Liberals totally losing their shit over the Green Party again

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 12:36pm

It's got to be in the top three ways that Democrats display their hypocrisy.

Do Democrats get excited about the millions of registered Democrats that vote for Republicans?
Of course not. Democrats voting for Republicans is to be expected, but Independents that want to vote third-party are helping elect Republicans in some sort way that is more effective than actually voting Republican.
(Which makes me wonder why Republicans don't vote Green Party instead, since that appears to be the best way to defeat Democrats.)

Do Democrats get excited about the millions of registered Democrats that simply don't vote?
Of course not. Democrats not voting is to be expected, but Independents that want to vote third-party are throwing away their vote.

People that vote Green can't possibly be voting that way for a serious reason.

Let’s be clear, Green Party, at this point I’m convinced that you’re colluding with Russia just to piss America off. You’re the political equivalent of the guy who comes to basketball practice high and keeps missing free throws, causing the rest of us has to run suicides.
...
It would be one thing if the Green Party was actually in the game; but at this point, the Green Party is just a drunken, butt-naked streaker who runs onto the field and fucks up the game for everyone.

I’m not saying that the Green Party doesn’t have a place or a voice, but sometimes, especially when the world is on the heels of burning to the ground, maybe the Green Party could just have a seat while grown folks are talking.

Which makes me wonder why the Democrats even tolerate the Green Party to exist? After all, voting Green is not a decision worth respecting, amirite?

the traditional post-election thrashing has already commenced. They’re spoilers (the Daily Mail); they’re the reason we’re in this mess (the Week); their deliberate unreason (Kathy Griffin, seriously) is a threat to us all.
...One solution to the routine panic over tortured lesser-of-two-evils voting options is hoping that, with enough discipline, all third-party voters (not to mention the overwhelming multitude who silently protest their meager choices by staying home) will wise up and vote red or blue. An actual solution is something like ranked-choice voting (also called “instant runoff”) coupled with wider ballot access for third-party candidates — lo and behold, a major plank in the Green platform.

Those silly, naive Green with their unrealistic ranked-choice voting. It's much more productive to voter shame.

Here's a question for voter-shaming Dems: If voting is all about winning, then why would I vote for the Democrats? The Republicans obviously have a better ground game, and thus are more likely to win.
So if I should vote based strictly on the chances of winning, I'd be crazy to vote for the Dems.

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 12:45pm

link

this take confuses the Green Party with angry Democratic voters.

The Green Party is not the left wing of the Democratic Party; it is its own party. People who vote for it in some elections and not in others may be swing voters in the same way that there are swing voters between the Republican and Democratic parties, but they are not just disenchanted Democrats. Mostly, the kind of people who vote for Greens in 2018—especially in an election like Ohio’s—have a fundamental disagreement with the two party system and lesser-of-two-evilism, and relish in the opportunity to express that disagreement.
...
As long as we have a first-past-the-post system—and we shouldn’t—two things are true about the Green Party: they aren’t going to win, and they are going to get Some Votes. For some reason, liberals have never been able to account for the fact that Green Party candidates are going to get some votes in the same way that Republicans have reckoned with the fact that Libertarian candidates will get some votes. It’s not clear they want to, either. After all, if there’s no Green Party candidate in the race, who are they going to blame for their losses?

selfish.png

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Submitted by HenryAWallace on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 1:32pm

@gjohnsit

of their own party, more than they hated Republicans. They were willing to go right, both because they themselves like rightist policies and because they thought they could pick up indy and Republican votes. However, they were not willing to go left. And look at the results! Historic numbers of Republicans elected at local state and federal levels and despite all their concerted efforts, a clown defeating atheir Fair Lady. So, what will they do? Probably double and triple down on neoliberalism. Again.

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Submitted by The Voice In th... on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 3:28pm

@gjohnsit @gjohnsit
To protest, I'll just vote Republican.

