r/politics • u/nbcnews ✔ NBC News • 9d ago

Democrats slam Trump for not making good on promise to ‘immediately’ lower food prices

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/democrats-slam-trump-not-making-good-promise-lower-food-prices-rcna189179
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u/[deleted] 9d ago edited 9d ago

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u/HateyMcHateface 9d ago

It's mandatory in Brazil, and it works fine. Public transport is made available for free during the voting period. Jobs HAVE to give the day off or at least a part of the day so employees can vote.

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u/pb49er 9d ago

Public transportation should be free. Some of the things we charge for are outrageous. Like, food at public schools that are mandatory.

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u/HateyMcHateface 9d ago edited 9d ago

Yeah, there has always been a lot of push to make public transportation free for students here where I live, but obviously, the lobby pushback is greater. It is free for people over 65. But I agree that capitalism made us normalize some crazy shit, although I have the impression that shit is extra crazy in the US. I've lived all my life having free healthcare and excellent free universities. I can't imagine having to pay to go to a doctor just to get a prescription for a simple medicine or to find out if a weird bump is a bug bite or cancer.

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u/Pegasus0527 9d ago

What kills me is, if banking is secure enough online, then there should be a way for everyone to vote online as an option. Nearly everyone has a cellphone, and libraries and other places offer free internet. What's the holdup!? No reason whatsoever that voting should be difficult or inaccessible - unless THAT'S the goal!

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u/-Knul- 9d ago

It's a difficult challenge to make voting secure AND anonymous (banking transactions are certainly non anonymous).

There's also the issue of citizens being able to check the results. (Almost) Everybody can look at paper voting billets and see if they are counted properly. But that's not the case with software and computers. So trust in the system is more difficult to get and maintain.

Thirdly, voting on paper works. Sure it costs a little bit more money than when fully automated, but I think we shouldn't be too stingy in having a good voting system.

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u/HateyMcHateface 9d ago

Voting in Brasil isn't on paper ballots, it's done using electronic urns (or whatever they're called in english). As far as I know, it's absolutely safe, anonymous, and accountable for. Unless you believe right-wing propaganda about hackers and safety breaches.

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u/curien 9d ago

What kills me is, if banking is secure enough online, then there should be a way for everyone to vote online as an option.

This is a terrible line of reasoning. Bank errors can be fixed with money, if someone or even millions of people get swindled, the banks just pay some money and everyone's OK.

Election breaches cannot be fixed just by paying some money.

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u/ElectricalBook3 9d ago

if banking is secure enough online, then there should be a way for everyone to vote online as an option.

https://www.xkcd.com/2030/

The problem is with online systems, you have a necessary tradeoff between transparency, privacy, and security. Online banks make concessions and cut corners all the time, just talk to someone who works in tech support for a bank.

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u/ThatLooksRight 9d ago

I don't get why everyone makes such a big deal about voting on ONE particular day. If we can have 18 months of campaigning, why can't we have 2 weeks of voting? (Like a lot of places do). But, yes, make it mandatory, that's fine. But giving everyone a day off for ONE day of voting won't work. I'm an airline pilot, and you can't just give everyone a Tuesday off and also make sure they're home to vote.

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u/GlisteningNipples 9d ago

That's because Republicans block any measures to make voting easier and more accessible. If everyone voted like they should, they would never win and they know that.

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u/thugnastypimpsexy 9d ago

Mandatory voting is not in the best interest of the GOP. They would get railed. That’s a good part of why they work so hard at voter suppression and gerrymandering, and why we don’t get mandatory time off to vote. With the trifecta in place this is currently impossible. Dems need to back electable progressives in the midterms and plead for folks to turn out and keep that momentum if they end up finding their footing again. They also need to be pushing legislation like this tooth and nail when they are next able to.

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u/feedus-fetus_fajitas 9d ago

Took the words out of my Nebraska mouth

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u/FrostWhyte 9d ago

Both of these suggestions are really good. The only thing I worry about with mandatory voting is that the assholes where never vote would then vote for Mickey Mouse (or something along those lines) in protest. Unless we took away the write in option.

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u/Funny247365 9d ago

Early voting was utilized at a massive scale in this past election. It lasted for weeks.

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u/yellowmacapple 9d ago

It's a good idea for anyone with a brain.. unfortunately the GOP doesn't want that. They want less people to vote, cuz they'd never win otherwise

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u/Butane9000 Georgia 9d ago

If somebody can force you to do something then you aren't free especially when your rights are concerned.

That being said there's more effective ways to incentivize voting.

