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Why I voted the way I did


immamac

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I voted straight D for the first time in my life.   In my fantasy world I'm hoping that for a D landslide that results in either a true third party or a completely reformed Republican party.  Because if the D's were to take complete control I have no doubt I'll be bitching about their policies (Far left liberalism is a massive fucking problem as well, see "Eyes of Texas" ridiculousness at our University) but Trumpism needs to be stopped at all costs.  So D's straight down the ballot from me and my wife as well.    For comparison sake, I was a Gary Johnson voter last election with a heavy Libertarian lean down my ballot (with some R's and D's mixed in). Wasn't making that mistake again.  My wife had just given birth to our oldest and she didn't vote last time.

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I used to think this way, I truly did, but as I got older I realized the fiscally conservative narrative is a lie. No party has ever been fiscally conservative. It sounds reasonable, don't get me wrong. Why would anyone be against responsible spending? It's logical. I don't spend more than I make, I have to keep my shit together, why would i vote for anyone who isn't responsible like me? It's a lie. Each party spends a shit ton of money, you really are just voting on how it gets spent. Corporations and military, or to social programs. It's that simple. 

It’s also a contradiction. Social issues are inherently economic. You can’t say “I’m not a racist” but advocate for economic policies that ensure unequal access to resources and opportunity, especially when one’s social status is so often inherently tied to one’s race.
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Point of order: remember that it is taking a historically bad president (as in literally the worst in US history) to make this wave we are about to see.  Please don’t bank on a complete changing of politics going forward.  At the VERY least, you’ll continue to see rural domination in the senate for decades to come, other than this cycle, so don’t expect Rs to be too motivated to change. 

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1 minute ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

Point of order: remember that it is taking a historically bad president (as in literally the worst in US history) to make this wave we are about to see.  Please don’t bank on a complete changing of politics going forward.  At the VERY least, you’ll continue to see rural domination in the senate for decades to come, other than this cycle, so don’t expect Rs to be too motivated to change. 

Until we make Puerto Rico and Washington DC states....

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2 minutes ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

Point of order: remember that it is taking a historically bad president (as in literally the worst in US history) to make this wave we are about to see.  Please don’t bank on a complete changing of politics going forward.  At the VERY least, you’ll continue to see rural domination in the senate for decades to come, other than this cycle, so don’t expect Rs to be too motivated to change. 

I still don't understand how they went from Bush/McCain/Romney to Trump.   But I don't disagree that Trumpism will be hard to shake.  It's like a fucking college football team for a bunch of idiots that never went to college.  Just a truly bizarre cult.  But they have the numbers to sway future primaries.  Really hoping for a D beatdown to watch that fight within the party play out.

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1 hour ago, BradInATX said:

So you acknowledge that both parties spent like drunken sailors, the difference is that you would rather debt spend and push the burden onto your kids and grandkids vs. pay for it yourself in taxes? I'm not trying to take a shot here, I'm really not. But if you acknowledge that the Republicans are no more fiscally conservative (which is undeniable at this point) then it's just a matter of who pays for it and when.

Well, and what is being paid for.

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53 minutes ago, BearSchlong said:

I used to accuse pointy-headed east coast liberals of ruining our country, now I blame uneducated white males.  No idea who I'm gonna blame in 2022.  Ideas?

Trump is the uneducated white male + East Coast Liberal + Racist

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1 hour ago, BradInATX said:

So you acknowledge that both parties spent like drunken sailors, the difference is that you would rather debt spend and push the burden onto your kids and grandkids vs. pay for it yourself in taxes? I'm not trying to take a shot here, I'm really not. But if you acknowledge that the Republicans are no more fiscally conservative (which is undeniable at this point) then it's just a matter of who pays for it and when.

With all due respect, that is an insult to drunken sailors.

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2 hours ago, slorch said:

There is absolutely a difference in how much each party wants to tax people.

You're right. Some people want the super rich to pay their fair share, which they don't. Fuckin commies.

