• Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    do you know about how W won the 2004 election?

    He got more votes than Kerry, winning the popular vote (unlike his first election)

    this was because the Kerry campaign failed to meet the moment, running an “I could run this war better” pro-war campaign.

    This isn’t (and has never been) a democracy because the power is not with the people, institutions like the supreme court, the electoral college, the Senate, and the allocation of representatives make sure of that.

    • VarykOP
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      4 days ago

      sure, kind of.

      that all obligly agrees with what I’ve been saying.

      you finally read some of those sources?

      I’m very pro better late than never, good on you.

      in the future, I’d appreciate it if you read things you comment on first before making claims based on assumptions.

      have a good one

      • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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        4 days ago

        I didn’t find any of the arguments compelling, I’m just not particularly enchanted by this electoral system because it’s a fig leaf for a bourgeois dictatorship, and has been for some time. Just because you vote doesn’t mean it’s a democracy.

        My position is that the fix has been in for a lot longer, there’s been basically no US presidents that have actually represented the entire population, it’s always businesses and settlers first (hence all the wars)

        • VarykOP
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          4 days ago

          as long as you’re choosing to be in that system, the will of the electorate should be exerted to its side host when choosing their president.

          the alternative you are suggesting is that because there are outsized special interests influencing you a selection, people shouldn’t have any say.

          which I cannot agree with.

          it’s a popular, simple opinion, doesn’t require you to do anything but it certainly doesn’t change anything for the better or have any positive benefits.

          nobody’s arguing that the fix you’re talking about isn’t in, those computer scientists and I agree that we should try to fix the fix.

          • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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            4 days ago

            the alternative you are suggesting is that because there are outsized special interests influencing you a selection, people shouldn’t have any say.

            No, I’m saying that they never had a say, and you’re imagining popular power that never existed. For most of the US existence only white men could vote for one, the franchise was eventually extended but any influence voting has always been overdetermined by the existence of the electoral college.

            The fixating on a few times the election didn’t go your way just looks like nursing bruised egos instead of focusing on productive work and developing a better understanding of our politics.

            • VarykOP
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              4 days ago

              Regardless of the outsized influence special interests have, Americans have had and still have a say in who they elect.

              you are fixating on how difficult change is instead of understanding that things perpetually change and it’s the fight to change systems that changes systems.

              you’re fighting for futility, I’m advocating realistic change.

              you might be bummed out because of the election results, but that’s no reason to stop making things better.

              you’re still here and so is everybody else, and in the Cassandric words of steve Harwell,

              “We could all use a little chaaaAAAnge”.

              • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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                4 days ago

                you’re fighting for futility, I’m advocating realistic change

                I’m saying the thing you’re fixated on is the futile thing, it assumes that this is a democracy (it isn’t) and that it’s “just special interests” (it’s the capitalist class writ large, they just bicker over who gets the reins)

                I don’t think a qanon style campaign to stop the steal is realistic, but if you want to dress up like a fallout character and storm the capital in January more power to you.

                • VarykOP
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                  4 days ago

                  “the thing you’re fixated on is the futile thing”

                  The only way you can think civil rights are futile is if you have already given up.

                  If that’s the case, then take yourself out of the equation and stop talking about issues you don’t care about.

                  If you haven’t given up, explain how making sure people have civil rights is futile.

                  “it assumes…”

                  no, it doesn’t. you’re making assumptions, don’t do that.

                  “special interests” (it’s the capitalist class…"

                  Yes, those are special interests.

                  “I don’t think a qanon style campaign to stop the steal is realistic”

                  this is literally what I’m telling you. step away from qanon, Focus on real evidence and making changes that benefit people.

                  you’re fixated on the futility of everything, but you are incorrectly assuming that nothing can be changed because you are not willing to fight for that change.

                  that is simply incorrect.

                  people thought Trump was going to have his second term 4 years ago, and then he was voted out.

                  change happens all the time, you’re complaining that it can, despite overwhelming constant evidence that things are always changing.

                  • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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                    4 days ago

                    you are incorrectly assuming that nothing can be changed because you are not willing to fight for that change.

                    I’m literally out there multiple days of the week organizing, we’ve fed thousands over the years.

                    In person organizing around addressing the material issues is what’s needed, not slapping a new coat of paint on the war machine every 4 years.

                    “the thing you’re fixated on is the futile thing” The only way you can think civil rights are futile is if you have already given up.

                    I don’t think you’re fixated on civil rights, you’re fixated on winning a carnival game that I’m trying to explain to you is a sideshow compared to what’s going on outside the circus (and it has always been rigged).

                    Let me know if you need any help with your cosplay, I’m good with a sewing machine.