Here are some photos of Viggo Mortensen at the Rome Film Festival this week. I’m including photos from the photocall and premiere of Captain Fantastic, the same indie film which has been working its way through film festivals all year to much acclaim. Viggo has even been getting some Oscar buzz for his performance, not that he really cares.
As Viggo promotes Captain Fantastic all around the world, he’s been getting a lot of questions about the American political system. Back in July, he came out and said that while he doesn’t care for Donald Trump whatsoever, he’s not going to vote for Hillary Clinton either because “I trust Hillary about as much as I trust Donald Trump.” He’s voting for Jill Stein. That’s what he told the Guardian a few weeks ago:
On how Trump was the end result of the GOP’s policies & ideas: “It was the same credo with Reagan, supported by the media, and from there all roads lead to Trump. Shocked editorials ask: ‘How can this have happened?’ And you think: ‘Because of you.’ But, of course, it’s more complex than Trump… Talk about going to church. Say the military is underfunded. Be seen shooting animals. And the Democrats do all these things.”
On the idea that voting for Jill Stein is a vote for Trump: He half-nods. Clinton, he says, is simply dishonest. “I understand the argument that I’m helping Trump. But people said it was a problem in 2000 voting for Ralph Nader and not Al Gore, and that election was stolen by Bush anyway.”
I hate to say this about someone like Viggo Mortensen, who I believe is probably an ally to many important social causes, but good God, he sounds like such a privileged douche. The reason George W. Bush was able to “steal” the 2000 election was because too many privileged a—holes created false equivalencies between Al Gore and Bush, much like the false equivalencies between Clinton and Trump now. “He’s a sexual predator and a monster!” “Yeah, well, emails or whatever!” If fewer people had voted for Nader in New Hampshire, THEN FLORIDA WOULD NOT HAVE EVEN MATTERED. And Bush wouldn’t have been able to “steal” the election. Sorry, I just hate that people didn’t learn their f—king history lessons with the 2000 election.
Anyway, in Rome, Viggo also told the Hollywood Reporter that he’s still supporting Jill Stein and he thinks this whole election has been terrible: “Not surprisingly, it’s terrible. Very poor choice this time around — maybe the worst version of a presidential campaign that I can remember in my lifetime.” Says the guy who voted for Ralph Nader. Privileged white guys and their votes of “integrity.”
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
He is Hollywood, they are not an educated bunch and I do not think their opinions matter. They have their own bubble, so good luck to them. All of them.
That’s the thing. Their world is vastly VASTLY different from us ‘regular’ folks. I understand why they don’t always ‘get’ things – they don’t HAVE to. I give credit to the ones who do understand where the rest of the world is coming from – but at the same time – these people aren’t trained in politics or anything. They’re paid to be pretty and act, or sing, or whatever.
Viggo Mortensen lives in Spain and has a BS in politics so he’s not really ‘Hollywood’ the way you describe.
I’m making more of a general statement of “Hollywood”. And even if he has a degree in politics – it doesn’t mean that his life isn’t affected by things the same way regular people would be affected. He’s still insulated by his wealth, and the kind of circles that he runs in.
I’m not saying HE is completely oblivious or anything – and I did say “I give credit to the ones who do understand where the rest of the world is coming from”. I’m just saying that celebrities for the most part see a very different view of things than the regular folk.
Aaaand there goes my lust for him.
Anyone still thinking about Stein OR Johnson need only watch John Oliver’s foray into both candidates from “Last Week Tonight.” As always, it’s funny but educational.
I WISH we had a third-party candidate worthy of running, but they’re both uninformed, out-of-touch and ….WEIRD.
That Last Week Tonight bit was so great. I was crying laughing. I love how John says “anyone who says we don’t have to vote between the lesser of two evils is right. We have to vote between the lesser of four evils.?
Heaven help me, I still would. 🙁
me too i find him super sexy. LOL one night stand material
You’re right Viggo-it IS one of the worst elections ever and one of the reasons is the number of people with their self righteous heads up their asses continuing to stump for Jill Stein or worse, Gary Johnson-a man who didn’t even know what Aleppo was.
The same people who will trot out an un-electable third party candidate every four years, but rarely participate in their state and local elections, when they could really start to get viable third party candidates visible in the system.
