Who are you voting for?

[WebcamStartup]

That's also another big issue that needs to be addressed. Super delegates pledging their vote months ahead of the election, saying they won't be swayed by their district's popular vote? Uh hi. They're no longer even pretending to represent their constituents. That's a problem.

Funny thing is that the Dems are the ones that are always preaching voter reform / fair elections. Kind of shot them in the foot with Trump this round, but at least the GOP lets the voters pick the nominee. Seriously, I've heard the DNC chairwoman pretty much say word-for-word; "Super delegates prevent a popular vote from going against the will of the people". That entire sentence is a fucking contradiction in itself!

 

[ClassyCassi]

My god ill get shit for this but fuckk it
Im all for Hildog
Ohhhh but what about the...emails?
yeah fuckk it
Anyways iv admired her for so long and Shes been in the white house before : SOS , First lady.
AND as first lady she changed alot of the outlook on women just from her speeches she gave as fist lady ,....not to mention her speech at the United Nations Women's Conference in China she gave. i like her so much i know weird ass facts about the girl. And yeah shes does some shit and had some major fuck ups. But your a lying sac of shit if you say you havnt also not to mention other candidates. And at a dinner with my bfs parents we were having a great talk (god i sound old) and somone said "i feel like now to win against trump, people have got to vote for Hillary either way" it made since but i can see it both ways.
I just.... idk man this whole election is like a huge fucking joke the universe thew this a way like tf? We actually having candidates acting like SUCH fucking children. im sorry excuse my language but really its quite mindblowing to me that its even llike this, how did this get so far? But hey i cant be judmental come election day. -_- anyone else a pollworker ? fun fun fuuuunnnnnn

 

[justjoinedtopost]

The Right has locked horns with the Left. One side is convinced corporate America needs a fascist government to rule us, while the other believes corporate America can only maintain order with a proper communist regime.

Meanwhile, the Libertarians buzz around like some highly annoying fly, babbling incoherent nonsense about how legalized marijuana and tribalism will magically cause our roads to get paved.

So the only sane option is to go sit in a drum circle with the Green Party for a bit, until the sight of unshorn legs and the stench of body odor makes you vomit.

I remember decades ago, listening to an adult giggle about how they wrote in Mickey Mouse on a ballot that lacked desirable candidates. Pointless, but I suppose it made them feel better.

If I can vote for Donald Trump, I can one-up their silly little protest. I can help a real life Mickey Mouse actually make it into the White House. I can think of no better way to give a middle finger to the entire American political system. And believe me, after a quarter century of listening to US political bs, that is exactly what I am ready to do.



Trump 2016

 

[WebcamStartup]

My god ill get shit for this but fuckk it
Im all for Hildog
Ohhhh but what about the...emails?
yeah fuckk it
Anyways iv admired her for so long and Shes been in the white house before : SOS , First lady.
AND as first lady she changed alot of the outlook on women just from her speeches she gave as fist lady ,....not to mention her speech at the United Nations Women's Conference in China she gave. i like her so much i know weird ass facts about the girl. And yeah shes does some shit and had some major fuck ups. But your a lying sac of shit if you say you havnt also not to mention other candidates. And at a dinner with my bfs parents we were having a great talk (god i sound old) and somone said "i feel like now to win against trump, people have got to vote for Hillary either way" it made since but i can see it both ways.
I just.... idk man this whole election is like a huge fucking joke the universe thew this a way like tf? We actually having candidates acting like SUCH fucking children. im sorry excuse my language but really its quite mindblowing to me that its even llike this, how did this get so far? But hey i cant be judmental come election day. -_- anyone else a pollworker ? fun fun fuuuunnnnnn

Thank you. I was starting to think that nobody even supports Hillary and her lead is 100% faux. You have to run into at least one Clinton supporter, otherwise you start scratching your head wondering how the hell she even has votes.

 

[WebcamStartup]

The Right has locked horns with the Left. One side is convinced corporate America needs a fascist government to rule us, while the other believes corporate America can only maintain order with a proper communist regime.

Meanwhile, the Libertarians buzz around like some highly annoying fly, babbling incoherent nonsense about how legalized marijuana and tribalism will magically cause our roads to get paved.

