This isn’t even just an US American issue. Source: the current governnent of Finland.
Do most Americans vote just based on name recognizing without any thinking of the platform? Or pigeon hole a candidate to one issue and vote for them? Even if that issue is way against beliefs?
Submitted 2 weeks ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
kettuli@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
BeelzebubEiNukuKoskaan@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
A few days, maybe a week ago, my uncle said, in desperation, “but they promised to fix the fuel prices!” Without thinking I sort of muttered to myself, “and you believed them like a fucking moron.” Good thing I’m a bit bigger than him, I’m pretty sure he would have punched me if I were any smaller lol.
kettuli@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I live such a sheltered life, I don’t have these kinds of events in my life.
DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I’m going to go with ‘yes’ based on an interaction with someone I knew during Trumps first term. She told me she’d voted for him so I asked “Why? You’re working class, female and Mexican. You’re literally everything he loudly hates and will actively be against your best interests”. She said “Because he said he was going to fix taxes”.
Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
the_q@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Imagine the dumbest person you know… Millions of voters are dumber than that person. Millions. Why do you think so much money is spent on mud slinging ads and culture war bullshit?
FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe 2 weeks ago
This is exactly true, but never forget that its by design. It’s not that the majority of humans are hopelessly stupid and only a special few are special and smart enough to vote for who will actually improve their life. The education system in the usa has been intentionally gutted and people are fed propaganda telling them they deserve to be rich but [insert minority here] is ruining things for them. This same thing has either already started happening in many other countries or is being planned. Remember education is the foundation of democracy. Support and protect your schools
IWW4@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Do many people vote on candidaes for all the wrong reasons? YES
BassTurd@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
In the primaries, people will vote for their favorite candidate in the party they’re registered with. In the general, you have two choices and one is usually a Democrat and the other Republican. There are a couple “independents” that have made it through. That’s how it works in a first past the post voting system. At that point you’re likely voting for the lesser of two evils but good candidates can make it through.
It’s a shit system, but some people will abstain because they think that a protest non vote in the general is some way of protesting. The math doesn’t add up and it’s why Trump is president. Too many idiots decided that Kamala wasn’t good enough, even though she was clearly, on all levels, better than Trump. I didn’t love her, but I knew that if she won, the states and the world would be in a better place. You’ll heard those idiots parroting shit about her being pro Isreal, but anyone with half a brain could understand that Trump was going to be far worse for everything, including the Isreal conflict, than Harris.
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
We 1000% need pluralistic representation rather than winner takes all, but that won’t happen until Reconstruction 2.0, I fear.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
My aunt told me that if I get the covid vaccine, it means I support every single thing the government does. A lot of people follow this stupid black and white thinking that says you can’t vote for a candidate without agreeing with them on every single issue
zelahdieliekeis@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Bites. It’s Biden’s mistake in not dropping out early and Kamala’s own faults that lead her to lose an election, not the populace reacting to well documented horrors abroad in predictable ways.
Triasha@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I mean, I’ll never understand letting the psychopath into office as a response to the horror abroad.
QueenHawlSera@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Kamala would have won if she had a penis.
RBWells@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Honestly I generally vote against, not for. There is not usually anyone I feel really good about voting for. So I vote defensively. It hasn’t worked lately.
aramis87@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
You vote for the person you want in office in the primaries, and you vote against the person you don't want in office in the generals.
Fondots@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I registered Republican to vote in their primaries
It’s gonna be a cold day in hell before I vote for one in the generals
But I’m hopeful that I can try to head off the worst of the crazies in the primaries before it gets to the general
Triasha@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Most voters are making their choice based on some combination of inane nonsense and personal greed.
anon_8675309@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Most register either as republicans or democrats and they vote same.
It’s really a team sport.
fratermus@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Do most Americans vote… without any thinking…
Yes. It’s rare for a US citizen to be in a different political party or religious denomination than their parents. <- not happening by accident
Also, most people I try to have good faith discussions with speak solely in soundbites they heard in their favorite news ecosystem. No critical thought occurring at all.
darctones@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Colin Woodard has written several interesting books on this idea through US cultural geography tying back to colonization.
He’s research blog/project is: www.nationhoodlab.org
fratermus@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
What a great site!
I added them to my reading list. It’s not mentioned on the site AFAIK but the RSS feed is https://www.nationhoodlab.org/feed/
charokol@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Guess I have to become MAGA to prove I’m a free thinker
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
It’s hard to predict the whims of the entire public, but generally speaking people will have their one stance/issue that they will not bend on and will vote accordingly rather than weighing the whole platform of the candidate.
IE: Pro-gun advocates, Evangelical Christians, Pro-life & Pro-Choice, LGBTQ+ community members, etc…
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yup. They find the button that says “select all” and matches their party.
myyass@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I would venture to say so. I don’t know many people that have time to research the 50 candidates on the preliminary voting sheet. Then the list is still long on whoever gets on the main ballot. And don’t forget researching the policies you’ll be voting on. Most voters just parrot what they’re told and have no idea what they vote for. And adding in, there’s no repercussions for candidates that state what they represent and then vote against it after being elected.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It depends on which level you’re talking about. At the federal level, there are generally only two meaningful choices, both selected by the wealthy class in this country and placed there to ensure there’s no meaningful change that benefits the poor and working class.
Our only real power is local. Even state-level politics are largely controlled by the rich now.
MantisToboggon@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’d never vote for a fucking pigeon.
BassTurd@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’d vote for a dead pigeon before I’d vote for a Republican. At least a dead pigeon can’t write bad legislation.
MantisToboggon@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Wanna do a double Dutch rudder?
Treczoks@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
What choice do they have, literally. First past the post voting automatically leads to a two party system, and if you are not booked to one side, you have to choose your candidate based on some metric.
agent_nycto@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It certainly can seem like that, but the biggest problem is our voting system makes it work like that.
With a winner takes all voting system, and only two effective parties in power, everyone is basically stuck with “horrible monster who wants to kill everything in know and love” and “someone close to what I want kinda”.
So people tend to vote among party lines because that’s all they can do.
For example, where I live, both candidates have been anti trans. One’s way worse about it and the other is, in my opinion, probably just saying some rhetoric to try to appeal to some voting base she normally can’t reach. So I am going to have to choose the lesser of two evils, because the person running against her is from a party that actively wants to exterminate trans people, even though the other candidate sucks.
In short, Americans don’t vote for, they vote against.
Space_Cowboy92@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I mean we unironically allow (Christian) churches to act as polling locations for the majority of the US and hardly anyone I know sees an issue with that. We aren’t a nation of very smart people.
Forester@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
Oh you sweet summer child
YouTalkinToMe@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
uhhh…I like money
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
All Americans are free to do so.
warbond@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yes, single-issue voters exist. For many, just saying that you’re anti-abortion is enough.
dan1101@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Or pro gun. I know many people that would never vote Democrat because of guns.
a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Or anti-minority. Actually, I think most of the other issues are smokes green these days for people who just hate minorities.
QueenHawlSera@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
I used to be anti-abortion, but then Republicans kept trying to say what I could do with my body while denying me healthcare coverage and I’m like… “Damn this must be what ciswomen go through.”
neatchee@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Yup. Bodily autonomy is non-negotiable. Abortions should be legal for the same reason organ donation is opt-in, not opt-out. Nobody, fetus or otherwise, has a right to the use of your body without your ongoing consent.
Once you’ve donated something you cannot take it back, sure, but you cannot be forced to continue donating against your will.
Could you imagine if someone argued “you agreed to donate plasma on an ongoing basis, and the recipient needs it to live, so you’re not allowed to stop donating, even if it could kill you”?