it’s pretty sad. There are so many possible candidates for president and that’s what we get? I’ll be voting for myself. You should too.
This is part of the overall system. It's also related to the country getting way too big. The country is falling under it's own weight.
Think in terms of money. What does it cost to do a national campaign in the US? It's extraordinarily expensive. National campaigns crossed a billion dollars several elections ago. They've now crossed ten billion and rising. Now imagine 50+ candidates trying to run a national campaign. It's just not possible.
It's not just money. It's a hell of a lot of work. A candidate has to be highly ambitious and completely dedicated to it. They need large numbers of high caliber people who are also dedicated to it.
So we have primary elections, starting in a small number of small (cheap) states. These states are NOT representative of the overall population of the country - but at least they are "cheap". Even the first primaries are expensive, but at least a fair number of candidates can test the water. But even the high cost of the first primaries leaves a lot of people out of the running.
After the first primary in a non-representative state, a bunch of candidates immediately drop out. Look at this year. The incumbent doesn't count because they are a shoe-in. The only person with some name recognition and enough stature to give a good run to Trump dropped out immediately. We never even had a chance to find out what he could do.
There have been a LOT of good candidates over the years who never made it past Vermont. Most Americans couldn't even name most of the candidates. They never had a chance to find out who they are.
who are you referring to? DeSantis? He would’ve never been governor of Florida if Trump didn’t endorse him over Putnam who was the favorite
Yes, DeSantis. He had the best chance of beating Trump. How he became governor is irrelevant.
Public campaign finance and ranked choice voting would eliminate most of the issues you brought up.
@DrPepper12
Public financing doesn't make it any cheaper. It might even make it more expensive, unless private campaigning was outlawed, which would be a serious violation of free speech. With public financing, you can't just hand out money to anyone who wants to run - you'd have millions of candidates if they did that. So you'd still need some kind of vetting process, which is basically what we have now.
It seems like caucuses would be cheaper than primaries, but they have slowly faded away for some reason. I think the parties have been pushing the states to move to primaries, but I don't know why.
While I might favor ranked voting, I don't see how that makes it cheaper either. It's a country with over 300 million people and a national campaign is going to be expensive no matter what.
Ranked choice means no primaries n cost a lot less. Every other democratic nation seems to pull off public campaign finance balanced with free speech protections. we also need elections federalized with national id like a passport.
Parliamentary system with ranked choice WEIGHTED voting is ideal. Every one gets say 10 votes to allocate any way you want on a ranked choice ballot
@DrPepper12
Ranked choice does not mean no primary. It can be done in any election, including primaries.
Remember the primaries are private elections within the party. They can choose to do it any way they want. They can use first past the poll, ranked, caucus, or not let the people have any say at all.
Personally I think the states should quit letting people vote for president. It would solve a heck of a lot of problems. It would probably also make politics in general far less divisive.
Repiblicans control the media so it will never allow for a democrat to get above a 40% approval rating no matter how remarkable their record and never allow a republican to get below 40% no matter how big of a disaster. Trump has siezed on this and figured outhe only need to get take his bases votes hostage and the media will be forced to overlook the fact that he tried to start a civil war among all the other things he did wrong. And when it comes to democrats, since the media won't let democrats run on their record, the safest bet is always name recognition, which favors Biden. So he has the best chance for democrats. That's why we can't pick someone else.
Some guys have nice bodies and faces but their personalities and reactions are toxic and sickening and they are not good for long term relationships. I had one guy I rejected gossip about me for over 6 years and we didn't even date.
Because it's not up to the American people to decide who gets to rule. Presidents aren't elected, they're selected.
very ignorant read about primary elections. en.wikipedia.org/.../United_States_presidential_primary
@strateguy632 Of course, because elections actually mean something, and the people you vote for are always honest about their intentions once they get into office.
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Because about 50% of the electorate is independent, and many states have closed primaries meaning you can only vote in them if you belong to the party. Republican's had a chance to choose someone else, but stupidly choose to go with Trump. Democrats really didn't have a choice, the DNC didn't hold any debates and they kept changing primary rules to protect Biden. In Florida, the DNC kept all candidates except Biden off the ballot, and Republicans essentially agree to it. Both parties are pretty much corrupt and ensure only candidates they approve of have a chance of winning the nomination (Trump is an exception to this).
The problem is structural and institutional in the way our government is set up. It is not conducive to third parties and the mechanism of voting is fundamentally flawed. To my mind, the best form of government is a parliamentary system with rank choice voting.
I agree with this because being in a big tent with nearly 50% of a people either being part of it or supporting it does not work for me. I still think most of those people are stupid. I’d much rather have a smaller party with people who actually believe what I do.
Same. I would support a constitutional convention for USA America but I think that The changes that would happen will be worse than what we have now if that's possible. I can't stand the prevalent belief that the Constitution was somehow handed down from God and is to be revered as such. It is a fundamentally flawed system of government no longer suited to modern times.
m Tbh any country that votes for an over 70 yr old person, needs to look at its self. That was the old USSR way with leaders, they got in just before they died. Now we have I think a 77 yr old and an 81 yr old. It’s almost funny.
Reagan would’ve been 73 when he ran for reelection. I wouldn’t go so far as being ageist. It depends on the person.
This is the age range
upload.wikimedia.org/.../..._States_Presidents.png
• 303K jobs created in March
• Wages rising faster than inflation
• Unemployment rate down to only 3.8%
• 15.2M jobs created since Joe Biden took office
• Unemployment below 4% for 26 straight months
Full time employment declined.
Most of those jobs were part time with no benefits.
The number if people working more than one job increased, probably to pay for the results of Bidenomics.
Unemployment figures stop counting people whose benefits have run out.
Most of the alleged 15.2 million jobs that biden "created" were jobs that people lost during covid and were hired back when it ended.
There really was not much to celebrate here.
@exitseven And yet it's still higher than at any point in Trump's term.
People working more than one job, back to pre-pandemic levels (and it did not go down while Trump was there):
www.stlouisfed.org/.../...iplejobs-fig1-110623.png
More people than ever re working more that one job. Maybe there were 300.000 jobs created but most were low paying service job. People need more than one job to make ends meet. This certainly did not happen when Trump was in office. Inflation was under 2%.. now it is over 10% if you count fuel and food which is currently not counted because supposedly it is too volitile.
@exitseven You're literally responding to a post with a graph showing that you're wrong about people working more than one job, and that it was higher during Trump's term.
Inflation hasn't been anywhere near double digits for well over a year, and they do include fuel and food (it's actually higher if you don't).
"Both [CPI and PCE] measures include health care, food and energy, but core inflation is helpful to economists, too, in that it gives a better sense of inflation’s overall trend. Core inflation strips out only food and energy prices, because they can be pretty volatile due to environmental issues or geopolitics. "
https://www.bls.gov/cpi/ www.bea.gov/.../personal-consumption-expenditures-price-index
@exitseven Once again: the figures include fuel and food, and the one that doesn't would be worse with them in.
https://www.bls.gov/cpi/ www.bea.gov/.../personal-consumption-expenditures-price-index
I looked at the "basket of goods" and yes there was food but it was obvious it was handpicked items that somehow did not go up in price as much as everything else. I looked at the list and there was not a single thing on the list that I actually bought. Like everything else in Bidens Administration, it is based on one lie after another. Inflation is under control, there is no recession, the border is secure, the deficit has been lowered by the biggest amount in history , I had no idea my son was doing business with the Chinese Government and he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma, arm in arm crossing the Edmund Pettis Bridge.
@exitseven I can't find that list you say you buy nothing from, where is it? You're projecting like a champ.
Did you ever wonder why you're perfectly happy with government figures when they show something good about Trump or bad about Biden, but not the other way around? Then, they're completely made up.
"The CPI market basket is developed from detailed expenditure information provided by families and individuals on what they actually bought. There is a time lag between the expenditure survey and its use in the CPI. For example, CPI data in 2022 was based on data collected from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys for 2019. That year, about 21,000 consumers from around the country provided information each quarter on their spending habits in the interview survey. To collect information on frequently purchased items, such as food and personal care products, another 10,000 consumers kept diaries listing everything they bought during a 2-week period that year. This expenditure information from weekly diaries and quarterly interviews determines the relative importance, or weight, of the item categories in the CPI index structure."
www.ons.gov.uk/.../consumerpriceinflationbasketofgoodsandservices
If you notice, beef includes only rump roast and frozen burgers.. No gasoline.
@exitseven Thanks for the list.
"I looked at the list and there was not a single thing on the list that I actually bought."
No bread? Milk? Eggs? Sugar? Tomatoes? Canned beans? Beer? You never go to restaurants? (Petrol and Diesel come under "Motoring Expenditure", see Annex B.)
Again, did you ever wonder why you're perfectly happy with government figures when they show something good about Trump or bad about Biden, but not the other way around?
@exitseven Why I can relate with the taxes thing, that doesn't mean you don't buy bread, eggs, beans or beer, or that the government metrics are controlled by the president.
@exitseven Gasoline is petrol, it's in the list. Rump steak is, too. I already listed eggs and milk! Jello and peanuts are not in the list. Come on, man, read!