The best part is, the people who most vehemently oppose that idea are idiot right-wingers who are decidedly not rich, and would spend themselves into bankruptcy in a year or less if they managed to hit big on one of the lottery tickets they spend $100 a week on.

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I still don't understand how they went from Bush/McCain/Romney to Trump.   But I don't disagree that Trumpism will be hard to shake.  It's like a fucking college football team for a bunch of idiots that never went to college.  Just a truly bizarre cult.  But they have the numbers to sway future primaries.  Really hoping for a D beatdown to watch that fight within the party play out.

Psssssst - Bush/McCain/Romney are cut from the same cloth as Trump.

They all want the same outcomes but those other three just talk nicer and aren’t openly and publicly mean dickfaces.

It’s very easy to see the Republican Party’s progression to Trump - the through line from the Nixon Southern Strategy to Reagan launching his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi to Lee Atwater to Rush Limbaugh to Newt Gingrich and the Contract for America to Ken Starr to Karl Rove and Dick Cheney to Sarah Palin to the Tea Party to the Freedom Caucus to the assorted menagerie of right wing media grifters with Mitch McConnell lurking like a greasy Kentucky fuck turtle in the shadows laying the groundwork for destroying democratic norms is very easy to see.

All of those things have taken on us on a slow boat ride with the final destination of Trumplandia.
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58 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:


Psssssst - Bush/McCain/Romney are cut from the same cloth as Trump.

They all want the same outcomes but those other three just talk nicer and aren’t openly and publicly mean dickfaces.

It’s very easy to see the Republican Party’s progression to Trump - the through line from the Nixon Southern Strategy to Reagan launching his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi to Lee Atwater to Rush Limbaugh to Newt Gingrich and the Contract for America to Ken Starr to Karl Rove and Dick Cheney to Sarah Palin to the Tea Party to the Freedom Caucus to the assorted menagerie of right wing media grifters with Mitch McConnell lurking like a greasy Kentucky fuck turtle in the shadows laying the groundwork for destroying democratic norms is very easy to see.

All of those things have taken on us on a slow boat ride with the final destination of Trumplandia.

"Kentucky Fuck Turtles" would be a solid band name. 

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1 hour ago, Bama Chick said:


Psssssst - Bush/McCain/Romney are cut from the same cloth as Trump.

They all want the same outcomes but those other three just talk nicer and aren’t openly and publicly mean dickfaces.
 

That's incredibly over-simplifying the issues.  Trump really doesn't have anything in common with those guys.  The fundamental issues  they "appear" to be in agreement on are just issues Trump knows help him politically.  Trump has no values or platform.  If he thought he could have won as a democrat he would have run as one.   There is no doubt Bush/McCain/Romney would have handled COVID (and really any other major threat to the country) infinitely better than Trump.   Bush and Obama are completely different ideologically but both respected the hell out of the office and both worked their asses off (each known to spend hours daily reading briefs, etc.).  Trump doesn't do a damn thing and makes every decision by his "gut".  He's a fucking disgrace so lumping him in with Bush or any of the prior Republican nominees is just nonsense.   For the record, if Romney were running he would have my vote over Biden. I don't think Biden is a great candidate but I don't think he's bad either.  And I also think the AOC wing of the D party is as batshit crazy as the far right.  We're all on the same team right now but if the left win bigly (and I hope they do) but then pivot far left, I'll be hoping for a moderate right to regroup.  Or I'll just be throwing my vote away to the libertarians again.

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I voted D all the way down.  Had reservations for a number of judiciary slots, as many of the civil judges are biased to favor the trial lawyer bar, but because the R party is overrun with Tea Party stupidity I figured it was time for a change.  

An elected judiciary (especially with party affiliation) is a terrible idea.

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Cedar Park and voted straight D with the exception of Shawn Dick, Wilco DA. Even though he was running unopposed I like what I've seen from him so far (although the Wilco DA bar is lower than a snake's pecker after decades of dipshittery).