So the only sane option is to go sit in a drum circle with the Green Party for a bit, until the sight of unshorn legs and the stench of body odor makes you vomit.

I remember decades ago, listening to an adult giggle about how they wrote in Mickey Mouse on a ballot that lacked desirable candidates. Pointless, but I suppose it made them feel better.

If I can vote for Donald Trump, I can one-up their silly little protest. I can help a real life Mickey Mouse actually make it into the White House. I can think of no better way to give a middle finger to the entire American political system. And believe me, after a quarter century of listening to US political bs, that is exactly what I am ready to do.



Trump 2016

You made a "statist road comment", so I had to

 

[LittleLei]

from her speeches she gave as fist lady

Okay I totally know this was a typo, but I couldn't help but super laugh at this!

It has been really insightful reading everyone's responses. I for one don't do well with politics at all and almost had a panic attack going by myself to caucus in my state. Politics is something that I am trying to learn more about as I get older. The last two elections I voted by popular vote honestly and didn't really digest each candidate and their views and stances.

 

[Mila_]

The Right has locked horns with the Left. One side is convinced corporate America needs a fascist government to rule us, while the other believes corporate America can only maintain order with a proper communist regime.

Meanwhile, the Libertarians buzz around like some highly annoying fly, babbling incoherent nonsense about how legalized marijuana and tribalism will magically cause our roads to get paved.

So the only sane option is to go sit in a drum circle with the Green Party for a bit, until the sight of unshorn legs and the stench of body odor makes you vomit.

I remember decades ago, listening to an adult giggle about how they wrote in Mickey Mouse on a ballot that lacked desirable candidates. Pointless, but I suppose it made them feel better.

If I can vote for Donald Trump, I can one-up their silly little protest. I can help a real life Mickey Mouse actually make it into the White House. I can think of no better way to give a middle finger to the entire American political system. And believe me, after a quarter century of listening to US political bs, that is exactly what I am ready to do.



Trump 2016

Trump gave "corporate America" the finger when he refused to be funded by PACs and other interest groups that wanted to control the discourse.

Truth is, that the bigger corporations have an interest in amnesty for illegals because that is how they get to keep an underclass of cheap labor in the country. Then, technology and scientific corporations have an interest in keeping the h1 visa party going because that means they can import cheap STEM field skilled labor from other regions and never again raise their salaries while American STEM graduates are unemployed.

This is why until Trump arrived no Republican ever talked about it and they all supported amnesty (including Cruz and Rubio) because that is what their donors wanted. Even the media would be completely silent on this issue and even libertarians who claim to be constitutionalists would recoil publicly at the idea of actually enforcing the law that is written in the Constitution and elsewhere when it came to illegal immigration.

I get why many dislike Trump, but calling him a darling of corporate America is simply untrue.

 

[justjoinedtopost]

I get why many dislike Trump, but calling him a darling of corporate America is simply untrue.

I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to call him a darling of corporate America. I was speaking about the the two main parties as a whole when I referred to corporate America.

I meant to call Trump a clown. Just like the rest of the clowns in the circus. Noteworthy only because he's the biggest clown to ever come along.

Don't bother trying to defend him. There is nothing you can say or do that will stop me from voting for him.

 

[ClassyCassi]

Yeah i so feel on this is seems like alot of people are for her but where? right?
Iv literally had to dragggg it out of my friends that WERE for her why? Just because so many people have so much to say . This election, i feel embarrassed for our country at this point i really do.
__________________________________________________
BTW i saw a commercial last night and it was hilarious and amazing : it was just said vote. they said alot and had Drumpf's face up there as a floating head saying some silly shit (along the lines of "using humane force to round up Mexicans") and it was great. It Said VOTE because this cant be Americas Future......
Pretty damn funny to see a commercial, not saying who to vote for but saying "for Christ sake just vote and not for him" '
_________________________________________________________
And Just remember i have fist hand experience :When u hear whos won, they dont fucking know a damn thing because In California when they announce it at like 8:30-9 Dude the ballots you all voted on, are just getting loaded up 99% of the ime they have projections. so Just wait till the morning for the official count to come out, Because they have to come from EVERY CITY to norwalk......Just some info FYI

 

[SoTxBob]

I found one ! I found one !!! I actually spoke to a young late 20something that is voting for Hills.... Her reasoning was... (drumroll)... "because she will be the first woman president and I will have been part of it." SMH
I said to her, 'let me guess, you also voted for Obama so he could be the first black president didn't you?'
She said "yes I did as a matter of fact. He's been a great president."

