‘typical far west city’ you see on movies.
I’m not on FB anymore but I was seeing Trump tweets to stop the counts and that sharpie theory about votes being discarded. I also went on a rabbit hole about QAnon and saw that Latinos voted for Trump. Also 12% of Black men and 57% of white women. I saw some discussion on how there’s racism among Latinos and some of them identify more with white supremacy. It was all depressing except for AOC saying that the Democrats should pay more attention to the Latinos and what they need.
This morning I saw some positive things on Twitter. First many people were tweeting about Stacey Abrams in GA and how she was turning the south blue. It was uplifting and she’s truly amazing. I also saw a speech from Rev Raphaël Warnock about why people should vote and that he could win the senate? Then I saw the story of the news cutting Trump press conference because he was again making false statements. Then a video of Obama during the campaign talking about Trump obsession of crowds and saying “Did no one come to his birthday party as a kid?”. It was all funny and I feel as though people are hopeful again. I also saw that the GOP was losing most of their lawsuits and learned about Marc ELIAS and democracy docket. What an incredible guy and a great lawyer!!
I am once again reconciled with the great idea I have about America. That is all.
7 Likes
Biden now 463 behind Trump, one guestimate is that there are 7352 votes uncounted, excluding military and overseas I assume.
Pennsylvania difference down to 18229.
Doomscrolling replaced by hopescrolling!
3 Likes
Looks like Georgia just tipped over into a Biden lead? My housemate (who is from there initially from there) is very happy this morning!
6 Likes
I dunno, I don’t think it follows that a vote for Jorgensen is a lost vote for Biden. I had a good look earlier at the Libertarian party policies and they seemed far removed from
Democrats.
6 Likes
I was really, really hoping it’d be 270 when I woke up this morning.
3 Likes
Libertarians (as a former one, though I went even further and was an anarcho-capitalist) are all over the map. They don’t line up well with our two party system. Some emphasize social issues, so they’re allies with Dems on things like reproductive rights, drug legalization, etc. Others wish we had the mythical small government that elements of the Reps used to be all about (think Ron Paul), are anti-regulation, anti-welfare, etc so they’re sort of Republican allies but there’s very few honest advocates of small government in the Reps anymore, at least that I’m aware of.
The main problem with libertarianism (and especially anarchism) in general is that it depends on an optimistic view of human nature that’s just not warranted by history. The history of most intentional communities throughout history (especially ones without a rigid religious framework, and even those are checkered) is sadly abysmal. In US terms, they have a mythical view of the early nation that isn’t actually true. In the 18th century at our founding, poor relief (welfare) was the #1 budget line item of most governments.
1 Like
The example wasn’t really intended as a commentary on political platforms; only to try and explain why America is unlikely to have a minority government anytime soon.
Unless a large, large group of people take a leap of faith equivalent to what the founding fathers did w.r.t. trying this newfangled ‘de-moc-ra-cy,’ America will remain with 2 parties.
Platform is a good point. It’s just that as it stands, anyone who actually wants a say in what happens politically over the next 4 years, no matter what platform they think best, has to vote for either the Democratic or Republican candidate.
2 Likes
I sometimes wonder if ranked preference voting might help change that, because with the right candidate R and D voters would give the minority party their 2nd vote instead of the other big party.
2 Likes
Ranked choice voting would make a huge difference! Radiolab (I think) did a really good episode about it recently. Or at least I heard it on my npr station the other day - sometimes they play old episodes.
4 Likes
Yeah, and Maine just started so hopefully some other states take notice
2 Likes