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Dear Motte, please help me place my vote.
I really want to support the Democratic Party. Biden's FTC, EPA, and NLRB all seem to be working in economic directions which will make my life and the life of my children better: open markets, cleaner air, better working conditions. I can't help but notice that Trump's previous court picks tend to work against my goals of regulating business, increasing vacation time for my family, and limiting the EPA's attempts to regulate fossil fuels.
But voting blue has some tradeoffs. Some of these I'm aware of, but they are less relevant to me: Immigration is high and crime is up, but immigration and crime are intensely local, and my locality is pretty safe, with lots of rich donors and its own competent police force.
I'm going to have a family soon. I would like my child to be able to enjoy a carefree childhood, without needles in the parks and bullies in the schools, and without the chance that they are brainwashed into values that won't give me grandchildren.
But then things happen which force me to reevaluate and acknowledge that I cannot support the Democratic party. For example, this exchange during the VP debate (Transcript from Matt Taibbi):
Matt makes the argument that Walz got the crowded theater analogy backwards, but even more than that what rings alarm bells in my head is the phrase "Or hate speech."
What do you mean hate speech isn't protected by the first amendment? How do you think the market of ideas is going to work?
This exchange was the last straw for me, and convinced me that, however much it may harm my short-term personal interests, I cannot cast a ballot for Walz and the group of people who think like him. No matter how shitty life might get without the EPA or FTC working in my best interest, it will get much more shitty, much faster if donors to the Democratic party (NPR listeners?) get to define contrarian thought as "hate speech".
So here are my options for presidential tickets:
Any ideas who has the most "Grey Tribe" values and best policies?
Important issues to me, in order of importance as far as I can tell:
Edit: formatting of candidate list
I'm an enemy of American state, as in, I see American national interests as directly harming my interests( I live in Europe, the wars, the economic terrorism, the NGO operations, the endless lies ).
Even I wouldn't recommend people vote for Kamala because again, Americans are people too, America used to be great before FDR ruined it, and seeing this happening to a once great nation is just horrible. It's a disgrace, and the Uniparty simply has to go. Also Trump might re-orient America from supporting infinity migration, which could help Europe too. I don't believe for a second he'd leave NATO though.
Also, if you care about those things you listed, you should never vote for Kamala. She doesn't have any good people behind her - her inner circle are corrupt idiots. She'd make an even bigger mess of things than Biden's admin, and it'd probably ensure either a revolt (if she packed the court) or total GOP dominance later on.
Even some democrat senators are now running pro-Trump ads. The rumor is party leadership has made peace with him winning, and they're going to just to try to ruin his administration with any and all means after november.
The off-the-reservation British Shakespeare scholar turned politologist the half-Welsh, half-Persian Neema Parvini (radicalised by Blair) has been saying since late july that Kamala is a 'jobber', which is a wrestling term. She's not a candidate the party expects to win.. They couldn't find a good candidate, so they let Trump win, ruin his presidency as much as possible and then run Newsom or someone else in '28.
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