melannen | the inevitable fall of global capitalism

1. I had my election judge training! Hurrah. It was actually kind of hilarious because apparently the Board of Elections and the State Legislature are having a nonpartisan politicians-vs-bureaucrats feud and all of the BoE employees who were running the training were INCREDIBLY BITTER and NOT EVEN TRYING TO HIDE IT. Our main trainer was literally like "Let me show you the system we SHOULD be using this year and how great and smooth and foolproof and tamperproof it is, and by the way the legislature authorized us to spend millions of dollars on it before they decided they hated, look, isn't it great? So great. Now let me show you the horrible system we had to kludge together because the legislature SUDDENLY DECIDED they hated that one for NO GOOD REASON, can you think of any good reason? I can't. Back me up on this."

That's a minor paraphrase but basically accurate, including tone.

So that was entertaining.

2. All of the Republican candidates for President are unthinkably horrible and both of the Democratic ones are pretty OK rn so to be honest I really am mostly tuning out the election, but here are some links that have turned up on my reading list that are a pretty good summary of my feelings on Bernie vs. Hillary:

old post, you have probably seen:

hth on what people mean when they say Bernie can't get things done
newer post,

nicki on why people say Hillary is 'unlikable'

3. I have some RL friends who are very, very, very invested in Bernie winning. In that way where they have made themselves believe that if Bernie wins, all their problems will be solved and their lives will suddenly be good again. And I am watching them slowly fall into that pit of denial + despair where Bernie HAS to win okay because he's going to win because.

Anyway, I just want to say: Stop worrying. Bernie has already won.

Seriously. People have linked me several times in the last few days to several (clearly biased) Bernie vs. Hillary comparison charts, but what they all summarize to is:

Bernie is right about everything (except possibly gun control)
Hillary used to be wrong about everything, but now that she's running against Bernie, her positions are suddenly a lot like his, SUSPICIOUS.

Bernie got into the race not expecting to win: he got into the race hoping to push the Democratic center further to the left. And he has done that. He has done that in spades. Even if Hillary moves back toward the right in the general election, she'll still be taking much, much more lefty positions on a lot of things than she did a year ago, and than I imagined any Democratic establishment candidate would take this year. That was Bernie's entire goal. He has achieved it. Everything from here on in is just gravy.

Bernie already achieved his win condition, and I suspect he knows it.

4. RE: hth's post, what really matters more than the presidential primary at this point is who wins the downticket races: Congress and the local elections. If you're invested in the presidential stuff, please, please, look around you at your local races, find a candidate for Congress or County Council or Judge who is doing stuff you like, and throw some money and time their way instead. It really does make all the difference. In fact, given how much Congress has managed to lock up the national executive lately, it probably makes more difference.

...that said I haven't looked at any of my downticket races very closely because I'm not even sure what's going to be on the ballot because did I mention that the politicians are feuding with the Board of Elections? Seriously it's beautiful.

(Also I live in one of the skinny parts of the dead pterodactyl so my local votes on a lot of races are pretty pointless anyway. Another reason your state legislature vote matters! fucking gerrymandering.)

5. So I posted a thing on tumblr t'other day about Steve Rogers' personal political context, people seem to be liking it?

the inevitable fall of global capitalism

no subject