No Green running for congress in my district. I was just going to skip that race, but I'll satisfy you and vote for the (non-incumbent) Republican,

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 3:41pm

@The Voice In the Wilderness

To protest, I'll just vote Republican

But you won't be vote shamed.
Of the two, Dems hate people who vote Green more than people who vote Republican.
It seems that voting Green does more damage to the Democrats than electing Repubs does.

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Submitted by lotlizard on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 8:24pm
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@gjohnsit  
The Democrats see Republicans as appealing to a different target demographic entirely, e.g. “normie” whites as opposed to the Dems’ “woke” persons of color.

The Greens, on the other hand, are the Democrats’ direct competitors for the same demographics.

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Submitted by lizzyh7 on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 12:44pm

need to STFU and go the hell away. Alyssa Milano, looking at you here but you surely are not alone. One more B list actor looking to stay relevant. I know I've said it before but I really DO hate these people more than I hate Repugnants and for me, that's one hell of a lot of hate.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Submitted by Amanda Matthews on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 12:59pm
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@lizzyh7

political viiews aren’t shaped by failed comedians. Especially those who aren’t very smart.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Submitted by JekyllnHyde on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 1:47pm
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@Amanda Matthews

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A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

Submitted by jim p on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 2:10pm

@Amanda Matthews as a joke, when this is what Al Qaeda does in real life is just too fucked up to offer political opinions. But then again the Mock Left is fascist at its core, so why basic human decency and intellectual honesty would be expected from them...

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

Submitted by lotlizard on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 2:48pm
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@jim p

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Submitted by PennBrian on Fri, 08/10/2018 - 1:58am
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@lizzyh7 Absolutely agree. I'm numb to Republicans at this point; they are what they are. The corporate Democrats and their misguided army of smug "not very bright" dead-enders are more acutely annoying.

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Submitted by detroitmechworks on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 1:07pm
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as a cult it makes all sorts of sense. Cults reserve their deepest hatred not for the enemy but for heretics. Greens often are ex-Democrats, therefore heretics, therefore...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ5YU_spBw0]

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Submitted by boriscleto on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 3:33pm
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@detroitmechworks

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

Submitted by Not Henry Kissinger on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 1:35pm
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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Submitted by JekyllnHyde on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 2:00pm
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@Not Henry Kissinger

Franklin Roosevelt's Address Announcing the Second New Deal - October 31, 1936

We have not come this far without a struggle and I assure you we cannot go further without a struggle.

For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent.

For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up.

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace--business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me--and I welcome their hatred.

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A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 3:36pm

@JekyllnHyde
And if you re-elect me, they will not only hate me, they will learn to FEAR me!

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by JekyllnHyde on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 3:59pm
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@The Voice In the Wilderness

Fear is how you force persuade your own side and political opponents into falling in line and supporting your policy ideas.

It's ironic that arguably the best-loved Democratic president ever came from a very privileged background, connected with working class people, and absolutely did not need the presidency to complete his life. The same guy who was stuck in a wheelchair for most of his life and successfully guided the country (and the world) through two of the worst crises ever in modern life -- the Great Depression and World War II.

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A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

Submitted by snoopydawg on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 4:26pm
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@JekyllnHyde

For twelve eight years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away

No rolled up sleeves just an Empty Suit.
2009-2016.

It's disgusting to hear people say that Obama was the best president since FDR. He could have if he wanted to. He didn't.

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Submitted by MrWebster on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 3:29pm

I didn't know about this race and just now did some searches on his website and watched an interview. It all seemed like he was just another generic democratic establishment candidate running on slogans that were sorta "liberal". Nothing specific.

In an CNN interview, he was asked how he was able to get so close in a vastly red district. He answered that he went to have conversation where people were at. He did once talk about proposed and supported policies. A Bernie-like response would have been, "because I will support single payer, college free tuition, etc." OH, and he would work with all sides, blah blah...a dead give-away of an establishment candidate.

This particular election looked more like a "lesser of two evils" and "party tribal vote" election.

Like with Hillary, Jill Stein blamed because she like O'Connor had nothing much to say.

