![]() 08/24/2020 at 00:00 • Filed to: None | ![]() | ![]() |
“His memory failed him” - the jokes write themselves
So glad to vote the evil man out of office. Jo Jorgensen 2020?
![]() 08/24/2020 at 08:04 |
|
I can’t believe we have had these candidates for the last two elections. And a third party still has not been able to provide a meaningful alternative.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 08:25 |
|
“There I was....”
![]() 08/24/2020 at 08:38 |
|
I want to vote libertarian so bad but they are always crazy, and generally have to be crazy to be notice. I guess you can blame either partys respective primary?
![]() 08/24/2020 at 09:36 |
|
Oof... yeah, there’s going to be tons of that from all of his year in office.
That said, I hope he wins. Trump has to go.
I have no qualms giving my protest vote to Jo in this deep red state.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 09:39 |
|
Sadly, our system is set up to give us pretty much exactly what we’re getting...
![]() 08/24/2020 at 09:44 |
|
The orders of magnitude of badness of these two candidates are completely different universes. The same applied in 2016. Whatever extent Biden (and Hillary) trigger a "politician, yuck" response, Trump is 100x worse.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 09:46 |
|
Libertarian candidates are crazy because the party itself is crazy. Don't for a minute think that they're EVER going to produce someone who's worth voting for. The total extent of their platform is nothing more than an extreme version of the "government shouldn't do anything" slice of the republican platform, without the balls to pander to the culture warriors.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 10:01 |
|
The reaction is a lot more than “politician, yuck.” Not here for the political debate as I will (again) not be voting for either, but Biden is a known liar, plagiarist, and alleged sexual harasser, and if you don’t think there was something to the Hunter Biden/Ukraine/Burisma story, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you (at the very least, it involved the son trading on his father’s name) . Sure, Trump may very well be 100x worse. But my point is that the last two election cycles have given us the worst presidential candidates in my lifetime, and potentially in the lifetime of this country. And we still cannot get a meaningful third-party candidate.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 10:05 |
|
The US system just isn’t set up in a way to get meaningful third-party candidate. It would be better if it was, but that’s not what we’ve got, and it’s going to take a long campaign of small changes to get either party to give to support changes that weaken them.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 10:06 |
|
I like the mix of 2a, abortion rights, deregulation policies in theory. Maybe its the idea of parties that is the core issue.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 10:08 |
|
Yeah, a gaff prone guy who has been in politics for roughly half a century is surely going to have some dumb statements on the record. Another reason he wasn’t actually a great choice.
Still, I can easily believe Biden has told fewer lies in his entire career than Trump has told this week.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 10:19 |
|
There’s gaffes, and there’s bold-faced lies. This was the latter.
Yes, for sure.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 10:51 |
|
This viewpoint is foolish and detached from engaging in the real world . Whether you appreciate or believe in the 2 -party system or not, the reality is, it exists. I don’t like it either, but so what? You can either piss and moan about principles, or use whatever little bit of real power you actually pos sess to do something.
Whatever you dislike about Biden, the fact remains that Trump has spent the last almost-4 years grinding our country into a pulp and must be removed. Biden, whatever his faults may be that you’ve over-stated, he ACTUALLY WANTS TO GOVERN, which is damn well more than can be said for Trump.
We will end up with one of these two candidates. The only way to ensure it’s not the worse one is to vote for the less-worse one. Sitting out because you don’t like either of them is being a crybaby taking your ball and going home because the other kids on the playground were assholes during kickball.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 11:01 |
|
Gun culture is too i
ngrained in our society to ever go away. Believing that democrats are going to take your guns is paranoia inspired by repub
lican and gun lobby propaganda.
I
want to take your guns and melt them down but the democrats are pussies about guns compared to me.
Deregulation has never led to anything good. Regulations exist to protect individual citizens from bad actors in profit-motivated businesses. Regulations are often poorly crafted and lead to labyrinthine bureaucracies, but the solution to this problem is not to deregulate, it is to strategically, efficiently regulate.
