That said, I voted for him in the last election, and I will again out of harm reduction. He has improved on policy, but l even if he didn’t, the American people do not get a vote on whether or not to elect a senile President this cycle.

You can have any President you like, as long as he’s senile. If you vote, we’ll get a senile President. If you don’t, we’ll get a senile President.

The question is whether you want senile and gleefully cruel®, or just senile(D). I’ll take just senile.

screm-aAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

  • the_itsb [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    4 months ago

    One of them linked the Wikipedia article about Perot's campaign and I learned something new:

    Exit polls revealed that 35% of voters would have voted for Perot if they believed he could win. Contemporary analysis reveals that Perot could have won the election if the polls prior to the election had shown the candidate with a larger share, preventing the wasted vote mindset. Notably, had Perot won that potential 35% of the popular vote, he would have carried 32 states with 319 electoral votes, more than enough to win the presidency.

    That is so wild to me, I had no idea he had been that successful and that it was only Wasted Vote Mindset that stopped him.

    It reminds me that there was a Perot bumper sticker on the telephone pole outside my childhood home:

    Ross Will Win
    WITH YOUR VOTE!

    • context [fae/faer, fae/faer]
      ·
      4 months ago

      it was only Wasted Vote Mindset that stopped him

      and a concerted media campaign to fabricate that consensus mindset. what a wacky election, i can't imagine a perot presidency. bush sr had the full backing of the cia, of course, and clinton was clearly acceptable, but perot was against the gulf war and what eventually became the rules based order we find ourselves in. he was too much of a liability to imperial ambitions, i think they would have pulled additional shenanigans to prevent him from being elected.

      but this election could be wackier. what happens when enough people think their vote is wasted no matter what?

      • TreadOnMe [none/use name]
        ·
        4 months ago

        I honestly think that Perot (whose politics outside of his anti-war stance are just as idiotic and self-serving as every other politicians) gave the DNC and the RNC enough of a scare to lock everything down and ensure that a third party would never even taste national election success again.