Hacker News Reader

Comment by palmotea | Hacker News Reader

> Elections have consequences. Vote democrat in November and again in 2028. When someone tells you both sides are the same tell them no, it's only Republicans that are allowing Datacenters to sidestep the law in order to poison us more efficiently.

It's not that simple. The Democrats are shit, and lost to Trump twice because of that shittiness. Perversely, Trump has allowed them to convince themselves that they don't have to reform.

I don't expect anything to change if the Democrats gain power, they'll curb only the most egregious abuses curbed a bit, while leaving the overall thing intact. Then they'll lose again because they're shit.

View on HN

So vote for Republicans because while the outcomes are worse, at least they aren't pretending they are going to make things better?

You've made it clear why you think people absolutely shouldn't vote for Democrats, but haven't really stated what people should do instead, just left the implication.

> So vote for Republicans because while the outcomes are worse, at least they aren't pretending they are going to make things better?

No, voting for Democrats isn't enough, because they're shit. They'll probably in better shape to be reformed that Republicans, but that's not saying much. I don't have a ton of hope based on what I'm seeing. I expect they'll either go back to the behaviors that enabled Trump, or commit some anti-democratic power grab more extreme than anything Trump has ever done.

IMHO, after someone like Trump, they need to reform themselves to be an actual-majority party that can competitive almost everywhere.

So the alternative is what?

This is a natural consequence of a two-party system: you will be forced to choose between two parties that both deviate from your political preferences. Casting a ballot for a third party, or abstaining from voting, are both effectively the same as voting for the party you hate the most.

You may feel some semblance of true choice by participating in primaries.

Otherwise, the only path to installing politicians you truly believe in is to change the system -- be it by reform or revolution.

You're not wrong, but I'm fairly certain that if we did have a multi party system and ranked voting, not much would be different.

This is because the people on HN, Reddit etc are a minority. The views expressed here are not publicly supported by the people who actually go out and vote. Those people are not online writing in these long threads on the same topics over and over again.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com