Here are actual positions of Jo Jorgensen copied and pasted from
her wikipedia page
. This shit is fucking batshit and representative of typical libertarian party thinking. They are fucking whackjobs.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Jorgensen is critical of the current system and supports replacing it with individual retirement accounts.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Jorgensen supports the right to bear arms. She has stated she would abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives whose purpose, she believes, is to enforce “unconstitutional laws”.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Jorgensen opposes embargoes, economic sanctions , and foreign aid .
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Jorgensen supports the Constitutional authority to block any new borrowing. She has pledged to veto any spending that leads to a deficit and any debt ceiling increases.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Jorgensen favors the decentralization and localization of education, and has proposed slashing or altogether eliminating the budget of the Department of Education, leaving the education of children to the states.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Jorgensen supports a free-market healthcare system financed by providing individuals with a spending account and allowing individuals to keep any savings, which she believes would create an increased incentive for healthcare providers to compete by meeting consumer demand for low cost services.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Jorgensen believes that American citizens should be free to travel anywhere they choose and to buy and sell anywhere in the world.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Jorgensen has characterized the U.S. government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as overly bureaucratic and authoritarian, calling restrictions on individual behavior such as stay-at-home orders and corporate bailouts , “the biggest assault on our liberties in our lifetime”.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 11:06 |
|
Who said I was sitting out? I will continue to support the best third-party candidate and hope others will do so as well so we can develop an alternative to the two-party system. I would argue that voting for one of the two major candidates actually is the foolish thing to do as it will ensure we continue to suffer under the thumb of the party elites.
And I overstated nothing about Biden. He in fact is a known liar, about many, many things. He is a repeated plagiarist, as is well documented. There have been at least eight different women that have lodged complaints about him harassing them (and in one alleged instance, an actual assault). And yes, Trump is 100x worse. But hey, insult me and vote for your lesser of two evils!
![]() 08/24/2020 at 11:13 |
|
Whelp, guess i should vote socialist then
Or should i just abstain? If I cant vote for something I believe in?
Something something come and take it. Gonna have to send the police to do that, you know, after they have been defunded. But you know, you can trust the police to be the only people armed in this country. They are so responsible.
How exactly do you suggest we depose these autocrats if you believe my vote is meaningless? Throw rocks at em?
![]() 08/24/2020 at 11:21 |
|
If I wanted to insult you I would’ve said far worse.
Shocker, politicians lie!
Biden’s handsiness and other potential abuses are concerning!
His son made money based on being politically connected!
Biden was my 37th choice in the Democratic primary!
None of this changes the fact that he and Trump are the only candidates with a viable chance of winning the presidency. If you admit that Trump is 100x worse than Biden, then the only solution to preventing a Trump presidency is to vote for the ONLY OTHER CANDIDATE WITH A NON-ZERO CHANCE OF DEFEATING TRUMP, and that candidate is Biden. This is simple fucking logic that you are choosing to ignore because Biden supposedly offends your precious sensibilities.
You know what’s the worst thing about the 2-party system? That one of the 2 parties is a far-right party farther to the right of most European countries fringe right-wing parties . You want to fix the system? Stop helping members of this party get elected by not voting for their only viable opponents.
You can’t just will a third party candidate into the presidency. Voting for third party candidates in presidential elections that are subject to the electoral college is quite literally the WORST possible way to make progress towards the viability of additional political parties. There is such little possibility of making a real dent in the 2-party system as to be completely wasted effort.
If you really want to make third parties viable, it starts at the state and local level. Get a bunch of state and local politicians elected, move on to congress, build an
actual fucking party with actual elected representatives,
and then try to elect a president.
