2016 Postmortem

True Blue Door

(2,969 posts)

10. My objection is with the emphasis of the comment.

Sun Jul 6, 2014, 05:36 PM

Jul 2014

The attitude is that citizens are supposed to behave like passive consumers, and it's the fault of some distant authority if we fail to participate. That is extremely destructive.

As citizens, we choose what happens. Even failing to choose is itself a choice: A choice to delegate decisions to the rich and to highly-motivated radicals. That is what the youth vote needs to learn about reality, not that they should treat elections like American Idol.

Rather than trying to get the youth vote enthusiastic for a leader, get them enthusiastic for their own role in politics - for the fact that whether they like it or not, anything they do has consequences for this country. Get them to understand that they don't need to expect a political leader to convince them to be involved: That they are involved no matter what, and their choice is whether they take responsibility for what follows or just delegate their decisions to lobbyists.

How about instead of waging American Idol campaigns, we provide some damn Civics education?

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Highlight:

Exhaustive (and exhausting) list of obstacles to Democratic victory in 2014. [View all] True Blue Door Jul 2014 OP

7. A distracted / priority-incompetent PARTY. Maedhros Jul 2014 #1

Those aren't mutually exclusive. True Blue Door Jul 2014 #5

I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords Kablooie Jul 2014 #2

Yep Cosmocat Jul 2014 #3

10. Candidates who can't enthuse enough voters to vote for them. Erich Bloodaxe BSN Jul 2014 #4

It's not their job to entertain you. True Blue Door Jul 2014 #6

"if your own party doesn't win, then YOU are the problem" winter is coming Jul 2014 #7

My objection is with the emphasis of the comment. True Blue Door Jul 2014 #10

Again, the only person talking about "American Idol" campaigns is you, and the implication winter is coming Jul 2014 #17

Again, you're talking about how they feel rather than what's real. True Blue Door Jul 2014 #18

People vote based on how they feel, not on "reality". winter is coming Jul 2014 #20

Then get them to think about how they feel differently. True Blue Door Jul 2014 #21

Informing potential voters about how policy affects them isn't "pandering". winter is coming Jul 2014 #31

Exactly. So don't do it. True Blue Door Jul 2014 #32

You fail to show citizens' direct influence on the existence of the OP obstacles. ancianita Jul 2014 #22

Excuses to fail as citizens are not important. True Blue Door Jul 2014 #26

Then you naively play semantics, substituting "excuses" for reality. Of course they're important. ancianita Jul 2014 #29

Wow. Just wow. True Blue Door Jul 2014 #33

Entertain? No. It's their job to get elected. Erich Bloodaxe BSN Jul 2014 #8

And it's our job to elect the better candidate. True Blue Door Jul 2014 #11

You were doing quite well until this post. Scuba Jul 2014 #9

That's not constructive criticism. True Blue Door Jul 2014 #12

Are you not capable of self-reflection? Scuba Jul 2014 #13

I'm capable of both receiving and offering constructive criticism. True Blue Door Jul 2014 #15

#'s 8 and 9 especially problematic. You know those 5 lying liar psychopaths on the SCOTUS won't blkmusclmachine Jul 2014 #14

Indeed. True Blue Door Jul 2014 #16

So you admit that near & distant money does overturn citizen activism, I take it. ancianita Jul 2014 #23

Eh? True Blue Door Jul 2014 #24

My continuation of my points made above (#22).'Eh?' sounds a bit disengenuous, considering your big ancianita Jul 2014 #25

Considering that politics is nothing but people relating to each other True Blue Door Jul 2014 #28

Now you're making silly accusations. I described a realistic context that your 'solutions' ignored ancianita Jul 2014 #30

Posted to for later reading. eom. 1StrongBlackMan Jul 2014 #19

Since when are we arguing about WHAT KIND OF ID, instead of NO id required??? randys1 Jul 2014 #27