With apologies to our many friends and posters outside the United States... it's time for another one of these! Culture war thread rules apply, and you are permitted to openly advocate for or against an issue or candidate on the ballot (if you clearly identify which ballot, and can do so without knocking down any strawmen along the way). "Small-scale" questions and answers are also permitted if you refrain from shitposting or being otherwise insulting to others here. Please keep the spirit of the law--this is a discussion forum!--carefully in mind.
If you're a U.S. citizen with voting rights, your polling place can reportedly be located here.
If you're still researching issues, Ballotpedia is usually reasonably helpful.
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Notes -
A victory for democracy, a defeat for Our Democracy
Last night was a referendum on Our Democracy. They lost, and democracy won.
Donald Trump isn't popular, and many, if not most, of the people who voted for him did so with many concerns about his character. Kamala Harris has neither character or principles, and was truly an empty pantsuit representing Our Democracy.
The idea of democracy comes from an understanding of human interaction. Corrupt men can become powerful, and power can corrupt men. Groups are subject to groupthink, and institutions can be captured by a committed minority. Men, in groups, become a herd. Since we must have institutions and powerful men, we subjugate them to the ballot. Every man may cast one ballot, in secret and in private, free from external influence of anything other than his conscience and his God.
Last night, fifty percent of us did exactly that. They lied to us (Steele dossier) and censored the truth (Hunter Biden's laptop). They used their institutional power to put a thumb on the scale for their chosen candidate. We cast out the representative of the institutions, we rejected the consensus they tried to build, and put in place a man who will tear down these institutions.
It's democracy in action.
Unfortunately, it's a defeat for Our Democracy. One of my formative memories of 2016 was a video of a young woman angrily screaming "I am educated! I have a college degree!" at a Trump parade. Our Democracy has a competing understanding of human interaction. Men are inherently selfish and misguided animals, and it is the institutions that humanize him. People should be part of a community and a consensus. Those who respond to the consensus should be granted honors (such as degrees) and roles in the institutions, and people should respect these institutions*. If the institutions are responsive to the community, they have the right to shape the consensus.
I find many believers in Our Democracy aren't bothered by the FBI censoring the laptop, the lies they put out, the softball interviews of their candidate and the media and the tech companies putting their thumb on the scale. That's just Our Democracy in action, the institutions are showing their worth by defending us against Trump.
Our job as citizens isn't to follow our reason and our conscience, accountable to none other than our Creator. Our job is to respond to the consensus, and show up on election day to "make our voices heard" and legitimize the consensus through the institution of voting.
The vote might be Democracy, but the vote is just a part of Our Democracy. The institutions and the consensus they shape are part of Our Democracy, and when the leaders do not respect the institutions or the social consensus, they become Not My President. Just because they won the vote doesn't mean they won Our Democracy, and the institutions have the right to oppose the winner on behalf of the consensus.
Expect a lot of Our Democracy in action in the next four years.
I think that also came out in those ads and texts about "your friends can see whether you dated" or the like "Men, women won't want you unless you're a voter, and she can check" stuff. Our Democracy assumed that anyone engaged in the civic process for the sake of their peers would be on the side of Our Democracy. They could not understand that the social pressure to vote may actually involve the exercise of democracy against Our Democracy.
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