But no, all you third-party ninnies have the energy and spine to do is whine about the 2-party system without doing any of the real work it takes to establish a third party. Meanwhile you fuck over the rest of us who understand how reality works.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 11:23 |
|
Spouting a bunch of republican talking points means you should vote republican if you want to have an actual impact . The libertarian party is a haven for republicans who are too spineless to get in bed with the right wing conservative christian culture warriors. You’d fit in nicely.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 11:35 |
|
Not only havent you logically disproven any of my arguments, you would attack my character, a stranger. Despite the fact that I believe in abortion rights, gay marriage, and certain environmental issues( admittedly I disagree with the core solutions offered, but at least they are offering solutions ). You still want me to vote Republican instead of where my political ideas lie? Easy enough, you seem to be doing something similar clearly.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 15:15 |
|
I don’t want anyone to vote republican. The republican party is farther to the right than most fringe right-wing parties in European countries with parliamentary style governments . The fact that it is one of the two choices in our 2-party system is a huge flaw in this country. It is in power because it is a coalition of multiple groups that on the surface don’t have shared values but have nonetheless gotten together to support each other: 1) lowercase-l libertarians who don’t want the government to govern; 2) conservative christian culture warriors, and 3) bigots. None of these groups is big enough on its own to sustain a political party but mix the 3 of them together and that’s a lot of votes.
This political system sucks but as long as it exists, the only thing pragmatic you can do is vote for candidates that
match your positions most closely and, this is the key part,
actually have a chance of being elected.
The libertarian party is a small offshoot of people who are all about one part of the republican coalition (“ the government shouldn’t govern, including telling me what to do with my guns!” ) without the stomach to pander to the other two parts of the coalition. Which is exactly what you described above: “ the mix of 2a, abortion rights, deregulation policies.” This statement means y ou’ve got a heavy taste for the 1st part of the republican platform, a distaste for the 2nd, and didn’t speak to the 3rd.
Regardless of the existence of the libertarian party, because its candidates have zero real-world chance of being elected in a presidential election subject to the electoral college, y ou have a binary choice between Trump & Biden. Voting for a third party candidate will produce the exact same result as not voting. Pick which side you’re more closely aligned with and quit complaining about the system.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 16:54 |
|
So how would one reform that system?
![]() 08/24/2020 at 17:47 |
|
Would you mind elaborating on how you’re supporting third-party options? Between 2016 and now what have you, or other supporters of a third party done to make it more of a viable reality?
In this election, just like the last, you, I, and everyone else knows that there are only two candidates (well..and Kanye?). I fully support the idea of having a third party, and Biden certainly wasn’t my choice of the D nominees either - but whether you vote for a third party candidate (really, who?), write in a random name, or not vote at all - that won’t change the fact that either Trump or Biden are going to win. And surely you have an opinion of whether one is better than the other? Degrees of bad? Absolutely, I’ll take that. But one is certainly less bad - I don’t even care which one you think is the worst. But please, vote for one. This election is far too crucial to sit it out or be a fence sitter.
For every Hunter Biden claim you make there are a million Ivanka, Jared, Don Jr., Eric scandals to list that are actively ongoing. For every lie that Biden has said, there are a million worse from Trump. He has zero interest in governing - and has done absolutely nothing to appease anyone other than his die hard base. A second term will only be worse (in my opinion). You can believe in big government, limited government, whatever form of government you want - but dismantling government by putting oil lobbyists in charge of the EPA, people profiting from privatizing of education in charge of schools, defense contractor execs in national secutiry roles, etc - the list is endless. This is the definition of cronyism libertarians love to harp on about. Time we did something about it.
And I get the frustration of that “something” not being your ideal dream of the best candidate ever. But that’s what living in a society, and a democracy means - especially in a two party system. You get the most watered down options that appeal to the biggest majority on either side. Neither is near perfect, but one is better than the other. Incrementalism is better than setting the whole thing on fire.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 17:50 |
|
I find it hilarious that the R side of the aisle is trying to pick apart Biden’s less than ideal career. They kept asking for a more centrist voice, a less “extreme” D option - and here, they get it, to the dismay of many democrats. And then they go no, no, not that guy. That guy is sleazy...all the while worshipping the current occupant of the White House. They had ample opportunity to nominate their own alternative, yet they didn’t.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 20:44 |
|
Voting for what you believe in doesn’t mean shit if your vote stands no chance of creating an impact. Voting for a libertarian for president will never have an impact, because the libertarian platform is only about half of a platform. It’s not a real strategy for running anything.
