Better than no decisions made at all? Or started and never finished? Lol

It's definitely not 'black and white' and is a tough topic to discuss

I am as disillusion about democracy as Mikemhg is, but at the same time, I also know how good the odds are for there to be a "benevolent dictator". FailFish

China is a perfect example.

I'm not saying my thought process is black and white here.

There are always dangers of having a regime become a malevolent one, but Jesus as it stands it's blatantly obvious these democratic systems aren't working as they should be in democracies like the US, and to a degree the UK and Canada.

One of my good friends is CCP through her core, and we debate this topic quite regularly. I'm finding it more and more difficult to argue my side (democracy) nowadays.

I will always give China its credit where its due -- Its lack of democracy allows the country to get things done in a manner we could only dream of.

You don't even have to go as far as China. Singapore is the perfect example. Democracy on paper but only one party has been in power since 1965. 80% of the time the PM with the founding father and later, his son. Opposition parties sidelined. Arguably the richest country in Asia.

Another good point, but I think it is a bit different with a city state

Alright, well then we also got Taiwan and South Korea whose economic rises were presided by actual dictatorships with actual violent political oppression.

We were talking about this today at work. If people can honestly think someone like trump is a reasonable candidate for the presidency again, they aren't fit to vote. Political libtard commie biases by me aside, his followers are fucking delusional, and the obsession of his political fanbase with a billionaire that truly hates everyone and everything in that country, from the laws, to the people, to the economic success of any of the bottom 99% that aren't affiliated with him is an absolute mental illness at this point. These are just disenfranchised people that want the world to burn, and for any suffering they face to be put upon others that don't share their beliefs.
Whether people are aligning with me politically or not, I want the people in power to ensure success for the absolute highest percentage of the population. The more people thriving, the better, even if it's not for any other benefit to me other than just having them shut the fuck up for a while. Trump voters don't want that. They want the "other side" to be fucked. It's all just spite politics nowadays and it's crumbling democracy.

The natural extension to Westopher's comments about Trump voters is our own far right voters in Canada. There is a certain crowd of Poilievre supporters that are recurringly displaying signs of white supremacy and other forms of prejudice. I don't think these Canadian voters are quite as extreme as some of Trump's supporters in that they want the other side be be fxxked, but in pursue of their "definition of freedom", they do not care whether other people would get fxxked as a result of their actions at all, and that just doesn't sit well with me.

A major issue that I'm sure you'd already be familiar with from your discussions with your good friend is -- when the dictator makes a mistake, quite often there is nobody who would step up to point that out to the dictator, and this is happening to China right now. China's continued refusal to play by international rules is causing the Western World to "de-risk" and divest from it. If you ask me, "de-risk" is just a euphemism for "gradual de-coupling" where China will eventually be cut off from the rest of the developed world on high tech and other major economic investments. But nobody will dare to tell Boss Xi that this direction he is pointing China towards is the wrong one.

In the same vein, Russia's invasion of Ukraine as well as Xi's ambitions to invade Taiwan are also examples of what happens when a dictator places his bets wrong.

Oh man ... he was probably one that I could stomach as the Republican candidate. Agree or disagree with him, he was a moderate, and conducted himself the right way especially at the end.

He was a religious fruitcake who could not be alone in the same room as a woman.

For some reason they had his autobiography for sale at Costco in Nanaimo. Did not sell a single copy.

Fuck Pence.

Cue him endorsing Trump by end of year (after spending the last few years pearl clutching about him).

Can't stand people like Pence, feckless, spineless, power-hungry religious lunatic.

^ so who are we left with in the Republican ticket that you could stomach?

^To be honest they all are sycophants, I can't stand any of them.

I'd say Nikki Haley would be a better candidate as she checks all the boxes (colored, female), but she's also a feckless flip flopper.

I can't take her seriously.

All of these guys running on the Republican side are self-serving power-hungry cynics.

The thought of "WTF happened to the GOP" has come up in my mind a number of times. 15 years ago, they were still fielding the totally respectable John McCain up against Obama (although the choice of Sarah Palin as running mate was totally yet another WTF moment). And then you had Romney and Ryan -- middling choices if you ask me, but that is still nothing like the clowns we are seeing now.

So how dafuq did the Republicans and republican voters turned into shxt in the last 10 years? FailFish

Trump happened and people suddenly realized you don't have to pretend anymore to win, just say whatever crazy shit is on your mind and you have a base that will vote for you no matter what.

Hopefully the dems aren't so stupid to put Biden up there again in 2024 cause that's definitely no slam dunk win.

They'll put his old ass up there, which will be a complete travesty.

I don't understand Biden -- you had a fairly productive presidency, you stopped Trump from being re-elected, passed some bills, had a long career in public office.

You're in your damn 80's now, why not hang it up at the end of this term and allow some fresh blood to take the mantle?

It's absolutely bizarre to me.

at first i was like w-t-f, you straight trolling, i had to google.

then i'm like :ahwow:
https://media1.giphy.com/media/r8gXr...jWz8/giphy.gif

If I were Biden, I would totally not want to run again. Heck, every time I hear him speak at the podium nowadays, it seems like his voice is getting weaker than the last time I saw and heard him.

But it may not be up to him to not run again next year. I mean, if he really doesn't want to, of course he can just bail. But I have the impression that a lot of people in the Democratic Party thinks nobody else has a higher chance of defeating Trump than Biden. And because of that, the entire party machinery just more or less expects Biden to run again.

Social media happened, with the ability for outside countries to influence susceptible voters

I can't think of a more surefire way to lose than a Biden-Harris ticket in 2024.

This is my belief on what happened with the gop (and many other countries where deep nationalism is being used to influence politics).

There was that Netflix documentary a few years back called The Social Dilemma where it talks about how companies or countries can use social media to influence people's perceptions.

It's my belief that developing countries like Russia (and possibly others like China) are basically dumping funds into social media to influence algorithms with triggering narratives and ideas in order to destabilize first world western countries.

And honestly, theyve succeeded. I would argue the US and Canada are in a weaker national stage than they were in 2016.

Personally, I am finding Harris to be a rather useless VP, so I am hoping Biden would pick another running mate this time around. In particular, if Biden really were to run again and wins, I really kind of expect him to die (due to old age / exhaustion etc.) during that 2nd term, which makes the choice of the running mate extra important.

Jesus that's dark Traum lol

It's not dark at all. The decline in your 80's is precipitous, happens very accelerated.

I want Gavin Newsom to run this election and not wait until 2028, I think he's fantastic.

Plus it fixes the Harris problem as well (VP and President can't be from the same state).

It's a win win.