cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22680392
Thinking of red states vs blue states is busted. Plenty of good visualizations of this over the years, but this election in particular feels really important to point out “We” did not chose this.
When I say we I mean registered US voters, but even less so citizens, and even less so again residents.
Even of the voters who did vote for the GOP candidate, who can say how many really wanted him or his policies vs they just didn’t want more of the status quo Dems.
The popular vote tallies in this graphic are out of date too, He definitely didn’t win in a landslide the way it can appear with red and blue maps. His win in the popular vote was also pretty small now that more votes have been counted. https://www.thenation.com/…/donald-trump-vote-margin…/
So, what if Biden used broad immunity SCOTUS granted to declare a crisis of democracy - That between massive disinformation campaigns by enemies both foreign and domestic, voter suppression, as well as many other factors, the will of the people can’t be discerned from our recent presidential election. That it would be a dereliction of duty both to the people and to his oath to defend the constitution to hand over power to someone whose clear and declared intent is abuse the power of the office to fundamentally reshape or demolish our republic based on this highly suspect and incomplete result (remember, most people didn’t even vote)
Here is my off the cuff proposal for what to do after that
A new election, everyone must vote. Trump and Harris on the ballot, but each major party must offer 2 candidates, and we’re using Ranked Choice Voting. 1st place gets presidency, 2nd place gets VP.
Biden almost certainly won’t do anything like this. He is clearly a coward with a stupid sense of optimism - a “things will be just fine, no need for any drastic measures” ever, mentality, and despite some rhetoric has shown no signs that he thinks there is anything to actually be concerned about from the party which has veered hard towards fascism. But, hey, a guy can dream.
You’re proposing that Biden do the very thing you claim to loathe. You’re proposing he engage in the behavior you suspect trump may engage in. Do you realize how unhinged your statements are? Invalidating an election would be the end of American democracy. Forcing people to vote who chose to abstain would be the end of American liberty. You want to do something because you’re afraid it might be done. This was the election. These are the choices people made. Proposing radical responses because you didn’t like the outcome puts you in the same category as the January 6th insurrectionists from 2020.
I agree with most of your points, but mandatory voting is not anti-freedom in my book. Plenty of places have it (Australia for example) and people can always choose to invalidate their ballot if they don’t want to make a choice.
You need more then two parties for that to work. What happens if you get more spoiled ballots then anything else? Maybe no president for 4 years?
The candidate with the most unspoiled ballots wins…
It’s also literally never happened in the entire history of Australia. There’s usually about 10% “informal” votes (spoiled ballots in your parlance).
Except the difference is that the january 6th insurrectionists were too dumb to see what trump is. This time around, its the non-insurrectionsists who are too dumb.
On a more serious, but equally true, note: youre literally just rehashing the paradox of tolerism which has already been solved. If party A is going to do something, then party B should be able to do that too. Republicans are going to abuse power regaurdless of whether democrats do. At best, to argue that democrats should control themselves to not tempt republicans is victim blaming and makes you a republican apologist, at worst you are sealioning and are actually just a republican.
You’re delusional