2024 US Presidential Election

[Thumpalumpacus]

I get your number one, and I think it's wholly wrong.  If you want someone to blame for the political ills of the country, perhaps you should blame the people who've voted for it?   Whether they conceptualize it as voting for the lessers or because they wanted the thing itself - this is the result - and ofc it is, it was always going to be.  When you vote for the lesser of two evils the only possible outcome is evil.

You realize that not everyone votes the same way. Right? Right?

Your two is meh.  Both parties would like to strip us of rights, and prevent us from having meaningful protections..because they don't work for us.

Oh, really? This is more facile, and wrong-headed, false equivalence. Simply repeating the same vapid charge does not make it true.

 They both work for their corporate donors out of campaign necessity.  I disagree with this no matter who's doing it, as I've probably made clear over my time here.  This is not a false equivalence, it's a fact that even the reps themselves acknowledge.

That they both are beholden to donors is irrefutable, sure. But to pretend therefore that they both are equally committed to repression is nonsense and you know it.

 As I mentioned, they're both garbage -in their own unique ways-.  Think about the absurdity of this, though, you're giving me shit for not voting for politicians whose politics I disagree with, and tossing out slogans that pretty clearly don't apply to my own objections to the candidates and parties on offer.    

I'm giving you shit for not finding a politician you can vote for -- or lacking that, becoming that politician yourself. I have little respect for those who complain about the current state of affairs and refuse to do anything about it.

I haven't done -anything- to effect the changes I was referring to - that's my entire point.  If you want to point the finger you'll have to point elsewhere.  I've been busy trying to do nice shit that I can accomplish without appealing to the chief political officers of the corporate fiefdoms of america.  From this end, it's like watching people stuck in an abusive relationship.  You keep thinking that if you just did better he'd stop beating the shit out of you.  The whole bit seems like that.  We're being told we have to do better for our [insert persuasion here] reps instead of them having to do better for us.  You all have moments of clarity in between elections where you realize that this is what it is, but come campaigning season you're in love again and his bad behavior is all someone else's fault.  Especially, apparently, the people who have no interest in such a relationship.

Like the hobbits in LotR, sticking to your own little garden and hoping the shitshow will pass you by, overlooking you, is probably not the smartest course of action.

If we're at a point where insisting on better is the enemy of better, we should not expect any better.  On a purely practical note...if you want more independents, undecideds, and previous non voters to climb in your tent, perhaps you shouldn't blame them for your own parties (and the other parties) cockups?  Just fucking own it, and do better?  Or is that also the enemy of the better?

You're misstating my point. You are demanding the solution be perfect, and that if it isn't, it is equally evil. It's clear I think that's a load of horseshit, but don't you worry -- those of us with the spine to fight it out will keep doing so.