I decided against continuing the convo you are replying to because it felt like the other person and I had both explained our points of view and anything further might feel like trying to convince them to adopt mine but I had wanted to bring up primaries.
Doesn’t this same thing play out in the primaries? Otherwise how could the lesser evil stay evil?
It can happen in primaries too, yes. But if your preferred candidate loses the primary, you can still vote for the candidate who does win the primary in the general election, so it is generally safer to voice your real opinion in the primaries rather than vote strategically.
I guess what I don’t understand is how the candidates in the general election can be so unpalatable if the primaries are the place where people can ask for what they really want.
Because the Democrats spend more time fighting leftists, then they do fighting the Republicans. Check out the recent DSA elections: Democrats spent a bunch of time and energy fighting against them.
Additionally, the Democrats fight tooth and nail to keep third parties off of the ballots. They also spend a bunch of effort saying that things like “not bombing kids” or “medicare for all” are unreasonable, or unrealistic, to keep people from thinking that 3rd parties are viable.
I can see why my wording was confusing when taken out of context. If you go up a few levels you can see that we are saying the same thing. Or at least I think?
I asked when do people get to push back against the lesser evil, and someone said the primaries. What you were responding to here was me saying I don’t see how that’s possibly true if the primaries keep spitting out people who have no interest in being even slightly less evil.
A lot of people like liberal candidates over leftist ones, and some vote for liberals in the primaries because they think a leftist would lose the general (voicing your true opinions is safer in the primary, but is only truly safe if your party’s voters would vote for any candidate who wins your primary).
I decided against continuing the convo you are replying to because it felt like the other person and I had both explained our points of view and anything further might feel like trying to convince them to adopt mine but I had wanted to bring up primaries.
Doesn’t this same thing play out in the primaries? Otherwise how could the lesser evil stay evil?
It can happen in primaries too, yes. But if your preferred candidate loses the primary, you can still vote for the candidate who does win the primary in the general election, so it is generally safer to voice your real opinion in the primaries rather than vote strategically.
I guess what I don’t understand is how the candidates in the general election can be so unpalatable if the primaries are the place where people can ask for what they really want.
Because the Democrats spend more time fighting leftists, then they do fighting the Republicans. Check out the recent DSA elections: Democrats spent a bunch of time and energy fighting against them.
Additionally, the Democrats fight tooth and nail to keep third parties off of the ballots. They also spend a bunch of effort saying that things like “not bombing kids” or “medicare for all” are unreasonable, or unrealistic, to keep people from thinking that 3rd parties are viable.
I can see why my wording was confusing when taken out of context. If you go up a few levels you can see that we are saying the same thing. Or at least I think?
I asked when do people get to push back against the lesser evil, and someone said the primaries. What you were responding to here was me saying I don’t see how that’s possibly true if the primaries keep spitting out people who have no interest in being even slightly less evil.
Totally. I was just expanding on what you were pointing out. We are in agreement :)
A lot of people like liberal candidates over leftist ones, and some vote for liberals in the primaries because they think a leftist would lose the general (voicing your true opinions is safer in the primary, but is only truly safe if your party’s voters would vote for any candidate who wins your primary).