American politics is built from the ground up, starting with local and state elections.
Third parties that want to make genuine inroads need to field viable candidates in elections they stand a chance of winning, win those elections, and show they’re capable of governing.
The libertarian and green parties don’t have viable platforms. If they did, they’d be trying to grow their ranks through local, then state, then federal elections. Instead all they do is throw mediocre presidential candidates over the fence in a misguided attempt to gain attention for their stupid platforms that stand no chance of ever becoming real parties.
M ost activists don’t spend their time trying to create new political parties out of whole cloth. They try to push one of the two major parties in the direction of the issues they care about. It’s why establishment democrats in safely blue congressional districts are having to fend off progressive primary challengers and there’s a small but growing number of them who are getting picked off. It’s also why the republican party has become a far-right, anti-science cult with no interest in actually governing except when it comes to enforcing conservative Christian sexual morality on the rest of us.
If guns and deregulation are important to you but the rest of that republican bullshit is truly off-putting, then your choice is to either vote for a republican because you’re scared of what the democrats will do to your guns, or you can vote for a democrat and hope your guns remain safely out of my and Beto’s reach.
Being a single-issue gun voter is dumb because guns aren’t going anywhere. Take it from me, someone who wants nothing less than a full repeal of the second amendment : your guns are safe even if you vote for democrats. Unless it's Beto. And you saw how well he did once he said that.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 20:51 |
|
Also, the video you posted comes from a youtube channel that pushes 5G radiation conspiracy theories and celebrity cannibal dinner parties among other nonsense . Maybe stop basing your evaluation of Biden on shitty propaganda.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 20:53 |
|
This video is disingenuously edited by a channel that also has videos about 5G radiation conspiracy theories and celebrity cannibal dinner parties.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 21:16 |
|
https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/may/07/ad-watch-fact-checking-video-about-bidens-academic/
Its a real clip. I am sorry that you are so emotionally invested in this. Heres another for you
![]() 08/24/2020 at 21:56 |
|
Thanks for that info. It’s getting way too easy these days... not even getting into deepfakes.
![]() 08/24/2020 at 22:00 |
|
Just so I know, what about this particular video is false? Did Biden not make these claims?
![]() 08/25/2020 at 09:40 |
|
You would do well to actually read your own fact checking link.
Continuing to pursue this line of attack against Biden is exactly why you’d fit in nicely with the libertarians. You’re a republican too scared to actually vote for them and giving yourself cover to make a “principled” stand voting for a candidate who aligns with your skewed values but has no chance of winning.
![]() 08/25/2020 at 09:50 |
|
The information in the video is not exactly false, but the video completely omits that he admitted his transgression and issued a lengthy apology/correction right after it happened.
That doesn’t make Biden great, but it does make this old news and not something that he’s been doing repeatedly.
I try not to listen to people like the original poster of this thread, who refuse to identify themselves as republicans and yet keep complaining, “blech, these candidates are BOTH SO BAD” in reference to Trump and each of his democratic challengers.
I lived in Wisconsin in 2016 and I lost count of how many times I heard that from random corporate-y white people I encountered through work. They’re basically republicans who have absorbed too many republican campaign negative talking points about Trump’s opponents, and believe those talking points, and are looking to give themselves cover to vote for Trump or at the very least not vote for his opponent, while publicly not identifying themselves as republican.
“Oh, I’m
independent.
”
![]() 08/25/2020 at 09:57 |
|
Fine, he apologized, but that’s still a collection of bold-faced lies he told. You don’t mis-remember stuff like that...
Yes, it’s old news, just like the Kamala-Willie stuff, but it goes to character.
And yes, the character of the current character in the White House is far, far worse than either of these two.