A lot of people who will not suffer the dire consequences of a man like Donald Trump being president. People like you, Viggo.
@grabbyhands-you make an excellent point about not doing local/state groundwork. If there are ever to be any other parties on the ballot with viability, they have to done from the ground up.
Well said.
Doesn’t he mostly live in Spain with Ariadna Gil Giner now anyway? I didn’t think the US was his home base anymore, so what happens here will impact him less than others (even in Hollywood).
This is true but still you can vote as an American living abroad. I’m voting and I am living in Canada right now.
Celebrities should not talk politics if they don’t want to alienate their fans. Before this morning I had no strong thoughts on him or Tom Brady but now I think their both entitled men who don’t understand their actions and the bigger picture.
At this point, I don’t think even Jill Stein is voting for Jill Stein.
lol!
You’re assuming she believes the right-wing criticisms of her. You assume wrong. Stein is anti-war and pro-action on climate change. For many of us these are the two most important issues.
Isn’t he Danish? Why is he voting at all?
Born in NYC. American mother, Danish father.
And raised in Argentina. Speaks three languages.
live in Spain
marthe, that’s what I thought. He’s mostly in Europe now.
Oh cool, I didn’t know this. He’s such a great actor and it saddens me that he doesn’t seem to understand politics.
Nonetheless, an American living abroad can still care about voting and vote.
He was a bit of a nitwit in the last elections, too. Totally destroyed any respect I had for him.
Watch John Oliver’s show from last Sunday, Viggo. He shows you what a ridiculous candidate your precious Jill is.
PS I loathed Captain Fantastic and that was even before I knew how you’d vote.
Again I have to agree with how great that John Oliver bit was. Jill Stein panders to crackpot conspiracies and thinks a magic trick, as she calls it, will solve student loan debt. Oh and those songs!
I disliked Captain Fantastic too – lazy writing and the ending was just nonsensical.
I’m sorry but please watch John Oliver’s episode Sunday night before voting for Jill Stein. That lady is nuts. I have a lot of friends who align with Hillary on every issue but refuse to vote for her out of what I can only assume is personal pride. Vote on the issues, people – not who you want to be friends with.
I could never vote for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson in good conscious. Johnson is woefully uneducated regarding international policies and international allies. And Stein is also uneducated about policy given her clumsy response to Brexit. She also panders to the anti-vax crowd and others.
Gary Johnson said that if he is elected the United States will not go to war with another country because you can’t make war on another country if you don’t know where it is. (I didn’t make that up.)
He seems like a really weird dude.
I usually love Viggo Mortensen but my god he sounds like a complete asshole. He’s basically throwing his vote away because he doesn’t want to vote for Hillary. What’s with those liberals who refuse to vote for Hillary? She’s pretty liberal AND she’s the most competent for the job. But of course Viggo is a straight white man, and he’s an actor. If Trump gets elected he can go live somewhere else. Meanwhile gay people, black people, Hispanics are stuck in America. He won’t have to suffer the consequences of his vote. Ugh.
He already lives somewhere else…in Spain. So yeah, why should he care?
Oye, muchacho, qué carajo te pasa, la mujer esa es pura idiota que no conoce su culo de su cabeza. (He said he speaks Spanish better than English so if he reads this maybe he’ll take the point.)
Yes, what CARMEN says lol. I recognize ass and idiot, pretty sure I agree with you. I’m not a Clinton fan by any means, but honestly, you’d toss your vote in a race where the other candidate is Donald Trump??
Carmen – estoy totalmente de acuerdo
Insults don’t sound any better in Spanish, imo.
By that logic, if Gore had managed to win his own home state, THEN FLORIDA WOULD NOT HAVE EVEN MATTERED. If Gore had managed to win West Virginia, which a Democrat hadn’t lost since McGovern, THEN FLORIDA WOULD NOT HAVE EVEN MATTERED.
The real reason Gore lost was because 200,000 registered Democrats voted for Bush. Nader IN TOTAL only got around 97,000 votes. Do we blame the Democrats that jumped ship to the other side then? Do we blame Gore for not being able to retain them? Look, I’m not saying who to vote for in this election, I’m just saying the narrative of Nader costing Gore the election has been very played out and the truth is much much more complicated.
