Hulver's site || fascist Nazi editor atreides HQ

Diaries
Everything
Who's Online?
FAQ / Help

Americans: please vote

By gpig (Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 06:42:56 AM EST) politics, US elections, 2010, parties representing caffeinated beverages (all tags)

In which I beg my Husercolleagues to vote, because I can't.

Dear American Husercolleagues,

There is a serious danger of a flock of demon sheep nutters being elected to office, some of it relatively high, because ordinary folks like you are sick of the whole show and do not bother to vote. While this is an understandable sentiment, you will then be stuck with said demon sheep for some time to come.

I get taxed, but not represented, so this reminder is all I can do about it.

Cheers,

gpig

< Difference | Attention fancy a quick pint tonight in London Bridge infidels >

Poll

Votes: 0
Results	\|	Other Polls

Related Links

- gpig's Diary

Hit Counter

65 Husi users have viewed this.

Comment Controls

Americans: please vote | 18 comments (18 topical, 0 hidden)

I voted Tea Party all the way! by wiredog (4.00 / 1) #1 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 07:50:44 AM EST

Because I hate America!

How hard is it to emigrate to Soviet UKia, btw? At least your politicians realize that there are trade-offs that have to be made in order to get things done.

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}

: Emigrating to UK by gpig (2.00 / 0) #8 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 10:24:23 AM EST

If you have lots of transferable skills, your best bet is a points visa. Get in soon, as our wonderful new government is going to impose a cap on non-EU immigration.
Otherwise, hide in a truck.
---
(, ,') -- eep
[ Parent ]
: The real questing is: by wumpus (4.00 / 2) #14 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 02:26:43 PM EST

can he trade his visa with Breaker, who needs to see his fantasy of right-wing corporatopia first hand.
Wumpus

[ Parent ]

Actually by yankeehack (4.00 / 1) #2 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 08:02:09 AM EST

I think we need a viable third party in the US.

This Dem vs. Rep "MY TEAM IS BETTER THAN YOURS" shit has got to stop and I think this election is as about that as it is about jobs/healthcare/economy.

Because the GOP really hasn't done anything better in the past two years.

Now we can disagree that the Tea Party is the answer (although, up there in Massachusetts you a least have the hottest male candidate).

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a few Tea Party candidates win today, just to have that dynamic.

"...she dares to indulge in the secret sport. You can't be a MILF with the F, at least in part because the M is predicated upon it."-CBB

this is pretty much my politics by iGrrrl (4.00 / 2) #3 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 08:19:26 AM EST

But they don't have much attention: the Modern Whig Party. I like that they have civil discourse as a major tenet.

"Beautiful wine, talking of scattered everythings"
(and thanks to Scrymarch)

[ Parent ]

But it won't stop by jayhawk88 (4.00 / 2) #5 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 09:00:43 AM EST

This Dem vs. Rep "MY TEAM IS BETTER THAN YOURS" shit has got to stop...

Because there is too much power/money involved in keeping it going. Whole television networks are now based upon it. Websites rack up pageview after pageview shilling it. Books are written and sold on it, pundits get six figure paychecks to speak to auditoriums about it, newspaper and magazines sell copies meta-discussing it.

No one wants it to change. We just want something to get all riled up and pissed off about, in a way that is easy to digest, and non-threatening to our already held beliefs. Tricking ourselves into thinking we're active in politics; that we have an understanding of things that others lack. "The world would be perfect if only we were given carte blanche, it's Those Evil Others that prevent this from happening". It's nothing more than a placebo. Two Minutes of Hate is real, it just took on a less obvious, more pleasing form.

[ Parent ]

it's going to be a long two years. by aphrael (4.00 / 2) #6 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 09:22:47 AM EST

I expect the new House majority to spend the next two years, essentially, campaigning for the 2012 presidential election, while running continuous investigations of the obama administration.

i also expect them to pass a ruinous budget that contains huge tax cuts and attempts to slash and burn the welfare state, which obama will veto, setting up a crisis next fall.
If television is a babysitter, the internet is a drunk librarian who won't shut up.

