It's a tough decision to make. I typically begin each election cycle with the assumption that I will vote, and then decide who gets that vote primarily on policy. I would rather vote for a guy might further my agenda than either not vote or vote for someone who will damage my agenda. I understand the decision to hold the politicians accountable, I just don't think it is something we can afford to do in a general election. I save that for the primaries.
OK, but doesn't that pretty much always work out like the John Oliver video you just posted. We, the American voters operate in good faith, little or no actual brain activity, but good faith, and vote for someone, or some party, thinking they'll do what they promise, hoping they'll do what they promised, then they don't and next time we get the chance to vote them out, because they didn't do what they promised, we face this same conundrum, and after much soul searching we decide AGAIN to vote for them, partially because we still hold out hope they'll do what they promised and partially because we fall for the same old scare tactics of "well you know what that other party will do if we elect them" and we go back out and make the same mistakes again and again and again in the voting booth?
OK, but doesn't that pretty much always work out like the John Oliver video you just posted. We, the American voters operate in good faith, little or no actual brain activity, but good faith, and vote for someone, or some party, thinking they'll do what they promise, hoping they'll do what they promised, then they don't and next time we get the chance to vote them out, because they didn't do what they promised, we face this same conundrum, and after much soul searching we decide AGAIN to vote for them, partially because we still hold out hope they'll do what they promised and partially because we fall for the same old scare tactics of "well you know what that other party will do if we elect them" and we go back out and make the same mistakes again and again and again in the voting booth?
Well that's why each party should be doing a lot of work in the primaries, and we've actually seen that happening lately. The much maligned polarization of both sides is a direct result of frustrated partisans who are tired of partisan campaign promises turning into bipartisan compromises. Hopefully that continued polarization will result in a third party, although I question if it will be centrist as so many have long predicted. I would expect some type of anti-libertarian party that makes Sturg's head explode while Cajun's floats high in the sky.
For me it's very simple. I don't want any more Jeff Flake/John McCain/Susan Collins type Rs. Ever. But I prefer even them over the Elizabeth Warren/Cory Booker/John Kerry types. So I vote for the things I want in the primary, and usually against the things I don't want in the general elections.
One thing that is crucial to this conversation is that neither one of us, even standing as we are on opposite sides of the spectrum, are well-served by the current rules of the game. There are a couple of huge structural issues--campaign finance being foremost--that make certain kinds of major policy shifts, in either direction, less likely.
Roy Moore is about to have a bad weekend.
In fairness to Rand and Mike Lee, they were most likely unaware of these allegations.
What they did know was
Moore thought Keith Ellison ought not be legally allowed to serve in Congress
They were/are ok with that
When will you start pulling quotes of Democrat leaders praising Robert Byrd the klansman?