As much as it pains me to say it, I hope Biden wins.
![]() 08/25/2020 at 10:09 |
|
Ok. Lets actually read it.
Biden graduated from Syracuse University’s law school in 1968, but not in the top half of his class. He also did not receive three undergraduate degrees. And, according to a September 1987 Newsweek report , Biden didn’t attend law school on a full academic scholarship, either.
In a statement published in response to the Newsweek story, and covered by the New York Times, Biden said his “recollection of this was inaccurate.’’
So you are continuing to attack my character, as well as gaslight me, while not factually refuting my claims. I have two things I think you should read, although my hope is not high since clearly you did not read the full article as I have just factually demonstrated.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html
I dont belive this argument is productive.
![]() 08/25/2020 at 10:13 |
|
Humans are falliable, imperfect creatures and politics is a dirty business. I don’t expect my politicians to be angelic embodiment s of all that is good and virtuous. I do however expect them to attempt to govern competently, and not have malignant, disordered personalities that make their non- governing that much worse.
I think about satisfaction with politicians the same way I think about satisfaction with jobs. I don’t love my job, and I never will. I work because I need the money to live my life. But as long as I’m making good money with quality benefits and I can just do my work and get on with my life without dealing with excessive amounts of bullshit, I’m perfectly content. That’s good enough to fulfill its purpose.
Biden didn’t excite me in the primary. I never even voted in the primary because he had already sealed the nomination by the time Maryland’s covid- delayed primary happened. I was leaning to either Warren or Buttigieg.
But I damn well am excited to vote for Biden over Trump , because Biden at least wants to govern, will hopefully do some good stuff, at least not fuck shit up like Cheeto does, and whatever level of exaggerating and gaffe-ing he does in his entire tenure will be less than a typical late summer Wednesday for Trump.
![]() 08/25/2020 at 10:21 |
|
HA, gaslighting you, that’s rich. Not once have I said this video is false. I’m not going to get into the weeds about what about this Biden story is or isn’t accurate. Of course, the words came out of his own mouth.
The points here are:
You shared this video from a youtube propaganda channel.
This shit is old news that Biden confessed to and apologized for in 1988.
There’s absolutely dirt out there about Biden, but none of it puts him in the same universe as Trump’s badness.
So, either you can admit that whatever Biden has done, Trump is way worse, needs to be removed, and the only way to do that is to vote for Biden. Or you can continue to believe that Biden is just as bad as Trump, and not vote for Biden . Taking the second option makes you a republican. It’s interesting that you feel me pointing this out constitutes a personal attack.
![]() 08/25/2020 at 10:28 |
|
It will be a very interesting 4-8 years, assuming Biden wins. I wonder if he will decide not to run for reelection.
We need some serious healing... We have become so divided as a nation in the last decade plus.
The Rs have had this moment of selling their souls for short term gains, but it’s hard to imagine the party recovering from what it’s done to itself in service to Trump. The Ds need to be judicious as they make changes, to not cause a backlash in 2024 or -28 which might give an opening for a Trump disciple... If they play their cards right, there may not be another GOP president for decades (I’m sure they’ll screw it up somehow).
Would be interesting to see
a viable, reasonable,
centrist
3rd party
rise from the GOP’s ashes.
![]() 08/25/2020 at 11:07 |
|
Biden has definitely made some hints he only plans to serve one term but he’s not going on the record with that.
Polarization is an interesting topic. I share this link all the time, but basically the GOP is and has been a far-right party farther to the right of most European coutntries’ fringe right-wing parties. The only thing they’ve done in the short term is align themselves with Trump and this aggressive, say-the-quiet-part-out-loud brand of the same swill they’ve been pushing for decades. But really their platform and values have been essentially the same since Nixon put racial grievance politics at the forefront of his platform and Reagan added in the seasoning from the christian fundamentalists.
T hat same link has a timeline that shows the D’s platform has gotten much more to the left over time than the Rs have shifted to the right. But that doesn’t mean it’s actually a leftist party platform. The last sentence in the paragraph below is the important part.
