Or, possibly, "Huddle under a tarp in a shallow excavation while sleet falls" time. Pick your own metaphor.
U.S. politics really are different, and that's not just by-jingo American Exceptionalism; it crops up in any country with a winner-take-all general election for the Chief Executive. While "Westminster" parliamentary systems generally evolve multiple parties and absent a commanding legislative majority, those parties often end up having to compromise with one another to pick a Prime Minister (or whatever title the head honcho's job has), in "Washington" governmental arrangements, the drift is for two big parties to form (and, occasionally, dissolve and re-form) and the President (or HMFIC, etc.) comes from one of them: we the voters make the compromise.
When it comes to the general election, if Candidate X is from the party you usually vote for, but their polices on some issues repel you, or you don't think their moral character is adequate to the job, your choice is to look over Candidate Y and see if their positives outweigh their negatives for you (and, we hope, the country); or you can choose to protest-vote for a third-party candidate, or sit that race out. That's it. You're unlikely to get everything you want, no matter what you do.
Pick a big tent and climb inside for the show; pick a small tent if you want to register a different preference; stay out in the cold and let the other kids do the choosing. As Robert A. Heinlein observed and recommended, if you want to have more influence, get involved with one of the two big parties at the grassroots level and try to steer it your way. By the time November rolls around, your options are limited.
At this writing, Nikki Haley is ginning up to drop out of the Republican primary contest. It is being reported that she does not plan to endorse Mr. Trump -- or anyone else.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
8 comments:
When it comes right down to the final voting for HMFIC, one's singular vote accomplishes nothing but allowing one to establish one's personal moral position on the available choices, allowing one to sleep at night. If that selection is "neither one of those clowns" so be it.
Ummmm, maybe. The thing is, Indiana has had one example where a single vote decided the outcome of an election, and six more examples were easy to find.
So a single vote does count. I would advise people to pick the closest match and vote for 'em, instead of sitting the election out -- especially when one of the choices is offering to screw up our representative democracy, possibly beyond repair. At least the other guy is committed to do-overs on the regular schedule!
I find it essentially impossible for a single vote to determine the HMFIC.
Perhaps on a local school board election or some such, but on the GREAT BIG ONE . . . nah.
Anon, your feelings-driven analysis of what amounts to simple math is sort of charming in a wistfully innocent way, but it's also plainly wrong.
In nearly every state, including the three most populous, Presidential electors are assigned on a winner-take-all basis, so winning the state by a single vote has exactly the same effect as winning by a commanding landslide. In a close race, the electors from any one of those big states -- 54 votes for CA, 40 from TX, 30 from FL and 28 from NY -- could tip the balance.
I'm not saying you hadn't ought to sit it out. But understand the stakes and the odds when you do.
And once again we're back to the choice between Giant Douche or Turd Sandwich. But as South Park noted, that's pretty much always the inevitable electoral choice.
Joe, I think the choice is clearer than that. While it is indeed a choice between two elderly men, neither one of them much of an orator, one is promising chaos and has delivered just that in the past, while the other has shown respect to the institutions of our government and has been at least moderately competent. I'll go with the one that won't break stuff and hope for better choices next time, confident that there will be a next time.
Haley has "suspended" her campaign, but is still a candidate. So if the orange menace should get convicted and couldn't run, she's still in the race. We could do a lot worse than her--and have.
Biden is not great, not terrible. There are reasons for his low approval numbers, and that's not just the Trump koolaid drinkers or Tankies wishing he'd nuke Israel.
A giant douche is often the better pick over the turd sandwich, as it's at least clean and doesn't stink- but it's still a giant douche.
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