I realized then I was not going to be able to have a rational or logical discourse and walked away......

 

[ACFFAN69]

For those that don't/haven't had the time to research each candidates stance, I highly recommend this site:
http://www.isidewith.com/

It's a completely unbiased questionnaire you fill out, where you list your stance on many views, then it calculates based on your answers which candidate fits your views the best. At worst it's a nice way to see what stance each candidate takes on subjects you haven't heard them talk about often.

The only thing I don't like is that it goes with their stance of certain issues at the time it was created, and some of the candidates (Trump and Hillary) their stances on certain subjects changed due to popular opinion, but it never mentions that. For example Hillary Clinton helped write the TPP and declared it the gold standard of trade agreements, but public opinion was heavily against it, so now she is opposed to it. The site simply says that Hillary is against it because it needs alterations. Another example is Trumps stance on ISIS and H-1B, which has changed throughout the campaign.

My results:
87% Bernie Sanders
86% Gary Johnson
85% Jill Stein
70% Hillary
51% Trump

Pretty close to accurate on what I would have thought. I was surprised that I was that much higher on Hillary rather then Trump, I assume it's because of his immigration policies, which (as a Canadian) don't really interest/affect me. Also because she technically says she is against a lot of things that I don't believe she actually is (mainly massive trade agreements and government surveillance). I prob

Personally I found it more useful to read their stance then the %'s, but the %'s are still cool.

Edit: It seems they change their stances real time as the candidate does. Initially my %'s were:

87% Bernie Sanders
86% John Mcafee
83% Gary Johnson
70% Hillary
51% Trump

 

[WebcamStartup]

I found one ! I found one !!! I actually spoke to a young late 20something that is voting for Hills.... Her reasoning was... (drumroll)... "because she will be the first woman president and I will have been part of it." SMH
I said to her, 'let me guess, you also voted for Obama so he could be the first black president didn't you?'
She said "yes I did as a matter of fact. He's been a great president."

I realized then I was not going to be able to have a rational or logical discourse and walked away......

Tell her to vote Gary Johnson and she'll be a part of electing the first Libertarian president

 

[justjoinedtopost]

For those that don't/haven't had the time to research each candidates stance, I highly recommend this site:
http://www.isidewith.com/

Interesting. Not really helpful to me, since I've already decided to cast a reductio ad absurdum vote this time around, but interesting nonetheless.

Mine:
88% Jill Stein
88% Bernie Sanders
79% Gary Johnson
78% Hillary Clinton
63% Bozo the Trump

 

[fandango]

Well that was interesting apparently I most strongly agree with Jill Stein even though I've never heard of her.

I got

84% Jill Stien
83% Bernie Sanders
82% Hillary Clinton
69% Gary Johnson
54% Donald Trump

I'd guess most members of a site like this would probably get similar results. It would be fun to compare the average from here against an average of people for an NRA forum or some religion forum.

 

[Nordling]

Mine:

Bernie Sanders: 94%
Hillary Clinton: 92%
Jill Stein: 90%
Gary Johnson: 64%
Donald Drumpf: 37%

 

[ramblin]

isidewith.com has definitely been updated a lot since last I visited.

Apparently I'm a Clintonite now (spoiler alert: I'm not):

Hillary Clinton: 100%
Bernie Sanders: 98%
Jill Stein: 94%
Gary Johnson: 65%
Donald Trump: 13%

I voted Sanders. isidewith's reason I shouldn't was a disagreement on "Should physically and mentally capable adults on welfare be required to work?". Bernie's answer is "No, 'workfare' is a form of slave labor". My take is that we'd be much better off if there was a spot to line up to get a job that paid a living wage. I agree with Sanders that the lack of safe, sane and consensual work should not force folks into servitude.

 

[ramblin]

Hate to self-reply, but scroll down a little and there's a fun beta "themes" section.

