• Jesus@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Republicans aren’t better for the the economy, they’re better at telling people they’re better for the economy.

      The public doesn’t grock a long or nuanced list of economic policies. This is a painful lesson that the democrats never seam to learn.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Well, to be fair, that graph only looks like that because the Dems always seem to inherit a dogshit economy that’s been destroyed by conservative policies, then the Republicans inherit a strong economy before destroying it.

      • veni_vedi_veni@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Yup, unfortunately people don’t understand that policies only change the equilibrium, but sometimes take longer than electoral cycles to see effect.

        That’s why no party really gives a shit about bringing down the national debt, because twofold:

        • people hate you in your term because that’s less money being spent for their benefit now
        • the opposition can have more spending room to provide more benefits in their term, making them more popular.
        • OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip
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          5 hours ago

          The Republicans will never reduce the debt because the only cuts that would make a difference are the ones that are the most popular with their voters. Couple that with tax cuts and the math just doesn’t work for deficit and debt reduction with a Republican government.

          Are they going to cut Social Security? No, too many older voters that depend on that income. Medicare? Nope, same thing.

          Will they cut the military? Of course not, they wouldn’t be able to virtue signal about how patriotic they are.

          They’ll surely cut the education and IRS budgets, but the education cuts wouldn’t make a significant difference and the IRS cuts actually increase deficits because then the IRS can’t go after the rich.

          The Democrats wouldn’t cut any of those things either, but if the Democrats increased taxes for top earners and top-earning corporations, and implemented a wealth tax, the increased revenue actually could reduce the deficit.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      What’s worse is that the public is so fucking moronic that they EVER believe a word of it. It would be impossible to underestimate how stupid voters are. Honestly. They only surpass their stupidity with their selfishness

      • Baggins@feddit.uk
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        6 hours ago

        But when I suggested that perhaps we need to make sure people are mentally fit to vote, I’m a nazi. Keep letting the idiots vote and we’ll always be stuck with the lowest common denominator.

        • kameecoding@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          Because any sort of goodwill attempt to eliminate people from voting will just increase the chance of it being abused by said nazis, well fascists, because nazis were the fascists from germany.

          Also fun fact, like many things IQ tests have a history rooted in racism, so if your plan was to use that then bad luck.

          Fun fact number #2 the likes of Trump, Orbán (HUN), Fico (SVK) almost always win because of a low voter turnout.

          The previous US election had what, 20 million more voters and surprise surprise, Trump lost.

          Extremists are always a passionate vocal minority the more you restrict who can vote the easier time they have to take over the election.

          If anything suggesting fines for not voting is a far less dumb idea than the shit you just said.

          • Shard@lemmy.world
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            1 hour ago

            Fines sound like a good idea.

            After all, if you live in a democracy, voting is not just a right, its a responsibility. You fail to meet your responsibilities, believe it or not, fine.

            • kameecoding@lemmy.world
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              37 minutes ago

              The duty to vote in Belgium belongs to all adult Belgians. EU citizens can vote in European and municipal elections. Other foreigners have local voting rights when they have lived in the country for more than five years. Attendance is compulsory for Belgians in Belgium, not doing so results in a fine, 3 fines equals the loss of civil rights.

              It can be done, but I was also part of an election oversight or whatever committee, we counted votes and stuff. One of the things we did was we took a vote urn to the local retirement home and well I witnessed what happened when voting is mandatory. In the past It was mandatory in our country as it was part of the eastern bloc and this man just took the first paper, not even reading which party he voted for and just put it in the envelope and voted that way.

              So there are definitely downsides to trying to encourage voting too.

        • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          I might know which user said that to you. I had a run in like that too. They kept telling how I was objectively a fascist for agreeing with the sentiment – was explicitly explaining that I am not sure how you would implement it precisely, but that it was understandable. NO ITS fAsCisT and UnCoNsTitUtIoNaL!!!