US Presidential campaigns...

So, Ted Cruz ended his campaign today. Republican party's basically stuck with Trump, now.

I'm a very, very strong fan of Bernie Sanders, so I know where I hope for the Democrats to lean. And at this rate, I'm hoping for some Republicans to switch teams just to get away from Trump. But... if it comes down to Clinton vs Trump? Somebody else said it best:

 

"I'm proBernie but would vote Hillary as I am a one issue voter and that issue is not opening the seventh seal and ushering in the apocalypse"

https://twitter.com/ivan_hernandez/status/694388187284795392

 

*wincing* People at work, and these people have doctorates in engineering (rocket science, yo!), who are hysterically pessimistic. They are going to vote for Trump so WWIII will happen already and then the zombie apocalypse. Like, you guys think I'm joking, I'm not. Everyone at work is so despondent and just on the verge of giving up that they're breaking the sound barrier trying to make this happen.

I'm freaked out because I'm not a US citizen, I may have a greencard that can never expire but I still can be deported if Trumps racism turns the US into the second coming of the Nazis. It's happened to my family before when Bush Jr. was in office. UGH.

 

I wish you were joking. That's. I don't even.

 

Someone should start marketing edible hats.

 

I don't want to think about the impact a President Trump would have on not just the US but the world as a whole. I really, really don't.

 

I don't even want to know what 2020 will be like. It gets worse every election.

 

I'm feelin' the Bern but don't actually hate Clinton. I think the best way I can describe it is: she's boring. Like, nothing radical is going to happen if she becomes president. I'd be OK with her for the most part.

LOL Trump.

 

I love Bernie, don't much care for Clinton, but care for Trump even less.
unfortunately, I know plenty of Rhode Island voters who would prefer Trump over Clinton. which scares me.

 

2020 won't have an election. We'll get the Trump dynasty, similar to the Kim dynasty in North Korea. Racial homogeneous white people country, a military economy where everyone starves, state-sponsored propaganda media, and pictures of Great Leader in all our homes. It'll be great, just like he said.

 

.....screams

 

I'm so incredibly tired of the Clinton supporters on my various social media being virulently anti-Bernie-supporters. I haven't seen a single Bernie person being an asshat, but a lot of selfrighteous and honestly really ableist bullshit from people who I am just about ready to unfriend/unfollow even though they're in my party. I may hate pretty much every single one of Clinton's policies, and I will argue tooth and nail for Bernie if presented a case... but even if Clinton gets the nomination, even if I hate it, I will still vote for her because the other option is voting for someone who makes me feel viscerally unsafe living here, much less actually following my plans to start a family sometime in the not too distant future. And yeah, I'm kinda resentful that that's what this election might come down to - voting for someone I fundamentally mistrust and disagree with because it's better than the alternative. But if you would stop rubbing it in my face that would be great.

/endrant

...sorry, logging onto Facebook this morning was pretty extra terrible.

 

There are some asshole Bernie supporters (see Reddit), but yeah, I've seen people who didn't vote for him because of rumors about his supporters, which sucks.

 

I'm independent myself, because I can't stand the two party system, but I usually vote Democrat because. uh. Republicans....tend to be....pretty against who I am as a person, sooooo....

 

basically what you just said. like, nothing is going to get done with a two party system, seriously. and being a queer poc, I tend to vote Democrat as a result. but yeah, I registered as independent because fuck the two party system.

 

yeah. this is all very true. and also capitalism. capitalism and the two party system are fucking us over.

 

I would love to see the electoral college ended and popular vote installed. A lot of people feel their votes don't matter because everyone around them votes the other way. That's unethical to me.

 

yeah. that was. fuck that.

 

I believe that our only hope of escaping the two-party system is through voting reform. We have a two party system because our voting process is first-past-the-post, and our voting system is first-past-the-post since we were one of the first countries in the world to come up with voting as a big Thing everyone did. More sophisticated ways of counting votes, such as preference ranking, have since been formulated. (These systems are why European countries almost always have more than two parties. They can still have far-right rump parties, but those parties count for significantly less than half.)

It would be nice if we also devolved power to the states and acted more like the European Union - that would help solve a lot of our culture war issues - but I'm not holding my breath for that. Voting reform is radical enough.

 

The Youtube channel CGP Grey has a bunch of informative videos on different voting styles, for anyone interested in what options are out there.