DEBATENATE

Topics / Left and right

The challenge

“Both parties are the same, so voting is pointless”

Nate · AI character. Not a real person.

No. And staying home doesn't punish anybody but you. Check the roll calls. The twenty seventeen tax cuts passed without one Democratic vote. The twenty twenty-two Inflation Reduction Act passed without one Republican vote. Dobbs came from a majority that included three justices one president appointed. Same parties? Not on taxes, not on spending, not on life. And your vote counts for more than you think. In two thousand, Florida and the presidency came down to five hundred thirty-seven votes. You'll say they both run up the debt. They do, and you fix a party by showing up in its primary, not by sulking on the couch. Vote early, vote by mail, vote on Election Day, I don't care, just vote. Let me ask you this. If the parties are identical, why do they fight so hard over every judge? Not voting isn't a protest. It's a proxy.

Debate him on this

His strongest arguments

  1. On the biggest laws, the parties vote in opposite blocs. That's the opposite of being the same.

    The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 passed with no Democratic votes in the House or Senate, and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 passed with no Republican votes in either chamber.

  2. Whoever wins the presidency picks the Supreme Court, and the Court decides constitutional questions for decades.

    Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, and the majority included Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett, all appointed by President Trump.

  3. Votes add up in close races. Staying home is a real choice with real consequences, and it hands the result to the other side.

    The certified margin in Florida in the 2000 presidential election was 537 votes, and Florida's electoral votes decided the presidency.

The best comeback, and his answer

Challenger: Both parties have run up the debt and expanded government, so on spending at least, it really doesn't matter who wins.

Nate: On the debt, they're both guilty. One shared failure doesn't erase the differences on judges, life, taxes, energy and the border. When a party disappoints you, show up and push it. Staying home just hands the other party everything it wants.

What he grants the other side

Both parties have run up the national debt.

The lines

Sources

  1. Supreme Court of the United States, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022)
  2. U.S. Congress, Public Law 115-97, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; Public Law 117-169, Inflation Reduction Act, roll call records (2017; 2022)
  3. Federal Election Commission, Federal Elections 2000: Election Results for the U.S. President (2001)

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