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[Special Moderation] Why I'm excited to vote Democratic this cycle


immamac

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I'm starting 2 of these threads and I'm going to moderate them pretty differently than all other threads, because I think it will give a forum to talk about the reasons why instead of just nonsensical rooting for it against. 

These aren't discussion threads, they are more observational. That's not to say some discussion won't happen in them, but this isn't a circle jerk rallying thread this is a thread to put your thoughts. So less back and forth, but building on other opinions/positions is fine. 

This is also not a thread for you to come in and tell everyone why they are stupid there are other threads for that.  

A few rules:

1) No clarifying questions that involve justification are allowed. (Example: I am pro life/choice cannot be clarified by "but what about a woman's rights" but can be clarified by "are there any exclusions to that position")

2) No "fact checking" or any other discussion around the stated reason why. This isn't a thread to pursuade or dissuade people, it's why you are excited. 

3) No negging of other candidates as a valid reason why. (Example: "I'm voting for xxx because I hate yyy") 

4) No tweets/social/regurgitated shit, all content must be your own thoughts. Summarizing or referencing specific legislation from .gov or 1st party citations is allowed. 

5) Posters who post more than 5 times per page will be removed from the discussion or have their comments removed. Exception being if you are just adding content or expanding on thought. 

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  • immamac pinned and unpinned this topic

The idea that anyone can be President will finally actually be true.  That doesn't matter as much to me anymore (I only want what is for the best), but it matters to children and what they see and to our future as a society.  This will no longer be a myth.  This transcends politics, and shows that there is opportunity for anyone here.  To me, that's important.  

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I'm not sure "excited" would be an accurate description.  I'm motivated but very anxious about the outcome at all levels.

I hate that our state judicial system is party-based and that the judiciary seems to reflect the parties on the culture wars.  Dallas County has become a plaintiff's personal injury mecca, while our state supreme court seems to be trying to emulate The Handmaid's Tale.  There seems to be no moderation or objectivity any more.

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15 minutes ago, dcbc said:

I could probably write a post, the length of which would have Lobo shaking his head.  But I'll try to keep this short.  I was raised in a republican household and always thought I was a republican.  I watched Fox News beginning in the late 90s.  But I always was pro choice and recall thinking the Clinton impeachment was a stupid waste of time.  I voted for Bush in 2000.  In about 2003, I was sitting in bed one morning before work, and I was watching Fox News.  This is around the time all the information about our "reasons" for invading Iraq were unraveling.  And all of a sudden, like a light turned on, I thought, I'm being manipulated.  I turned the TV off and never watched that dumb channel again.  The self-evaluation that followed was pretty concise.  Without going through the laundry list of what I believe, on the social side of things, i.e., pro choice, pro LGBTQ+, pro social programs, etc., I'm liberal.  On the economic side, I'm moderate and probably left-leaning.  What the hell was I thinking?  Anyway, for the last 20 years, I have voted for Democrats in national elections and because of the part of the state in which I live, have voted in republican primaries (because that's where the action is).  

Anyway, as time went on, particularly starting with the short-lived rise Sarah Palin and the genesis of the Tea Party, I really started to go from I don't identify with the republican party to Something seems really rotten and festering on that side of the aisle.  And that feeling has worsened over the years with Trump now leading the charge.  It probably always was there.  But it has a face and an odor now. 

On point, I'm enthusiastic about voting for a democrat this cycle because that seems like the only reasonable thing for me to do for the future of our country.  That hurts to type.  I'd like to see a healthy debate of issues resulting in reasonable, well-thought-out governance.  And maybe we can get back to that point.  Or maybe the future is just debate within the democratic party between election cycles.  But this year, when I voted in the primaries, where ordinarily I would ask for a republican ballot (that's where the action is locally), I just couldn't say it.  I didn't want to identify with what that word has become even for the sake of pragmatism.  So I pulled a D-ballot. 

 

I don't know if I understand this thread.  So if I missed the point, please nuke this post, which despite my best intentions, is definitely TLDR.

 

edit to add, I may have violated Rule 3.  I'll leave it up just in case.  But it's been a journey, which doesn't make sense without considering the other side.

