American election

April 2024 Forums General discussion American election

Viewing 15 posts - 91 through 105 (of 626 total)
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  • #208610
    ALB
    Keymaster

    I bet you didn’t know this either. I didn’t till a couple of hours ago. Not all members of the Electoral College are mandated to vote for the candidate who comes first in their state. Seven didn’t last time, in 2016, including one who voted for Bernie Sanders:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_electors_in_the_2016_United_States_presidential_election

    #208611
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    You lost your bet. I was aware of it.

    Can the Electoral College be subverted by “faithless electors”?

    #208615
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Ok I concede but the more you learn about the American political system the more and more undemocratic it is revealed to be.

    ”Faithless electors”, what next !

     

    #208616
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    What next is that as i have written the purpose of the American constitution was originally designed to keep power away from the people and in the hands of the Founding Father’s class.

    https://www.worldsocialism.org/wsm/2020/10/12/time-for-a-new-revolution/

    We have described the Bolshevik Revolution as a coup and so was the American Revolution.

    #208618
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Michael Albert of Parecon presents the Biden lesser evil argument, which now seems to coalescing around the case that fighting for reforms will be easier under Biden than Trump.

    Crunch Time

    #208629
    Roberto
    Participant

    I live in the United States and I have never voted for the two capitalist parties. For me, here we do not have a true bourgeois democracy because the electoral colleges are a mockery of the popular vote.

    For Trump and Bide they are instruments of the same capitalist class but for me Trump is the evil menis bad.

     

     

    #208636
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    AOC warns the Democratic Party of the consequences if it doesn’t follow through….which i’m confident it won’t

    “We’re not good enough right now.” The country is “still in a lot of trouble” even if Trump is sent packing in January. If “people’s lives don’t actually feel different” under a Biden administration, then “we’re done,” she says before asking, “You know how many Trumps there are in waiting?”

    “The main reason why I feel comfortable saying that the ACA has failed is because it failed me and it failed everyone that I worked with in a restaurant,” she says bluntly.  “You try buying insurance off Obamacare,” challenges Ocasio-Cortez. Once a waitress and bartender, she did buy it, paying $200 a month for what she sardonically calls the “privilege” of an $8,000 deductible.

    “The Democratic party has been—and this dates back to the Obama administration—extremely weak on developing just immigration policy because we’re scared of our own shadow,” she says.

    https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/28/warning-many-trumps-waiting-ocasio-cortez-says-democrats-have-be-better

    #208651
    ALB
    Keymaster

    There is an article in the Fall 2020 of the WSP of the US journal the World Socialist, expressing a member’s personal view, that even though Biden is the lesser evil (the author writes that he “clearly” is) that is not necessarily a reason for voting for him (because he will fail to reform capitalism as he promises and that this will lead to a backlash against reformism and a revival of the greater evil). It’s an argument. He ends the article:

    “As for the choice between not voting, casting an invalid ballot, and tactical voting for Biden in order to oust Trump, let our fellow workers think things through and decide for themselves. They can manage without our advice. ”

    Of course this will happen anyway whatever we say. Actually, the indications are that workers have begun to vote to kick Trump out and that this is likely to happen.

     

     

    #208654
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Biden better win otherwise i have to change the intro to a new article i have already written,

    #208655
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Michael Albert of Parecon presents the Biden lesser evil argument, which now seems to coalescing around the case that fighting for reforms will be easier under Biden than Trump.”

    Just read his article. The trouble with his argument is that it could apply not just to this election but to any election as you could always argue that you’ve got a better chance to get reforms under one candidate than under the other. It might lead to some counter-instinctive advice e.g. in England to vote Tory as the unions tend to pull their punches when there’s a Labour government !

    #208709
    ALB
    Keymaster

    More on how and why the far left, this time the Maoists and Stalinists, are saying  Vote for Biden:

    https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/aug/3/revolutionary-communist-party-leader-backs-biden/

    A word of caution. The Washington Times is owned by the Moonies and is supporting Trump. They obviously want to say that Biden is  being supported by the “Cahmunnists”. That explains why they’ve published this but that doesn’t mean that what they report is untrue.

    #208712
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    A more balanced view, reflecting some of our own concerns about the lesser evil idea.

    “Whatever the lesser evil outcome of the ruling class owned and controlled exercise of the present moment, we need immediate action on the part of the people being bled physically, mentally and spiritually for fictional nonsense we are always fed, never more than during this latest outburst of truly fake democracy.”

    Calling this “our Democracy” is like Slaves referring to “our Plantation”

    #208715
    LeonTrotsky
    Participant

    Americans will wake up on the morning of November 4 in dismay when they are told by Trump that he has won the election or that the election results are null and void as a result of the meddling of democrats.  This is the beginning of the fascist coup, the over all GOP plan which was 4 years in the making. Trump will be in the WH for four more years unless people take to the streets en mass and shut down the economy completely.  The coup leaders and their financiers and accomplices will need to be rounded up and charged with sedition and treason.

    #208719
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Don’t worry. It’s not going to happen. This is fantasy politics. Trump will be removed, if that’s what you want, if enough people vote for his main opponent, as seems to be what is happening with millions of people having already voted for this.

    And I don’t believe that the leaders of the Republican Party have been plotting a fascist coup for the past four years. They are more likely to having been plotting how to dump Trump as his antics have cost them business support and may lose them control of the Senate.

    #208725
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    There are many aspect of American political scene to focus upon that appear very different from normality, LT. I think you and i can at least agree upon that. One thing is the highly polarised nature of politics in America.

    Trump has moved the average Republican voter further to the right. He has been a successful populist politician who has managed to capture the hearts and minds of the usual Republican supporter. Recall the comments and attitude of the Republican establishment during 2015 nomination race and how to maintain their own support Republican leadership now have to appear to be Trumpeteers, at least publicly.

    That popular base for Trump, which could be as high as 40% of Americans will not be going away when Trump is defeated and that is where your fears may be valid. Their right-wing politics require an outlet.

    After Bush we had the Tea Party against Obama. Later the Bundys. How will it now manifest against Biden, i am not  sure, but the extremist militia element of Anti-Democratic Party has strengthened.

    Will it transform into political terrorism? I think there will be some such atrocities. Either it will alienate the other Republicans as aberrant and abhorrent acts or it will be acceptable and continue with their passive approval. I hope the former and not the latter and i think it will be so.

    As for the radical Democrats, they will fade away as did the mass anti-war movement did once  Obama took over.

    BLM  will persist but will be weakened by the tokenistic gesture politics of identity politics and as cosmetic reforms such as statue removal etc. become the norm. Perhaps, however, there will still be much more grass-roots resistance and be emboldened so that Biden has to repress it or at least he will remain silent as city and state authorities defang any potent protests.

    LT, what concerns us here as our most important priority is to nurture our own ideas and grow them. Your suggestions on how to do that would be most welcome since changing American “exceptionalism” is a great challenge for anyone. We need to first acquire an audience before we can even commence with persuading them

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