On the way to work this morning, I saw an interesting headline: Trump says abortion should be left to the states maybe.
It kind of is, though. At present, based on Gallup’s party affiliation historical trends numbers, the Democrats are at just under 30% and the Republicans are a few points behind (depending on which month you look at). I put the numbers into a spreadsheet and ran the trendline function over a few timeframes.
In the short term, (from 2016 to present) the Democrats show a very tiny gain (m=.005) and the Republicans show a small decline (m=-.255); from 2012, the situation is reversed (D=-.042, R=.003), but over the long term, both are hemorrhaging at nearly the same rate (m=-.04~). In none of these timeframes are the Indies showing a non-positive trend, not falling below 40%, and growing.
Analysis is somewhat iffy, as Gallup’s methodology is always questionable, but it does look like, behind the noise, the Parties are slowly dying. The two-party system has fucked the country up royally for most of two centuries, but what happens when the parties collapse? It surely will not be pretty.
I think we need to think about this seriously. We can function as a country without major parties, but not as-is. Chaos does not benefit the common man. If this hazard is not realistically addressed soon, we could end up even more fucked than we already are – except for the nihilists, who like to watch stuff burn without thought to cleaning up after.
In a lot of elections, only around half of the voters bother voting. That means people in the minority can swing an election just by showing up.
In the most recent mid-term election (2014) only 26.2% of eligible voters in New York actually voted. Cuomo beat Astorino in the race for Governor; 2,069,480 votes to 1,537,077. That’s a margin of less than 535,000 votes. And over ten million people didn’t vote.
Of those ten million, six million of them are already utter fucking morons who cannot even make change without the register telling them how much to hand back. Or completely clueless about any of the issues, either because their heads cannot hold onto that information, or because they have other shit to do and the country/state will run itself. Some of them are ultra-cynics who find the system too flawed to support in that way (politicians are all the same).
Honestly, do you really want more idiots thrown into the mix? It is kind of a conundrum. We want everyone to vote, but if they all do, holy crap what a mess we can end up with. I would favor a system where it is not all that difficult to get involved but we do not force, or even especially encourage, people to do so. Keep the news-buzz/hype/propaganda at a minimum and let the people come in because they see that stuff needs to be done. That is probably the best filter.
I cannot fathom why the current administration putting children in cages and having congress attack the FBI and the DOJ has not already resulted in:
“the greatest mass demonstrations, uprisings and whatnot, the likes of which have not been seen since the darkest days of the 1960s, maybe surpassing those by a long mile”
I was heartened to see the demonstrations against the separations of families this weekend, but seriously America? What the fuck are you waiting for?!?!?
As it happens, he’s an expert in investigating the president in ways that ill serve the public interest.
…but a lot of HDs are sold abroad… to foreigners…
Is that the illegal voters he likes to talk about? 
For themselves to be personally affected.
It’s easy to be complacent when it’s “those other people over there” being oppressed.
Martin Niemöller’s poem has been repeated to the point of being cliche, but there’s a great deal of truth in it.
They know. They just don’t care.
I will be voting a straight Dem ticket. if a Dem is not running, I’ll vote for the Anarchist or the Communist… but not a Republican. Anything BUT.
And what do we have now??? The Trump White House, with Trump. Miller, Sessions, Bolton,etc and Bannon STILL involved somehow behind the scenes… we already have nihilism.
Maybe a reboot would be the best thing.
trump proposes “Fair and Reciprocal Trade Act”. Yes, look at the acronym.
If there’s anything Trump is good at, its branding.
I’d like to see him branded, wouldn’t you?
The only chance I might vote Republican is in a local race where the Republican has publicly sided against Trump.
At first I was going to say that probably won’t happen. But maybe being in a red state means that it could–counting on enough Republicans to vote for them anyways.
I propose
D
S
(the Delta is a dunce cap).
Here is an article about how Trump is grooming the US for fascism. To me it is a compelling description of what is happening. YMMV.
Excellent article. Short, worth reading.
I think he paid Stormy Daniels extra for that.
Gee I wonder if President Descanting the Insalubrious will give an ass’s whinny about Europe’s warnings about a $300 billion retaliation on US goods.
But hey - all in the name of that sacrosanct go-to “for National Security” thingie to cling on to, for, oh, just about EVERY FUCKING OCCASION - why not, then.
Surprised Turkey* is one of the countries slapping the US with retaliatory tariffs - I thought преЦАРдент Trump and President Merde-on-Lawn were “like this” (with crossed fingers). I see possible disillusion here - a possible Diamond/Streisand tune, perhaps, in the form of some kind of “what up with that?” tweet from President Bum. It could be awkward - I could see Dr. Phil’s brow furrowing in concern.
*Sure, they’re part of the EU, but they’re not exactly considered ideal team players at this moment.