[ Parent ]

Third parties are great, but, by mrgoat (4.00 / 1) #7 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 09:23:43 AM EST

It's kinda hard to get a viable third party functioning at the national level, given how our elections are structured. The tea party isn't the answer - it can't be. It's part of the republican party. Even if it wasn't, it would either subsume, or be subsumed by the repubs.

--top hat--

[ Parent ]

Offtopic question by TheophileEscargot (2.00 / 0) #13 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 01:45:56 PM EST

Are you on Metafilter, or did I just add a random goat as a contact?
--
It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?

[ Parent ]

: That's me! by mrgoat (4.00 / 1) #15 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 05:22:19 PM EST

Years-long lurker, just got the account. I assumed you were the same TheophileEscargot.
Probably foolish, since it's such a common handle, I know.

--top hat--
[ Parent ]

You do need a third party by gpig (2.00 / 0) #9 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 10:34:51 AM EST

Do you think the Tea Party makes that any more likely? It started as a fairly straightforward fiscal conservative, small government movement, and has aggregated every flavour of right-wing nutter: racists, fundamentalists, "birthers", people who worship the Constitution but haven't even read it. Hence my description of demon sheep nutters.

To be viable in the long term, a third party needs to be coherent, and have broad appeal. I think the Tea Party has the latter, by preying on people's dissatisfaction with the present, and fear for the future -- but it doesn't come close to coherence. Without it, it will fly apart.

Either that, or some demagogue will ride it to power, ban flag-burning, and impose fines for non-attendance at Church. Welcome back, Middle Ages!
---
(, ,') -- eep

[ Parent ]

ew by Merekat (4.00 / 1) #10 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 10:38:19 AM EST

The Handmaid's Tale is supposed to be (not) SF!

[ Parent ]

Except by notafurry (4.00 / 1) #12 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 12:56:21 PM EST

It doesn't actually have broad appeal. Several groups have now attempted to define tea party membership, and found it impossible to get a firm grasp on it - but it's certainly smaller than anyone would have expected from the media coverage. For example, the New York Times worked with several national Tea Party organizations to contact as many chapters as possible - and found a couple of hundred, total, with average memberships below 50 and average fundraising capabilities in the $800 range.

That is not broad appeal.

Even Fox claimed only 29% of Americans are "connected with" the Tea Party - and those words are significant, because what they actually based that number on is counting every single poll respondent who claimed to be related to, friends with, or a coworker of someone they identified as a Tea Party member.

At that point, you're playing six degrees of Kevin Bacon and losing badly.

[ Parent ]

: Activists vs sympathisers by gpig (2.00 / 0) #17 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 06:02:38 PM EST

There aren't many of them, but they get a lot of TV time -- how many people are sitting at home and silently agreeing with this crap? That's the important number when it comes to elections.
---
(, ,') -- eep
[ Parent ]

we get nutters every election by StackyMcRacky (4.00 / 1) #4 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 09:00:27 AM EST

I voted last Thursday! woo!

DOWN WITH GOVERNOR GOODHAIR!

Familiar by Breaker (4.00 / 1) #11 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 12:07:42 PM EST

I get taxed, but not represented

Didn't our colonial cousins once throw a Tea Party about that? You should look into it, perhaps.

I voted on Diebold machines for the first time by lm (4.00 / 1) #16 Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 05:32:23 PM EST

Not only did I feel compelled to wash my hands afterwards, I was even more disturbed by the voting machines than by the election judged upending the "ballot" box and spilling the voting smart cards all over the floor.

There is no more degenerate kind of state than that in which the richest are supposed to be the best.
Cicero, The Republic

(Comment Deleted) by aggressive cyclist (2.00 / 0) #19 Wed Nov 03, 2010 at 08:33:12 AM EST

This comment has been deleted by aggressive cyclist

Americans: please vote | 18 comments (18 topical, 0 hidden)

-	I voted!	0%
-	I did not vote.	0%


Make a new account
Username:
Password: