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2016 Presidential Election

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  • I've been saying Fuck those guys a lot this election, I figure this is going to continue.
  • It will never get better until the GOP is unelectable, and then it might still shift into the one-party Democratic primaries.

    Even in the best case scenario, Clinton has 8 years of fighting a stonewalling and evil congress, followed by what I assume is Neo-Hitler running on the GOP ticket in 2024.
  • So you want King Caucus back?
  • A big difference is that the general public takes direct part in primaries. You'd likely end up having, for the short term, a Democratic primary that is, for all intents and purposes, the election, and then a token presidential election against a straw Republican. The downticket items would probably continue as they do now unabated.

    But yeah, if there weren't a realignment to return to two major parties within a couple of presidential elections, King Caucus is back. America isn't capable of degenerating into the status one party system of a nation like Japan.
  • The other big difference is that in the last two centuries we have expanded our ability to repress fringe parties. The American populous may be incapable of degenerating but I don't doubt that such concentrated power would rob the people of their ability to resist it. A one party system would be the demise of opposition in electoral politics. It would bring about the very environment that the Democratic Party was founded in defiance of.
  • RymRym
    edited September 2016
    A possibility would be that the Democrats end up being a near-majority party, and are surrounded by a few conservative parties and a liberal/socialist party. They'd effectively win every presidential race, but would be unable to achieve significant legislation without the approval and cooperation of at least one of the minority parties.

    Imagine

    Democrats - 45%
    Berniecrats - 10%
    Libertarians - 10%
    Republicans - 25%
    Trumpists - 10%

    Granted, that would require a sea change on the local level that could only even begin to occur in the vacuum left by a collapsed GOP...

    Long term, I don't even know what I want. Even if we returned in 20 years to the status quo of two dominant and relatively equally powerful parties, the progress we could make during those 20 years with a Democratic lockup could be enormous.
    Post edited by Rym on
  • Local politics is where minority parties have seen the most repression. We've thrown democratically elected socialists and anarchists out of local seats and have done nothing to prevent that happening in the future.

    Long term I just want to eliminate plurality elections altogether so that this entire conversation is moot.
  • lol "democratically elected anarchists"
  • Is that George "segregation today, segregation tomorruh, segregation forever" Wallace?
  • Joss Whedon made a get out the vote video.
  • So apparently, "Young Millennials" and "Old Millennials" is a thing now.

    "Clinton’s real millennial problem: young Americans are less loyal to Democrats"

    http://www.vox.com/2016/9/21/12963334/clinton-millennial-problem
  • I've been trying to split from the "Millennials" for a while now. I've seen huge cultural divides between people my age and those usually referred to as "Millennials". I was generally drew the line at whether you could remember 9/11 or not, which would put me right on the edge between "millennials" and the new generation. I don't like calling us "young millennials" tho. I don't feel a tie to "Millennial"s at all. We are a new culture. The culture is too young to be well defined, but I can already tell it is distinct from those before us.
  • edited September 2016
    Generation labels kinda suck but are fun to debate.

    I like to think of myself as a Millennial, but I realize I have a family, own a home and have a decent paying job lol...... So I can't count as one right?
    Post edited by Cremlian on
  • I like the "what world news event do you remember?" as the deciding factor (or one of them) not age or current station in life.

    I remember:
    Challenger
    Berlin Wall
    Tianamen Square
    End of Apartheid
    Gulf War

    All of that passed my girlfriend by. Her first big news event was Princess Diana dying. I have other friends for whom 9/11 isn't a big thing, even if they were dimly aware of it.
  • I'm at the same point as your girlfriend. I remember the hubub of Princes Di dying and Bill Clinton being voted in his second term, but not much before that.
  • I remember 9/11 despite being like 5 or 6 at the time, mostly because my dad works in aviation so it was somewhat stressful for my family.
  • The 2000 election was the first major political event I was really aware of.
    But really, I think it's people who are too young to remember Bill Clinton's first term who are the "young millenials" being talked about (who aren't voting for Hillary and, y'know, endangering the American project).
  • The 2000 election was the first major political event I was really aware of.
    But really, I think it's people who are too young to remember Bill Clinton's first term who are the "young millenials" being talked about (who aren't voting for Hillary and, y'know, endangering the American project).

    That's rather generalizing, I'm in that group and am happily voting for Clinton.
  • The 2000 election was the first major political event I was really aware of.
    But really, I think it's people who are too young to remember Bill Clinton's first term who are the "young millenials" being talked about (who aren't voting for Hillary and, y'know, endangering the American project).

    That's rather generalizing, I'm in that group and am happily voting for Clinton.
    By this logic antebellum South was progressive because John Brown armed slaves Harper's Ferry.

    I tried really hard to find an analogy from the last 25 years and I couldnt think of one. I think I read too much history...
  • Since a Millennial is designated as someone born past 1980, that's a pretty significant gap considering so much has changed socially and technology wise (and technology is important for how it exposes people to mature/global ideas) By the looks of things, 9/11 is the key dividing point between old and young millennials.

    Somehow Trump is bouncing back in the polls. You can't shame or logic the supporters since they love those memes and statistics and snappy comebacks. So how do you dismantle what is essentially a morass of ignorance?

  • You can't. This election is primarily in the hands of:

    1. People who think a "protest vote" is a thing
    2. People who are ACTUALLY UNDECIDED

    Think for a minute. Imagine the kind of person who, on this day, looks at Trump and Clinton and HONESTLY ISN'T SURE.

    Those people are the ones who will decide the fate of the nation.
  • Protest vote: "I didn't think the leopards would eat MY face!" says person who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces party. ~Saw on twitter around the time of brexit
  • Rym said:

    You can't. This election is primarily in the hands of:

    1. People who think a "protest vote" is a thing
    2. People who are ACTUALLY UNDECIDED

    Think for a minute. Imagine the kind of person who, on this day, looks at Trump and Clinton and HONESTLY ISN'T SURE.

    Those people are the ones who will decide the fate of the nation.

    Scary. Johnson and Stein are so gonna fuck things up.
  • After having been asked how he would curb black-on-black violence in inner cities, Trump suggests to heavily enforce "stop-and-frisk". And there goes the 4th Amendment.

    Reading through some of the justifications from random internet people and seriously, I'd like to puke.
  • Rym said:

    You can't. This election is primarily in the hands of:

    1. People who think a "protest vote" is a thing
    2. People who are ACTUALLY UNDECIDED

    Think for a minute. Imagine the kind of person who, on this day, looks at Trump and Clinton and HONESTLY ISN'T SURE.

    Those people are the ones who will decide the fate of the nation.

    Why would anyone be undecided is beyond my mind?
    That last sentence put chills in my body.
  • In the article it makes the distinction of anyone born past 1990 as a "Young Millennial". The notion being that the first Presidential Election was in 2008 for Obama.

    I found this other article as well.

    http://www.vox.com/2016/9/21/12987108/sanders-clinton-nixon-humphrey

    History doesn't exactly repeat but it sure likes to rhyme. One big difference I see between now and then is the non-White vote carries much more weight than in previous elections, and Trump has gone out of his way to alienate everyone except his core supporters.
  • In the latest bit of "Rich white dudes funding trump's campaign", it turns out that the pro-Trump 501(c)4 and social media influence organization Nimble America is heavily funded by none other than Oculus's Palmer Lucky.
  • Yeah I was just about to say word on the street seems to be Palmer Luckey might be a Trump supporter.
  • What's worse is that Luckey is also linked heavily to GamerGate bullshit, so it's a double-whammy of huge disappointment from a guy I originally had a bit of respect for.
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