news 2024 US Election Megathread 🇺🇸🏛️

[Kassi]

47 minutes ago, GraceRandolph said:

What if I prefer Green?

Scene: Strip away all of today's politics and imagine you're a citizen of Ancient Greece. The city square is buzzing with the energy of democracy in action.

 

Voting Mechanics: Every citizen receives one rock to cast a vote for a candidate of their choice. In the center of the square, there are three urns representing three different political parties: two large urns for the major parties, colored blue and red, and a noticeably smaller green urn for the third, minor party. The urns were purchased using funds raised by each party.

 

Candidates:

• Major Party Candidates:
  • The first urn, red, belongs to a candidate who promises extensive military protection and trade expansion.
  • The second, blue, belongs to a candidate focused on strengthening local agriculture and feeding the poor, widowed, and orphaned.
• Minor Party Candidate:
  • The third urn, green, is for a candidate who advocates for policies that neither major party supports, progressive reforms like rights for non-citizens and the abolition of outdated, but valued traditions.

Results:

 

As citizens come forward, they place their rocks into the urns. The blue and red urns quickly fill up, reflecting the broad support for the major parties who have deeply entrenched their values and promises in the minds of most citizens. The green urn receives far fewer rocks, showcasing the limited support for the third party.

 

Well before the final rock is cast, it's clear that the race will be decided between the blue and red candidates. In fact, this has happened every year since the founding of the city-state.  

 

Finally, the counting reveals that the red candidate has won by a narrow margin—a margin small enough that the green voters could have decisively influenced the outcome had they chosen a viable candidate. The result frustrates both blue and green supporters, who are much closer identified in their platforms — particularly as the red candidate begins to implement policies focusing exclusively on issues important to their base, ignoring the concerns of and damage to the other groups.

 

[Communion]

5 minutes ago, Kassi said:

Scene: Strip away all of today's politics and imagine you're a citizen of Ancient Greece. The city square is buzzing with the energy of democracy in action.

 

Voting Mechanics: Every citizen receives one rock to cast a vote for a candidate of their choice. In the center of the square, there are three urns representing three different political parties: two large urns for the major parties, colored blue and red, and a noticeably smaller green urn for the third, minor party. The urns were purchased using funds raised by each party.

 

Candidates:

• Major Party Candidates:
  • The first urn, red, belongs to a candidate who promises extensive military protection and trade expansion.
  • The second, blue, belongs to a candidate focused on strengthening local agriculture and feeding the poor, widowed, and orphaned.
• Minor Party Candidate:
  • The third urn, green, is for a candidate who advocates for policies that neither major party supports, progressive reforms like rights for non-citizens and the abolition of outdated, but valued traditions.

Results:

 

As citizens come forward, they place their rocks into the urns. The blue and red urns quickly fill up, reflecting the broad support for the major parties who have deeply entrenched their values and promises in the minds of most citizens. The green urn receives far fewer rocks, showcasing the limited support for the third party.

 

Well before the final rock is cast, it's clear that the race will be decided between the blue and red candidates. In fact, this has happened every year since the founding of the city-state.  

 

Finally, the counting reveals that the red candidate has won by a narrow margin—a margin small enough that the green voters could have decisively influenced the outcome had they chosen a viable candidate. The result frustrates both blue and green supporters, who are much closer identified in their platforms — particularly as the red candidate begins to implement policies focusing exclusively on issues important to their base, ignoring the concerns of and damage to the other groups.

 

[spree]

2 hours ago, Kassi said:

Scene: Strip away all of today's politics and imagine you're a citizen of Ancient Greece. The city square is buzzing with the energy of democracy in action.

 

Voting Mechanics: Every citizen receives one rock to cast a vote for a candidate of their choice. In the center of the square, there are three urns representing three different political parties: two large urns for the major parties, colored blue and red, and a noticeably smaller green urn for the third, minor party. The urns were purchased using funds raised by each party.

 

Candidates:

• Major Party Candidates:
  • The first urn, red, belongs to a candidate who promises extensive military protection and trade expansion.
  • The second, blue, belongs to a candidate focused on strengthening local agriculture and feeding the poor, widowed, and orphaned.
• Minor Party Candidate:
  • The third urn, green, is for a candidate who advocates for policies that neither major party supports, progressive reforms like rights for non-citizens and the abolition of outdated, but valued traditions.

Results:

 

As citizens come forward, they place their rocks into the urns. The blue and red urns quickly fill up, reflecting the broad support for the major parties who have deeply entrenched their values and promises in the minds of most citizens. The green urn receives far fewer rocks, showcasing the limited support for the third party.

 

Well before the final rock is cast, it's clear that the race will be decided between the blue and red candidates. In fact, this has happened every year since the founding of the city-state.  

 

Finally, the counting reveals that the red candidate has won by a narrow margin—a margin small enough that the green voters could have decisively influenced the outcome had they chosen a viable candidate. The result frustrates both blue and green supporters, who are much closer identified in their platforms — particularly as the red candidate begins to implement policies focusing exclusively on issues important to their base, ignoring the concerns of and damage to the other groups.

