Anonymous 627591f6781b771a752caafa5893d5c7 started this discussion 3 months (2008-08-28 07:55:47 UTC) ago:
Who are you going to vote for President? If can't vote yet, who do you root for?
One more question. Which candidate is the most popular in your area at the time?
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Anonymous 59718df80cd151670ef435444a1d77c9 replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 08:35:39 UTC) ago, 40 minutes later (#55,124):
none. no one wins when stupid people vote. welcome to america. they'll just both float towards the middle, adopt the same policies that have held the status quo in check for so long and make sure they don't make anybody inappropriately angry or hurt. same policies, just a different face. nothing will really change and we won't go to war with our forces stretched like taffy. congress will lock everything up and people who think they've got the best intentions will continue to fuck everything up. vote for good senators, ones that will fight for insuring rights, that will do things in congress for the people, as our government should be. besides, those people you should have better knowledge of because they are for you.
Anonymous 034330488ae3bac8fe6405b466256357 replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 09:42:41 UTC) ago, 1 hour later (#55,127):
Well I see with a lot of stuff the democrats say. So I am rooting for Obama. Plus Obama has a ton of memes after him and a ton of jokes which means people are already warming up to him. Halfican, laughing my ass off.
Anyways I think I am of age to vote now, I am just not registered. 18 is the youngest age right?
Anonymous db202a20b7d7387df25d974a4576e13a replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 10:20:51 UTC) ago, 38 minutes later (#55,130):
I don't get the American vote system. Why do you have to register? Why does it take a whole year to elect a president..oh no, wait a candidate for president? Why was Bush elected twice? It's a mircale to me.
Anonymous 034330488ae3bac8fe6405b466256357 replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 10:39:57 UTC) ago, 19 minutes later (#55,133):
@55,130Because Republicans are retarded?
Anonymous db202a20b7d7387df25d974a4576e13a replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 11:10:25 UTC) ago, 30 minutes later (#55,139):
@55,133But not every American is a Republican. Where are the smart ones, where are the Democrats?
Anonymous 034330488ae3bac8fe6405b466256357 replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 11:18:25 UTC) ago, 8 minutes later (#55,140):
@55,139Not all Americans vote for the same guy.
Democrats mostly voted for their guy.
I said Republicans were retarded, I wasn't dissing Democrats or Americans in general.
Anonymous 101c44ada66f406f04e1027b0cbce603 replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 11:27:03 UTC) ago, 9 minutes later (#55,142):
Virtually nobody in America gives a shit about politics. If we did, we wouldn't still be trapped in this ridiculous self-serving two party system political system. That the vast majority of American voters go out on election day with the mindset of "I'm going to vote for A or B because voting for an independent candidate is a waste as they can't possibly be elected" is proof enough to show you that we don't care. Well, that, and the fact that only 44% of our population even votes to begin with.
Anonymous 27f9f69e9c450a7cf9a5b61f6a6efbd3 replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 11:33:15 UTC) ago, 6 minutes later (#55,144):
For me personally as an Australian it will provide a huge change in my view of USA as a nation if they elect Obama. The primaries have been the most actively followed here that I have ever seen and I sense that the whole international community is awaiting the results of the election. I shudder to think how far world opinion of USA will fall if the Republicans are in power for another 8 years. In Australia we have recently outed 11 years of conservative rule and i've felt a huge sense of relief. If Obama doesn't get up I'm going to learn Russian, Spanish and French to go with my Chinese because my best guess is a return to cold war style super powers and honestly USA is on it's way out.
Anonymous 55648d0f82d3f3ea2af1868e110b0dac replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 11:46:26 UTC) ago, 13 minutes later (#55,145):
Though I'm going to vote for Obama, I'm not entirely happy with him. I continue to be really upset over the fact that he'd promised to vote down FISA and then did a complete about-face with it; it's really a lesser of the two evils kind of situation.
That being said, in a way I hope that Obama doesn't' get elected, since I think the widespread dissatisfaction that you'd see as a result of having Bush 2.0 in the White House might actually cause some real change in this country.
Anonymous 55648d0f82d3f3ea2af1868e110b0dac replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 11:57:25 UTC) ago, 11 minutes later (#55,149):
@55,130> I don't get the American vote system.This is a widely held sentiment. The fact that we still use an electorial college (as opposed to voting directly) is an antiquated, outmoded system.