Thank you. Every time someone invokes Nader, I realise how uninformed they are. And John Oliver as your source of news? Oh my gawd … my vote is my vote. I don’t “owe” it to anyone to stop someone else becoming President. That’s just dumb two party system thinking. We’ll get the President we deserve because we’ve let corporations own our politicians and political system. We’re not nearly as clever as we all think we are!
Oh, and not seeing a movie because he won’t vote for your candidate, okie dokie then – love critical thinking like this lol
Thank you for this! I’m so baffled that people who vote third party are receiving such harsh criticism! We will never bring about change if we don’t start thinking and voting outside of the box . This is the reason we are stuck with having to vote for the lesser of two evils .
@Kimble +20000000. Yes, we absolutely owe our vote to a candidate we fear less., because Freedom! Btw I’ve done plenty of local groundwork, and Nader’s campaign was propelled by such people who continue to do amazing work and are very informed. I willl be adversely affected by s Trump presidency but I don’t owe anyone a vote based on this new low in our 2-party election system.
Lol, thank you! The if he had only won New Hampshire Florida wouldn’t matter was a bit odd. Yes, in Florida if 538 people out of his 97,421 votes had voted for Gore over Nadar. Gore would have carried the state. However, in Florida, for every 1 registered Democrat that crossed party lines for Nadar, there were 12 that crossed party lines and voted for Bush. To win an election you have to motivate and maintain the members of your party. Just because you lost by a close margin doesn’t mean the Independent spoiled it. If it was just Bush and Gore on the ballot there is no way of knowing if the vote would have split the way it needed to for him to win.
Love this. People act like this is the end of the world when in fact, the President will have very limited power to weild over the actual issues they want to address. Look at the Obama years and see how hard he tried but accomplished only a fraction of what he set out to do. The U.S government system is very complex and it’s Congress that will have the most influence. And most of them want to preserve the status quo. Until they get shaken up or a civil war happens, something this election has shown great signs of.
It is an incredible oversight to say that the President has limited power. There are so MANY things of great consequence that the President controls. The Bush presidency gave the executive branch so much more power.
For just one example, see how in the Obama presidency federal employees in same-sex relationships received benefits like their straight counterparts. See how more minority judges were nominated to Federal court positions than ALL OTHER PRESIDENTS COMBINED.
Do not play yourself (or others) and pretend that the Presidency doesn’t have an enormous impact on our country.
I completely agree with you. The Congress is where the power is in the US. The US president has the most power outside of the US, in setting foreign policy and as a commander-in-chief.
Many Americans are not affected by the US foreign policy directly and perhaps they don’t realize it.
Well that, in Supreme Court nominations. That is another oddity about the US politics. The court is supposed to be above politics, a control, yet it is one of the most powerful political tools. The 2 -party system in the US is really rotten to the core, it is rotten to the point where even Supreme Court is not independent.
The more of a landslide this is, the more likely it is that the Democrats will control the presidency, the Senate and the House. That means that Hillary will have sufficient power over the issues. What Hillary wants and needs to do now is to maximize turnout, so that people vote Democratic right along the ticket. And then what needs to happen next is that people need to turn out to vote in the 2018 elections too, so what happened to Obama doesn’t happen to her.
The 2018 midterms depend on how Hillary handles her first 2 years. If she delivers on her promises, great! But if the Democratic base even thinks she’s taking a private vs. public position like she said in one of her leaked speeches, they’ll be too disillusioned to vote. Is that how it should be? Of course not, but unfortunately that’s what’s been happening. It’s on Hillarys shoulders to be a good president, not on anyone else’s to vote her in with a landslide.
I don’t generally disagree, but I think that “public vs private” statement has been overblown. All politicians have public and private positions on things. Do I think that Obama was really “evolving” on gay marriage? No. I think he believed in it privately for a long time before he admitted it in public.
And you’re right that people should vote in the midterms based on her record, but there are a lot of people who support Democratic positions generally and turn out for presidential elections but not in the midterms, and that’s a problem for people who want to accomplish progressive goals.
Coming from a parliamentary system, the “public vs private” complaint is hard for me to understand. I expect my politicians to vote according to party lines even if it’s the complete opposite of what they personally believe in. As long as you stick to the public version (because that’s what people based their election vote on), then what’s the problem?
