• Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      6 hours ago

      I think so. The actual rules may vary state to state. But even if it were possible in some state for a party to override a vote it would be an incredibly destructive act. They’d probably lose that election and invite a wholesale fracturing.

      This isn’t a multi party democracy where if your usual party presents an option you don’t like you can just swap to another one with similar policies who might join with them in a parliament for majority building. If the Democrats outright ignore their voters there’s likely no other viable option.

      Even in parliamentary systems I’m really surprised people tolerate party insiders choosing the candidates. Seems like a good system for political insiders to just define what the range of tolerable politics is with little input from voters. But then again, our system has gotten us to this hellhole, so direct voter participation isn’t a reliable protection from political insiders and stagnancy.

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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          5 hours ago

          Organizing a first past the post democracy. If you don’t organize with a primary then you risk having multiple originally similar candidates in a general election and losing to the more unified bloc. The control on who can run under the party’s banner is done by the primary voters. Someone who doesn’t act like a Democrat could try to run, but they’d just lose.

          • Arcanepotato@crazypeople.online
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            5 hours ago

            But how does blue no matter who work? Like most of the time you hear that it’s when the candidate is too right wing and people are asked to look past that because they can win. But what if someone wins the primary but then is like sike actually I am going to eat a puppy every day for lunch. Who decides they went to far for “blue no matter who”?

            • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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              5 hours ago

              VBNMW is just a social campaign to try to keep the party cohesive. The voters individually decide if they follow it. Even in the case of something egregious, it’s probably still better than the alternative though. Senate terms are 6 years and every member is valuable, even if they’re unreliable on some things. We know how Susan Collins will vote and that’s worse than Platner being a bad person.

              In the House of Representatives the terms are only 2 years and each vote is less important, so giving up a seat to the opposition might be worth it to not get saddled with a particularly bad Democrat as an incumbent (incumbents tend to have a big advantage on reelection). My very blue house seat has been stuck with a very conservative Democrat for like 6-8 years now and we’d have been better off if he just lost his first election.

              • Arcanepotato@crazypeople.online
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                4 hours ago

                VBNMW is just a social campaign to try to keep the party cohesive. The voters individually decide if they follow it.

                I understand no one is like, checking who people vote for but I keep seeing people blaming Trump and his policies on those who didn’t vote, or who decided to vote for a 3rd party.

                Even in the case of something egregious, it’s probably still better than the alternative though.

                I feel like I need an analogy here so we don’t get caught up on specifics. Let’s say one party wants to serve mushrooms for dinner and the other one promises no mushrooms, but there will be instant rice. Person A hates mushrooms but doesn’t mind instant rice. They might think people who hate instant rice are over reacting. Person B hates both mushrooms and instant rice. They wonder why person A thinks they should just shut up and eat it instead of having spaghetti, which everyone loves. And someone decided you are only allowed to have two choices. How on earth can that be representative?

                Does the severity of what people are asked to accept just keep increasing over time?

                • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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                  4 hours ago

                  This is in a similar vein as Bill Clinton who had sex with an intern in the presidential office (“consensual” gets pretty fuzzy when one party is an intern and the other is her boss, the president of the United States). The party line then was that we voted for policies not personal morality. And he left office as one of the most popular presidents in modern history.

                  But recently Republicans have just stopped expressing shame (as opposed to apologizing or making excuses) and the media just moves on, so I do think the bar has been dropped and it’s why I don’t think this is necessarily fatal.