> Why do you have to register?The preventing of voter fraud. It's a dead-simple process, you'd have to be pretty dumb to have problems registering to vote.
> Why does it take a whole year to elect a presidentBecause it's an important position and there's many considerations to be made before you cast your vote.
> Why was Bush elected twice?The GOP has a ton of support in America's midsection and amongst the religious right (which has a sizable population). Additionally the Republicans have done a lot to get the votes of demographics that, in reality, they have no reason to have. For example: many Latino/South American people that live in the US vote for the GOP because they're religious and the Republicans are known to have a strong stance on religion. It's a joke though, because:
1) The leaders of the GOP are mostly Baptist while Latinos are Catholic. Baptists tend to hate Catholics.
2) Republicans are in support of a more restrictive border, which definitely hurts the families of people in South America.
3) Republicans make policy decisions that support the status quo/people in power/people with money, a demographic that's pretty far removed from most Latino voters.
> It's a mircale[sic] to me.That's a pretty bogus miracle.
Anonymous 417baf7066f545e9f6755492e405db3d replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 16:42:49 UTC) ago, 5 hours later (#55,200):
It's a pretty damn backwards system if you ask me. I'm Irish and basically our electoral system consists of several parties competing against each other in one big 26-county vote. Then the leader of the party with the most votes becomes Taoiseach. President here isn't as big of a position as Taoiseach or "Prime Minister".
The presidential candidates are nominated by county council members or M.E.P.s, basically elected officials. Then they have the same 26 county election to determine the president. As in, the 26 counties vote in one go and then the majority vote becomes president.
As far as I can see, all of those fucking caucuses and stuff are ridiculous and unnecessary.
Anonymous 55648d0f82d3f3ea2af1868e110b0dac replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 18:06:51 UTC) ago, 1 hour later (#55,220):
@55,200> As far as I can see, all of those fucking caucuses and stuff are ridiculous and unnecessaryI'm in agreement, but I'm not in a position to change anything.
If anything, I don't understand why there's so much need for campaign financing, be it privately raised or federally subsidized. Do we really need to have a candidate drive around to each state, shaking hands and kissing babies?
Anonymous c60b959b01c48f57d0cfc5eddd6009ca replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 18:27:06 UTC) ago, 20 minutes later (#55,229):
I'm voting for Obama because he's black and charismatic.
Anonymous 5cd5b33b94c15de24e98a16f55c21f3f replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 19:03:17 UTC) ago, 36 minutes later (#55,239):
@55,130Voter registration, which is a different process depending on what state you live in, was enacted as a way to prevent voter fraud in years past. One of the most common forms of fraud was giving votes to dead people, people below the legal voting age, family pets, and people he never even existed. Registering helps to prevent this, while registering for a specific party is simply used to take demographic information so that they can poll people and say "X number of Republicans think this," and so on and so forth.
It takes a year to elect somebody mainly because the process has been stretched out so long. People who want to become president always want to start his ampaign before anybody else so they can have a head start. Then there are the states that want to be the first one to hold a primary because they feel that if a candidate comes to their state first he will be more likely to listen to what they want. This election has been particularly long because it was such a close race between Clinton and Obama. Normally the candidate would have been chosen by March with one candidate so far ahead in votes that nobody could catch up, but that didn't happen this year. If it did, Obama and McCain would have be fighting each other for the actual presidential election instead of Obama fighting Clinton for his party's nomination. McCain was in fact chosen back in March and wisely kept his mouth shut until recently, because the more he says the more chances he has to make a mistake.
Bush was elected twice because people have the long held belief that Democrats are anti-war hippies and Republican's are pro-war, which was needed to fight the war on terror. That said, if you look at the number of votes Bush won by the second time, it is about equal to the population of a single American city. The first time he won, he actually lost if you just count the votes but won on a technicality.
Anonymous 5cd5b33b94c15de24e98a16f55c21f3f replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 19:16:00 UTC) ago, 13 minutes later (#55,243):
@55,220There are many people who will not vote for somebody who doesn't go around kissing babies and shaking hands. It makes them appear to care about the public. Even if they are just going through the motions, they are taking time out of their busy schedules to shake the hand of somebody they don't know and cannot (by themselves) get them elected.