But overall, can’t it be said that voters (especially Nader supporters and dems who voted for Bush) GREATLY underestimated the harm that could come from a good ole boy Bush Presidency? That they didn’t loooove Gore, and thought that not being “passionate” made voting against the logically better choice an acceptable alternative?
Electing Bush was a big huge mistake. No excuse will change that.
If you’d asked me what three words I would say to Viggo Mortensen…
for the longest time they would have been
“Viggo- F**k me”
Now I’d like to say
“Viggo, F**k you”
I agree with him. And I’m far from a privileged douche. But it will all be over soon, and we will have our first female president.
Jill Stein is not someone I trust to be POTUS, period.
I do like Stein, but there are many things that she has no ‘real’ solution on how how to fix and she teeters on some important views. I am still for Bernie Sanders and I was very disheartened when he was forced out. With that said, there is a great chance that he will be appointed in the Budget Committee if Hilary would win and that would be amazing.
Sara- to your last point: I really wish that more people, especially Bernie supporters were aware that in many ways, Bernie Sanders will be able to fulfill a big part of his agenda if Dems can take the Senate.
He is the Democratic ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee (responsible for tax policy, setting budget, etc) so he would become the head of the committee if Dems can take the Senate. It order for that to happen , Dem voter turn out needs to be high.
If you supported Sanders then please work to get a Democratic majority in the Senate. And as it is best that they work with a Democratic President, please vote for Hillary Clinton.
This I will do. A dem majority would be the best outcome of this election.
I concur. #FlipTheSenate
Agree. Bernie has fulfilled a very great purpose. Also my love and support of Bernie is why I could never vote for Stein or Johnson. Not saying I will jump for joy to vote for Hillary, but the Supreme court and senate are super important.
Argh. He wasn’t “forced out,” he lost the primary.
@Betsy: Indeed. I voted for Bernie but he lost the overall vote count by some 3.7 million votes. She didn’t steal it, she won it.
I keep seeing people still saying Bernie was forced out, but how exactly can one “steal” over 3 million votes? I think some of his supporters overestimated his presence. Just because he was all over their social media and sites they visit doesn’t necessarily translate into votes. just like people underestimated Trump they overestimated Bernie. Of course he wasn’t given much attention in regular media from what I saw.
Too many people can’t seem to understand that it is not necessary to like the president. You’re not going to date him/her, you’re not going to ask him/her to be your roommate. It’s only necessary to pick the candidate — hopefully one of the two major ones, because a third party vote is throwing it away — who has the best qualifications and most experience. That seems crystal clear in this election.
+ a million. That said, I do also love Hillary. I just decided I would love and support her, the same way I would love and support the updated “Ghostbusters.”
” who has the best qualifications and most experience.”
Not really. You should vote for the one whose goals and vision for the country match yours.
Otherwise the most competent candidate could be competently taking the country in the direction completely opposite the one you want it to go.
As I’ve said before, everyone lies. No one is completely honest. Ergo, they are dishonest. Yes, Hillary has been dishonest.
However, she is not actively suppressing the rights of humans, as Trump wants to do and Pence already has done. Hillary doesn’t even think that way.
Just watch the second debate, watch how she interacts with people, remembers their names, calls them by name, makes eye contact. They are/were important to her. That’s not dishonest, that’s Hillary.
Trump, in contrast, could not even recall the question asked, let alone the person’s name, make eye contact, show any respect towards the audience at all. That was not dishonest, that’s Trump.
When people show you who they are, believe them.
Jill Stein is not an intelligent woman. #judginghim
This is the worst election. I’m Libertarian-leaning and even their candidate is horrible. Again, I live in a solidly red state, so Trump’s taking the electoral votes regardless of how I vote.
I have my disagreements with Hillary on some policy issues, and I think it will be important to keep her feet to the fire once she is president. When Democrats win the senate, Bernie will be chair of the budget committee, and… can I also hope that Elizabeth Warren might be the senate leader? They will all do a good job together.
The main point is Hillary is qualified and reasonable. Trump is the Cheeto Mussolini. Stein is just an idiot (John Oliver covers it perfectly.)
