Do you personally feel you are stuck between two extremes politically, each side accuses each other of being "fake news" brainwashing the people, etc?

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

How do you personally deal with it?

[OpenClose]

If the race is going to be tight in my state, I vote for the preferred party. Both suck. One is way worse than the other. Otherwise, I vote a minor party. 2020 was the first time I voted for a major party.

I also donate to groups that push for ranked-choice voting and the NPVIC, as well as find and support any other election reforms that focus on more public representation, allow more parties to exist, and eliminate corporate and monetary political representation. Bonus for making election day a national holiday.

I don't touch cable news networks with a 10-foot pole. It's funny hearing Fox viewers complain about the "mainstream media", when Fox News is EXACTLY what is meant by the "mainstream media". Not only are they the most viewed mainstream media outlet, they invented the model that MSNBC and CNN adopted later.

I don't think I've seen any sort of steel-man arguments. It's all strawmen. They decide who the "good guy" is, and then any and every argument that differs in the slightest is absolutely bludgeoned and bastardized into a cartoonish villain. This is the #1 thing that makes people think "everyone has gotten too extreme and I align with nobody." That's bull. If people could vote directly on the issues themselves, we find they vote more similarly than different. This so-called "news" is little more than trashy celebrity gossip a half-step above Jersey Shore, and has people voting for their favorite character in the show.

As long as this garbage continues, there is a very specific way our politics is broken: We only see one set of issues, and think the other set of issues doesn't exist at all. We don't have "Right-Wing" and "Left-Wing" solutions to climate change, illegal immigration, income inequality, insane healthcare gouging, racial issues, police issues, etc. One party thinks only a few of these issues exist, the other one thinks exactly the opposite. You don't get to choose between solutions to the same issues, you only get to choose which issues to even acknowledge at all. It's a way of making sure only the outermost fringes are represented, while killing off any agreement and nuance.

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

Yes, and that's why I chose a third way, a way that rejects both the left and the right of my country.

I have not be afraid to call them for what they are and advocate for separation of my region from the whole country, while also advocating for uprooting and kicking out both the traitorous, globalist leftists; and the fascistic, nationalists rightists.

[fembotnpc777]

it's as if when my political apathy could be more, political people couldn't be louder and more annoying

I don't know i call them things like "stupid"

[dustybiker]

Force a third part option. Encourage a movement.

[RealMarek]

If I’m faced with two crap candidates like the parties ran in Pennsylvania, I won’t vote for either. I moved to a small town and focus on local issues, and hope I can eventually help prepare the community for difficult times. For now though too many people don’t realize how bad things are going to get.

[ArtemisSilver]

No, I reject the concept of being a partisan and choose to be a free thinker.

I judge each issue as it comes and to the best of my ability and if in public office I would consider first the prosperity and safety of the people who've trusted me to representation them before any other concern.

I would seek to drag corruption into the light of day and set things right. I would help people build a future where we all thrive instead of drawing divisions and fighting over scraps.

[BJP21]

This is how I view it whither its Democratic or Republican... If they are benefiting themselves they are not to be trusted. Taking large corporate pac money, fossil fuel lobby money that enables divided government because they want to be cognitively dissonant. They need to pack their shit and not be a servant of the people.

[007kingifrit]

the rhetoric of both sides might be extreme but once you realize that's just slogans developed organically by the people you realize to look at policy instead.

only one side has extreme policies, overly gentle on crime, trying to trans the kids, lowering our wages with immigration. trying to take our guns

the republicans don't have extreme policy

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

Yes, they do. Republicans if they could would get rid of social security and abandon all social programs.

And continue to right policy to enrich the greedy at the expense of the poor.

[HighValue]

That doesn't make sense. If you think about it logically, the majority of senior citizens (the people getting social security) are republican voters. Republicans would never get rid of social security. It is a dishonest democrat talking point to mislead people.

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

@HighValue: It's not dishonest talking point but something they have talked about and will certainly do it if could.

And people vote against their own interests all the time, so you saying old Republicans voters won't vote against their own interests doesn't make any sense since many people throughout Alabama and Mississippi vote Republican anyways when Republican policy doesn't help those who struggle financially at all.

www.americanprogressaction.org/.../

[007kingifrit]

well republicans would certainly cut back on SOME social programs but not all.

social security is going bankrupt in the next 10 years. we can't stop that.

[Anonymous]

I deal with it by knowing to a certain extent this is how it's ALWAYS been since the founding of this country. The only difference is with the rise of the internet an social media now you can be bombarded by misinformation around the clock. Because the powers that be KNOW if you repeat a lie long enough and often enough it's understood as true.

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

I don't think this country has ever been this divisive and extreme their politics and social views unless you can re-call a time as such?

[Opinion Owner]

Really? Not even during the Civil war?

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

Right. LOL... forgot about that. 😳

[Opinion Owner]

I agree that we've probably reached a point in history where we've been grilocked like never before. But I think that's less our division and more that we're more unwilling to compromise than ever before. Because any retreat is a "sign of weakness". But nothing gets done this way.

[exitseven]

I used to feel this way but fortunately the democrats have gotten so crazy over the last 10-15 years that it is no longer a question who I support.

[WhiteBoyChill]

Its true though. Nothing the left says is true

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

100% blatantly false. That thinking is what causes the extremess and great division.

[WhiteBoyChill]

Im not an extremist

[ZenJen444]

Yes , but the democratic side seems to be worse with the whole "woke culture " and "baby killing".

[ZenJen444]

Which isn't very Christian at all. a lot of the things they support are against Bible principles

[Anonymous]

But supporting the Right instead of the wrong

[msc545]

No, I know what side I am on.

[Noahzaid]

Kill them all