Better than voting for who looks the best on TV, or any of the other ways people vote without being fully informed. I’m sometimes forced to leave sections blanks because I cannot find anything about the candidates (I don’t know why my state vote on judges, the only way to find out if they any are good is to spend 100% of your time in court rooms, reading decisions, and so on all year)
local bar associations publish judge evaluations before the election
If you trust them. Where I live the bar chooses the person on the ballot and we only get a up or down. Thus any evaluation they do is by definiton a conflict of interest.
Decisions are made by those that show up. If you didn’t vote, you don’t get to bitch when the results aren’t what you wanted.
Backwards.
You put american electoralism up on a pedestal and tout its sanctity and your faith in the process. The process yielded Trump. If you truly believe in the sanctity of american electoralism, you now have no grounds to complain.
If you vote, you don’t get to complain.
Buy a helmet. Wear it.
yes, I do
And we will all laugh at you for that hot take. Next time get off your ass and participate if you have an opinion.
Oh wow, I’m sure this will totally get them to vote next time! /$
don’t tell me what to do
I did.
Oh you do, but you lost the right to be taken seriously by anyone that did. And it’s no big surprise how so many of you that were shouting at everyone before the election have either vanished, or fallen silent about it since.
Fine, but we’ll take you less seriously.
Hard not to bitch when, as a citizen of another country, I could never vote, and yet people here still have to deal with the consequences.
You better believe the rest of the world will be bitching.
- They don’t get to complain because they refused to do the bare minimum.
- Contribute to the many reasons I had to leave my home country. Not sure it would be different otherwise, but going immigrant without a fallback plan wasn’t pleasant.
- Mandatory voting - I’m for it as long as it’s Australian style - no severe punishment, just light fines. Enough to quietly annoy people into voting.
They should shut up about politics. Not voting is literally a declaration that you don’t care who governs you. Voting is what gives you the right to complain about the government. If you didn’t vote, shut up.
Not voting is literally a declaration that you don’t care who governs you
no, it’s not
They should shut up about politics
Not participating in fake, anti-democratic spectacles (somehow) “disqualifies” one from talking about politics?
Elections might be skewed, they might be giving voters a rather narrow choice, they might depend on who’s got the bigger campaign fund, they might not offer ranked choice, yet with all that --they’re still one of the most accessible, actionable things the average person can do to control their nation’s future. Passing on that is not justifiable, because we should be doing everything we can, and that includes voting. I used to be cynical like you, but
then I took an arrI mean, we can’t afford that.Elections might be skewed,
If you want to see this glorified rubberstamping of elite rule through those kind of rose-tinted spectacles, fine.
But don’t call it “democracy.”
I used to be cynical like you
If you think seeing through propaganda is “cynicism,” boy, do I have bad news for YOU.
This is just ignorance and whiny entitlement. Your “fake anti-democratic spectacle” is the hard-won achievement of generations of people who came before you. Boring liberal representative democracy is the exception in world history. Most people in the world have never had the opportunity that you have to influence your government. Not good enough for you? Well then get off your ass and do something to make it better. The very least you can do is vote, because out of two candidates, one is always better than another. If you can’t be bothered to do even that, then I for one don’t care what you have to say about politics.
because out of two candidates, one is always better than another
if neither one should have power, I’m not voting for either one
is the hard-won achievement of generations of people who came before you.
Really? The generations of people who resisted and fought against THIS EXACT STATUS QUO would be proud of these glorified rubberstamping spectacles which only exist to legitimize elite rule?
Really?
Boring liberal representative democracy is the exception in world history.
Really? So the ongoing genocide your “boring liberal representative democracy” is funding is… an exception? The history books says otherwise.
Most people in the world have never had the opportunity that you have to influence your government.
Lol! Do I sound like a billionaire parasite to you?
then I for one don’t care what you have to say about politics.
What’s the matter, liberal? Is all the cognitive dissonance starting to make you feel queesy?
Do I sound like a billionaire parasite to you?
No, you sound like an ignorant decadent American college student.
an ignorant decadent American college student.
Those Yankee college students staging protests on US campuses are far better at “doing” democracy than all the voting you could do over a lifetime put together.
Perhaps it’s best that you don’t try to flex about something you don’t seem to know too much about, okay?
