General Politics Discussion [ARCHIVED] • Page 249

I have some internal conflicts about environmental policy and how much we can export ours to the rest of the world sometimes. I know what I personally want, but I also feel like shit when the western world is basically telling the 3rd world "nah, you can't use that shit to develop the way we did".

I don't feel as bad about developing nations like China/India...they have the tech to go clean(er) if they wanted to.

 

I've heard people throw out the hypothetical of one 6 year term...I've always liked that concept more. One 6 year term to do what they want and then boom...no worry about reelection or anything

 

If we're changing term limits lets just go ahead and get a proper parliamentary system like civilized people so the far left can all vote green and then the greens can form a majority government with the democrats and we can drop this "lesser of two evils" debate

 

Hillary Clinton needs to wake up. Trump is stealing the voters she takes for granted | Thomas Frank

 

Only nine percent of America chose Trump and Hillary as nominees:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...-america-selected-trump-and-clinton.html?_r=0

 

Beat me to it.

Man, I really wish more people would participate in primaries.

 

I mean, it's actually infuriating.

 

I wish more people participated in elections period.

But yeah, if you want to knock out a neoliberal candidate and replace them with someone far more left, you need voters to show up in the primaries.

 

Especially young voters.

 

The parliamentary system isn't exactly perfect either folks

 

Definitely.

The turn out numbers for the under 30 crowd, especially during off-year elections, are so disheartening.

 

I remember reading this a while back, but it stuck with me.

"Young people treat electoral politics the way they treat Hollywood movies..They only show up for the Blockbusters."

 

There country, and young people in particular, are disincentivized to vote. There is a sense in which all politicians are the same. Given the track record, it is difficult to slight them for this perception. That is part of the reason, I think, many are so angry after the DNC email leak. Bernie was a candidate that resonated and was actively worked against by those in party hierarchy. There is active discussion over a "Dem-exit". It may not be huge, but the sentiment is there. I think it is as valuable as voting, if one asks me.

 

To piggyback off this, I would like to point out that the millennial generation is bigger than the boomers. Yet the boomers have all the electoral power because they vote.

 

It is completely baffling to me that Jill Stein is getting raked over the coals for maybe not being 100% in favor of the way vaccines are distributed and used as if that's the reason people are voting for her

 

Agreed.

 

And there actually is another candidate who isn't her running who has spewed fear over vaccines and autism multiple times yet no one talks about that

 

In an electoral enviroment of compromise and rhetoric about lesser evils, it is nice that people are not buying into the fear and are actively articulating a politics of liberation. They're setting an agenda on their terms and aiming to change the political terrain. This is what we are supposed to be doing.

The Movement for Black Lives

 

Anyone who pays attention to politics and rhetoric knows that she deleted the "There is no evidence" and replaced it with "I don't know of any evidence" because the second gives her an out with her followers that are anti-vax. And considering the anti-vax movement has more of a home in the well educated, "granola" white hipster crowd than it does with low educated right wingers, they are probably a sizable chunk of her voting base.

In other words "I don't know of any evidence" is her "I take the President at his word". She's trying to dance around outright saying they're not connected because it will lose her some votes and credibility among her followers if she does.

Welcome to the wonderful world of politics

 

yeah, too bad there wasn't a candidate who won a historic amount of the youth vote this election cycle, would have been interesting to see a candidate who galvanizes the young...

More young people voted for Bernie Sanders than Trump and Clinton combined — by a lot

 

I think we're running out of time to describe everything he's said that's awful and infuriating

 

And the youth vote was still waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too low. I think the Millennial generation is roughly 80 million or so. Imagine if 10 million of them voted in the primaries, instead of ~~4ish million (if that).

 

I can't vote in the primaries in my state without being a member of a political party, which I am not. My views change too frequently to align myself with a party. Plus I don't want my political affiliation to be a matter of record.

 

Now you kids with your loud music, and your Dan Fogleberg, your Zima, hula hoops and pac-man video games, don't you see? People today have attention spans that can only be measured in nanoseconds!