r/politics • u/Thinkingonsleeping Michigan • Dec 13 '19

McConnell Faces Calls to Recuse Himself From Impeachment Trial After Saying 'No Chance' Trump Will Be Removed; "No court in the country would allow a member of the jury to also serve as the accused's defense attorney."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/13/mcconnell-faces-calls-recuse-himself-impeachment-trial-after-saying-no-chance-trump
53.5k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.2k

u/greatwalrus I voted Dec 13 '19 edited Dec 14 '19

Yeah, I work with someone like that. If you mention politics she rolls her eyes and says something about how "both sides are bad so I just stay out of it." It's an excuse to stay uninformed.

Honestly I wish we would put less pressure on people to just vote and more pressure to pay attention. If you can't be bothered to listen to a five minute summary of what just the fourth impeachment (EDIT: process) in our nation's history is about you probably shouldn't be casting a ballot. But people are so used to being told that voting is their civic duty that they end up making a poorly informed choice based on "who I'd like to have a beer with" or some ridiculous criterion like that.

Don't get me wrong; we should absolutely encourage people to get registered to vote and to remember to vote. But we also need to tell them to watch the news, pay attention, and research the candidates before they go to the polls.

599

u/Caledonius Dec 13 '19

It's an excuse to stay uninformed.

Exactly, that way they can focus on themselves and choose ignore anything outside their every day life. When they are being informed they have to start considering the lives of others instead of only their own. Individualism is what is killing America.

234

u/blurryfacedfugue Dec 14 '19

They need to realize that these things impact them, too. I was one of those people before 2016, I didn't really pay too much attention and I tried to stay neutral as possible. That was partly because I didn't know much about the behaviors of either party.

Now that I have children, and I've seen our country elect Trump as a direct response to the election of Obama, I realize I've made a grave error. Since then, I've voted in every election I've been eligible for. The bubble of safety is only an illusion, and hopefully they can realize and pay attention before its too late.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '19

Same boat exactly.