LogFAQs > #964746541

Kuuko posted...

I'm surprised to see the sentiment being taken away from this that voting doesn't matter and it's all pointless. That's the exact opposite sentiment you should take away. Democratic voters' reluctance to vote when it matters keeps biting them, while Republican voters solidly show up to the polls every election. That reluctance is in part why Clinton just barely lost in 2016. There are other reasons she lost too, believe me. But in an alternate reality where Democrats solidly vote and Clinton wins, then Clinton chooses a judge to replace Scalia, a judge to replace Kennedy (most likely), and either Clinton or Biden chooses a judge to replace Ginsburg. Alongside Democrats replacing Breyer as Biden did. In that reality it's a very strong 6-3 majority of young Democratic judges in the SC and we'd be debating whether or not Republicans would ever take back the court in the next few decades. The important takeaway is how important every election at every level is, if you care about something like pro-choice or anything else.

The Democrats have majorities in both chambers and a Democrat in the White House right now. If they wanted to, they could put those to use to legalize abortion access nationwide. Also there are probably enough anti-choice Democrats to scuttle the effort, because it would mean to do purity-tests on non-progressives, and wouldn't it be silly, because certainly Roe v. Wade will *never* be overturned...I, err, I am just now hearing...
But, of course, they failed to do so every other chance they had to do this since 1973, why would they start doing something now?

Moreover, our very political system minimizes the importance of votes via gerrymandering: either via the biased drawing of House districts or already built-in, as in the Senate. Some states are so thoroughly gerrymandered it would take a supermajority of voters to kick out their Republican majorities!
So, no, I'm sorry, but voting hasn't solved this problem and it will almost certainly continue to not solve this problem. In all likelihood, it will only become less and less meaningful as the Republican supermajorities and the courts continue to undermine voting rights in carefree defiance of the popular will.