2012 US Presidential Election

[Ether's Bane]

I'm not American, or of voting age, but in all honesty, I think I'd vote Romney please don't hate me if I had the choice. No, I don't uphold many of the Republican views, but I want to see what he can do. This is just my general opinion on the Obama presidency, but I think a fair few people voted for him so as to seem accepting and fair, because he would be the first black president, not because he was that much better than McCain. Don't get me wrong, I think Obama is awesome as well, but I don't feel this term was that much of a success.

I think it's mainly because I'm pro-economics at this point, and I think a change is the best thing we can do right now, just in the hope that something works.

And so it begins...

 

[Cerberus87]

I'm not American, or of voting age, but in all honesty, I think I'd vote Romney please don't hate me if I had the choice. No, I don't uphold many of the Republican views, but I want to see what he can do. This is just my general opinion on the Obama presidency, but I think a fair few people voted for him so as to seem accepting and fair, because he would be the first black president, not because he was that much better than McCain. Don't get me wrong, I think Obama is awesome as well, but I don't feel this term was that much of a success.

I think it's mainly because I'm pro-economics at this point, and I think a change is the best thing we can do right now, just in the hope that something works.

I don't need to vote Romney to know he's utter s***.

I do think many of the people who voted for Obama wanted the novelty of having a black president, which in the end doesn't make much difference at all because Obama upholds the views of the Democrats, so the fact he's black is irrelevant. But the Democrats are way better, no contest. It's a shame there's no true left-wing party in the US, or else I'd vote for that if I was American.

 

[Tarvos]

Watching the American elections is like having a contest between a blind and a one-eyed archer.

The one-eyed archer wins because he can actually manage to hit part of the target (thanks to having some eyesight) whereas the blind man's arrows are basically all over the place and dangerous enough to poke people's eyes out.

The one-eyed archer still doesn't really make everything a whole lot better, but since there's no such thing as a capable archer running for Master Archer, well, I guess we have to give the one-eyed the job and hope he hits another few semi-decent targets while we remove the blind man from the archery society and give him some braille to read.

 

[-Chris-]

Does anyone seriously believe that Romney has any chance of winning?

 

[Superbird]

Presumably most of the Republican party.

 

[Datura]

I actually think it's been pretty interesting recently, what with the streak of fuck-ups that Romney has been making.

Right now I'm basically torn between Stein and Obama. I really like Stein but also our political system makes me sad. So I might vote for Obama. Don't know.

You're in Texas! It doesn't matter who you vote for, so you might as well give it to Dr. Stein.

 

[Phantom]

I'm not even following the election this year. I was watching Colbert the other day, saw that Romney suggested that windows should open on jet planes.

My forehead is still red.

I really don't care who gets in... I guess Obama's the lesser of two evils at this point. Isn't that how it always is? You vote for the one you hate less? Stein sounds ok, but I doubt she's going to win, so it's a wasted vote. I'll vote Saxon just to say I did.

 

[Dar]

I'm too young to vote. HUZZAH

We're screwed either way. Same as every year.

 

[Spoon]

It's funny how much changes in four years.

As for the election, I'll probably go with a third party candidate, because I really don't want to vote for choice A or choice B.

 

[Amala]

I'm too young to vote, but if i could I'd vote for Obama. It just makes more sense.

 

[Shiny Grimer]

I'm in a swing state, so even though I'd love to vote for Jill Stein, I'd kick myself if Romney won my state.

 

[Tailsy]

God, your electoral system is so awful it physically hurts to read this thread.

 

[sovram]

I think Dr. Stein wants to abolish the Electoral College and establish an actual popular vote that determines the president?

 

[Tailsy]

Yes, but she'll never get elected. See: every other post in this thread.

 

[Eloi]

I unapologetically support Obama in this election. I absolutely agree with him on his political positions within the context that he is in, and I'm mystified why people would support third party candidates over him, or why people don't like him as much as they did. Am I the only one whose expectations have been exceeded by his actions? He's my favorite president thus far, up there with Jimmy Carter.

 

[sovram]

I unapologetically support Obama in this election. I absolutely agree with him on his political positions within the context that he is in, and I'm mystified why people would support third party candidates over him, or why people don't like him as much as they did. Am I the only one whose expectations have been exceeded by his actions? He's my favorite president thus far, up there with Jimmy Carter.

Obama might generally be better than Romney, and it would super-cool to keep in a black president for a bit longer, but he still drops bombs on little brown children... some people just genuinely can't vote with that on their conscience, and wow just leave them to it.

 

[Seven Synergies]

The sad part is that Romney's politics are irrelevant, seeing as how he's a complete dumbass. That being said, I'm not a big fan of the Republican view of encouraging large businesses with minimal government, but that's probably just from me being raised in a middle class family.

Furthermore, I'd still vote for Barack, just because a couple of the ideas he proposes in his Obamacare bill seem like they would work pretty well, like forcing insurance companies and hospitals to pick up the expenses for a lot of the more basic treatments.

 

[surskitty]

The sad part is that Romney's politics are irrelevant, seeing as how he's a complete dumbass. That being said, I'm not a big fan of the Republican view of encouraging large businesses with minimal government, but that's probably just from me being raised in a middle class family.

Yeah, and the Republican view is just from being filthy rich and trying to become even more rich. I feel like being against people who would rather shit on the rest of the country and just get even more rich is probably the sensible position to have.

Furthermore, I'd still vote for Barack, just because a couple of the ideas he proposes in his Obamacare bill seem like they would work pretty well, like forcing insurance companies and hospitals to pick up the expenses for a lot of the more basic treatments.

Oi, what's with the first name? Particularly in parallel to 'Romney'....

Also, you know Obamacare already got passed, right? It is already in place and has partly taken effect.

 

[Eloi]

Obama might generally be better than Romney, and it would super-cool to keep in a black president for a bit longer, but he still drops bombs on little brown children... some people just genuinely can't vote with that on their conscience, and wow just leave them to it.

You mean continuing the War in Afghanistan instead of just instantly leaving the Northern Alliance by itself? Or are you talking by that incident where a 16-year old, Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi, was (accidentally) killed by a drone, and other civilian causalities?

Yes, civilian causalities are obviously tragic. Yes, warfare is something that systematically abridges the absolute value of human life. Yes, all of the war crimes and torture committed by the constituents of ISAF, especially the United States, is horrendous.

But Obama couldn't have just withdrew. Do you know what that would cause? More lives to be taken in the ensuing conflict between the Northern Alliance and the extremist insurgents, in an even more protracted conflict. Obama didn't start this war. And I don't blame him for not leaving. The United States already made a commitment to overthrow the Taliban, and honestly, due to Operation Cyclone, the United States was what caused them to be in power in the first place. Considering the horrible human rights abuses committed by the Taliban, it would be a grave injustice to allow them to come to power again.

You don't want little brown children to have bombs dropped on them. I don't either. That's why I support a decisive end to the War of the Afghanistan in favor of the party most likely to not abuse the population once in power.

And that's I vote for Obama with a clear conscious.

 

[Minish]

It doesn't matter that you think things like civilian casualties are unpreventable, it still means that some people might not be able to vote for anyone who causes that on a massive scale. Regardless of whether the alternative would do worse, or doing anything else would be apparently worse. The personal distaste for voting for anyone who is a) in the position where those kinds of decisions can be made and b) will do that, can bring someone to be unable to bring themselves to.

I'm mostly talking about people who don't vote at all. Basically, there are good, personal reasons why someone might not want to vote and it's okay.