#one person one vote

[justinspoliticalcorner]

James Bickerton at Newsweek:

The Republican Party of Texas has voted on a policy proposal that would require any candidate for statewide office to win in a majority of the state's 254 counties to secure election, effectively preventing Democrats from winning statewide positions based on the current distribution of their support. Democratic voters in Texas are heavily disproportionately concentrated in a handful of major cities which only constitute a small number of counties, while Republicans dominate most of the more sparsely populated rural counties. On Saturday, Texas Republicans voted on a range of policy proposals at the party's biannual conference which took place from May 23-25 in San Antonio. Once these votes have been counted, the official Texas state Republican policy platform is expected to be revealed later this week.

Proposal 21, under the state sovereignty section, called for a "concurrent majority" to be required in order to hold statewide office. It says: "The State Legislature shall cause to be enacted a State Constitutional Amendment to add the additional criteria for election to a statewide office to include the majority vote of the counties with each individual county being assigned one vote allocated to the popular majority vote winner of each individual county."

A berserk Texas GOP proposal would end any hope of a Democrat winning a statewide election by requiring candidates to win a majority of counties, thereby creating a statewide electoral college system that used to be enacted in Southern states to maintain segregation, only this time it would be used to maintain GOP power even if it lost the popular vote.

Such a proposal would violate the one person, one vote standard.

[nicopony79]

This just in, in failed power-grab, GOPers attest Ohio Voters will “regret this” and vow to “get you next time, next tiiiime!!”

Live footage from Frank LaRose’s office:

Seriously, LaRose’s statement this morning threatened us with “regretting” our decision. Asshole.

[thegildedbee]

and it's important to remember that we are all part of a larger national voice, one in which the popular will for the presidency is always under threat by the anti-democratic nature of the electoral college. the larger the national numbers, the more pressure exists for a reform like the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact to finally come to pass.

hey my besties who live in red states: id like you to go out and vote anyway.

yeah, the electoral college means your vote doesn't count unless you win your state. it's a terrible undemocratic bullshit system. it's not going to change before this election,* so there isn't much point in complaining about it right now.

if you hold the belief that there's no point in voting because your voice will just be downed out by a chorus of bigotry- chances are other people in your state feel the same way. and because those people are not voting, it's impossible to know how many of you there are. the reason it's important to vote EVEN WHEN YOU KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE is to make this number public.

when the minority in a state still goes out to vote:

- other members of the minority party know they aren't alone in their state. this encourages MORE people to vote in the next election

- the majority candidates are forced to divert some of their campaign resources away from swing states to secure a state they were already going to win

- the minority candidates are encouraged to spend some time campaigning in your state instead of abandoning it as a lost cause

- assuming you also vote in local elections, the minority is more likely to win representatives in the house

- who knows there might be so many of you that you fucking flip it by mistake

there has been a 700% increase in new daily voter registrations in the few days since Biden dropped out of the race.

thousands of people are deciding, right now, that voting is worth it. some of them live in your state. there is going to be a spike in blue votes across the country. this election is going to have the youngest voter turnout in history. this is the best possible time to join them. join us.

what have you got to lose? one afternoon?

[calicojack1718]

Using Our Shared Beliefs About Democracy to Defend It From the Tremendous Damage of Trump's Big Lie

Reading time: 6 minutes Trump lies A LOT. Why is he considered an acceptable and viable candidate when his lies are so damaging to the shared beliefs about democracy that hold us together? How can we counter his lies?

SUMMARY: This post explores how Trump’s incessant lying and election denialism undermine democracy by manipulating shared beliefs. It highlights the insidious nature of Republican laws that suppress votes in Democratic-leaning areas while creating a facade of legitimacy. By invoking core democratic principles—such as the pursuit of a more perfect union and the belief that all people are created…

[robnraged]

Again: What Pisses US voters off for just a week every four years? The Electoral College!

“A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated [tasks].” – Alexander Hamilton, describing the founding fathers’ vision of the Electoral College ~ [I was going to do a piece on Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission, the reason why you have to suck some…

[bananonbinary]

jfc i just saw a "morally grey girlboss" poll and mabel pines was one of the contenders. she's not morally grey she's not a girlboss she's 12 and never makes a single moral decision that's worse than "you have stuff going on but i'm focused on my own problems" what are you fucking talking about

[aunti-christ-ine]

The remedy would be to stop this state-by-state garbage,

and count the whole country as being one state.