Ditto. Probably a lot of guys in our age bracket like this.

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I’m mostly pro life, wish we could require birth control in high school (if there was a male equivalent of the shot or pills), pro lgbtq, want to disarm cops, don’t want to take all guns from citizens but would be all for starting with banning anything that is semiautomatic and/or fits in a pocket, I want to clean things up but think global warming gets used to shuffle money to people claiming doom, i like smaller government but acknowledge they have to step in, and I wish we’d stop gaslighting people and trying to stir up hate and violence online

Dems don’t check all the boxes for me, historically I’ve been conservative / republican, but not for the last 8 years.  Too much violence and hate. I’m also excited about the a woman being president not just a mythical possibility. I want my young daughter to see that. 

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Because when I turn on the tv I want my daughter and son to be able to see what a real leader looks like and not scum who denigrate everyone and everything.

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There are many reasons, but my top reason is certainly one coming from my white male position of privilege that isn't existential in nature.

 

Freedom of thought in the form of the advancement of higher education versus the denigration of our universities and those that attempt to advance the knowledge and understanding of all things.

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It’s simple, defeating the Trump cult and the GQP’s social agenda outweigh everything else right now. I still believe in respect, country over party, helping your neighbor, etc and believe all of that outweighs any of my own self interests. 

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I'm excited to vote this year because...

 

1. I prefer we keep our democracy.

2. I prefer a woman have control over her own body

3. In regards to social security, Medicare, and our deficit, I prefer we tax the ultra wealthy to help keep those programs afloat/control the deficit rather than cut benefits. (Although managing the deficit will require both increasing taxes and cutting spending)

4. I prefer to help the Republicans see they need to change their platform and ideology in order to have any hopes of winning another election rather than having trump win and reinforce their current platform of overt fascism. I prefer a 2 party system where I have to put thought into who I will vote for in any given election. 

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No jokes allowed in here either apparently, jeez Imma.

I'm excited to vote against fascism.  My mom (lifelong Dem) asked me how I was going to vote after Joe stepped down.  I said my vote has not changed.  I'm voting against fascism.

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Other posters have already spoken to the policies, freedoms and protections the democratic ticket represents. I'd just add that it's a simple matter of enthusiastically voting for adults who wish to do the difficult, tedious, day in and day out work of governing. 

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1. We have a younger, fresher candidate than we’ve had the past two election cycles.

2. More importantly, we have a greater threat to our democracy, individual freedoms, and collective American welfare, and a louder voice of racism, fascism, and idiocy that I’ve seen in my lifetime and that I thought was not possible when I switched to the Democratic Party around 2000.

 

 

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Posted (edited)

"The past decade has been really bad for the health of the church and caused incredible damage to any sense of its moral standing. It’s hard to preach the Gospel when “Christian” rightly becomes synonymous with wickedness."

 

#Truth

The evangelical church has destroyed it's witness.  It has pushed away members and many who would be part of their community.

They made their bed and are happy lying in it 

Edited by texasdago
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Posted (edited)

I guess a little excited to usher in something at least resembling generational change with Harris. Certainly the first female president would be a milestone we'd all remember.

In a vacuum I'm pretty ambivalent toward Harris. She's never really done much to differentiate herself from Generic Democrat and the prosecutorial background doesn't do much for me. That's a pretty soft impression though, if she's able to clearly articulate a vision/platform there's certainly room for her to grow on me. And I'll admit, the absolute meltdown from MAGA with her assuming the Democratic nomination is worth something in its own right.

In general, less excited, more motivated as many have implied; and for all the same reasons. The paragraph above is more than good enough in this case.

Edited by gmr548
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Posted (edited)
On 7/26/2024 at 8:18 AM, immamac said:

I'm starting 2 of these threads and I'm going to moderate them pretty differently than all other threads, because I think it will give a forum to talk about the reasons why instead of just nonsensical rooting for it against. 

