“According to FEC filings, the Synapse Group has worked for Republican Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota, who ran for the GOP presidential nomination this cycle, as well as GOP candidates for Congress. Synapse has also been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for field and canvassing work by America PAC, the outside spending group started by allies of Musk that has spent millions of dollars this election cycle to boost Trump and oppose Democrats.”
With a tip of the keyboard to a certain someone who has blocked me and won’t see this (a shame really):
Since many in this community have a habit of resorting to personal attacks when responding to posts recently, I’ll say this: I support and respect everyone’s right to vote for who they want to. Just as I support the ability of anyone to point out to someone the consequences of their actions. ;)
I’m just posting this article that’s already available on a much bigger platform than Lemmy—I didn’t write it, just sharing it for discussion.
What this? Oh just Jill Stein enjoying dinner with known traitor Mike Flynn and the guy who wants Democracy destroyed and Trump in office— Pootie.
Hey, you never need to apologize for sharing news unless it’s fabricated - some people may downvote articles they disagree with but most of us just appreciate the folks that find stories to share.
Lol I love it. It’s almost a badge of honor to be blocked by that user. They seem to want to be aware of people countering their troll campaign so they can bait those people into saying something that will get them banned. So you really must have upset them to get blocked.
I did the math last night. On average they’ve posted or commented about every twenty minutes, assuming they sleep 8 hours a day, since they created their account a month ago. Posting at this rate, almost entirely in favor of third parties. Hmmm… I wonder why. They don’t give a shit about third parties; only about keeping Democrats from getting votes.
Oh, I saw the numbers! That was terrific that you pulled that together!
And yeah, their history shows that they’re either chronically and desperately online (sort of sad actually) or posting like they’re getting paid for it. I don’t envy the mods for having to deal with all the chaos that user causes, but the user is almost preternaturally good at threading the needle of the rules.
Luckily the election will be done in less than two months and then I have to guess we won’t seem them again for another four years ;)
Lol they just banned me from their super legitimate “socialism” community because they wanted to keep tabs on me but not be countered in public as much.
Yeah I agree with all of this. I do think it’s a shame though that the rules are all they will go on. There ought to be some algorithm for determining likelihood of trolling. This dude would definitely be way over the threshold of any such algorithm that was worth a damn.
With a tip of the keyboard to a certain someone who has blocked me and won’t see this (a shame really):
I can take a pretty educated guess as to who that is. You’re not wrong for posting this in the slightest.
These shenanigans are the exact type of bullshit that shows the U.S. is a failed democracy, and is in need of severe election reform. That goes for the form of financial reform, switching to more representative types of voting like approval voting, measures taken to make gerrymandering impossible, etc.
The irony in my discussions with that other user is that I wholeheartedly agree we need viable third parties. And to your point, we desperately need election reform. But their willful ignorance of the fact we need to put out the house fire before we start discussing changes to building codes is the kicker.
The sad thing is that all the current third party candidates are useful idiots and not viable alternatives. And with democracy literally on the line, there’s not any real option other than acting like an adult and casting a ballot for the only option that moves us forward. And then the day after Election Day, start doing the real work to fix this for every Election Day thereafter.
sounds like I had the exact same conversation with this person not long ago.
You’re being too generous by thinking they give two shits about third parties. That’s just the angle they’ve chosen for Lemmy.
If your second paragraph is implicating who I’m thinking since you’re basically using a direct quote of theirs, then I’m not at all surprised by them blocking you. They love to take quotes out of context or ignore half of a quote for their own benefit. I love that you’re directly calling them out. Good on you for actually knowing how our election system works.
Democrats should combat this by advocating for ranked choice or approval choice voting which is a fairer voting system and won’t allow for “spoilers”
They should.
They won’t because they benefit from the system too.
But they should.
That’s the thing about these viral talking points they’re making though - this can be used as a launch pad for approval choice voting if we all bring it up every time it’s mentioned in conversation. Using improv’s “Yes, and,” to further leftist causes. With enough peer pressure it’s possible to change public policy.
Yeah, election reform should be the first priority …once this election is done. And age limits for federal offices and judicial appointments. And federal standards for how federal elections are held. And roughly dozens of other things :)
Disagree, I think any Democrat worth voting for will bring this up. I think this is a “right now” topic which is a perfect rebuttal to their annoyance with third party candidates.