Others have already covered the 'why' pretty well: supporting a treasonous president and his enablers just isn't in my blood. 

 

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12 minutes ago, Skipper said:

That's incredibly over-simplifying the issues.  Trump really doesn't have anything in common with those guys.  The fundamental issues  they "appear" to be in agreement on are just issues Trump knows help him politically.  Trump has no values or platform.  If he thought he could have won as a democrat he would have run as one.   There is no doubt Bush/McCain/Romney would have handled COVID (and really any other major threat to the country) infinitely better than Trump.   Bush and Obama are completely different ideologically but both respected the hell out of the office and both worked their asses off (each known to spend hours daily reading briefs, etc.).  Trump doesn't do a damn thing and makes every decision by his "gut".  He's a fucking disgrace so lumping him in with Bush or any of the prior Republican nominees is just nonsense.   For the record, if Romney were running he would have my vote over Biden. I don't think Biden is a great candidate but I don't think he's bad either.  And I also think the AOC wing of the D party is as batshit crazy as the far right.  We're all on the same team right now but if the left win bigly (and I hope they do) but then pivot far left, I'll be hoping for a moderate right to regroup.  Or I'll just be throwing my vote away to the libertarians again.

This right here. Dismissing the Trump movement as simply a meaner version of the old GOP misses the fundamental things that have changed. 
 

It used to be, we all operated from a generally same reality with different viewpoints. Some were genuine philosophical difference and some was cynical spin, but we all pretty much had the same reality. The Trump movement has politicized objective reality. We can’t even discuss policies or issues because of the secret knowledge of the Gnostic Trump movement. It’s fundamentally paralyzing. 
 

Writing Trump off as a meaner version of previous candidates is the same justification that lifetime GOP voters use to vote for him — they “vote on policies and wish he’d talk less.” It ignores the more basic things that are destroying us the are unique to the Trump movement.
 

Everything is fundamentally broken in a new way. The policies don’t even matter anymore because we’re broken before we even reach that point. You can’t discuss issues without a shared, non-politicized reality. Even if his policies didn’t suck, he would be destroying us. Conservative or liberal policy doesn’t destroy the country, this movement is.

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Voted for Biden. First And only democratic vote in my life, since I pulled the lever for Reagan. I can’t have that man one more day running this country. I didn’t vote for president in 2016. Couldn’t vote for Clinton didn’t want to vote for Trump so no vote. He’s an ass hat.

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Preface: I am extremely socially liberal, moreso than many liberals.  But I agree with the right wing talking points on things like fiscal conservatism and state's rights over large federal government (I do wish they'd actually give a shit about these things instead of just talking about them, but that's another conversation).  I'd listen to a moderate Republican who didn't want to strike down women's right to govern the insides of their own bodies, if such a Republican existed.  The point of all of this is that I'm not a straight-line liberal.  Socially liberal, fiscally conservative, but not a libertarian.  I'm a man without a party.
But I did vote straight Dem all the way down.  The current version of the Republican Party needs to be burned to the ground.  It will be a very long time before I even consider voting for a Republican after what they've done over the last several years, and I mean since the birth of the Tea Party.  Rebrand or die, Republicans.  And go find your moral compass, your conscience, and your soul.

You are basically like most of us. Well what most of us pretend we are.
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This right here. Dismissing the Trump movement as simply a meaner version of the old GOP misses the fundamental things that have changed. 
 
It used to be, we all operated from a generally same reality with different viewpoints. Some were genuine philosophical difference and some was cynical spin, but we all pretty much had the same reality. The Trump movement has politicized objective reality. We can’t even discuss policies or issues because of the secret knowledge of the Gnostic Trump movement. It’s fundamentally paralyzing. 
 
Writing Trump off as a meaner version of previous candidates is the same justification that lifetime GOP voters use to vote for him — they “vote on policies and wish he’d talk less.” It ignores the more basic things that are destroying us the are unique to the Trump movement.
 
