The UK is a small country that doesn’t have nearly the geopolitical sway that the US does. If the UK withdraws to itself, that sucks for Britons but the rest of the world will carry on. If the US withdraws to itself, it will suck for the rest of the world but the Americans will carry on.

I want to be clear here that this is dangerous messaging. While any individual vote likely has little effect on the outcome of an election, it’s people’s collective vote that does ultimately decide the outcome. And when the electorate is disengaged, disinterested, and apathetic, that is the environment in which fascism and authoritarianism thrives. Voting is not and should not be the end of a citizen’s political participation, but it is still vitally important. Voting should only be the foundation of citizen political participation. It’s also important to campaign, to discuss important political issues with others, and to protest and take direct action against the injustice of the political class. But if you don’t vote and spread the idea that voting is meaningless, your efforts will change nothing.

This line in particular comes a lot of young people, and it is an absolutely understandable and reasonable conclusion for them to come from seeing as they are the most politically neglected group, and politicians almost never pay more than lip service to the concerns of the young. Youth turnout in elections is historically rubbish, so why would any rational politician pay heed to the demands of a voting bloc that won’t influence the outcome of an election? Politicians who pander to youth voters will lose to politicians who pander to old voters simply because youth voters will stay home while old voters will show up at the polls and vote their guy into office.

It costs almost nothing to vote and to encourage others to vote as well. So do it. It is irresponsible to spread the idea that voting is meaningless without also attaching the context that if you don’t vote, you have no power at all.

This is a proceeding in federal court, but the president’s pardon power doesn’t extend to civil cases anyway. Or at least until the Supreme Court rules that it does.

European and American banks won’t lend a single penny to Trump. He’s a notorious deadbeat who never pays what he owes. But Russian banks will happily lend him as much money as he wants. All they ask is that he kindly direct all repayment payable to the order of the Kremlin. The repayment doesn’t need to be money, they’re flexible.

Trump had a whole book of detailed plans for what he wanted to do after he got into office. His entire agenda from day 1 to day infinity has been planned out by the Heritage Foundation. You may have heard of this project. It is supposed to take effect in 2025.

I don’t think they are good plans, and you probably don’t either, but they certainly were one of the plans of all time.

Harris has no clear agenda. Compare her to someone like Bernie Sanders who loudly proclaims his entire playbook on social media every morning. Sanders makes it clear about what he’d do if he was in change. The difference is pretty obvious.

Unfortunately, this person will soon hold the office of President of the United States, the most powerful office in the history of mankind, so we must consider it.

Trump considers himself a businessman and a deal maker at heart. Ukraine is on the auction block. Shall we start the bidding at… ten billion euros?

Oh, what’s this? Putin bids eleven billion?

Tough luck, Zelenskyy…

I believe EU leaders have already made this calculation. If you prove willing to bribe him this year, why wouldn’t he ask for double the amount next year? You can never buy a corrupt politician. You can only rent him.

At that point, why not just take that money and invest in your own country’s defence instead? Defence spending increases your own country’s GDP and makes it so that you don’t have to rely on whether Trump remembered that you paid him off just last week before asking for more.

I think a big reason why people were not excited to vote for Harris is because she really doesn’t have any unique policies other than a general handwave in the direction of Joe Biden.

I’m not saying she’s bad by any means, and she’s definitely a lot better than Trump, but elections in the US are won and lost almost entirely on turnout rather than the quality of the candidate’s proposed agenda. And people really just weren’t interested in waiting in line to vote for a candidate who promises only good vibes, while being bombarded with attack adverts reminding them that a dozen eggs now costs a dollar more than it did last year.

If you lose a presidential race twice, you’re done. Hillary lost twice, Bernie lost twice, and now Harris has lost twice. It was fun while it lasted, but the Democratic Party now needs to find a new leader who has some actual policies to run on.

EU countries have laws that prohibit its leaders from bribing foreign heads of government. Russia doesn’t.

I have to agree with you there. I think the Democratic Party was scared of inviting infighting with a primary contest which Harris would probably win anyway, but you’re right—Harris had no mandate from the party membership and even a lightning-round primary conducted online would have been better.

I think I phrased my comment wrong on this. It doesn’t ban the act of gerrymandering, it bans the results of gerrymandering. Gerrymandered maps would need to be redrawn had the bill been enacted.

This bill was no slouch. It directly abridged several states’ voter suppression laws. Had the bill passed, the next phase would have been people being able to use the federal courts to strike back against these incompatible laws.

That being said, if you were the leader of the Democratic Party, what would you have done? Not intended as rhetorical snark, I’m just curious as to what other ideas there are.

The first bill filed in the House of Representatives and Senate after the 2020 election which resulted in the Democratic Party gaining nominal control of Congress and the White House was a bill to ban partisan gerrymandering, require independent redistricting committees, forbid states from imposing onerous voter registration or identification regulations, limit the influence of rich donors and wealthy PACs in federal elections, and generally just make the process of voting better for Americans.

This bill was called the Freedom to Vote Bill and was numbered H.R. 1 and S. 1 for the House and Senate versions, respectively. It passed the House of Representatives in 3 March 2021 and received unanimous support among the 50 Democratic senators when the Senate held its vote on 22 June 2021. The bill was blocked from advancing due to a Republican filibuster.

On 3 January 2022, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York announced plans to abolish the filibuster for legislation in order to allow this bill to advance. President Joe Biden had previously indicated he would sign the bill. Schumer made his move on 19 January 2022, moving to change the filibuster rule to require continuous talking, i.e. in order to filibuster a bill, someone must make a speech and keep talking for the duration of the filibuster, with the filibuster ending when they finish talking. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, members of the Democratic Party representing Arizona and West Virginia, respectively, got squeamish and voted against the change. All Republican senators voted against the change. This doomed the bill’s passage through Congress as the filibuster could be maintained indefinitely by the Republicans.

The bill died when Congress was dissolved pending the November 2022 general election, in which Republicans won a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

Manchin and Sinema’s terms with both expire when the new Congress is convened on 3 January 2025 following the November 2024 general election. Manchin did not seek re-election in yesterday’s election and will retire at the expiration of his term. Sinema was forced out of the Democratic Party and originally planned to stand as an independent before deciding against it. She will retire at the end of her term.

Due to the innate malapportionment of the Senate, it is exceedingly unlikely that the Democratic Party will ever regain majority control of the Senate.

So I point my finger at these two idiots for sinking American democracy as we know it.

Too late for polls now. Only voting is left. So go out and do it if you haven’t already

In the event of a tie, the winner will be determined by whomever can bake the best spinach quiche in 2 hours or less.

I think you posted this twice.

I know you’re just joking but I think it’s better to stick to openly confirmed LGBTQ people.

Do we have any evidence that they are actually voting and not just filming videos they hope will become popular without really going to vote?

I don’t know. I said “one of the few” and not “the only” because I didn’t want to be wrong in case there was another LGBTQ person on a banknote I wasn’t aware of.

nooooo don’t take away my socialism