Warren hasn’t enough seniority to be Senate Majority Leader should the Dems retake the Senate. Someone like Charles Schumer is more likely. She’s not even a ranking member on the banking committee, she’s so new.
Warren is bloody excellent on debt.
Agreed. And yeah John Oliver is NOT my source on news, but he covered the craziness of Stein and Johnson pretty well. Obviously Trump supporters are the worst, but I can’t stand the pretentiousness of the Stein/Johnson people. “Oh go ahead and be a slave to the duocracy. Oh go ahead and vote for a rigged system. You are all sheep baa. You’re with HERD.”
Um voting for two vastly unqualified nutters is going to somehow buck the two party system? Jill Stein is NOT Nader. Like John Oliver said “When people say you don’t have to vote for the lesser of two evils, they are right. You have to vote for the lesser of four evils.”
I get Hillary has been painted as a corrupt, untrustworthy liar. I will admit that the email issue does bother me, but don’t get all pretentious with me about “ok be a slave to corruption.” You sound like an emo high school kid circa 2002!
Yay! We can use all the media we can get even if it is just a gossip site. The more people who hear about the great work the Green Party is doing, the more research they can do on their own and learn what a great pair of candidates Stein and Baraka are. Planet, people and peace over profit is the only sane way to vote this (& every) election.
Also, more stories about Lohan please. I hate coming to gossips sites and having to think about serious issues and how uneducated people are about our current state of the world. Lindsay is the eye of the crazy storm for me. <3
I honestly can’t discern if this is sarcasm. Sure seems like it.
I am a disabled women who has been underemployed, shut out of any health care access thanks in good part to the ACA and living on less than $700 a month for all of Obama’s two terms. I want affordable hc and a living wage, an end to mass incarceration and an end to US’ endless wars. So me and my privileged a** will vote for Stein. Again. I voted for Nader because Bill and Al wete horrible. Obama is awful. Hillary is too. I am talking about policies, not personalities here. My vote, my conscience, my choice. If Dems want my vote, they need to offer a candidate I can vote for without feeling I’m voting to bomb poor people overseas, send more black and brown kids to prison, condemn more Americans to poverty, or guarantee I will die from lack of hc before the next election. But instead of that, I have to put up with HRC supporters trying to scare and bully people like me into voting against our conscience, beliefs and interest, because their petty political beefs matter more than real progress or our lives. Great democracy we have. I have only one, maybe two votes left before I die from poverty and preventable illness. My vote is not some token for cynical liberals who think as a disabled person, a poor person or a woman I should vote for Hillary because the other guy is horrible too. I will not vote out of fear or cynicism, but on the hope we can end this horrible two-party system. Bless Viggo. I am glad he is with us. #Stein2016
Vote for whomever you want, but the reality is voting for Stein or Johnson in the presidential campaign isn’t going to do squat to end the two party system.
That starts at the smallest of the races, and neither the Libertarians nor the Greens have made much of trying to build from the bottom up.
And the political reality is neither Stein nor Johnson are qualified to be POTUS. Period.
If people want an end to two party, they need to be more involved in mid-term and local elections. The president is only a fraction of the people’s voting power – Congress is really where that change needs to start taking hold. Beyond that, third party candidates need to actually behave like potential nominees – that means being able to back up policy ideals with plans and data, recognize the significance of America’s position in the international community, and start building a top-down network to actually get their policies voted through.
Your system would need a complete overhaul for changes to be made and as the others mentioned the 3rd parties need to start building up support, no just show up every 4 years with a Christmas list of promises. If a 3rd party were to somehow be elected to office, what changes do you think could really be made if there is no backing and things stay the same. From Obama’s time we see how limited he is in what he can do if the people running you Congress are a different party. I like the Canadian system of 3 parties. it’s not perfect, but there is more room for negotiation and compromise. Sometimes I read about people wanting to vote with their conscience and in line with their ideals, which is great, but they also need to face the reality that is now. A 3rd party wanting to come in with free health care, pay equality, going green, getting rid of student debt, making education affordable, no more wars, increasing minimum wage, reducing poverty levels etc. It’s not going to happen. There is so much opposition, so many laws on top of laws making it a nightmare to have change. I do think it’s a bit funny that people act as though Bernie or Jill would just come in wouldn’t be swayed or affected by anything or anybody.