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 3:54pm

@MrWebster
link

If you think Jill Stein and Rand Paul have the same views on Russia, you’re onto something. Tina Nguyen writes in Vanity Fair:

Perhaps better than anyone else in Congress, Paul’s unusual position on the political spectrum reflects the growing convergence between the far left and the far right, which have found common ground in isolationism, distrust of authorities, and an affinity for Russia — his father Ron, a libertarian icon in his own right, has followed suit, frequently appearing as a guest on RT, a Russian state TV network adopted by both the extreme left and the extreme right as an alternative news source. . . . Whereas Russia is one of the few areas where the vast majority of the G.O.P. breaks with Trump, condemning his slavish devotion to Putin, Paul is — for once — truly aligned with the president, occupying the space where the screwball right and the White House converge: in Moscow.

And there, in their embrace of Putin, they both converge with lefty Kremlin lovers like Jill Stein.

OTOH, remember all that money Jill raised from Dems for the recount?

Former Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein raised millions of dollars in 2016 to pay for a recount after the electoral victory of President Donald Trump.

However, Stein’s fundraising for the recount significantly exceeded what was actually needed to pay for it — and she tried to reassure her donors that their money would still be well spent by promising to give them a say in how it got used.

However, the Daily Beast reports that Stein has so far not kept that promise and is instead using money raised from her “recount” campaign to pay for legal bills related to investigations into her possible contacts with Russia.

The money she's using to fight the witchhunt is coming from the same people who are conducting the witchhunt

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Submitted by WoodsDweller on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 4:28pm
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@MrWebster

from Huffpost

Although he prefers the term “pragmatic,” O’Connor is, by contemporary standards, a moderate. He does not support single-payer health care, emphasizing instead his commitment to protecting the Affordable Care Act. And if elected, he plans to join the business-friendly New Democrat Coalition, whose PAC donated $4,000 to his bid.

One less New Democrat to try to unseat next cycle.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
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Submitted by MrWebster on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 7:10pm

@WoodsDweller

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Submitted by Hawkfish on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 4:23pm
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I vote green when the candidate is better. But sometimes the candidate is a fluoridation loon and I go elsewhere. You know, like a "grown up"?

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

Submitted by Snode on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 4:47pm

and the best way to persuade us to tell us what we think sucks, and we should do it because the republicans are terrible. Ought to work.

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Submitted by Dr. John Carpenter on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 6:02pm

@Snode worked really well, as I recal. /s

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Submitted by Strife Delivery on Thu, 08/09/2018 - 6:50pm
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The whining never really made much sense to me besides just typical scapegoating.

If I'm a Green member, why should I as a Green care if the Dems win or lose? They aren't my party. They don't support what I want so why do I need to support them?

I'm not a disaffected Dem voting for someone else; I'm a completely different party member.

My vote isn't yours; it is mine.

Apparently Dems can vote for whomever they want, but a 3rd party must vote for the Dems. So strange how the party's own members can be free to do whatever they want but not someone who is even affiliated with said party.

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Submitted by Cassiodorus on Fri, 08/10/2018 - 10:16am
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@Strife Delivery Thus their main pitch, "we are entitled to your votes," is not about winning. That's just who the Democrats are. It explains, for instance, why they all thought Hillary Clinton was their unity candidate two years ago, and it explains why, in turn, Hillary Clinton spent a lot of valuable campaign time at fundraisers in Beverly Hills, Silicon Valley, and the mansion communities north of NYC.

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The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.

Submitted by peachcreek on Fri, 08/10/2018 - 1:16am

Imagine you have a school of 400 eligible voters for student body pwesident. 85 vote for Biff and 85 for Jody. Most students don't bother to vote. Those that did vote decide to try to beat up the hippie kid for writing in "Nobody".
"We would of won if you didn't waste your vote."

Yes, they would have said "would of"....

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Submitted by PennBrian on Fri, 08/10/2018 - 2:05am
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No one ever points out the obvious to these people:

If 60+ million people hadn't wasted their ballots voting for a doomed failed candidate in 2016 then Jill Stein would be our president today, not Donald Trump.

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