Ask Lemmy

Rule 6. Locking.

Edit: Unlocking based on argument that this post is general rather than about the recent US election (OP to edit title). Edit 2: OP has chosen not to edit title. Locking.

1. They don't get to complain because they refused to do the bare minimum.
2. Contribute to the many reasons I had to leave my home country. Not sure it would be different otherwise, but going immigrant without a fallback plan wasn't pleasant.
3. Mandatory voting - I'm for it as long as it's Australian style - no severe punishment, just light fines. Enough to quietly annoy people into voting.

Make them take the "Walk of Shame" like in the GoT.

No fines. Just make it even easier and better process. Mail in ballots and a federal holiday for the Presidential election.

They should shut up about politics. Not voting is literally a declaration that you don't care who governs you. Voting is what gives you the right to complain about the government. If you didn't vote, shut up.

Decisions are made by those that show up. If you didn’t vote, you don’t get to bitch when the results aren’t what you wanted.

Better than voting for who looks the best on TV, or any of the other ways people vote without being fully informed. I'm sometimes forced to leave sections blanks because I cannot find anything about the candidates (I don't know why my state vote on judges, the only way to find out if they any are good is to spend 100% of your time in court rooms, reading decisions, and so on all year)

I'm largely disappointed in them. The one time they were needed the most, they didn't care to show up. Like, you do not have to be knee deep in politics to understand what's at stake and who's running. Take a good solid 30 minutes out of your life, to research and study the candidates, the issues and think of the future of the country's direction if either candidate and their party got voted in.

If they'd do just that, they'd probably have a better understanding. But they didn't do that. They thought the 2024 election was in the bag and feel they didn't need to do their part. Well, the results speak for themselves.

And nothing much more needs to be said or done, they've sentenced themselves to the mess that's to happen a week and a half from now. Just as much as all of the brainwashed and braindead conservatives who actively voted for fascism.

They’re definitely part of the reason why we are where we are. Not the only reason, but definitely a big part of it.

Additionally, I’ll say that their refusal to vote isn’t the protest they think it is. All it did was tell the powers that be that they trust everyone else to choose for them and that they’re fine with whoever wins.

They actively brought about political disaster through idiotic, self-absorbed assholery and they will be licking it up for four long fucking years.

As an anarchist, I respect their decision in the sense that participating in the state is fighting for the state.

I would tell them to vote though, and I myself vote when its needed, to avoid getting utter bastards as 'legitimate' leaders. Here in France it's even easier because I'm not given the choice between only capitalists and fascists, i can vote for light versions of socialists.

I'm against fines, even light ones. If they are not strictly scaled to income, they always strike harder people who are struggling already than richer ones. And even if they do, it's not fair to be forced to participate in a form of politics you don't want.

Perhaps they would feel more inclined to vote if we had more then two viable political parties to choose from.

With a more representative electoral system, people would be free to vote outside the two party system with no spoiler effect. Their vote would count, even if their preference didn’t win.

Who could possibly be against democracy? Republicans? Of course.

How about the democratic party? What is their opinion of democracy? Will they work to ensure their constituents are represented fully? Every day that ticks by without electoral reform in blue states is another day the democrats elevate their party above the needs of the country.

If they wanted a certain outcome but didn't do jacks shit, with almost no exceptions as to why they didn't vote, and complain about it, they are getting absolutely zero, zilch, notta, nothing in the sympathy department from me.

If you got the ability to vote, even if it's for something as minor as what's for dinner, and you don't vote, don't complain because you didn't do anything.

They're no worse than (possibly better than) people who voted for whichever party because their parents/newspaper taught/told them to, or because that's who they always vote for and are too lazy, stubborn, peer pressured or insecure to change - i.e. people who claim to be politically literate but don't actually have a clue what they're really voting for.

People who don’t vote don’t get to complain if things don’t go their way. I mean they can, but it’s pretty silly. It’s like writing a review for a restaurant that your friends have eaten at, but that you haven’t. No one should take that review seriously.

I think voting should be mandatory for people who have registered to vote. I don’t think anyone should be required to register, but if you are registered you should have to vote or be fined, imo.

Should I have thoughts on them?

and what if government tomorrow or (maybe far future) announced that they will be announcing fines for people who didn't vote in order to maximize participation, would you agree with that decision?

I don't care. Popular vote doesn't get presidents elected, and nobody local ever seems both interested and capable of making significant positive changes, at least that I've seen. It largely feels like theater, and in a race you can't influence between two people pledging to continue genocide I can see why people would throw their hands up and say fuck everything.

Lazy idiots, misguided idiots, deluded idiots who have made every progressive goal more difficult to achieve, just out of reach for the rest of our lives

Quiet contempt, mostly. Their arguments for doing so, while passionate, simply don’t hold up under scrutiny. However, trying to talk to them about it just strengthens their resolve, so I don’t bother.

They can live with Brexit.

They probably couldn't afford to miss a day to work, and they know from experience that neither party is going to do anything to change that.

I don't personally care if someone voted or not, especially this election.

Everyone get's what they asked for. The thing about the ubiquitous trolley problem is it has clear outcomes. That's why it works. Whatever's happening down the track, here we are. We had a lever we didn't pull. Best learn to live with the choice, because there was a choice.