Today I voted Democrat

@dancingtongue That's just....Crraaazzy !!! 😅

@dancingtongue if you voted for an election denier you betrayed your country.

@Ryderbike No. I only vote for rational, pragmatic, problem-solvers -- regardless of party. Not the windmill tilters and conspiracy theory webspinners of both extremes.

@dancingtongue only one side was trying to hang pence. Remember that

@Ryderbike The majority of real Republicans were not either, and neither party is without it's share of wackos with extreme solutions.

@dancingtongue if you voted for any republican that didn’t strongly condemn Jan 6 and and trump election lies, then you betrayed your nation,

@Ryderbike And what part of "rational, pragmatic, problem solver" do you think would conceivably encompass an election denier? Not all Republicans are election-deniers.

@dancingtongue which ones strongly condemned trumps lies ?

@Ryderbike In my state, it is largely unnecessary because they know any ties to Trump is a vote killer. So they focus on the issues and their proposed solutions -- as I once again say: rational, pragmatic problem solvers.

@dancingtongue You can also commit injustice by doing nothing

“All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”

@Ryderbike Or voting straight party lines regardless of the issues and the candidates and demonizing everything the other party does.

@dancingtongue normally I would agree with that comment . But the threat today is very real. You may lose your country. If you think it can’t happen then you’ve never studied history,

@Ryderbike If you read any of my previous posts over the years I think you might get a clue that I have read a little history, lived a little history. The threat is very real, I agree. Voting straight party line -- one side or the other -- is not the way out of that problem; it only escalates the problem. No, neither of us wants Election Deniers or other conspiracy theorists elected, giving them even more power to disrupt and destroy. But blindly tilting the slate to the other party only lends more credence to the conspiracy theorists. Finding the sensible people in the middle who can work together is the only way out.

@dancingtongue you have no choice but to vote against the right wing if you want to keep them from getting the majority in congress.

Look at it as forming an alliance with Stalin to destroy Hitler if you like.

Without that alliance the world would be a very different place,

You’re endangering your nation every time you cast a vote for the republicans of today.

@Ryderbike I have a lot of choices because the ballot was 4-5 pages long this time around, and included everybody and everything from Governor down to local school boards and transit districts, and other allegedly "non-partisan" offices including judges, as well as another handful of direct propositions once again trying to circumvent the legislative process. What really is on trial these days is critical thinking, and I don't just mean that literally in the demonizing of CRT by the right wing. Being an election denier is an important consideration if you are running for Governor (where you have control of the National Guard and law enforcement), Attorney General or District Attorney (where you are head of the legal system), County Recorder (running the elections and assuring their legality and transparency), and Congressional Representatives (counters of election results from the States). And you and I may agree it is a sign of cognitive dissonance that should disqualify a person from holding any office at all -- particularly, say School Boards -- but it is not as critically so. To make the leap to all Republicans being right-wingers who are Election Deniers, or might be -- I have a list of thousands here in my breast pocket -- is to engage in the same fear and hate tactics as the true wacko crazies. You might as well have a simple one-page ballot, where you mark Democrats yes, period, like Hitler, Stalin, and every other current dictator. Not even a no to not accept them. A victory for the right-wing authoritarians; a further defeat for critical thinking and the concept of a demographic representative government in which there is room for disagreement and compromise.

@dancingtongue I am always amazed at the difference between an American ballot and a Canadian ballot. Here in Canada you get a small piece of paper with 4 or 5 names and their party affiliation and are told to pick one.