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That is an incredibly dumb argument. Every single Republican in office has also signed onto bills aligned with Democratic policies. That's just how a multi-party legislature works.

I don't see voting for one of the two in a binary as an endorsement of everything that candidate stands for. You're acting as if not voting sends a message. It doesn't it's literally the opposite of sending a message. It's refusing to have a voice at all. You're not condemning the system by not voting. You're saying you're perfectly OK with either of the two outcomes. I'm saying I'm not OK with one of them.

You're also speaking as if voting is the only possible way to engage in politics. It happens twice a year (in years with both primary and general elections). What are you doing the other 363 days? Are you just sitting by and letting whatever happens happen?

For me, personally, voting is an EXTREMELY minor part of my engagement with politics. I also participate in protests regularly. Ever since my early 20s (late 30s now) I've made a point of attending at least 1 protest every month. For the past 8 years, it's been closer to weekly than monthly. I donate a lot of money to different groups, mostly a local abortion fund and bail fund for activists, but I change it up when the need is there. I make food for a local Food not Bombs and help serve when I can (although that's infrequently due to my work schedule and the fact I have kids).

This is not an exhaustive list of my political activities, but it helps paint the picture.

Tell me, if your vote is so direly precious that you're unwilling to give it away to the lesser of two evils in a binary choice where "none" is not an option, how do you engage with politics? What do you do to help improve the lives of the people in your community? Or are you just trying to shitpost a revolution into happening?

Yet again, you refuse to respond to criticism. Try doing something other than insulting me.

I think you are incapable of forming a response to my very valid criticism of your ill-conceived idea. You keep resorting to the same baseless claim that your system would simply be immune to corruption without ever actually giving a reason why or a method to prevent corruption. The US isn't the only corrupt government on the planet. All of them are. Every single one.

You act like that since I'm from the US I'm somehow incapable of understanding complex ideas? Yet you yourself are incapable of giving a response. I assume based on your focus on Brexit that you're from the UK? Are you seriously suggesting that the UK government is hyper-capable and incorruptible? Really?

Try having a conversation like an adult. Why do you not believe that your poll test would be subject to corruption? What mechanism would you include to prevent it? Just claiming that it wouldn't because it's not in the US isn't an argument. It's an admission that you have no clue what you're talking about.

I'm just dying for the scene of Frank slaughtering a bunch of cops with Punisher tattoos. That, and Matt's second showdown with the cop whose ass he beat at the end of episode 2. Literally every time the two have been in a scene since, Matt has taunted him for getting his ass kicked. The rematch will be very satisfying.

You seem to have an incredibly large amount of trust in your government. For your benefit, I'll assume this is rooted in naivety. Your government does not work for your benefit. A government is made of individuals who are people, just like everyone else. They're responsive to incentives, just like everyone else. And when someone has power and authority, their incentive is to maintain this power at all costs. This has been true in all countries and all governments throughout history. Yours is no different.

Create the power to control who is allowed to vote and give it to the people in charge of the government and they WILL use it to maintain their power.

You can go on and on about how noble your civil service is, but it's all bullshit. It's staffed by normal people, just like every institution is. They react the same as people always have.

inaction, which NOT VOTING ISN’T.

If not voting isn't inaction, then what is it? You certainly didn't take action, so the opposite would be...

Yes. You want a system whereby the people with access to the resources needed to educate themselves are the only ones allowed to vote. What's more, you want to give the power to control access to the ballot to an unelected group of people who get to determine what education is sufficient enough to give you the right to vote.

You're just handing the power to pick who is allowed to vote over to the people already in power. Of course they're going to abuse that power to ensure they always win. That's ALWAYS what happens in every single government that's ever existed. People with power want to remain in power and will manipulate the system to ensure that.

Your poll test system is just a shortcut to oligarchy.

I'm not trolling....

Literally nobody here said anything close to "the genocide is only bad when its the Republicans doing it." You are arguing against a strawman of your own invention.

And yet you still have to live with the fascists who won the election. You don't get a gold star for moral superiority. There are no good guys in American elections. There never have been. You vote for the lesser of the two evils presented to you, then go back to engaging in politics in ways other than electorally.

First, you were never asked to vote for Biden last year. He literally never appeared on any ballots. Not a single person voted for Biden last year. So your entire point here is fucking moot.

Second, nobody is asking you to get married to who you vote for. You aren't required to support every word they've ever said. You aren't even required to support a single thing they do. American elections are a binary choice between the lesser of two evils. That's how they've ALWAYS been. You pick the least bad of two bad options, and Harris was objectively less bad than Trump in every degree. If your candidate wins, you get to work fighting against the lesser evil that defeated the greater one. I've been voting for 21 years now and every single election I had to hold my nose and vote for someone I didn't like because the other option was worse. This election wasn't about you. Get over yourself and grow the fuck up.

Third, electoral politics shouldn't define your life or even the extent of your participation in politics. It's a single theater of political action among MANY. I was out there before the election in the streets protesting the Democratic ticket's support of the Gaza Genocide. I also recognized that putting Harris in the White House over Trump would have been better on MANY other issues (women's healthcare, trans rights, the economy, jobs for federal workers, cost of living, etc, etc). I'm not so petty and self-centered to delude myself into believing one single issue was the only thing that mattered in the entire election.

Nobody is saying Democrats are great or even good. They fucking suck. We don't have good options in our electoral politics. We never have. That's why you need to engage in other forms of politics, too. Your entire "I couldn't vote for genocide Joe" bullshit is just self-indulgence. It's childish.