The two-week temporary ceasefire has done little to quell GOP fears about the war in Iran costing the party seats in November.
Republicans are relieved over Trump’s steps toward reconciliation in Iran — but they worry the measures are too little, too late to save them from a brutal midterm election cycle.
Behind the public celebration by many Republicans of the temporary two-week ceasefire announcement, longtime party operatives continue to warn of a bleak political reality as the cost-of-living concerns around the war including spiking gas prices that are likely to continue for weeks if not longer even if the fragile ceasefire holds.
A person close to the White House, granted anonymity to speak candidly, put it bluntly.
“This war in Iran almost cements the fact that we lose the midterms in November — the Senate and House,” the person said.
Which is why I’ll keep voting third party. I’m not gonna support a party with no spine.
You do you, it’s your vote obviously. I hope you’re in a safely blue state, though; know that any time the republicans win your state / county / town / whatever, you contributed to that outcome.
Never gonna hold my nose to vote. Never gonna vote for “lesser” evil. I vote for who I want to win, regardless of odds. As is my American right.
Sure. Not arguing against the fact that it’s your right to vote for whomever you want. However, if we look at the most recent US election, there were a lot of principled people holding that same belief either abstaining or declining to vote strategically, and now we have Trump. If you were one of those people, thinking you are not in small part responsible for the current administration is refusal to take responsibility for your own actions. Just like it would have been in small part my responsibility if Harris had won and decided to do what Trump is doing now.
I guess the Democrats should have a good enough candidate to offset that.
I guess the Democrats should have a good enough candidate to offset that. I proudly voted third party and will do again in upcoming elections unless the Dems choose AOC to run for president.
Again, that’s fine - you’ve got every right to do that. Is Trump closer to what you want in a president than Harris would have been, do you imagine?
I didn’t vote for either one and they are both equally bad. Yes, let me say that again so you don’t have to try a “gotcha” moment and try to repeat my words back to me. Yes, they are both equally bad. Yes, I think Harris would have done just as badly. Yes, I think both sides suck and in fact, I think they are practically the same.
The Democratic party lost to Trump, twice. Twice. That’s on you all, not me. Maybe the party should come up with a better candidate this time around.
It’s up the Dem party to inspire people to vote for them. the whole “but, but, but it’s not Trump!” strategy didn’t work. Either time. So are they gonna do better this time? Or are they just gonna write some harshly-worded press releases again?
If the Dem party nominates AOC, I’ll vote for them. If not, I’m voting third party. No amount of “gotcha” or “what if” scenarios that you are thinking of throwing at me will change my mind. You can throw all the hitler-nazi-fascist-emperor-pedo-king-wwIII-civilwar shit at me all you want. I don’t like either party and they both suck.
AOC or third party. Yep, I’m black and white that way. No, you aren’t going to change my mind. And that’s ok.
See, this right here is what I take issue with. You’re grouping me in with the group that “lost to trump”, but you’re not acknowledging that you contributed to that loss by not voting strategically. You’re putting blame on people who voted for Harris despite her not being our ideal candidate, but not accepting any yourself. Your shit stinks, too, just like everyone else’s.
To put it another way, your candidate, or “you all”, to use your terms, also lost to Trump, and in fact performed even worse.
Well, I think this is a delusional take, but you’re welcome to your opinion.
Why would I vote “strategically”? I voted for who I wanted to win, as everyone should. And yep, my candidate lost to Trump too. I have never thought, nor said, any different. But I don’t go around blaming everyone else for my candidates loss, yet I see a lot of Democrats do that.
Ya know why your candidate lost? Not enough people voted for her. Know why my candidate lost? Not enough people voted for her.
Let me put it another way, using your logic: Should I blame you for my candidates loss, since you voted for Harris instead of my candidate? Should I say that Trump only won because of people like you not voting for my candidate?
Because that’s exactly what you are trying to do to me.