 

exactly.  All these 3rd party candidate voters thinking they won't have blood on their hands if they won't vote for the lesser of two evils will ultimately gets all the fingers pointed at them anyways.

[GraceRandolph]

47 minutes ago, spree said:

exactly.  All these 3rd party candidate voters thinking they won't have blood on their hands if they won't vote for the lesser of two evils will ultimately gets all the fingers pointed at them anyways.

So do you think Biden 2020 voters have the blood of the thousands of Palestinians on their hands as well?

[GraceRandolph]

The way y'all have said Biden would lose white suburban moms if he stood up to Netanyahu, but now he's losing that demo too.  

[GraceRandolph]

[GhostBox]

[GhostBox]

 

[Espresso]

 

[Espresso]

 

[Espresso]

 

[ClashAndBurn]

[Kassi]

12 hours ago, Communion said:

The Greek city-state finds itself at a crossroads, influenced by distant wars raging between Middle Eastern players such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Arabians, and Egyptians. These conflicts threaten to spill over, pulling the Greeks into costly and distant military engagements. Citizens gather to determine their nation's stance in the complex international scenario.

 

Two major factions, supporters of the blue and red candidates, dominate the debate. Yet, despite differing views, the prevailing consensus across the population is to:

1. Continue trade with their city-state's traditional ally.
2. Work with the Egyptians and Arabians, who are less inclined to the violence, to broker a peace deal between the Assyrians and Babylonians.

A solitary figure in green, Grace of Randolph, a philosopher and self-proclaimed peace advocate, proposes a radical approach—direct military intervention to end the ongoing, decades-long war, not between the Greeks and another state, but between the Assyrians and Babylonians.

 

This intervention includes forcing them to live amongst each other in a single, secular, pluralistic state that neither side has consented to wanting.

 

 

His proposal is met with skepticism. The crowd, dressed predominantly in blue and red, is hesitant to embrace a policy that could entangle their city in complex foreign affairs. The idea of switching from a safe trade relationship to an active peace-keeping role in a conflict driven by deep religious and ethnic convictions is daunting.

[Kassi]

3 minutes ago, ClashAndBurn said:

This was going to happen regardless, due to hyper-polarization and social media. 

 

Breaking Points is a good example. Saagar knocks Biden from the right and Krystal from the left. Regardless of the positions Biden takes, it's framed as all-around and perpetually bad.

[ClashAndBurn]

1 minute ago, Kassi said:

This was going to happen regardless, due to hyper-polarization and social media. 

 

Breaking Points is a good example. Saagar knocks Biden from the right and Krystal from the left. Regardless of the positions Biden takes, it's framed as all-around and perpetually bad.

Seems like a bunch of excuse-making for Joe Biden being the least popular president we've had since Herbert Hoover

 

Which begs the question as to why Biden is regarded worse than the guy who had already literally botched a pandemic response resulting in the needless deaths of thousands of people.

[Kassi]

The easiest way to assess the media's impact on politics, and how I came to discover that propaganda is everything, is to observe how the public views Pelosi. 

 

Despite her being pro-LGBT, pro woman, raising the minimum wage, expanding access to healthcare, financially bailing out the country not once, but twice, and standing up to Trump... she's seen as the devil on both the right and the left. 

 

The right hates her because she's effective at countering their agenda. And the left hates her because she's not effective enough at implementing ALL of their agenda.

[Kassi]

2 minutes ago, ClashAndBurn said:

Which begs the question as to why Biden is regarded worse than the guy who had already literally botched a pandemic response resulting in the needless deaths of thousands of people.

Trump has the entire conservative news media ecosystem running interference on his behalf.

 

Same reason no Democratic president could survive this level of scandal/criminality. The left would have dumped them a long time ago like they did Cuomo and Frank. The standards are different. 

[ClashAndBurn]

11 minutes ago, Kassi said:

Trump has the entire conservative news media ecosystem running interference on his behalf.

 

Same reason no Democratic president could survive this level of scandal/criminality. The left would have dumped them a long time ago like they did Cuomo and Frank. The standards are different. 

 

 

Joe Biden is eroding the US global standing in real time and here you are talking about how his poor approval rating is only due to negative partisanship. He is FULLY FUNDING an ethnic cleansing and has given the green light for Israel to initiate the next Srebrenica with their imminent invasion of Rafah.

[Kassi]

54 minutes ago, ClashAndBurn said:

 

 

Joe Biden is eroding the US global standing in real time and here you are talking about how his poor approval rating is only due to negative partisanship. He is FULLY FUNDING an ethnic cleansing and has given the green light for Israel to initiate the next Srebrenica with their imminent invasion of Rafah.

What you've provided is proof positive that propaganda is the name of the game.

 

 

 

In reality, Israel is funding its own ethnic cleansing and has never needed the green light from anybody to initiate anything. If not, then produce one example in their history where that's ever been the case. Even during the Suez Crisis of 1956 it took the US threatening economic sanctions, Britain backing out of the operation, and Russia threatening military intervention to shake down Israel... and they weren't even 10 years old then. Imagine now.

