US Election 2020

[Seabass]

I couldn't vote for someone, or a party I didn't think was going to do the right thing, just because I don't like the other guy.

How principled. Given two options - and there are only two when it comes to deciding who the US president will be in the next term, I'd be voting for the lesser of the two evils, regardless of what I think of him.

Here in Australia we have preferential voting - kind of an instant runoff system, so we can afford the luxury of voting for a politician we really like even if he or she has a snowflake's chance in hell of getting somewhere. Our vote will just flow on to our second preference. If that candidate gets eliminated, our vote flows on to the third, and so on.

Another big difference is that we don't actually elect our Prime Minister. Roughly speaking, we elect our local member. If the conservatives win, the parliamentary members of the so-called Liberal party elect the PM and the parliamentary members of the National party elect the deputy PM. If the Labor party wins, the parliamentary members, party caucus and Labor party members elect the PM and deputy PM.

Oh what I wouldn't give for instant runoff...

[laklak]

If enough people vote Libertarian, the major parties will need to skew a bit more Libertarian to pull those voters. I'm not concerned about ridiculous policies like abolishing the FDA, that will never happen, you'd need a Libertarian President, House, Senate, and Supreme Court. Would take decades. What I'd like to see is less foreign military intervention, closing of overseas military bases, reduction in ridiculous government regulations (there are SO many), abolishing the War on Drugs and decriminalizing if not outright legalization of all drugs, etc. All are in the party platform.

There's a lot of batshit Libertarian stuff, I just ignore it.

[pErvinalia]

This should be in the Jo Jorgenson thread!

[JimC]

If enough people vote Libertarian, the major parties will need to skew a bit more Libertarian to pull those voters. I'm not concerned about ridiculous policies like abolishing the FDA, that will never happen, you'd need a Libertarian President, House, Senate, and Supreme Court. Would take decades. What I'd like to see is less foreign military intervention, closing of overseas military bases, reduction in ridiculous government regulations (there are SO many), abolishing the War on Drugs and decriminalizing if not outright legalization of all drugs, etc. All are in the party platform.

There's a lot of batshit Libertarian stuff, I just ignore it.

Fair enough, lak - nobody needs to take on the whole shebang of a party's policies to decide that, on balance, there are enough policies that you like to decide to vote for them...

[Tero]

As long as we don't have to read Ayn Rand.

[laklak]

Dear fucking god save us.

[laklak]

One of my favorite "Big L" libertarian fantasies is abolishing the Federal Aviation Administration. If you can afford to buy an F-35 Lightning then who's to say you can't fly that motherfucker wherever you want?

[pErvinalia]

F-35? Fuck that. I want a Space Shuttle so I can visit the International Space Station.

[NineBerry]

Well, it's easy.. You don't need the bureaucracy of the nanny state telling you where you are allowed to fly to if you just privatize air space. Sell the airspace to private owners. And it will be the private owners telling you where you are allowed to fly. A huge improvement.

[laklak]

I got surface to air capability, fucker best not fly over my goddamn house.

[Tero]

I think Kamala will be a great shadow president. Much better than Nancy Reagan in Reagan's 2nd term. She tended to have psychics as advisors.

[Tero]

Look laklak!

Biden does not need a brain. We can just prop him up. Even many places at the same time.

[laklak]

Lol. Just put strings on him like a marionette.

[Sean Hayden]

No, I'm not making up the stealth candidate thing. Anyone who has ever dealt with dementia or Alzheimer's (I certainly have) can see that Joe's well into it. If someone from the outside can see it then everyone close to him can sure as fuck see it. Pelosi isn't spinning up the 25th Amendment because she thinks Trumpy has the CoronaCrazies, it's to get rid of Joe when he starts uncontrollably drooling and dry-humping girls while sniffing their hair. If they'd picked Bernie or maybe Warren as VP it would still be unconscionable, but at least both of them polled a shitload better than Harris in the primaries. If they actually do not realize how bad Joe is getting then even MORE reason not to vote for them.

I'm registered as a Libertarian, and I generally vote for the more Libertarian candidate in other elections. In this one we have an actual candidate, so I will support her. If that's actually a vote for Biden or a vote for Trump (one could argue either side) then so be it.

He didn't look like he had dementia during the debate, much less to be well into it. Are you using a series of gaffes to inform your opinion here? I remember when I first looked at so many of his gaffes in one go I thought he might be losing it too.

[laklak]

Could be, seems more than that but I imagine we'll find out.