An Interesting ™ argument I just heard:
I agree. Who cares? That’s your [Americans] system. He’s [Trump] your pick. You don’t get a feel good card for not voting for him. Own it.
(This from a Canadian)
I want your opinions on this. Should all Americans deserve collective responsibility for Trump?
Discuss.
How responsible is an individual being dragged along by a massive bureaucracy driven by an established system, especially when, in addition to the momentum of the bureaucracy, that individual’s impact is lessened by economic or political disparity? A single Koch brother has one vote, but by pumping billions of dollars into the process, he can influence millions of voters. A single black person has one vote, but if they live in a gerrymandered congressional district, their vote may not be worth much at all.
The flaws exposed in our electoral process are perpetuated by a Republican Party that doesn’t care about representing what most Americans want — based on polling, a more progressive agenda overall — and instead only cares about maintaining power. It will take overwhelming support from Democratic voters in 2018 to overcome the effects of gerrymandering, and even then, it’s so severe in some areas that sheer numbers might not get us there, so while voters do bear significant responsibility, there are places in the U.S. where one’s vote truly doesn’t count.
It took generations to get the U.S. where it is today and will likely take a generation (or two) to fix it, and again, that’s only if we can knock Republicans out of power. As long as they control any part of the executive, real change will remain out of reach. And we still have to ask ourselves: do Democrats have the spine to drive systemic change? I, for one, am tired of them reaching across the aisle.
Also, having a few Trump supporters in my family, I can attest that there’s little a liberal can do to influence voters who remain willfully ignorant of facts and have bought into the fear-based platform of the modern GOP. Can we somehow minimize the impact of the stupid voter without causing the same problems we face already?