febra

Oh the paradox of the third party. They're too weak to make a dent, but also the root of all evil. This sounds like fascism to me.

If they're so harmless, then why do you care if a very small portion of the electorate votes for them? After all it won't make a dent, right? :)

If they make such a big dent that the democratic party needs to run smear campaigns against them, then how come they're so harmless and underrepresented?

To me it looks like you have a dysfunctional system. They are popular enough to be voted by a huge chunk of the electorate, thus hurting the big legacy parties, but your system is built in such a way that they end up being underrepresented at the national level.

Because people are clearly unhappy with the democratic party, so there's obviously a market for it. People that would've otherwise stayed home instead of voting for the democrats now have a voice. That's what democracy looks like, at least in most European countries that is. It's fairly normal to see smaller parties pop up that better represent a subsection of the electorate than to see huge monolithic parties that try to encompass everything.

Why don't democrats invest in actually bringing people to their movement instead of wasting their time on shitting on 3rd parties? Let people vote who they want to vote for, and who they feel voices their opinions the best. That's what democracy is at the end of the day.

Maybe there was a Ukrainian commander in there or something using the other patients in the hospital as human shields.

This is sarcasm obviously. Civilians should always be protected

As we all know, only brown people can be human shields and fair game as collateral damage.

It's just a special military operation. Russia does it too. It's okay

I think the dems should rather focus on actually making good policy that mobilizes people to go out and vote rather than try to kick political opponents off the ballot (which is fairly undemocratic)

I find it hilarious how democrats would rather go on a pathetic smear campaign against Jill Stein instead of actually making real concessions and bringing people back to vote for Kamala. I, as a European, hope your democracy works exactly as designed. Maybe you'll wake up that way.

Thanks for pointing out the “Persilscheine”. Despite the tremendous amount of “Nazis evil”-content in school, especially in history classes, this wasn’t a topic. An educational gap I’m eager to fill soon.

Persilscheine are barely scratching the surface. They're honestly the "paradebeispiel" of failed German denazification. Germany had full on SA NSDAP members in government in its first government after WW2. I invite you to read more on Theodor Oberländer. Actually, I invite you to read more on everyone involved in German politics up until the 80s, especially German diplomats. Most of them have some very, very disturbing skeletons in their closets, the people we praise as the founders of German democracy nowadays.

You’ll probably notice as well that this was a rather minor phrasing. No, I don't. I do watch most of the conferences, "generaldebatten", and speeches given by members of our parliament, and especially members of our government. I also religiously watch all of our Regierungspressekonferenzen. For someone like me, that has had family members die in german concentration camps, that's the last kind of rhetoric and wording I want to hear from a German. I couldn't care less what her intentions are. Her right to go with that kind of wording has been lost 80 years ago.

Most progress was achieved in domestic affairs. I have issued way too many "freedom of information act" requests through Frag den Staat at this point and I'm still waiting for this government to enshrine LGBT protections in our constitution (https://fragdenstaat.de/koalitionstracker/ampelkoalition-2021/vorhaben/gleichbehandlungsartikel-im-grundgesetz-reformieren/). But our state is somehow more concerned with helping neonazis march under police protection behind pride parades to intimidate the queer community, the same community that has been historically ravaged and exterminated by the Nazis not even a few generations ago.

I have voted for the greens. I will never vote for them ever again. I'm tired of the bullshit they've been spewing, especially lately. I voted for a progressive agenda, not for our foreign minister to lie about Palestinian deaths, and her goons downplaying it. I'm tired of her virtue signalling and her """feminist""" foreign policy on which she very, very selectively delivers. I'm tired of our minister of education and research trying to cut funding to scientists criticizing police violence on campuses, actively trying to suppress them. I'm tired of our chancellor talking about mass deportations. These are things a German should absolutely never do, let alone so called progressive ones. I haven't voted for AfD light, and I surely haven't voted for them to normalize far-right ideas.

Bit by bit, Taiwan will be slowly sold off to China once they no longer hold the last thing that made them worthy of Western protection. Of course, there will be some harsh words of condemnation, but that's it. That's my theory. Sad but true.

Then I guess y'all should starting reworking how your system works, because it doesn't sound like a democracy at all if you can't vote for what you actually believe in.

The fire has started in 1948.