Trump needs to serve out the term and turn the country over to a younger person. He has the experience and the horsepower to fix the damage caused by Biden and the demicrats.
He has practically zero experience in financial, economical or trade contexts and no patience or attention to learn them. All his advisory staff testified to the fact. Trump was bankrupt half a dozen times and would objectively be richer if he just had taken his inheritance and never started his stupid businesses.
@DryGermanGuy no he just ran a successful multinational real estate empire. No experience from that. Joe Biden is a bottom of the barrel politician that never held a real job in his life.
And whose combined life/job experiences do come closer to the position of POTUS, if you are honest? A TV-show clown with six bankruptcies and a tendency to "inspect" naked women or a career politician with 50 years in Washington and a vast political network in both parties?
@DryGermanGuy the whole idea of electing Trump was to get the career politicians out. Trump knows what a gallon of gas costs and has had to make a payroll. Americans care more about low gas prices and good jobs than they do about Ukraine and all the back room deals that go on in aWashington Look how much better things got when Trump was president. The career politicians had to watch their step because Trump did not care about their backroom deals. Nobody knew what he would do next so they had to behave. When foreign leaders and career politicians like Luz Chene and Mitt Romney came out against him ibknew we elected the right guy.
All you have to do is look at what 3 years of "business as usual" did to Ameri ca
@DrPepper12 Trump's record of achievements speak for themselves.
@DryGermanGuy ☝🏻💯🎯 Correct! TY
So bankruptcy, fraud, heavily leveraged = success. Got it. 🙄
Yes, yes they do. I'm not sure that I'd the flex you think it is... 😂
While I doubt that Donald Trump ever had to put fuel into a car in his life, I somewhat get the idea of an outsider, bringing fresh ideas and shaking up old habits. On paper, at least. But then I am asking myself, in what scenario would that be actually feasible? Bringing in a pop-artist to do kitchen design, sounds close enough to me. But you probably would not get surgery from a barber, just to get the career surgeon out, right?
A POTUS needs a certain political experience, there is no way around it. And I am not even accounting for the malice in Trump’s business dealings: youtube.com/shorts/XYa9_KxttXY?si=YeF2G1nzQDdXnViQ
@DryGermanGuy Donald Trump ran several companies and I am sure he kept his eyes on the cost of everything.
Beautiful wording here. You are the type of person describing a mafia killing as "one guy getting help having a nice long sleep".
Ran them into the ground. He has already stated in open court that he knew nothing about payments to vendors made on his behalf in dozens and dozens of transactions at Trump Org. His stock is so far under water that it may as well be the Mariana Trench. 6 bankruptcies. No accounting firm will work for him. Overly leveraged on all properties. Inflated values. He's just da best! 😳🙄🤷🏻♂️
@DrPepper12 If that was true then why did all the banks he borrowed money from testify that he paid on time and they wanted to do business with the Trump corp again.
The Trump corp is a privately owed company , there is no stock. Truth Social on the other hand is one of the hottest IPOs of the year. It made President Trump billions of dollars. If he gets elected the stock price will go nuts.
If you value your hard-earned income you stay the hell away from what is essentially a penny stock.
@exitseven
Please see a fiduciary financial planner before you invest in this venture!!! The banks loaned him money (esp Deutsch Bank) at the behest of others. Not on his financials. He did pay on time! The crime is he inflated values for collateral and insurance coverage and understated values for tax evasion purposes. This is NOT a victimless crime!! Ofc they wanna do business with him! They charged him insane interest rates! This isn't hard. And those "billions" they are ON PAPER!! He needs to find a willing sucker, I mean buyer, to realize those profits!! It's all smoke & mirrors!!
@DrPepper12 If Trump is re elected and the smart money says he will be then Truth Social stock will greatly increase in value since it will be the only place you can get direct statements from the President.
that is fake anyone who was not satisfied COULD VOTE in the primary but most wanted these two.
Each party values Political Power over the ability to actually Lead. So the guy who can win at any cost is nominated.
It's PATHETIC!
Two doddering old men who can't speak a coherent sentence unless they read it off a teleprompter!
We are a laughing stock.
We make democracy look really, really bad.
Because the options you get are what the political parties decide. And the political parties really do not give a 💩 what we think. We're only useful to them every election cycle, and they really are disgusted that they have to even do that.😆
Because "better people" don't want to put up with the bullshit.
87% of Americans want Trump. 0% of Americans voted for Biden in the primary.
The rest of the world is wondering the same thing.
Who else are you going to pick?
Every one of the candidates or potential candidates is a fucking pylon
Where did you get that percentage from?
Because established politicians prevent it
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