Laissez-faire vs Keynesian: 22% Keynesian. Most important.
Pacificism vs Militarism: 84% Pacifism. More important.
Globalization vs Protectionism: 50% Protectionism. More important.
Tough vs Tender: 82% Tender. More important.
Traditional vs Progressive: 70% Progressive. More important.
Collectivism vs Individualism: 88% Collectivism. More important.
Populism vs Elitism: 96% Populism. Somewhat important.

There's something interesting about the fact that the theme that is indicated as most important to me is the one that I'm least certain about and the one that's least important to me is the one that my views are most solid on.

 

[Albert_1]

I can't vote but I'd be with the Bernie or bust crowd if I could.

97% Bernie Sanders
95% Jill Stien
92% Hillary Clinton (Considering how often she changes her mind I could see this one changing daily)
68% Gary Johnson
25% Donald Trump

 

[facialover]

I looked at isidewith.com a little skeptically, because I am a bit of a nitpicker and prefer to be precise, so I usually pick from the 'Other opinions' tab instead of the main choices, and I worry that it will skew my results if they don't assign the more complex alternatives properly to the various candidates. (And if they do, how many levels of 'load more options' do they bother to assign to candidates?).

But, for some variety here, I apparently got:

72% Donald Trump
55% Gary Johnson
39% Hillary Clinton
34% Bernie Sanders
33% Jill Stein

At least I can console myself that a lot of people's top match is in the 90s, so my closest match at 72% is still pretty darn far off. I'm truly shocked that it's Trump, though, since that was not how I planned to vote. Friends from both sides of the aisle are united on my FB feed saying how awful he is. Hmm. But at least I can see why I'm not feeling particularly enthused about this election: none of the major candidates, insofar as isidewith is to be believed, are particularly close matches to my views.

EDIT: Oh cool. If you look at individual view breakdowns, it does in fact count "similar" answers reasonably well.

EDIT2:

86% Militarism [apparently entirely riding on the question about raising or lowering the military's budget?]
28% Small Govt
80% Elitism
20% Individualism
22% Tough
56% Assimilation
50% Laissez-faire

 

[DFT]

As a minarchist my dream for the election is so many people can't hold their nose to vote party, vote for this other chap, and the Libertarian candidate wins a state. Ah, fun dream.

What I really hope is that this election's hype doesn't take away from looking at your local candidates - state, county and city - where your vote has the most impact. Maybe we'll end up with the worst President ever (or best, opinions vary), but your vote is so much more important locally. Especially if you're disillusioned over the presidency, look to local races even more. No promises; might find a bright eyed candidate who willing to do something good. At worst, you helped elect a better dog catcher and your vote mattered.

 

[SaffronBurke]

I remember decades ago, listening to an adult giggle about how they wrote in Mickey Mouse on a ballot that lacked desirable candidates. Pointless, but I suppose it made them feel better.

They made my dad vote when he was in the army, and he didn't like any of the candidates, so he wrote in Big Bird. While I definitely think that everyone SHOULD vote, it's not right to force people to do so if they don't want to.

 

[Guy]

They made my dad vote when he was in the army, and he didn't like any of the candidates, so he wrote in Big Bird. While I definitely think that everyone SHOULD vote, it's not right to force people to do so if they don't want to.

In Belgium of you don't vote you're fined. People in this country don't take voting seriously. If more people voted we would be more likely to get rid of our corrupt 2 party system.
In my opinion there is nothing undemocratic about requiring U.S citizens to vote.

 

[fandango]

In Belgium of you don't vote you're fined. People in this country don't take voting seriously. If more people voted we would be more likely to get rid of our corrupt 2 party system.
In my opinion there is nothing undemocratic about requiring U.S citizens to vote.

That's only one step better then those countries like North Korea where they have a totally free vote but if you vote for anyone other then Kim Jong Un you're put in jail. Abstaining is just as much of a right as the right to vote IMO

 

[Nordling]

That's only one step better then those countries like North Korea where they have a totally free vote but if you vote for anyone other then Kim Jong Un you're put in jail. Abstaining is just as much of a right as the right to vote IMO

I have mixed feelings on this. In this country we have sign up for the draft after our 18th birthday...it's not currently used to draft people but this could change back at any time. I would think that forced conscription would be a much bigger worry than a requirement to vote...I don't see how it would evolve into a situation where you HAD to vote for the government's choice as in your example. Why would abstaining from voting be more of a "right" than the right to not be conscripted into military slavery?

