Hobbesian choice

...

 

Regardless of everything said thus far in these posts and others:--the choice -RIGHT NOW-- is---vote for Harris or vote for trump. That's it . Pick a side---AND VOTE.

 

...

 

Indubitably. However no one is asserting that either are "perfect and infallible".
One can assert that the two political parties are not even remotely similar, but vastly divergent on several critical aspects.
One can assert that one party is more closely aligned with your values and beliefs than the other, and therefore voting for that party is more likely to inure to your benefit; individually and communally.
One can also assert that one party has metastasized into overt Fascism, and voting for that party would be detrimental to us all.

Remember Trump's constant adulation of dictators and tyrants? How on March 3rd, 2018 he effusively gushed over Chinese President Xi Jinping; “He’s now president for life. President for life. And he’s great. I think it’s great. Maybe we'll give that a shot someday.” That “someday” is today.
On December 5th, 2023 Trump told Sean Hannity that if elected he plans to be dictator on “day one”. 'Project 2025' (approximately 80% of Project 2025's contributing authors are Trump aides and advisors; his name appears in it 312 times), the blueprint for the next Trump administration, calls for invoking the Insurrection Act on his first day in office, allowing the U.S. military to directly attack American citizens exercising their Constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of speech, freedom to peaceably assemble, freedom to petition their government for redress of grievances, freedom from unreasonable search & seizure, and right to due process and equal protection under the law, solely on the whim of Trump without recourse to judicial review or Congressional oversight. On June 30th he stated that he will fire our military's senior command staff and replace them with sycophants loyal not to the Constitution, but to him personally. Despite 1st Amendment guarantees of freedom of the press Trump has threatened on numerous occasions that he will jail journalists who contradict him. Despite 14th Amendment guarantees of equal protection under the law, Trump has threatened dozens of times that he will weaponize the Department of Justice to persecute his political enemies, including judges, prosecutors, and their families. At a Wisconsin rally on May 1st, Trump promised to give police full immunity from prosecution for violating American's civil rights.

On June 22nd Trump stated that “You gotta get out and vote. Just this time. In four years you don't have to vote, OK? In four years don't vote, I don't care. But we'll have it all straightened out, so it'll be much different.”
On July 26th, Trump reiterated; “Get out and vote. Just this time. You won't have to do it any more. Four more years, you know what? It'll be fixed, it'll be fine. You won't have to vote any more...Get out, you've got to get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote.”
On July 29th Trump told Laura Ingraham on Fox News that "...vote for me, you're not going to have to do it ever again. It's true. You have to vote. After that you don’t have to worry about voting any more. I don’t care, because we’re going to fix it, the country will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote any more...”

On July 23rd 2022 Trump stated that under Article II of the Constitution,"I can do whatever I want." On July 1st, the Republican-stacked Supreme Court agreed, ruling in Trump v. United States that Presidents enjoy absolute immunity from prosecution for any criminal acts committed while in office (and presumptive immunity for all others), and are free of Congressional restraint. For the first time in the 248 years since America rejected the divine right of kings, asserted that no one is above the law, and that government only derives legitimacy from the consent of the governed, Trump's Supreme Court has abrogated all of that and reimposed Rex non potest peccare; “the king can do no wrong.”
On December 3, 2022 Trump called for the termination of the Constitution.

To suggest that the Republican Party is now overtly Fascist is not mere hyperbole.

 

...

 

You suggested both parties were essentially the same.
I suggested that they're not...and why.

 

Some of us aren't privileged enough to exist outside of Project 2025's scope. Some of us live in real fear of this plan. Some of us will actively be persecuted under a Trump administration. Kamala Harris could eat babies in her free time for all I care. She's the one trying to protect me; Trump is the one coming to get me. She has my vote.

I'm voting in my best interest same as anyone. Quit trying to demonize the candidate who is actually trying to save me. We're not all straight, white, cisgendered men. Some of us are voting out of pure survival.

 

Demicans and Republicrats - two sides of the same coin.

They pay lip service to their platforms, but at the end of the day I feel both are highly corrupt institutions more focused on maintaining their grip on the duopoly than doing any actual governing. Both are hypocritical as far as what their stated beliefs are. They stand before me looking like hollow, morally bankrupt institutions. The focus is on maintaining their own fiefdoms via the power they wield directly through law and indirectly through the federal budget. And frankly it’s a strange sort of symbiotic relationship where each party needs the other in order to gin their voters up against their enemy. While the two party setup is baked into our system, most people seem to forget that there’s nothing saying it has to be THESE two parties. And if that weren’t enough, I don’t feel represented by either of these parties’ platforms or worldview.

Elephants are red
Donkeys are blue
Neither give a fuck about you

 

Anyone that thinks that democrats and the democratic party are / is the same as republicans and the republican party--has done NO RESEARCH whatsoever and has no knowledge of how each thinks of society and how they vote to influence such. I don't have the time, energy or the inclination to go through my 85 years of living and observing life and the place politics plays in the lives of people to lay out the differences in here. Either you know--or you don't want to know, IMO.

 

Over 100 Republican National Security Leaders Endorse Vice President Harris

 

The problem is the Two Party system. Why? It exists because that is the Ultra Rich and the corporations like it that way. What works better? Most of the successful governments, with free choices, are Parliamentary, and the legislature choses the prime minister. We have the electoral college which needs to be abolished. Along with that the legislature can easily remove a prime minister, when he or she acts irresponsibly. In my case I have not been able to identify with a party in over 40 years. The independents in this country need to wake up and form parties that can compete with the top 2, and elect legislators that are not owned by special interests.

 

As I understand it, the two party system is kind of an illusion. I mean, I know I've cast votes for candidates who weren't Republican or Democrat. Also, if a candidate gets 5% of the vote, aren't they allowed to participate in debates?

 

It was 5% but after Ross Perot, it got bumped up to 15%. By the way, this isn’t set by the Federal government, this is a private deal and they circled the wagons in a panic after an outsider upset the apple cart. Can’t have anybody but the demicans and repiblicrats, I guess.

 

...