[kortilla]

“It’s not that complicated. Give up your principles for short term house cleaning.”

People with strong political beliefs are going to turn their head to keep their side in power rather than put someone in power that will push policies they are fundamentally against.

Blagojevich was not replaced by a Republican.

At this point presidential elections are won by getting members of the other side to stay home. So encourage young people to get out and vote if you want a Democrat. Don’t waste your breath telling someone who cares about gun rights to vote for a Democrat.

[rfrey]

What kind of reply is that? Nevermind the questionable style of making up a sentence and putting it in quotation marks, what about the comment you're replying to suggests giving up any principles?

[kortilla]

You cannot vote for someone in a representative democracy that will enact things against your principles. Voting Democrat, regardless of the quality of character of the representative, would be a betrayal of principles for the people who believe things like “abortion is murder”.

The made up quotation is a style designed to illustrate how dumb of a suggestion that is to people who vote on single issues.

It’s how single issue voters think regardless of Democrat/Republican. They ignore the representative’s moral failings and pick the one that will execute their policy desires.

[pjc50]

People who believe that rights for guns justifies electing a kleptocracy deserve the kleptocracy.

[pear01]

Why are you appending a sentence I never said within your quote of my position?

Your comment reads like you are arguing with yourself. I never suggested anything to the contrary of much of what you write, so frankly I have no idea what point you are trying to make. I suggest you re-read my comment in full as I think we are predominantly in agreement.

[kortilla]

You suggested voting for a Democrat, which would be a ridiculous betrayal to any single issue voter Republican voting for something like stopping abortion because they think it’s murder.

It’s so ridiculous on its face that I put in quotes what would be running through any single-issue voter’s head when they would hear a suggestion to vote for a different policy platform to oust a representative. You might as well ask a Bernie supporter to vote in Ron Paul.

It’s a rhetorical mockery device.

[pear01]

I wasn't talking to single issue republicans... I didn't take the OP to be one, and I (like you) would not waste much time on one.

The point I was trying to make is Democrats can elect and nominate better candidates. But let's also not forget, single issue Republicans are not the only problem.

Institutional or single issue Democrats are also the problem. The biggest problem with Democrats is the DNC. The same people who lied to you about Biden's fitness for a second term are by and large still there. They still want your money. The DNC uses the Trump fear to escape accountability for its failures at every turn. The losers who have lost to this man for about a decade now are still there.

So I think we are in agreement, but I would add the reason more young people and independents need to vote is to replace the power structure on both sides of the aisle, not merely the one in power today. This is not "both sides", rather two things can be true. An institutional Democrat can be better than what we have today, but I think history has shown in the long run it is not good enough. What comes after this from the right in the near future may be far worse. Do not underestimate the ability for a future nominee to make the current president look like a saint... recall when people thought Bush II was a low point. It can happen again. If we keep electing mediocre Democrats, I believe it will.

Thank you for clarifying your comment, I appreciate you coming back to do that.

[Supermancho]

It's a common HN convention to read:

"this is an interpretion"

> this is a quote

Hopefully this clears things up.

[gus_massa]

Is it common in HN? I've seen it elsewhere, but I realy hate it. I prefer:

fake quote> If I use triple quotes, enything is valid.

[Supermancho]

> Is it common in HN?

This is demonstrable via cntrl-F

I don't know what you are trying to say with the rest.

[gus_massa]

I agree that most quotes in HN use >

I really hate when people use " for interpretations, most of the times they are strawmen.

When I really really need to use a paraphrase, I make it super obvious, to avoid any possible confusion.