This isn’t even just an US American issue. Source: the current governnent of Finland.
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.
Yes, single-issue voters exist. For many, just saying that you’re anti-abortion is enough.
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”.
All Americans are free to do so.
I’d never vote for a fucking pigeon.
I’d vote for a dead pigeon before I’d vote for a Republican. At least a dead pigeon can’t write bad legislation.
Wanna do a double Dutch rudder?
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…
Yup. They find the button that says “select all” and matches their party.
That might as well be how it is with how things are. The party leaders decide who gets to run and everyone just votes for their one party candidate regardless of how shit they are.
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.
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.
We 1000% need pluralistic representation rather than winner takes all, but that won’t happen until Reconstruction 2.0, I fear.