Everything is fundamentally broken in a new way. The policies don’t even matter anymore because we’re broken before we even reach that point. You can’t discuss issues without a shared, non-politicized reality. Even if his policies didn’t suck, he would be destroying us. Conservative or liberal policy doesn’t destroy the country, this movement is.

Actually I think Trump was great for America. The veneer of the Republican party as
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8 hours ago, immamac said:

Im ashamed of the optics of our highest office. To me it's simply unacceptable behavior for a person or group of people to behave in public for all to see the way this administration has. 

I think John Cornyn is a huge pussy and has put party significantly over Texas. I watched his debate and watched him flail against a complete amateur candidate. MJ Hegar seems like a go getter and barely a Democrat. 

I voted in hays and my rep was different than those in travis. I voted to keep things the same. 

State elections I voted a mixed bag depending on who was incumbent and what I saw in state politics as issues. 

Voted libertarian for all texas supreme court seats because I believe in their legal ideology to leave me the fuck alone. 

Voted straight incumbent local. I like what's going on in my little section of the world. 

Voted FOR prop to fund public parks in hays. Cuz why the fuck not it was 75M 

Why did you vote the way you did?

You voted straight libertarian for the Texas Supreme Court?

No offense, but that was really fucking dumb. Again said with all due respect.

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I'm a centrist who agrees with some Republican and some Democratic ideas. On ballots, I voted for science, education and free market.

But for politicians, I voted straight D. Fuck every single fucking Republican for enabling the piece of shit orange corrupt as hell lying son of a bitch.

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Actually I think Trump was great for America. The veneer of the Republican party as a party with a different ideology towards moving America in the right direction for continual improvement, but with a different perspective as to the path to get there has been revealed as a farce. They had and have only one ideology and that is to enrich the rich and rig the system to get in power, stay in power is part of that process to achieve their ideology.


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Wife and I just got back and voted strait D. 

I think the responses on this thread give an exacting outline of our thoughts. It’s actually somewhat exhausting listing all of the reasons the Rs have failed our country. 

 Incidentally, it was crowded at the polling place and I was very surprised how many people were casually talking to each other about how they were voting D. There was only one guy in Army BDUs who was standing silently with his arms crossed, constantly shifting his weight and becoming so beet red behind his mask it looked like he was sunburned. 

there are some that just don’t care about his record. Hell, my wife knows a Trump guy who actually sold him beef for his steak co. scam and Trump still owes him over $250k which he will never see. If you’ve been personally ripped off by the person and still vote for them, it probably has way more to do with your mental health rather than who’s running

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2 hours ago, Michael Knight said:

Everyone saying 3rd party does understand it would require a complete revamp of our system of government right? Unless you're ok with 34% of the country controlling what the other 66% can do?

 

Given your use of his avatar:

 

Quote

 

MH: There's a lot of apathy today. People don't want to go out and vote.

HST: And why should they? I felt that way, and I didn't vote for Clinton in '96. I voted for Ralph Nader. There's a terrible danger in voting for the lesser of two evils because the parties can set it up that way.

MH: What do you think about the current two-party system here?

HST: I don't think it is a two-party system. And I think the reason Clinton was re-elected is that he understands the same thing. He took the crime issue away from the Republicans, and now he's taking the tax issue away. He's proposing a lower capital-gains tax than the Republicans already had. So now the Democrats are champions of big business. He's an extremely skilled fucking politician.
 


 

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/graffiti/hunter.htm

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8 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

States rights is just code for protecting oppression exercised by the state and fiscal conservatism is just an excuse to not invest in healthcare and education.  

 

7 hours ago, elfenix said:

4) everything about trumpism, though i think it less of a sudden shift in republican policy and more the culmination of what's been brewing since the 1960s.  he says (and does) the quiet part out loud, but the quiet part has been there for decades. 

