r/politics • u/slaysia • Dec 19 '17

Democrat wins Va. House seat in recount by single vote; creating 50-50 tie in legislature

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/democrat-wins-va-house-seat-in-recount-by-single-vote-creating-50-50-tie-in-legislature/2017/12/19/3ff227ae-e43e-11e7-ab50-621fe0588340_story.html?utm_term=.82f2b85b50fa
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298

u/Dudesan Dec 19 '17

There's a difference between "trying to do good, and occasionally failing", and "trying to do evil, and occasionally succeeding".

Anybody who can't tell the difference between these two approaches has no business voting.

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u/sezit Dec 19 '17

well, I don't think Dems are always pure of heart. But I do think Repubs are 100% selfish, and any suffering caused by their cruelty is unimportant to them.

I saw a tweet the other day that sums it up: "I don't know how to convince you that other people matter."

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u/Spartanfox California Dec 20 '17

I think that's just it though.

The "both sides" crowd takes a binary look at politics. So the Republicans are definitely selfish, and the Democrats are sometimes selfish, so both sides are selfish. Same with corruption (point to the current corruption re: the GOP, someone else points to Chicago for the Democrats..."both sides"), or donors (Koch Brothers for the GOP, Soros for the Democrats, both wealthy billionaires donating to political parties? "Both sides").

It's incredibly simplistic logic that nags at another fault that seems to be pretty prominent, the inability to understand nuance.

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u/PDK01 Dec 19 '17

"I don't know how to convince you that other people matter."

If that's the kind of empathy the bleeding hearts can muster, no wonder they lose as often as they do.

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u/sezit Dec 19 '17

Um, did you see the headline? The majority is seeing the cravenness of the GOP.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '17

[deleted]

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u/FrickinLazerBeams Dec 20 '17

Democrats... keep blithely repeating that anyone who disagrees with them is stupid and racist.

The only way you'd get the idea that democrats do this is if you're watching way too much right wing media.

Some people are actually racist and stupid. That's just reality. People who think the US was better off with slavery? Racists. People who think science is a Chinese hoax? Idiots.

But it's not as if democrats just say this about anybody who disagrees. That's an absurd statement to make. It's the kind of thing a whiny snowflake weakling like Rush Limbaugh would say.

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u/Clarke311 Dec 20 '17

The only way you'd get the idea that democrats do this is if you're watching way too much right wing media.

I mean that's the distinct impression I get scrolling to this point that I'm a selfish piece of shit who is riding my white privilege and my moronic brain cant comprehend that in a system of winners and louses there will be struggle. Sincerely a working class libertarian .

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u/FrickinLazerBeams Dec 20 '17

Then you either have severe difficulty with reading compression, or you're starting out with such a powerful preconceived idea of what people are going to say that you hear what you expected instead of what was actually said.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '17

Occasionally?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 20 '17

The difference is more "trying to to good, and occasionally failing" and "trying to do evil, and generally failing."

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u/tookTHEwrongPILL Dec 19 '17

Still have to remember things like: Obama couldn't get single payer through because of Democrats, not because of Republicans

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u/terriblehuman Dec 20 '17

You’re really missing the point.

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u/tookTHEwrongPILL Dec 20 '17

Assuming I am, would you tell me what the point is?

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u/terriblehuman Dec 20 '17

That despite the flaws of the democrats, they are infinitely better than republicans, given that whenever republicans take power, they get right to work on screwing the poor and the middle class. Democrats at the very least attempt to help their constituents.

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u/tookTHEwrongPILL Dec 20 '17

Then you seem to be missing my point. I'm not going to let you make me feel guilty for not voting for Democrats because 'they try'

I'll either vote third party, or I'll vote for the Challenger and not the incumbent until Democrats stop trying to be conservative.

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u/terriblehuman Dec 20 '17

You’re not changing anything by voting third party. I don’t like the two party system either, but currently our electoral system is structured in a way that only allows for a two party system. There also isn’t a single third party in our country that isn’t batshit insane. Basically your point is that you want someone who you agree with on everything, and that’s just not going to happen, so quit being a child.

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u/tookTHEwrongPILL Dec 20 '17

Is bullying usually effective for you? Can you explain to me how Gary and Jill are more off their rocker than Donald and Hillary?

Gary was on every ballot, Jill was on most of them. They weren't write ins. When you vote for someone, you're telling the party they represent that you approve of that candidate. We have a two party system because that's how most Americans vote. That's the only reason. YOU'RE not changing anything by voting for awful candidates who barely represent you and me better than the current clown in the white House.

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u/PixelBlock Dec 20 '17

Being aware of the flaws in the Democrats' Party is inconvenient, I'm afraid.

0

u/tookTHEwrongPILL Dec 20 '17

Reddit doesn't seem happy that I don't fit into either of our two parties...

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '17

Having different opinions than you isn't the same thing as consciously trying to do evil

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '17

It is when the differing opinion results in millions dying to line the pockets of a few.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '17

Are you referring to socialism or communism? The only 2 political ideologies that have ever had those outcomes.

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u/MiniatureBadger Dec 20 '17

The only 2 political ideologies that have ever had those outcomes.

Counterexamples:

  • Colonialism

  • Imperialism

  • Monarchism (Belgian Congo)

  • Nazism

  • Neoconservatism (the fabricated evidence of WMDs in Iraq and subsequent invasion which killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and made Bush's friends in the MIC even richer)

  • Slave society (e.g. southern US between the invention of the cotton gin and Reconstruction, Brazil until the 1880's, West Indies before abolitionism caught on in Europe)

  • Capitalism if we use your definitions of culpability, because the atrocities of a society can apparently be arbitrarily blamed on its economic system and most of the systems listed above were more captalist than the USSR was socialist.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '17

Capitalism just means private ownership. It isn't a political ideology. It's just private ownership.

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u/MiniatureBadger Dec 20 '17

Socialism means worker's self-ownership. It isn't a political ideology. It's just self-ownership.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '17

You need a state to force the private ownership on the people

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 20 '17

Lol wut?

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u/Kingreaper Dec 20 '17

YOU NEED A STATE TO FORCE THE PRIVATE OWNERSHIP ON THE PEOPLE!

Or, in other words: without some form of governance and law enforcement "I own this land" is meaningless.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 20 '17

Lmao. This is the most ridiculous think I have ever read. You need the government to force what naturally happens without government?

This sub is insane.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '17

Well if this tax bill goes through then capitalism will be added to that list.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '17

Taxes are a government function and nothing to do with capitalism.

You are blaming capitalism for actions the government taxes that you disagree with.

That's just plain illogical.

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u/Boltarrow5 Dec 19 '17

Millions dying has DEFINITELY never occurred under capitalism amirite?

-8

u/[deleted] Dec 19 '17

Not because of capitalism, no.

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u/Boltarrow5 Dec 20 '17

So what qualifies as "killed people" then? Because it was dictatorships that got people killed under communism, not the economic system itself.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '17

It is when your opinion is evil.

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u/Kingreaper Dec 20 '17

Voting on the basis of what gets them money and power while lying to the population isn't "having different opinions".

0

u/clearly_CFM Dec 25 '17

Do you think that republicans are legitimately trying to do evil?

-4

u/Seanay-B Dec 19 '17

Id say the same applies to those who equate persistence in war crimes and undemocratic shenanigans with "trying."