Thank you for your comment, KasySwee. I am so sorry for your predicament. I agree that this “lesser evil” voting is B.S. I am also flabbergasted at how the nonsense that people who support Jill Stein are just privileged and have nothing to lose is so ingrained. On the contrary, most of those who cannot stomach vote for Hillary are those who have it the hardest and are NOT having an easy time of life AT ALL. We have been around long enough to see how the Democratic Party has become the Republican party, how the Republicans have merely become full blown psychopaths, and how neither of these parties help anyone but the capitalist elite class – not to mention how both of these parties are enabling our inevitable planetary ecosystem collapse due to climate change and other myriad environmental catastrophes.
@frivolity and KasySwee:
In theory I’d be voting Green, if the US Green party were more like its European counterparts. It’s not. And that’s the reality. Vote for them if that’s who you want to vote for. But there is the American political reality that such change as we wish for isn’t going to come from the top down, it’s going to come for the bottom up. There is also the reality that third parties don’t have the structure, even after decades of existence, to do this. I’d take the Greens and the Libertarians more seriously if they were more serious about trying to get elected at the local level.
@Sixer, I may feel for KasySwee’s situation but it doesn’t mean I’m not going to point out that her voting her conscience isn’t going to make a bit of difference in her situation, not her vote for president. Her votes downticket might have more of an impact than her vote for president, depending on what state she lives in.
I wasn’t suggesting you shouldn’t point that out, cr. Simply saying that acknowledging her situation while stating your own point of view would be the decent thing to do. Especially if you’d like to persuade her to vote in a different way.
@cr
It’s one thing to hold your nose and vote for Hillary because she is not Trump (which is EXACTLY how her people calculated it, according to her own emails), but it is another to actively support this neoliberal, warmongering, corporate, duplicitous machine of the 1%. Everything that KasySwee mentioned about the policies of Hillary, Obama, and Bill Clinton before them is spot on. They have not done anything for the people they purportedly serve. Meanwhile, It’s a personal affront to characterize anyone who dares to decide not to vote or to vote third party as too privileged to worry about the outcome. That is REALLY offensive. Maybe it is that we know full well that as horrendous as Trump is, Hillary will do nothing to help anyone in need either and never has. Just look at the history of recent Democratic party policies and her personal history as Secretary of State and Senator from NY (carpetbagger that she was). In reality, most who are not swayed by the threat of Trump are exactly those who are NOT privileged. Viggo is actually quite the exception, but he has always been out of the Hollywood mainstream and on the real left. Here’s a good rundown just published today, if anyone is interested:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/18/the-hillary-push-manipulation-you-can-believe-in/
It’s a bit disingenuous to claim that Obama has done nothing for the people they serve. He might not have been able to do everything he wanted but he did a lot and tried damn hard to do more; unfortunately he got blocked at every turn by the opposition party who opposed him from Day One.
You can make the argument that he didn’t do enough but the argument that he did nothing doesn’t hold water. In regard to Secretary Clinton, she must have done something right because when she left her last publicly held office her approval rating was near 70%.
We do know for sure that Trump has taken advantage of the system his whole life. From taking advantage tax breaks that allow him to not pay taxes, to abusing bankruptcy laws, to not paying contractors and small businesses who worked on his projects. The guy has also shown himself to be a threat to the first amendment and is already carrying on like a third rate dictator. This may be harsh but in my opinion anyone who actually believes that Donald is going to change anything in a positive direction is fooling themselves. He is the 1%. And while he may be somewhat of a political outsider he is most definitely an insider. And he has no interest in changing a system that enabled him to accumulate a large chunk of wealth (supposedly). All he talks about is tax breaks for the rich, tax breaks for corporations (most of which do what he does and take advantage of the system and rarely actually end up paying any substantial taxes), ending the estate tax, etc
And he talks about restoring law and order as if he lives in The Wild West. This guy is a joke, who lashes out with he temperent of a three old when opposed but can be flattered into just about anything if you stroke his ego just right. No he’s not better than Hillary. He’s not better than Stein or Johnson either.