 

 

3 hours ago, Bama Chick said:




It’s very easy to see the Republican Party’s progression to Trump - the through line from the Nixon Southern Strategy to Reagan launching his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi to Lee Atwater to Rush Limbaugh to Newt Gingrich and the Contract for America to Ken Starr to Karl Rove and Dick Cheney to Sarah Palin to the Tea Party to the Freedom Caucus to the assorted menagerie of right wing media grifters with Mitch McConnell lurking like a greasy Kentucky fuck turtle in the shadows laying the groundwork for destroying democratic norms is very easy to see.

All of those things have taken on us on a slow boat ride with the final destination of Trumplandia.

 

6 minutes ago, Doc Reeves said:

 Hell, my wife knows a Trump guy who actually sold him beef for his steak co. scam and Trump still owes him over $250k which he will never see. If you’ve been personally ripped off by the person and still vote for them, it probably has way more to do with your mental health rather than who’s running

  All these reasons are why I voted Straight D, as in take this big Black D Republicans for allowing that damn clown show in the Oval Office.

   I hope and pray Biden wins so I can watch all these Trumpkins walk around like zombies the next day after their king is dead. I am not taking the low road on this one. Fuck that! I am going to absolutely show my ass, because fuck their mother fuckin feelings yo. That's what I had to listen to for the last 4 years, so now you can bend your ass over and take it. Do not be surprised if you see a story about a moving van with the words "Heading to Washington to help him move" on the side, driving around Houston. Still contemplating doing it.

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The TX Supreme Court has shown very openly and recently they’ll just rubber stamp whatever Abbott says and tell the fringe of the party to fuck off. Every Supreme Court Libertarian candidate in the races are the only third party candidate, so I’ll begrudgingly give you guys half credit for not voting R, not that you care.

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5 minutes ago, StassneyHorn said:

The TX Supreme Court has shown very openly and recently they’ll just rubber stamp whatever Abbott says and tell the fringe of the party to fuck off. Every Supreme Court Libertarian candidate in the races are the only third party candidate, so I’ll begrudgingly give you guys half credit for not voting R, not that you care.

Back in the day when the dems controlled the state they completely controlled the Texas Supreme Court who did whatever their dem donors told them to do. 
 

Nowadays the republicans completely control the Texas Supreme Court so they do whatever their republican donors tell them to do.

If you don’t vote for the dem candidate for that Court you are supporting the status quo, which sucks. 
 

Unless you are involved in big money civil litigation, which is almost every voter, then 99 percent of the voters don’t care. Which is why it’s always been that way. 

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2 hours ago, Michael Knight said:

Everyone saying 3rd party does understand it would require a complete revamp of our system of government right? Unless you're ok with 34% of the country controlling what the other 66% can do?

34% controlling the country is a horrible number. There is absolutely no way that 34% of the American population can ride at a gallop, declaim Homer and Ovid in their original tongues, fence with any style (and of course I mean Epee or Saber, are we children, practicing Foil?) shoot while wearing a tweed jacket, or entertain the French Ambassadors Wife with a certain savoir foutre.

Nay, Sir, Nay! 3% would be too large a number, but I'll take it, to prevent the veritable herd that 34% would entail.

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I was a Reagan/Alex P. Keaton/kid of the 80’s Republican until May of 2016.  When Trump got the nomination, I immediately changed my registration to “no preference.”  Since I live in CA, I could safely vote third party in 2016 without contributing to the November 2016 debacle.  
 

I used to think that it didn’t really matter who we elected President, because our system was pretty robust and that checks and balances would keep the train chugging along.  The last four years have disabused me of that notion.  I didn’t often agree with Obama’s policy preferences, but I was never embarrassed to have him as my President.  I have regularly felt ashamed and embarrassed with Trump in office.  I’ve been completely disgusted by Rs who sold out for party over integrity.  I’ll never go back.  
 

Yesterday, for the first time, I voted D for all national and state races.  I voted mostly for D in local races and only voted for unaffiliated in local races after researching their online presence to verify no whiff of Trump support.  

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