All the marbles in one huge jar.

It's so obvious!

Exactly

[wckhamm]

Idk if I have any followers in Ohio but please fucking vote NO on Issue 1 today

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

At your side [End of Season 2]

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[rhad-barks]

everyone abstaining from voting or voting third party because both main candidates are awful are absolutely losing the plot i'm sorry. the two party system is so horribly huge that if you don't vote blue you're basically voting for trump, and it might not seem like it matters when both him and kamala are horrible, it really does. which one do you think will be easier to organize for a better country under: the one who's openly trying to lock the country into a totalitarian regime where as many minorities' rights as possible are stripped away, or the one that is still awful but with a much subtler impact?

under kamala there is a much greater chance we can rise up together and put a stop to israel's genocidal rampage. under trump we will be crushed like bugs. you do not have to support kamala to understand which one is the more survivable choice.

[originalleftist]

America's founding document, written before the Constitution established any of those mechanisms, said that it is a "self-evident" truth that "all men are Created equal".

That statement is itself not entirely democratic- its wording excludes everyone but men (over half the population) from equality, and it's implication of a single divine Creator in some measure marginalizes those of other faiths, or none. And of course the man who wrote that document, Thomas Jefferson, was breaking the promise even as it was written, by holding human beings as property.

But nevertheless, a promise was made at America's founding- all men are created equal. That promise has never yet been kept. But it has never been erased, and it is damn well past time to finally keep it. And keeping that promise REQUIRES democracy- an equal vote for all.

Washington State Republican Party decided this year (2024) they would take a stand against Democracy.

WA GOP meeting in Spokane: "We do not want to be a Democracy. Originally Congressmen were elected by a direct democracy, Senators were elected by their state legislatures, and Presidents are elected by the Electoral Collage. We are devolving into a democracy because Congressmen and Senators are elected by the same pool, a direct democracy. And with the national popular vote coming we are going to be electing our President by a direct democracy too. Bad Idea."

VOTE BLUE

[michaelgovehateblog]

If you're on the fence at all about whether or not you should vote in the upcoming election, or if your mind is pretty made up that you're not going to vote, I absolutely beg of you, please vote. No your one vote probably won't change the course of history and swing the election one way or the other, but if you're considering not voting because you don't think it's important, think about how many other hundreds or thousands of people in your constituency are thinking the same. Those votes collectively can and will impact the result. I understand that the possibilities for pm are all shit, but remember that you're voting for your member of parliament, to represent you, not voting for a prime minister. Look at who the people running in your constituency are and choose whichever of them you most want to represent you in parliament, even if it's not the most tactical vote for getting the Tories out. What's important is that you use your right to vote - voter turnout is always shockingly low, especially with young people, do what you can to help those figures go up and also to have someone you agree with representing you in parliament

[potofsoup]

i love your fourth of july comics every year but this years feels extremely optimistic about biden’s abilities in the face of him letting roe get overturned and funding a gen*cide at worst or letting it happen at best by taking the bare minimum of regulatory action… i mean can he really be trusted at all anymore to do the right thing or act in line with the people’s demands? and how do we know the people behind project 2025 won’t just rig the election again to get in under false pretenses?

Hihi! Thank you for reading and enjoying my July 4th comics every year! I am in a non-US airport en route to a month-long trip in a place with sketchy internet, so sorry in advance for sloppiness in my response (and potentially going radio silent).

But:

I don't think he "let" Roe get overturned, since that was the Supreme Court's overwhelming conservative majority, which really started with Mitch McConnell refusing to approve Obama's appointee and forcing it into a 2016 election issue. The fact that Trump got to appoint 3 Supreme Court Justices is what got us here.

Re: Biden and the Israel/Hamas war ... on the one hand, there's definitely more that he could have done, but on the other hand, they are a whole other country over there. It's Hamas that initiated the Oct 7 attacks and took the hostages. It's Netanyahu and his right-wing government who decided to retaliate to such extreme extent. Biden can talk about how he would really like Netanyahu to stop fighting and step down, but at the end of the day that's not his call, any more than he can stop the Sudan fighting that is near-genocidal either.