 

US aid is roughly 15% of Israel's military budget, with focus on specific defenses like the Iron Dome. Along with staving off Hamas rockets, which kept Gaza safe for a long time, it has bought us some influence — all of which Biden is leveraging now to deescalate as a third party to the conflict. Outside of that aid, their military still exists without us, they still have a civilian military population, and they still hold to their maxim of "never again". They're the type to, as the kids say, "crash out" before they let Israel fall. That's the mentality Biden is up against, as Begin warned him back in the 80s.

 

Quote

Begin, in his own telling, warned the young Delaware senator that "if at any time you demand of us to yield on a principle in which we believe, while threatening to cut aid, we will not abandon the principle in which we believe."

 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/biden-a-longtime-friend-israel-critic-of-settlements-may-be-at-odds-over-iran/

 

[Vroom Vroom]

Approval ratings are at an all time low for every federal branch of the US government 

 

Congress: 13%
Supreme Court: 36% 

President: 39% 

 

Big picture, people are dissatisfied by the federal government in general. Biden is apart of the problem, he is a career politician and has been a member of the federal government his whole life. Biden won in 2020 because people thought Trump was the source of dissatisfaction, but people quickly learned it was an institutional issue after Biden was elected. 
 

Biden is unable to meet the moment to restructure the federal government. He never ran on it, he just ran on not being as corrupt as Trump. Biden's reelection campaign is focused on keeping the status quo, while Trump is promising a massive federal government overhaul with Project 25. People are desperate for massive change and may overlook Trump's past failures and corruption to get it 

 

So yes and no. Biden is not fully responsible for his current approval rating, but at the end of the day it his name on the polls 

[ClashAndBurn]

35 minutes ago, Kassi said:

What you've provided is proof positive that propaganda is the name of the game.

 

 

 

In reality, Israel is funding its own ethnic cleansing and has never needed the green light from anybody to initiate anything. If not, then produce one example in their history where that's ever been the case. Even during the Suez Crisis of 1956 it took the US threatening economic sanctions, Britain backing out of the operation, and Russia threatening military intervention to shake down Israel... and they weren't even 10 years old then. Imagine now.

 

US aid is roughly 15% of Israel's military budget, with focus on specific defenses like the Iron Dome. Along with staving off Hamas rockets, which kept Gaza safe for a long time, it has bought us some influence — all of which Biden is leveraging now to deescalate as a third party to the conflict. Outside of that aid, their military still exists without us, they still have a civilian military population, and they still hold to their maxim of "never again". They're the type to, as the kids say, "crash out" before they let Israel fall. That's the mentality Biden is up against, as Begin warned him back in the 80s.

 

 

Biden is literally pledging to intervene if the ICC issues warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu over his war crimes. He is hardly a "third party" so much as he is an active participant and cheerleader. Please.  

Edited April 30 by ClashAndBurn

[GhostBox]

Biden never recovered approval wise ever since he withdrew from Afghanistan. A decision which was one of his best things he has done in his term. 
 

he had a honeymoon period at first but as soon as he had to make his first big policy shift it didn't last. 
 

sure his approval bounced up every now and then when he got big policy accomplishments passed and signed into law. But it wasn't anything that lasted approval wise. 
 

Luckily for Biden he's running against an even more flawed candidate and this race is tied. If the gop were smart and they picked someone else they wouldve 100% won this election. 

[Kassi]

50 minutes ago, Vroom Vroom said:

Biden's reelection campaign is focused on keeping the status quo, while Trump is promising a massive federal government overhaul with Project 25. People are desperate for massive change and may overlook Trump's past failures and corruption to get it 

And then they'll flip back from Trump when that change doesn't amount to anything or inevitably results in negative outcomes.  

 

That's the funny thing about American politics. The founders established the US government in such a way that no one single faction could take over the entire thing. So gridlock is actually a feature, not a bug.

 

People don't realize that the key to real, massive change is persuading their neighbors to vote the same way. This can occur via grassroots propaganda (Tik Tok) or top down propaganda (news media). But if the population is always split 50/50 cause no one's incentivized to tell the truth, then nothing will change. That's why leftists "strategy" is as equally perplexing as it is infuriating.

 

For example, what is the end goal of lying about Biden's attempt to cancel student loan debt? Why not point to the conservative Supreme Court who actually blocked it and empower people to elect a Democratic President who could replace not one... but potentially 4 judges? The power is RIGHT there for the taking. What an incredible self-own to dismiss such an easy messaging opportunity.

 

 

Even worse is when leftists try to pin the Supreme Court's Roe decision on Biden "It happened while Biden was in office!". Umm... I get that Fox News has to lie cause they believe in the complete opposite reality, but are leftists... okay? Do they want voters to be confused as to who's against abortion rights? 

[GhostBox]

People who think trumps going to lower the price of things are joking themselves. I mean he's been telling us he's actually going to raise them. 💀

 

[Kassi]

28 minutes ago, ClashAndBurn said:

Biden is literally pledging to intervene if the ICC issues warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu over his war crimes. He is hardly a "third party" so much as he is an active participant and cheerleader. Please.  

Post the quote.