Simple question. Do we need debates, do we need endless analysis this time? Is there anybody on the fence in this election? Not a question of whether or not they will vote, but is there anyone out there truly undecided, someone who doesn’t know which side they take. someone who might vote for Biden but might vote for Trump just depending on what they hear from the candidates between now and November?
Just like in 2016, it’s not about changing anybody’s mind, it’s about getting those who prefer you and especially those who abhor your opponent to get off their asses and vote. Debates and analysis WILL sway people to vote or stay home.
Mostly, I find that people still making the silly “They are both the same” claims are pushing for some third candidate.
exit polls ask when people decided how to vote and there are always people who say in the last week.
Debates now would be stupid. Deny trump any access to a platform. Let him twist in the wind on his own words, not yours.
Since around February 2016, I knew I would always be voting third party as long as Trump was the R candidate. That hasn’t changed a bit over the years - I am voting third party this November as well.
The only question is which third party. The Libertarian ideology has been thoroughly discredited by the coronavirus pandemic, and the Green party has too many things I object to. I may have to write in a candidate like last time.
Serious question - if you’re not voting for or against a candidate who actually has a chance of winning, why waste any energy choosing a candidate or casting a ballot? Pick a name out of a phone book, or better yet, stay home and do something productive. Nobody is going to waste any time figuring out how to reach people who voted Mitt Romney 2020 or whatever, except maybe Russian bots.
I agree. There are probably only a handful of people who haven’t decided between Biden or Trump. But there are still a lot of people who haven’t deciding between voting and not voting.
I feel people who vote for third parties generally believe they are sending a message to the political mainstream. I feel they think the message they’re sending is “These are my political beliefs. This is what you should support in order to get my vote.” But I also feel the message they’re really sending is “I don’t decide who gets into office. So you can safely ignore my political beliefs.”
Well, there are down-ballot races too. I have to show up for those. But can’t, or shouldn’t, leave the presidential parts blank.
Are Biden and Trump equally objectionable in your view? Or would you prefer one to the other?
I have nothing against Biden himself, he’s a decent man. In terms of being “presidential,” he’s light-years better than Trump. I do worry he may go soft on foreign regimes or dictators, but we’ve seen Trump greasily kiss up as a sycophant to Putin, praise Xi’s concentration camps, etc. so that is less of a concern. I do worry that Biden’s 77-year old brain (he’d be 85 by the end of his second term if reelected!) isn’t up to the task but things are what they are.
My main concern with Biden winning election isn’t the man himself, but rather, the message it would send to his supporters. Right now we have already seen cancel culture, SJW culture, woke culture, etc. gain significant strength over the years. If Biden wins, that would pour that much more gasoline on their fire, emboldening them that much more.
That’s an awfully weird reason, ISTM, not to vote for the person you think would be a far better president. Especially when it seems like those supporters you’re most worried sending a “message” to appear to be a significant minority of his supporters, and even the most reluctant (i.e. generally the most progressive Democratic voters supported other candidates in the primary) of them.
I’m still on the fence about either writing myself in, or picking whoever the Libertarians nominate. Frankly, at this point, if there was a way to vote for “Giant Asteroid/Wrath of Cthulu 2020” I might join that party.
True, most of the left-progressives like Bernie or Warren supporters are only aboard the Biden train because he’s the D candidate. He sure wasn’t their first choice.
But - there is no way they would take Biden’s victory over Trump - the repudiation of Trump - as anything but validation for the overall progressive cause, too. Just like how Romney may not have been the most conservative of R’s, but you know that had he beaten Obama in 2012, it couldn’t have been interpreted as being anything but “a repudiation of liberalism and validation of conservatism” - that’s certainly how the media would have spun it.
It’s a weird, unfortunate predicament to be in. One doesn’t want an incompetent narcissist like Trump as president, yet if he loses, America drifts further towards the SJWs and cancellers/wokes.
So who’s worse, in your mind – Trump and his enablers (including the bigots and misogynists), or the “SJWs”?
I don’t think electing a person who isn’t of that make up (Biden) will move America too far in that direction. Think of it as a movement towards a more just and compassionate society, if that helps.
Is there any concrete fear you have about what “the wokes” would actually accomplish under a boring centrist president like Biden? I mean, a lot of those people are Bernie Bros who hate Biden, but hate Trump more.
Or do you just hate certain people so much that it’s intolerable to imagine them being satisfied with an electoral outcome?
What about the novel idea of just voting for the person you think is best qualified to serve as President?
You’d rather see everyone on the planet die if your country doesn’t elect your preferred head of government?
It’s more honest than most conservatives around here, I’ll give you that.
As a result of Trump’s 2016 victory, do you think we saw more SJW/cancellers/wokes, or fewer? It looks to me like they became radicalized, and I see 10x as much conservative pearl-clutching after Trump won than before. In fact I’m not sure I even heard the terms “woke” or “SJW” until after Trump got elected.
If you want these people to shut up and go back to sleep, then elect the boring ineffectual centrists that they keep nominating for President. Biden is not going to embolden anyone to do anything radical. Most likely they’ll congratulate themselves for getting rid of Trump and enjoy the peaceful mental vacation of not caring who’s President anymore.