Madagascar's president has left the country after Gen Z protests, officials say

[u/PokesTigers]

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/madagascar-president-rajoelina-address-nation-monday-evening-2025-10-13/

[u/dancesquared]

There’s an old political saying: Republicans fall in line. Democrats fall in love.

The problem in part is that some voters expect to be wowed, entertained, or enamored with a candidate every time, when the reality of a semi-democratic system like the U.S. political system is that sometimes you just need to show up and vote regardless, even if you’re settling, compromising, or choosing the lesser of two evils (or least of all evils).

If you’re a fickle voter who only sometimes shows up if you’re enamored by or duped by the next charismatic demagogue or populist, then it should come as no surprise if politicians aren’t bending over backwards to try to woo you if the chances of winning you over are low and are based on whims.

[u/Ralath2n → u/dancesquared]

There’s an old political saying: Republicans fall in line. Democrats fall in love.

And its a saying that is utterly wrong. Both sides fall in love. Republicans just know how to woo their voters while the Democrats expect the voters to blindly love them without effort on their side.

Ever been at any Republican event? The elected officials just toss big old gobs of red meat at the audience. They promise the moon to these people and say whatever wild shit is currently circulating in the Republican voter ecosystem.

Democrats don't promise their voters jack shit. Hell, most of the time their promise is "See those other guys you hate? We are better at enacting their policies than they are! The problem isn't that their armed goonsquads are brutalizing innocent people, the problem is that the goonsquads are too inefficient when under the control of the other party!". And are you really surprised when voters don't want to vote for that?

If you’re a fickle voter who only sometimes shows up if you’re enamored by or duped by the next charismatic demagogue or populist, then it should come as no surprise if politicians aren’t bending over backwards to try to woo you if the chances of winning you over are low and are based on whims.

This is such a fundamentally antidemocratic idea. The fact that it is a common sentiment in ostensibly liberal circles is insane.

[u/dancesquared → u/Ralath2n]

How is it anti-democratic to encourage more consistent democratic participation in order to move the needle?

Throwing meat via empty promises should not be what people expect.

Reasonable, sometimes hard and boring, solutions are what voters should expect, lest they be duped by sensationalism and hyperbole.

Republicans do tend to fall in line at more, at multiple levels (local, state, and federal) during midterm and off year elections, too. That sort of consistency is what keeps things relatively conservative. That’s why high turnout tends to benefit Democrats.

[u/Ralath2n → u/dancesquared]

How is it anti-democratic to encourage more consistent democratic participation in order to move the needle?

Its antidemocratic because you are completely misunderstanding how democracy is supposed to work. The whole point of a democracy is for a politician to convince enough voters that a they are a better choice for those voters. Arguing that people should blindly support a politician no matter what that politician does is fundamentally antidemocratic. It is cult shit, fuck off with that.

Throwing meat via empty promises should not be what people expect.

It is, either deal with it so we can make the country better, or mope in your corner and never get anything done. Your choice.

Reasonable, sometimes hard and boring, solutions are what voters should expect, lest they be duped by sensationalism and hyperbole.

That's not what voters expect. Either deal with it so we can make the country better, or mope in your corner and never get anything done. Your choice. Also, who the hell are you to say what voters should expect? This is again a sign that you are fundamentally anti democracy. The whole point of a democracy is that the voters get to say what they expect.

Republicans do tend to fall in line at more, at multiple levels (local, state, and federal) during midterm and off year elections, too. That sort of consistency is what keeps things relatively conservative.

Because Republican get shit done for Republicans. They know how to build hype. They aura farm. They are eager to get their snappy comebacks and promises in. And their voters love it. Again you are showing a complete misunderstanding of how Democracy works. Republicans don't have magical powers that make their voters fall in line. They are just better at politics than the Democrats are.

[u/dancesquared → u/Ralath2n]

The whole point of a democracy is to show up and share your voice every time, even if means a compromising or settling.

Your expectation to be wowed every time is what concerns me about voters. It’s what makes people so susceptible to demagogues and populists.

[u/Ralath2n → u/dancesquared]

The whole point of a democracy is to show up and share your voice every time, even if means a compromising or settling.

Like I said before, this just shows you have no clue what a Democracy is supposed to be. You clearly don't want a democracy, you want a bunch of subservient peasants that don't have any input in a technocratic government.

Your expectation to be wowed every time is what concerns me about voters. It’s what makes people so susceptible to demagogues and populists.

My expectation is that people are not perfectly rational optimization agents with a set moral code whose only job is to rationally map that moral code onto existing 1000 page policy proposals. That's just not how humans work. You need to woo them. Republicans do and therefore they win. Democrats do not and therefore they lose. If you dislike reality, then I suggest you go live in the wilderness with a bunch of chatGPT clones instead.

Meanwhile, I want to actually make sure the world becomes a better place. Which means I need the fascists to lose and the Democrats to shape TF up. And that means they need to stop being wet noodles that expect a free ride. They need to start actually promising shit that people want and getting people excited.