How can you be against the govt if we ARE the govt? Vote them out?

[OddBeMe]

So many people hate the govt. But we vote, we can protest. And yet incumbents have 99% chance of re-election.

So we hate other people’s incumbents?

Hating the govt is just laziness

We’re just critical of the govt…but I definitely vote

I hate the govt and don’t vote. Wtf?

[LiamJHayden]

Sounds good on paper. Just a couple of issues come to mind immediately.

1. The House and Senate have given much of their legislative authority to executive agencies, thus we really can't vote out the ones who make most of the onerous rules that add $trillions to the people. Unless we can get a POTUS and majorities in both Chambers to agree to return those powers to the people's elected officials.

2. House and state legislative districts in states that do not have at-large representation are often drawn in such a way as to allow a flaming bag of dog droppings with a D or R after it to win the seats against the opposition. How often does a reasonable D beat a looney tune R, or a reasonable R defeat a looney tune D is such districts? Almost never.

[NathanDavis]

we are the dumb government... though

oh crab

[OddBeMe]

Well…yep. Unfort our anti intellectualist, populist stupidity creates our oligarchy.

[Agape93]

Lol we may elect them, but theh can and do happily ignore us. Notice how they keep taking away rights, despite massive push backs? Notice how they keep doing fast backroom deals to avoid the public fighting back? Notice how they gerrymander the shit out of us, so that even if we overwhelmingly are against them, we are much less likely to actually succeed in beating them?

We aren't in charge. We never were and never will be.

[OddBeMe]

Seems like you and I have been down this road before. I totally agree, but still think it’s our fault. Voters allow politicians to ignore us.

[PeanutbutterAnd]

The dumbest Democrat on the primary stage is now the president. You don't think it's rigged? Or did the Dems actually think a guy with dementia would be the best for the country?

[OddBeMe]

No I think voters like names they recognize versus new younger ones like Yang or AOC. But it wasn’t rigged. We’ve been through this…

[Stoner710]

So if you’re a red person in a state like California or New York your vote doesn’t matter. If you’re in a states like Florida or Texas and you’re a blue person your vote doesn’t matter.

There’s also name recognition and of people vote based on name recognition then they do by reading the policy of the candidates. So the same people get elected over and over again.

You also gotta understand the hatred of government runs deep in the United State’s veins. Massive distrust in government is part of what it means to be an American. This is why local elections should have more weight than federal. The people in your town or city government knows you better then the state or federal even the state governments know more about its state issue the the federal government. This is why the government you can trust. The least is the federal government.

[OddBeMe]

So we could get rid of the electoral college. But since we’re a country of anti-intellectuals most don’t know what that is.

[msc545]

You are describing Anarchy.

[msc545]

"We" are not the government. Oligarchs are the government and Corporations are the government. I am neither.

[OddBeMe]

@msc545 we outnumber and could out-vote the corporations if chose to. But we don’t because we’re lazy.

[msc545]

They have a lot more money.

[OddBeMe]

@msc545 Hillary had more money in play than Donald.

[msc545]

So what?

[Stoner710]

@msc545 both of you are stupid that’s not what’s going on

[msc545]

right. you are unable to answer. Return to 3rd grade and take it over.

[OddBeMe]

@msc545 of sure super pacs have proven invincible is what I’m saying.

[msc545]

Nothing is invincible.

[Stoner710]

@msc545 I was homeschooled I don’t need to return the 3rd grade you both talking left wing bullshit

[Lynx122]

The system in america is just broken you basically have to be a millionaire and have millionaire friends to even run so the pool of candidates is small af and there's only 2 parties so the same people keep getting elected and that's exactly how the people with money and power want it.

[OddBeMe]

No, you don’t have to be a millionaire. Voters just prefer millionaires.

[Lynx122]

No voters only know about the millionaires because they're the ones who can afford all the ads and the campaign materials and campaign managers etc.

[OddBeMe]

Or we prefer the candidates with the dumb ads. The newspapers will report on all the candidates that get on the ballot. There’s a lot you have to do. But some have more ads and their names become ingrained, like all good marketing does.

But we allow them to ingrain us.

[Lynx122]

Yes companies and politicians do marketing because it works. Blaming an individual voter for that is very pointless. It would be better to look at other solutions like giving candidates a maximum budget and aiding candidates who have less money to even the playing field to let the actual policies hold more weight or something like that.

[Anpu23]

Problem,

So many people are so black and white that its impossible to actually make any real change

https://imgflip.com/i/3xd1g9

This idea that you are voting against a candidate is killing our country. It is not my job to vote for your candidate, it is your candidates job to be a candidate that I want to vote for.

[OddBeMe]

True. But we do have jobs of getting to know all candidates, not just the popular ones.

[Anpu23]

And how many people will tell you that you are "wasting your vote if you vote anything but the top two parties?

[richardcory]

Voting is a bad way to choose leaders, but its less bad than any other options we have so far. I wish we could find a more effective system, but so far I haven't seen any

[OddBeMe]

Honestly have we tried voting to it’s full extent yet?

[richardcory]

There are a lot of possible rules for voting, each with advantages and disadvantages. The US system as it stands has the "winner takes all" problem - if congress and the president are from the same party, the have tremendous power to change things.

It will be difficult to change though, because the people in power were elected by the present system, and are unlikely to want to change it

[OddBeMe]

Lots of changes have come from people caring. Civil rights, for one.

[Juxtapose]

Oh, I didn't realize I was part of the government's efforts to sterilize black people, experiment on black people syphilis and run mind control experiments with LSD.

Comparing me to the government is incredibly insulting to me.

[Juxtapose]

*with syphilis

[Juxtapose]

You really think our vote matters when we arrest whistleblowers?

[OddBeMe]

Yes. You really don’t see how the Tea Party or occupy wallstreet affected politicians? If we had that 24/7 we’d be in control of our own country.

And by the way, Obama pardoned Chelsea Manning

[Juxtapose]

Julian Assange wasn't given shit, empty gesture.

They didn't do shit, especially occupy. Occupy was one of the most underwhelming movements I have ever seen.

[OddBeMe]

because he hid like a rat inside an embassy,

[Juxtapose]

Fuck you, genuinely fuck you for saying that about someone trying to avoid unjust prosecution. You should be ashamed of yourself.

[OddBeMe]

How do you know it’s unjust? I’ve read the evidence of rape and it’s at least worthy of indictment.

[Juxtapose]

It's a bullshit witch hunt.

[Juxtapose]

He's getting setup like Andrew Tate and Donald Trump.

[BoopBoopBeep]

Most people are idiots and just vote for whoever they are told to vote for or who is trendier.

[msc545]

The government itself is not the problem. The problem is Capitalism, which breeds and facilitates and rewards corruption.

[OddBeMe]

Ehh, yes. But voters and protesters could easily fix it if we were engaged. But as it stands 52% of the country doesn’t vote. So corruption goes unheeded.

[msc545]

we cannot fix it because the wealthy in the US literally BUY politicians.

[MementoMori777]

You really think our votes matter?