Campaign financing is used to run television ads mostly, which isn't cheap when you want to have ads in every state during prime time with millions of people watching. They can easily spend billions of dollars on quality advertisements. That is particularly true this year, with McCain and Obama makind ads that responds to the other guy's ad within a day of each other. Both candidates have made use of the internet, particularly Obama with YouTube, to keep cost from getting astronomical.
And of course their are illegal "under the table" deals that are conducted. Using the financing to bribe people that will help them once they become president, or help them rig the election.
Anonymous db202a20b7d7387df25d974a4576e13a replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 19:25:46 UTC) ago, 10 minutes later (#55,247):
@55,149@55,239Thank you both for your detailed answers. So registration is needed because people expressed their dissatisfaction with politics by making invalid votes. But now people who are dissatisfacted just don't vote and still a minority decides for the majority. Mh.
I think the election takes a year, because it's more about emotion than about facts. That's an aweful trend in politics. You don't vote for an agenda but for a person you like, that's not what voting should be about.
But this problems are not limited to America, it's almost the same where I live. That said, I would love to see Obama as president , it would be a very positive surprise if he becomes president and it would change my view on America a lot.
Anonymous b880eabce065ff597f4f112e78c21bfe replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 19:43:57 UTC) ago, 18 minutes later (#55,252):
@55,127you're going to vote for obama because he has MEMES? are you a moron? oh, sorry, you also said you see with what the democrats "say". "OMGz CHANGE WE CAN DEPEND ON, AMIRITE!"
Anonymous 5cd5b33b94c15de24e98a16f55c21f3f replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 19:47:16 UTC) ago, 3 minutes later (#55,253):
@55,252You seem to forget just how many americans live outside the legal system, and thus are unaffected no matter who gets elected. People like that can vote "for teh lulz" with no fear of reprecussions.
Anonymous 55648d0f82d3f3ea2af1868e110b0dac replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 19:49:56 UTC) ago, 3 minutes later (#55,254):
@55,247> I think the election takes a year, because it's more about emotion than about facts.This is a pervasive meme (in the traditional sense of the word).
It impacts everything from politics to products you buy at the grocery store.
Anonymous b880eabce065ff597f4f112e78c21bfe replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 19:50:25 UTC) ago, 29 seconds later (#55,255):
@55,229don't get me wrong, I will be voting for Obama in November, but voting based on looks and personality will do nothing for your country. that's the purpose of voting, trying to shape your country into what you want it to be. so you want america to be black and charismatic? It's just as rediculous and missguided as voting for hitler because he's white and also charismatic…
Anonymous b880eabce065ff597f4f112e78c21bfe replied with this 3 months (2008-08-28 19:52:42 UTC) ago, 2 minutes later (#55,256):
@55,253i haven't forgotten, i'm just trying to educate. Alas, it will probably render innefective.
Anonymous bf3a4b09908fdc688a0921016c493be4 replied with this 3 months (2008-08-29 10:58:49 UTC) ago, 15 hours later (#55,471):
"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."
- Winston Churchill
Anonymous 74a7028a0ca5b5b26c7f80350f53afe7 replied with this 3 months (2008-09-02 00:45:37 UTC) ago, 4 days later (#56,516):
No paper trail for Diebold machines? No Florida recount? No essential policy differences between Dems and Repubs? No room for 3rd parties?
The elections are rigged! Big time DUH!
Anyone with an IQ above room temperature can plainly see that!
Anonymous 5cd5b33b94c15de24e98a16f55c21f3f replied with this 3 months (2008-09-02 01:05:15 UTC) ago, 20 minutes later (#56,532):
@56,516> No paper trail for Diebold machines? No Florida recount? No essential policy differences between Dems and Repubs? No room for 3rd parties?Old machines are old, and because nobody was paid to care about redundancy nobody did. There was no Florida recount because it cost money to do a do-over, and unless you are willing to pay for it and convince people to take time off from work to vote
again it isn't going to happen. Aside from social differences, Republicans feel that the economy is run from the top down while Democrats believe it is run from the bottom up. There are many third parties, but they lack both the funds needed to gain the national exposure as well policies people care enough about to draw them from a previous affiliation.
Anyone with an IQ above room temperature wouldn't need a conspiracy theory to justify why people don't view society the way they themselves do.
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