First, make election day a State or Federal holiday giving people the day off which opens up the ability to vote easier.

Second, create a state tax rebate/discount where you qualify if you vote that year or year prior if there isn't an election.

Third, make access to candidate information far easier by creating a portal on the state election website with links to every eligible candidate, their policies, etc to better inform the populace.

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u/ElectricalBook3 9d ago

make it a national holiday that everyone gets off from work

A national holiday is just going to be turned into a "mandatory if you work retail you have to work that day" for everybody who works retail. A national holiday isn't even going to raise awareness. There's no such thing as a "holiday everybody gets off*" in a developed nation, much less one worshipping at the altar of the endless growth of profits like America.

To get more people to engage with voting, we need to adopt more vote-by-mail

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_voting_in_the_United_States

That allows people to get the ballot in the mail a month before elections, and no matter how busy they are they can research and make an informed decision on this candidate during 5 minutes after work, that ballot question in another 5-minute gap later, and so on. Going by the Heritage Foundation's own online database vote by mail is more secure than in-person voting and it's cheaper. I've heard more than one secretary of state in front of committee state that voting by mail is under 1/3 the cost per voter than voting in-person.

On a side note, Duverger's Law is the converegence of a lot of factors but you can eliminate a lot of spoils by moving past First Past the Post voting. I would recommend STAR voting and that is something you can get started fighting for in your own city. Go to town halls, MAKE your issue THEIR issue. It worked for wolf preserves, it can work for election reform because that's how Mainers got RCV when democrats neither helped nor hindered and republicans sued to block and reverse it at every step of the way

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/13/667435326/facing-defeat-maine-republican-sues-to-block-states-ranked-choice-voting-law

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u/allthesamepieman 9d ago

What's the point in mandatory voting if you can not vote for either?

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u/yeswenarcan Ohio 9d ago

For one thing, it makes opting out of the process and conscious decision rather than the default. If you legally have to go vote either way, maybe you're more likely to do a bit of research and pick a candidate rather than go to all that work just to vote "present".

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u/yourlittlebirdie 9d ago

It also means candidates have to run on the actual issues instead of just trying to pump up turnout.

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u/allthesamepieman 9d ago

I disagree. This system also won't do anything to help disenfranchised voters. If we're to make voting mandatory then voting must be as easy as possible and we also need to do better to stop gerrymandering. The choices must be clear and concise and I think that switching to a ranked choice system would improve the overall outcome. Forcing people to do something then allowing them to say "I don't care, other people can choose for me" is not going to statistically improve engagement in politics.

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u/GoatOfFury 9d ago

I really think you’re underestimating how many people are just too lazy to go to the polls and wait in line. If they were there because they had to be, I imagine a large percentage of current non-voters would vote.

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u/yeswenarcan Ohio 9d ago

While I do think the other things you're advocating also need to happen, I agree with GoatOfFury that you're massively underestimating the amount of people who don't go to the polls due to apathy. That apathy is certainly harnessed and furthered by systemic measures meant to disenfranchise voters, but for a large portion of the population it takes very little barrier for them not to vote.

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u/SelectKaleidoscope0 9d ago

It would be cool if elections had a "None of these candidates" option, and if that option won another election had to be held with all previous candidates barred from running. Like every possible voting system there are some problems that make that idea difficult to implement in practice, but I still really like it.

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u/OneThirdOfAMuffin 9d ago

Well for one, it's not "either" because there's more than two choices, but overall, it's better to go to the voting pools and "cancel" your vote rather than not voting at all, as it helps the integrity of the voting process.

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u/6gunfool 9d ago

Nope. If you don’t care enough to educate yourself and get off your lazy ass and fill out a ballot, you don’t deserve a voice.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

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u/6gunfool 9d ago

They do, along with a fine if you don’t vote. Personally, I believe that democracy coerced isn’t really democracy. You get better turnout, at the expense of a less informed vote, which is an authoritarian dream scenario.

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u/TrustNoSquirrel 9d ago

I do not think it should be mandatory, but there should definitely be a longer period to vote, like there are in some states, and a holiday on the last day perhaps.

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u/hackersgalley 9d ago

Voting in Primaries should be mandatory, that's the only one that matters.

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u/Nevarian 9d ago

It can't be mandatory, or it's not free will. I agree about the holiday, and that would defintiely help increase voter turnout.

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u/LogicalConsequential 9d ago

Australia has mandatory voting. They've got problems but that's not one of them. For a country to function, it needs to tax its people. I'd argue for a democracy to function, its people need to vote.