The problem is that some form of ranked choice voting is the right choice, but have you ever tried to explain RCV to anyone over the age of 50? I have had to in a professional setting, and it’s nearly impossible. It just makes them confused and angry. Unfortunately elections are not the greatest forum for explaining new ideas, and if Harris were to come out for it, she’d likely lose more votes than she’d get.
Can you imagine the headlines and tv news chyrons from certain sources if she even mentions “needed election reforms” right now? The whole race would become about how she’s trying to “break elections” and take over the country. We’ve got people right now seriously talking about Haitians eating pets based on absolutely nothing - and you think her talking about changing how we hold elections is going to help?!
However, during the honeymoon of a new administration and if we get enough seats in Congress, it might be possible to start the conversation that would lead us down that road. Especially if folks are willing to make it obvious that we’re going to hold their feet to the fire when it comes time for the mid-terms.
We’re not talking about something even within the purview of the President - we’re talking Congress and state legislatures. The only way to do it is to have a President using the bully pulpit and citizen groups with such overwhelming activity that the politicians know their jobs are on the line.
Democrats benefit from the current system. How many times to hear “Biden may not be great, but you have to vote for him to stop Trump?”
When you’re running against the “let’s be dictators” party lack of voter choice is an advantage. You don’t have to have any policy other than “we won’t be dictators” and voters can’t hold you accountable for anything without letting the dictator take power.
A major systematic change is never “right now” - progress at that scale is only made incrementally, through continuous work.
Well, as magic wands are in short supply, how do you propose we deal with the practicalities of getting it done? A bit flippant, but it’s the kind of issue that needs to be worked on all the time, not just every four years.
The last time that was introduced was 2021. They WERE. They currently are not.
They still are, the Wikipedia page just hasn’t been updated.
Edit: Actually, if you’d just look at the “Legislative History” section of the wiki article instead of reading just the top summary, you’d see it got reintroduced in 2024.
Putin’s Jizz Stein wants Nato disbanded, the US to give up their SC veto, and revoke weapons to help Ukraine defend itself while simultaneously forcing ‘peace’ (subjugation) negotiations with russia.
For those that don’t understand how the Electoral College + FPTP voting works, voting for her means helping donald become president due to the spoiler effect.
Just as a bit of context:
- Willy Wimmer is a German former Bundestag member, who is massivly into conspiracy theories and at this point far right
- Michael Flynn was one of the contacts between Trump and the Russian government. He plead guilty to that
- Cyril Svoboda was one of the guys who gave Voices of Europe an interview in which he supported Russias position on Ukraine. Voices of Europes interviews were paid and used as a way to finance the far right in Europe using Russian money. It is currently under EU sanctions. His former party has distanced themself from him, due to his ties to Russia.
- Emir Kusturica is a Serbia film director, who makes propaganda films and has far right pro Russian positions. His wife is well his wife.
The rest are obviously all Russian politcal figures and well Jill Stein. The photo was also taken at a Russia Today celebration. Just saying.
I’d also like to point out something I’ve heard way too much lately:
maybe democrats should run on some of the policies that are overwhelmingly popular instead so there’s no room on the left for someone to run.
I’ve heard probably a dozen variations of this statement by now.
The spoiler effect is the result of geometric distance between candidates, not the strength of policy positions. If anybody tells you that the democrats should just do X, unless X is switching the country over to approval/star/rcv, or some other system that is more representative, they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Here is an example using a randomly generated set of voters and candidates. The first election is just two candidates, the second election is identical, but with an extra 3rd candidate
Total voters: 765
The winner was favorable to 56% of voters
lachlan - 427
emma - 338
Total voters: 765
The winner was favorable to 44% of voters
emma - 338
lachlan - 312
omalley - 115
Any party, any candidate can fall victim to this, no matter how strong or inspirational they are. This is simply the result of everybody voting for the candidate closest to them.
A good electoral system will not have the results changed by an irrelevant candidate. But our current systems are vulnerable to this, and it is disastrous for the state of our country.
Seems kinda dirty that Jill Stein would even consider “doing business” with the GOP. I kinda figured as a third party leader she of all people would put her morals and beliefs above numbers.
