This breakdown of voters should be included in every disclaimer on ever poll that’s comes out online, in the news, or on the radio. That’s not a small number of people, but it is a SIGNIFICANT minority and the country needs to not be held hostage by 15% of the population.
Totally agree and this is where our low voter turn-out really kicks us in the ass. These MAGAts vote and vote often. They might “only” represent 15% of voters, but if their rate of voting is 2X what other groups are, then they could easily represent 30% of the actual ballots cast. That is easily enough to swing elections in their favor… and all because regular folks are too lazy to go vote.
“Regular folks are too lazy,” to stand in line for hours, or were blocked by shitty regressive laws to block student votes, or their polling place was changed twice in a year, or any other of the myriad cheating mechanisms regressives have baked into the system.
Yup…that sucks. But the military taught me “no excuses.” We need to outlast, out organize, and out fight them. Volunteer to help - Teri Kanefield (she’s on mastodon) has some incredible tips - Obama calls it Citizenship.
You’re both right. I can’t demand someone working two jobs to take a bus across town and wait in line for two hours with their kids to vote, even if I think I would find a way to make it work. But if you have to take an hour of pto to vote, make plans, whatever level of reasonable effort and don’t just because it’s as hard as doing your taxes? Too bad, democracy isn’t supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to mean every citizen’s needs are acknowledged. Keeping yourself informed is hard and frustrating and if you can do it that’s the price.
When you brush off your civic duties because someone else will do them you have to deal with the consequences of someone else having done them or not
It’s not an excuse. Ignoring the systemic problems and blaming individual people who have literally no control is an abuse tactic, so it makes sense that would be the military’s MO.
On a personal level, I operate the same way you describe. I do what I need to do, and I burn the energy and time and money that it takes to make that happen. But I have the choice to do so, and not everyone does.
Use the energy that would otherwise go to lambasting tired, poor, and overworked normal people and instead direct the anger at the people making us pay out the nose to have access to the basics, including the time needed to vote.
Spoken like someone who has never voted because the reality is that the vast, vast majority of voting goes perfectly smoothly and is accomplished within a few minutes. But by all means continue to talk out of your ass and simply regurgitate the usual bullshit endlessly reposted on Reddit and Lemmy.
It doesn’t matter what I do as far as voting, because my area is gerrymandered to such a degree that even my relatively left leaning area goes to a republican most of the time. We are vastly outnumbered in statewide and national elections. But I vote anyway. The voting is smooth here because they don’t give a shit because it’s all be rigged for over a decade via the legislature.
The places where voting is NOT smooth tend to be the places where republicans used to win, now have trouble, but don’t quite have the power base to gut the whole thing, so they just add layers of complexity to shave off democrat votes in hopes they’ll get enough to make it permanent.
Stop trying to act like this giant country, with 50 different ways of handling elections, is somehow a one size fits all, and that any failure is the lowest, least influential peoples’ fault.
I wasn’t sure where you were going to go with this. No one is saying that gerrymandering doesn’t exist, but even in most of the most heavily gerrymandered districts, Dems could win if only enough of them would get off their asses to vote. When HALF the country doesn’t show up, upping your numbers by even a small amount can swing elections where Republicans like to stack the cards on their side. This is especially true on mid term years where Dems are notorious for not showing up, so they lose representation in Congress.
Republicans represent roughly 1/3 of the registered voters. 43% of that would represent roughly 15% of the entire country.
This breakdown of voters should be included in every disclaimer on ever poll that’s comes out online, in the news, or on the radio. That’s not a small number of people, but it is a SIGNIFICANT minority and the country needs to not be held hostage by 15% of the population.
Totally agree and this is where our low voter turn-out really kicks us in the ass. These MAGAts vote and vote often. They might “only” represent 15% of voters, but if their rate of voting is 2X what other groups are, then they could easily represent 30% of the actual ballots cast. That is easily enough to swing elections in their favor… and all because regular folks are too lazy to go vote.
“Regular folks are too lazy,” to stand in line for hours, or were blocked by shitty regressive laws to block student votes, or their polling place was changed twice in a year, or any other of the myriad cheating mechanisms regressives have baked into the system.
Yup…that sucks. But the military taught me “no excuses.” We need to outlast, out organize, and out fight them. Volunteer to help - Teri Kanefield (she’s on mastodon) has some incredible tips - Obama calls it Citizenship.
https://terikanefield.com/things-to-do/
You’re both right. I can’t demand someone working two jobs to take a bus across town and wait in line for two hours with their kids to vote, even if I think I would find a way to make it work. But if you have to take an hour of pto to vote, make plans, whatever level of reasonable effort and don’t just because it’s as hard as doing your taxes? Too bad, democracy isn’t supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to mean every citizen’s needs are acknowledged. Keeping yourself informed is hard and frustrating and if you can do it that’s the price.
When you brush off your civic duties because someone else will do them you have to deal with the consequences of someone else having done them or not
Couldn’t have said it better.
It’s not an excuse. Ignoring the systemic problems and blaming individual people who have literally no control is an abuse tactic, so it makes sense that would be the military’s MO.
On a personal level, I operate the same way you describe. I do what I need to do, and I burn the energy and time and money that it takes to make that happen. But I have the choice to do so, and not everyone does.
Use the energy that would otherwise go to lambasting tired, poor, and overworked normal people and instead direct the anger at the people making us pay out the nose to have access to the basics, including the time needed to vote.
Spoken like someone who has never voted because the reality is that the vast, vast majority of voting goes perfectly smoothly and is accomplished within a few minutes. But by all means continue to talk out of your ass and simply regurgitate the usual bullshit endlessly reposted on Reddit and Lemmy.
I vote every time I’m able, but sure, go off.
It doesn’t matter what I do as far as voting, because my area is gerrymandered to such a degree that even my relatively left leaning area goes to a republican most of the time. We are vastly outnumbered in statewide and national elections. But I vote anyway. The voting is smooth here because they don’t give a shit because it’s all be rigged for over a decade via the legislature.
The places where voting is NOT smooth tend to be the places where republicans used to win, now have trouble, but don’t quite have the power base to gut the whole thing, so they just add layers of complexity to shave off democrat votes in hopes they’ll get enough to make it permanent.
Stop trying to act like this giant country, with 50 different ways of handling elections, is somehow a one size fits all, and that any failure is the lowest, least influential peoples’ fault.
And yet, they keep winning congressional seats and Mayoral races. I wonder why that is… /s
Because they VOTE. While regular people will use any excuse to skip out of going to the polls.
I’m not sure that’s the entire reason.
If this is going to be some conspiracy theory nonsense, then you can just go ahead and keep it to yourself.
Politics isn’t quite easy, but it isn’t really that difficult either. It’s kind of like sports - you get the most points you win.
Oh, no conspiracy, just actual Republicans found guilty of illegal gerrymandering, while also applying all kinds of tactics for voter suppression. If Politics is like sports, some of the Republicans are cheating.
I wasn’t sure where you were going to go with this. No one is saying that gerrymandering doesn’t exist, but even in most of the most heavily gerrymandered districts, Dems could win if only enough of them would get off their asses to vote. When HALF the country doesn’t show up, upping your numbers by even a small amount can swing elections where Republicans like to stack the cards on their side. This is especially true on mid term years where Dems are notorious for not showing up, so they lose representation in Congress.