So, to come to your question #1: "Can he really be trusted at all anymore to do the right thing or act in line with the people’s demands"?

For me, it's a resounding YES. Guyz, he has passed so much good domestic policies. My spouse works in green energy and the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act halved his anxiety and gave him legitimate hope. The tumblr post I linked to in my comic has links to many of the other great things that Biden has done. Tbh I voted for him in 2020 because "a moldy onion is still better than Trump", and I've been pleasantly surprised. Like how he tried to cancel student loans, the Supreme Court overturned it, and then he came back 6 months later with a different way to do it that didn't lead to a court challenge.

Is he perfect? Hell no. There's tons of stuff that I wish he did more about, or he went further on, but also he's just one guy heading one branch of government who is heading into an election year. (Just like FDR promising not joining WWII, while behind the scenes doing all the Lend-Lease Act stuff). And "the people" have lots of demands, many of them conflicting.

I'd also like to push at the unspoken part of your question... "Can he really be trusted to do the right thing..." compared to whom? Because right now the answer is "compared to Trump." And compared to Trump... I don't even trust Trump to respect the results of a legitimate election. Heck, he might just take his favorite state secrets, sell them to the highest bidder (or just show them off to someone for funzies), and then claim Presidential immunity. A decent Democrat who got stuff done vs someone who probably wants to pardon himself and all his friends and do Project 2025 stuff is not even on the same level. (Do I wish that there was a viable Democratic alternative to Biden? Sure! But who?) Heck, at this point -- imagine if it's Kamala Harris vs. Trump. Who would you vote for?

As for your question #2: "How do we know the people behind project 2025 won’t just rig the election again to get in under false pretenses?"

We don't. But also what can we do besides showing up to vote?

Actually, I need bullet points for this:

The 2022 midterm elections brought in fewer-than-expected election-deniers into crucial electoral offices at the state level, which means that hopefully most state electoral boards will continue to have integrity

Yes, voting is harder but at least we can still vote. So it's about getting out there and getting your vote counted. For some states, it involves waiting in 8 hour lines. For some states, it involves bringing 2 forms of ID. Document. Track. Make sure it's dropped off in a real ballot box and not a fake one. Don't believe messaging that the voting is happening on a different day or location, etc.

A 50.1% majority is easily challenged. A 55% majority, less so. Which means getting people out to vote.

The more people know about and think about the reality of a second Trump term (versus being disappointed by a Biden term), the more they will be motivated to vote against Trump.

Finally, let's be real here: I'm braced for a 2nd Trump term. That said:

I'm still going to go and vote for Biden, because the only way to prevent a 2nd Trump term is to vote.

A Trump term where either the House or Senate is controlled by the Democrats will be *very* different from a clean Republican sweep.

Even with a clean Republican sweep on the federal level, States have so much more power now, and voting the state level stuff will help shore up Democratic goals for the future. States get to draw voting districts however they want. States get to decide on abortion policies. If you live in a deep Red state, there still might be things to vote for that make it easier to live in now, and turn it purple a few elections down the line.

So at the end of the day, it's "Vote AND". Vote and keep living your best life. Vote and tell others about Project 2025. Vote and have hope. Even if Trump wins, at least you'll have voted against him. Vote and stay to build up a progressive wave for the next election.

[ceilidhtransing]

If you hear Republicans speak to other Republicans, you'll hear a lot of them say that they really don't like Trump for whatever reason (many of them aren't fans of the felony convictions, his personal manner, his business dealings, his family life, or whatever else) but that they'll still be voting for him because he'll get them closer to what they ultimately want. They're pragmatic; they don't demand purity in their candidate. They recognise him as their strategic choice so they'll set aside the issues they have with him and vote as a bloc. That's what makes them effective at getting their way. That's how they win elections.

And boy I wish we had more of that attitude on the left. Imagine what we could get done.

[aspecbuddie]

I keep seeing posts that remind me people primarily read fic on laptop which I find ridiculously hard to do most of the time so although this has probably been done before...

(please reblog if you feel like it, I'm curious and have a very small amount of followers 😅😅)