I’m only 20 years old, I’ve never voted or even really bothered paying attention to any other election, and I dunno it kinda feels like I started on one that was really crazy? But I’m not sure maybe every election has been insane and I just didn’t know because I wasn’t paying attention.

  • @phoneymouse
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    3 hours ago

    I started paying attention in 2000, even though I didn’t really understand it and couldn’t vote, however my first voting election was 2004 and I remember being disappointed when John Kerry lost to Bush, who had already gotten us involved in two wars that would cost trillions of dollars.

    My experience has been that Republican administrations tend to be rife with corruption, cut taxes for rich people and run up the deficit.

    Eventually, people get sick of the moral decay and tanking economic prospects and put a democrat back in, who tries to undo all the damage, but is blocked most of the time by Republicans in Congress acting in bad faith.

    Then, the right wing media environment drums up a load of fear about immigrants and actual lies about the economy to get everyone voting for a Republican again.

    That’s the cycle, except the Republican media ecosystem gets more extreme over time, and so do the candidates.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 hours ago

      It’s remarkable how effective that strategy has been.

      Reagan/Bush run up the deficit by 300%+ due to tax cuts and massive military spending, foreign wars

      Clinton pays off the deficit, gets the economy booming, scales back military spending and foreign entanglements

      GWB campaigns on a platform of tax cuts and increased military spending, along with denying climate change, barely wins

      deficit skyrockets due to tax cuts, multi trillion dollar wars, lack of financial regulation collapses global economy

      Obama has to save the economy again, extricate us from foreign entanglements again, while fighting against a republican establishment that refuses to pass any legislation

      Trump administration completely fails to deal with COVID pandemic and tanks the economy yet again

      Biden has to clean up that mess, and the resultant inflation is blamed on the Democrats

      How many times are people going to fall for this shit?