Both sides are responsible for polarization, but I genuinely believe that over time, a little more than half the country, and the Democratic party, is realizing, oh shit, the Rs are really far to the right , we need to move away from that.
I personally think the American political system is a huge mess, and the progress away from the far-right GOP is inevitable, but who knows if a real third party (I don’t count the libertarians or the greens as viable) would emerge in the center. There are a lot of centrist democrats, in spite of republican attempts to paint the party as radical leftists.
If anything I think more moderates will peel off from the republicans and if not outright join the democrats, at least be “independent” but vote mostly blue. T he seeds we’re seeing now of skirmishes within the democratic party between traditionalists/establishment/centrists and progressives will increase in numbers to the point where more democrat primaries will become the “real” elections because the jurisdiction is safely blue.
This could lead to the democrats splitting into leftist and centrist parties, but I like to think, and hope, that the leftists and centrists at least agree that the far-right republicans are bad enough that it’s best to stay together for strength in numbers and sort out those disputes within the party rather than give the Rs a mathematical opening.
![]() 08/25/2020 at 11:46 |
|
Unless the Rs somehow
make a whole-cloth change to a centrist party, there’s definitely an opening for a third party for disaffected conservatives (just look how many are encouraging people to vote for Biden!)
and moderate Ds to meet in the middle (assuming the blue team continues to move aggressively
left).
![]() 08/25/2020 at 16:25 |
|
“ It’s interesting that you feel me pointing this out constitutes a personal attack”
“ You would do well to actually read your own fact checking link.”
“ You’re a republican too scared to actually vote for them”
“ who aligns with your skewed values”
“ Being a single-issue gun voter is dumb”
“ The libertarian party is a haven for republicans who are too spineless to get in bed with the right wing conservative christian culture warriors. You’d fit in nicely.”
Sorry, I guess I am too cowardly, immoral, illiterate, and stupid to understand what a personal attack is.
“ Libertarian candidates are crazy because the party itself is crazy”
-can you define gaslighting for me? I don’t read too good.
“ the video you posted comes from a youtube channel that pushes 5G radiation conspiracy theories and celebrity cannibal dinner parties among other nonsense.” But the video is 100% factual, real events consisting entirely if unedited video from a nonbiased source.
Ahem. I would again refer to argument ad hominem.
If you don’t want to be civil or hold a rational argument, how exactly do you expect to convince me of your moral and intellectual superiority? I have in fact empirically denonstrated that you have attacked me personally, both my character as well as my intelligence.
I could go on in regards to your arguments but I want to focus on the disrespect.
![]() 08/25/2020 at 16:52 |
|
Continuing to defend a video on a propaganda youtube channel is stupid. If you gave a shit about factuality you would say something like,
“You know what, my bad, I didn’t realize the other bullshit on that channel, here’s the original source .”
The particular video you posted edits together several news reports contemporaneous to Biden’s comments in question and completely leaves out his admission/apology.
But no, you insist on defending a PROPAGANDA CHANNEL. This is bullshit. Fuck you for spreading propaganda.
I don’t have to address your “arguments” point by point. It’s always bullshitters like you that demand people calling bullshit on them to break shit down point by point. Fuck that. Bullshit is bullshit.
I’m done going round in circles with you. I f you felt the disrespect, good. It is most certainly intended.
![]() 08/25/2020 at 17:08 |
|
“It’s interesting that you feel me pointing this out constitutes a personal attack”
“ If you felt the disrespect, good. It is most certainly intended”
Damn, for someone who wants to ban guns you just love shooting yourself in the foot.
![]() 08/25/2020 at 19:07 |
|
I’m not going to engage in a “which point is right” conversation with someone who posts videos from a propaganda channel that talks about celebrity cannibals.
![]() 08/25/2020 at 22:50 |
|
So you didn't read my link on ad hominem? Are you aware of how big of a hypocrite you are?