I’m right there with you but until there’s an alternative voting system (like RCV, STV, or STAR or something), a vote for a 3rd party is as good as a vote for the opposition party. It sucks but that’s the price of a ridiculous divided 2 party system. Well, there’s many prices to pay for that actually but that’s one of them…
But if people keep thinking and what you are saying, then it never happens. Trust me, if everyone would suddenly vote for a third party, shit would. The duopoly wants you to keep being afraid to vote for at third party. Which is why I’ll keep voting third party.
I mean yeah of course. But look at how many people in the country actually are 3rd party. Like I said if the country wasn’t very clearly and decisively divided into 2 parties it would be different. But the fact is people in the US now are typically either pretty far left or pretty far right. The amount of people in the middle (like truly in the middle) is absolutely miniscule - less than 3% last I checked. If 100% of the 3rd party people voted 3rd party, it wouldn’t amount to much sadly. I would absolutely love for that to change but we are wedged so far into these two parties that it will be a loooong time before that happens.
Your opposition party would be absolutely thrilled if you voted 3rd party. There is no conspiracy to stop you from doing so. I’d argue the bigger conspiracy is against changing how we vote and how a winner gets chosen as that would make it much easier for a 3rd party candidate to make headway. As it stands, the more people they can get to throw their votes away instead of voting for someone that actually has a chance of winning (unless it’s their party of course) the happier they’ll be.
I would be so happy to be wrong here but over the years this has only gotten worse and worse, exacerbating the problem and pushing us farther into this hellhole of diametrically opposed political theatre. But at least we are HOT HOT HOT as a country now right?! 🔥🚒 🔥
This is interesting. From the outside it looks like you have a lot of far right groups - the Republicans being the biggest example of an organised political presence. The Democrats are centre-right at best, but presumably you’re talking about the people, not the political parties? In which case, surely it’s on the Democrats to move left to meet the people? And if as many people are as far left as you say, that should be simple…
I’m not going to pretend I’m a political expert but from everything I can tell you are spot on. The right here is moving farther right at a much faster rate than the left is moving left. The other interesting (and depressing) caveat is that people that lean right, at least recently, tend to be much more staunchly right in their beliefs. People that lean left are often times more splintered. Which is why you get people like Bernie Sanders that are outspokenly independent but run as a left Democrat because they have a much better chance of winning if they join up with one of the two parties and they find a good amount of support on the left but virtually none on the right.
And yes! From the rooftops yes! I agree with you that it’s on the Democrats (or either party really but since the Democrats have ground to make up we’ll go with them) to move the party and meet the voters but so far they absolutely refuse to do so. This is why you are seeing such a high degree of dissatisfaction within the democratic voter base. The party is forcing candidates out that the people in their own party don’t really want, much less people that are undecided. It is truly surprising how out of touch they are with their own voter base. Which stinks because the right is (at least until very recently) very strongly united behind their movement.
Because people like you keep repeating it and people get scared and don’t wanna take the chance.
Even if every single person who voted for 3rd party in 2024 voted for Harris, she still would have lost. That’s how big her margin of loss was. Look it up.
It wasn’t 3rd party voters that destroyed her chances, it was non-voters.
Again, because people like you keep saying that and scaring people. Let me piggback on your conspiracy theory: Both major parties actively work to keep third-party candidates from having a real shot.
And one of the clearest examples is how they teamed up in 1987 to create the Commission on Presidential Debates. They set strict rules that have excluded virtually every third-party candidate from the national stage ever since.
It’s one of the rare things they publicly agree on: maintaining the two-party lock on the biggest platform in politics.
Add every time you vote for them, you support them doing that. I refuse.
Ah damn. I thought there was a decent chance at a constructive political discourse. But I see I we’re just skipping straight to finger pointing (which is quite entertaining as all signs point to us being at least ostensibly politically aligned). But you are right. I concede. This is all because of me and evil people like me. You’re 100% right. Surely it has nothing to do with the system that has all of us boxed into nicely manicured corners.
Just remember the 1st and only rule of political finger pointing in the US. Keep it eye level or lower. Don’t look up.