 

It's DEMOCRATIC. C'mon. You're either voting Democratic, or for the Democrats. 

edit: Explanation: Calling it the "Democrat" party is an intentional insult   Why Republicans say “Democrat Party”: The history of an insult. (slate.com)

 

Edited by Chopper
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Posted (edited)

I never vote straight ticket and never will.  IMO, each of us should take that approach, regardless of how zealous we are, party-wise.  It forces us to review each candidate, each issue, etc.  For that matter, I never vote for someone who is running unopposed.  Force that guy to show up and vote for himself :)

I first voted in a presidential election in 1988, selecting GHWB.  Was he perfect?  No, but he was superior to the other options.  After that, I took the “since I live in Texas, I am going to vote for the least crazy 3rd party for president” approach.  In some cases, it was difficult to find, but Texas was going “R” despite my selection.  I’ll spare everyone the duopoly concerns that motivated those choices, but we need choices.

The Tea Party overtaking the R’s led to the likes of Abbott, Cruz, Paxton, Patrick, etc.  These are a far cry from the R’s we all grew up with - “moderation” seemed gone.   They ran off moderate Rs like Dewhurst, Strauss, etc.  Were they perfect?  No!  But they had the capacity to listen and compromise.

Politics today has evolved into a perceived zero-sum game of bitter rivals - worse than sports rivalries.  And a cult of personality like Trump is the worst catalyst for something like this.  His “drain the swamp” crap violates the basic tenets of Chesterton’s fence: know why the fence is there before you remove it.  Sure, the spoils system is real, but understand the “how, what, and why” before declaring you are going to burn it to the ground.

In 2020, I voted Biden.  Trump is a risk to freedom.  He is and will always be an autocratic megalomaniac.  
In 2024, I will vote Harris - Trump remains a risk to freedom.  For every other position, I will assess.

 

EDIT - that all said, I skipped over the obvious that Trump is a lying, cheating, woman-hating, white supremicist turd.

 

Edited by boilerhorn
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  • immamac changed the title to [Special Moderation] Why I'm excited to vote Democratic this cycle

My values and beliefs fall more in line with the Democratic agenda, and also because… morals. Excuse the rest in bullet points, engineer and all.

  1. I believe climate change is real and we need to fix this shit. Renewable or nuclear energy is the future - we can’t keep burning fossil fuels.
     
  2. I believe in equal rights for men and women. There was a clip where Kamala (?) was asking a Republic lawmaker if there were any specific laws targeted towards men. He couldn’t come up with any. So why should there be laws that only apply to women?
     
  3. I believe in fiscal responsibility. The national debt ballooned under Republican administrations. Not that the Democratic Party has done much better in terms of spending less, but they invest in people and infrastructure, and give tax breaks to corporations. Cutting corporate taxes from 35% to 21% was a travesty.
     
  4. I believe character matters. The Republican Party under Trump have exposed themselves to be morally bankrupt. Voting out the main sources of this corruption will hopefully bring the nation back towards the moderates where I firmly sit.
     
  5. I’m a first generation immigrant. I came legally. But I also believe the illegal immigrants should have an opportunity to become US citizens if they can prove to be contributing members of society.
     
  6. I believe in healthcare for all. Obama care isn’t perfect, but more people are insured than before. I believe a single-payer insurer will streamline and lower the cost of healthcare.

I admit to not being the most democratic of voters I believe the government should step in at times to course correct against immorality and in the interest of people and growth. I admire Singapore a LOT. It’s not the most democratic, but the policies of the government have made it one of the most admired countries in the world. I know it’s a slippery slope where the government can go rogue, but since it became a republic almost 60 years ago, it has proven that it’s possible to balance peoples’ freedoms and the of the good country.

 

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On 7/27/2024 at 10:48 AM, MissingInAction said:

Because I love women. I really do, and nothing infuriates me more than seeing them being treated less than human. 

It's just so fucking wrong at every level of humanity.

These limp dicked cocksuckers are terrified of anything which isn't what they've been brainwashed to think.

That's why.

This. This right here. This is a really good post, and I concur.

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I'll use the word excited since that are the rules for this thread, but as a father of two fabulous young women, we are way past the point of excitement and hope for a better future. This is about saving their rights, along with our constitutional republic for them and their upcoming families from the Trump cultists. 