 

[justjoinedtopost]

I have mixed feelings on this. In this country we have sign up for the draft after our 18th birthday...it's not currently used to draft people but this could change back at any time. I would think that forced conscription would be a much bigger worry than a requirement to vote...I don't see how it would evolve into a situation where you HAD to vote for the government's choice as in your example. Why would abstaining from voting be more of a "right" than the right to not be conscripted into military slavery?

Bigger problem than forcing people to vote I think, is getting. private. money. the. fuck. out. of. politics.
Completely

 

[Guy]

That's only one step better then those countries like North Korea where they have a totally free vote but if you vote for anyone other then Kim Jong Un you're put in jail. Abstaining is just as much of a right as the right to vote IMO

Australia and Belgium both have laws requiring their citizens to vote and they are more democratic than the Untied States.

 

[ramblin]

I'd love to require people to actually educate themselves about the issues and people on the ballot. That's basically impossible, but I'd be much more comfortable with a politically conscious public that largely chose not to vote than an uneducated public randomly checking boxes because they felt it was their duty.

I'm certainly not in favor of tests or any other barrier to voting, just more awareness, especially on the down-ballot decisions.

Bigger problem than forcing people to vote I think, is getting. private. money. the. fuck. out. of. politics.
Completely

This would help by reducing all of the noise that passes for knowledge.

More votersedge / smartvoter type stuff and those local cable debates and town halls. Still, can't make people pay attention.

 

[Mila_]

Well, looks like Bernie is out. Shillary's victory speech was a joke though. Is there a way to edit the poll to reflect this?

 

[thebatzmeow]

First pick, Sanders. Second pick, Gary. (Though I'd really be interested in seeing Gary and Jill on stage and debate with Hillary and Trump to get a better understanding of how Gary and Jill will represent their parties)

 

[Osmia]

I don't get the Hillary-hate. Yes, she's a consummate, lawyerly politician; yes, it would be depressing to have Clintons in the White House again because it would bring back bad memories of the 1990s. She isn't that inspiring (speeches or policy proposals). She's very careful and calculating, in part due to living in a political free-fire zone for the past 25 years. Yes, it's distasteful and exasperating to vote for her because she's the lesser of evils.

As to why supporters of Hillary seem to be so rare, keep in mind that we're just now emerging from the primary season, and Sanders and Trump were the only candidates generating much enthusiasm. Now that the primaries are over, and the choice is between Clinton and Trump, voters will, with a great deal of resignation, get serious about choosing between these two.

I suspect that if Trump won, he would govern in a more mature and civil manner than his behavior so far would suggest. What makes voting for Trump out of the question for me? His Supreme Court choices. I think there's every indication that his nominees would be right-wing, corporate friendly and hostile to civil rights (though maybe liberal on social/sexual issues). That's just who he is; that's his background, those are his interests. He's a rich, super-entitled member of the uppermost reaches of the 1%.

I do give Trump credit for trying to shake up the political system, which most everyone agrees is simply no longer working for the public interest and for the middle and working classes. That shake-up is inevitable; I just hope it doesn't come through Trump.

Finally, a lot of people are frustrated that their choices for president always seem so uninspiring. There are some structural reasons for this, such as the two-party system. Given that the USA does not have a parliamentary system, a competitive third party would be tough to accomplish. Another problem is the electoral college system, and the practice of many states of giving the winner all of the electors, not assigning them proportionally. For example, I live in Texas, which for the time being is completely dominated by the Republicans. If Trump gets 60% and Hillary gets 40%, all of the electoral votes (100%) go to Trump. That means that my vote for president is completely meaningless and without effect. Furthermore, the presidential candidates essentially ignore a heavily Republican or Democratic state like Texas and New York, because the outcome is never in doubt. (BTW, that also means that everyone's presidential vote in Texas or New York is meaningless.) Only the half-dozen or so "battleground" states will decide the election. I think if more people understood how the presidential vote works, there would be even more cynicism and apathy than there is today. Take a look at this site, http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/ , which goes into much more detail. They also have a plan for reforming the electoral college that would actually be constitutional.