And as others have mentioned we the people elect our congressmen and senators; if they aren’t working in your best interest get them out of office. Generally speaking people are too lazy and they want to get worked up every four years. Please. I remember a guy who pushed for universal healthcare and you know what the citizenry wasn’t behind him. The average American is too uninterested, lazy, or simply unwilling to put in the grunt work of being a good citizen: researching and supporting candidates that have your interest at heart and keeping them accountable. How many actually pay attention to what their elected officials are doing? How many people attend local government meetings, etc? Not many because it’s not a priority for most.
Guys, guys, I know how much many people here feel this election is vital and how much every vote will count. But some common humanity in acknowledging a poster’s situation and struggle wouldn’t go amiss.
KasySwee – I wish you well and I hope your situation improves, or at least doesn’t deteriorate further.
ETA: posting as frivolity was.
@Kasy,
I am sorry that your u are having to deal with so many problems. Healthcare is a major issue for me too. Between my deductible and monthly payments, I am out $18,000 a year before you even add in tremendous co-pays. Unfortunately, next year I may opt out of anything but catastrophic coverage. I know rates are set to go up again before the end of the year.
Also, death to the (same, really) two party system.
Good luck with everything regardless of who takes office 🙂
Kasyswee… I really hope your situation gets better. It is sad to think there are people in this great nation that don’t have what they need. And you have every right to vote for anyone you want because it is your vote. That is the point of voting.
I think it is disgusting for anyone to say someone is voting a certain way because they are “privileged”. A lot of people are beginning to use reasoning and logic and seeing that the neighborhoods and towns that are controlled by the Democratic Party are no better off today than they were 30 years ago. Both big parties pander to a certain demographic then play games back and forth. A lot of people don’t want a Hillary Clinton presidency. It doesn’t make them uninformed or privileged.
Universal healthcare is the way for the US to go but too many people are unaware that it really isn’t a perfect system but a far better system than what we have now. I lived in the US all my life until I moved to Canada 4 years ago and the money I would have spent on healthcare I now can spend on other things.
I think principles are more important than political expediency.
Once people start compromising on their principles , looking the other way, because the alternative is worse, that is when the corruption takes root. It is the road to hell paved with good intentions . In the recent US history McCarthysm comes to mind.
I agree with what Viggo says.
Viggo Mortensen has integrity, that’s it. He even called Bernie on his Foreign Policy or lack thereof early on during the Primary. I was upset at first having supported Bernie’s campaign extensively. However, I did some research and lo and behold, Viggo was right then as he is now. I am in a Deep Blue State and my vote for the Green Party will not tip the election in any direction. HRC will win in this state no matter what thanks to our effectively tyrannical two-party system. However, my vote will strengthen the one party that does not take money from corporations as a whole and that does not give lip service to minorities but actually has a platform that addresses their issues as well as those of the population of this country at large and that of the rest of the world. Whoever judges the GP based on the assessment of the Main Stream Media owes it to themselves to actually look at their platform and watch some GP town hall videos on YouTube to make a better judgement based on that. IMHO, those so-called “Progressive Democrats” that are voting for HRC to stop Trump in a safe state are actually doing a disservice to the progressive cause by voting for a corrupt party that does not have the lower and middle class interests at heart in a state that is pre-decided thanks to our ineffective and archaic FPTP voting system. But it is not my place to tell anyone how to vote. I do know for myself that having voted for the Dems (Obama) the last two terms was a mistake for me, one that I do not plan to repeat this time around.
Great post. ITA.
+1 Americans need to stop voting for the lesser of two evils. Rather, vote for whoever you want, but don’t get mad at people with integrity who refuse to vote for candidates responsible for massive unemployment, war, genocide, fracking, etc. Unfortunately, candidates in both major parties are responsible for the aforementioned atrocities. However way you want to slice it, voters of both parties have blood on their hands.
Fully agree.
I was always a Viggo fan, but saw him try and talk politics on Real Time and was… disappointed. He seemed to be trying way too hard and was not as intelligent or insightful as he obviously thought he was.
I think he’s wrong to vote third party but unless he’s voting Trump his political views won’t change my opinion of him. I’ve lost respect for him in this instance but he’s done plenty to outweigh that.
I’ll probably vote for Hillary, but understand what we’re in for here:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/10/blackstones-tony-james-touting-what-looks-like-hillarys-scheme-to-gut-social-security.html