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I'm a liberal progressive and democrats are the closest electable candidates this country provides. Even though I wish for a more radical approach, I understand (and somewhat appreciate) that our government is designed to change course slowly. 

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On 7/27/2024 at 10:48 AM, MissingInAction said:

Because I love women. I really do, and nothing infuriates me more than seeing them being treated less than human. 

It's just so fucking wrong at every level of humanity.

These limp dicked cocksuckers are terrified of anything which isn't what they've been brainwashed to think.

That's why.

Yep. My life has been shaped by strong, loving, tough, smart, fierce women.  From my great grandmother right down the line to my grandmothers, my mother and now my wife.  I'm doing my best to raise one that they would like and be proud of. 

I could never vote for a party that went against everything they taught me.

So I won't.

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chatgpt answer for voting D

"Voters should be excited to vote Democrat in the upcoming election because the party is championing progressive policies aimed at creating a more equitable and sustainable future. Democrats are focused on expanding access to affordable healthcare, tackling climate change through innovative green technologies, and ensuring a fair economy where everyone has a chance to thrive. Their platform emphasizes social justice, inclusivity, and investing in education and infrastructure to build a stronger, more resilient nation. Voting Democrat offers a chance to support a vision of progress and positive change."

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  • 3 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

I believe in

  • Not allowing foreign dictators to influence our policies
  • Political discourse should be problem solving based instead of fear mongering
  • Corporate welfare needs to be reined in and the "me, me, me" tax cheat is not going to do it
  • Strong Public education
  • protecting children from gun violence
  • health care as a civil right and reproductive care to protect the lives of mothers
  • we need immigration reform more than we need a wall
  • narcissists make the worst leaders
  • Calling those who died on D-day suckers and losers is unforgivable
  • the oath I took in my 20s to protect the laws and Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

And my avatar lets you know what I think about fascists.

Edited by TexasEd
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So, they list of reasons why I vote blue has already handle by numerous other posters.  

But why I am excited, specifically, for this cycle?

Over the last ten years, the far right had been gaining strength across the Western world.  While the names of the parties and politicians have been different, the world has become more isolationist, more anti-immigrant, and more racist.  Whether it is Farage, Le Penn, or Trump, there seems to be a growing wave of hatred and dipshittery.  It's been scary and depressing.  

Then Biden debated on June 27th.  Fuck. I caught maybe three seconds of it scrolling past, but I knew the story.  A second Trump presidency was just assumed after that.

Then, later that week I watched John Oliver's piece on the upcoming UK election.  Labor was going to crush the Tories after 14 years.  Watching Oliver's elation after 14 years of stupid, shitty, ridiculous bullshit, gave me some sense that we could survive a second Trump presidency. On the 4th of July, it Conservative Party was crushed on a massive scale. Granted, the Conservative Party isn't Farage's Reform Party, and you could read that election as the Tories losing votes to Reform.  But, there was more to it that.  There was the need to actually have the government be competent.  There was the realization that the isolationism of Brexit was economic idiocy. 

Then the French were up to bat on July 7th .  Le Penn's National Rally Party had done well enough in the first round of voting that it looked like they were going to get plurality, if not the out-right majority.  But the moderates and the leftists said fuck that, teamed up, actually had some candidates drop out to avoid the far right from winning.  In the end, the right wing ended up in third and the left wing coalition received the most votes.  Just an insane result.  Granted, it's not all great with Rally being in that position after the first round.  But, the election demonstrated that 1) moderates and leftwing are more concerned about the right wing than each other, 2) just a huge number of people will vote when facing the prospect of the far right government.  

So, now it's our turn.  And I am excited that America will do its job.  I see similarities in the French election - Harris is openly courting moderates from the Republican Party.  Despite some controversial policies with Israel and the border, the coalition is holding on the left. It looks like it will be high turnout election.  Trump and MAGA are just too disgusting for most people who are paying attention.  At the very least, I think we will keep Trump out.  But I am excited by the prospect of more of a UK landslide that sends a clear message that MAGA is just not viable. I hopeful that this phase in our global politics is coming to a close. 

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