Stimmen zur US-Wahl 2024
“The choice this year is so clear, it’s ridiculous”
Ein Wähler aus New Orleans gibt Einblicke in seine Wahlentscheidung 2024: seine Unterstützung, Bedenken zur politischen Lage und die Themen, die seiner Meinung nach die Zukunft der USA prägen.
Second-Hand-Shops, Buchläden, ein paar Cafés – die Oak Street ist eines der Herzstücke New Orleans und auch über die Stadtgrenzen für ihren Flair bekannt. An der Ecke zur Hauptstraße findet man das Café Rue De La Course. Ein beliebter Treffpunkt für die Anwohner:innen. Auch Bobby sitzt hier oft. M94.5-Redakteurin Elisabeth Kowol hat ihn zu seinen Eindruck rund um die US-Wahl 2024 befragt.
The 2024 US election is already underway. Both sides are fighting for votes and their campaigns are in full swing. What is your opinion on it? What do you think about the strategies of both sides?
First of all, I’ll go ahead and state: I lean left. I’m a Democrat. I didn’t watch any of Trump’s spectacular Republican convention. I barely watched any of the Democratic convention. I did, however, listen to Kamala’s acceptance speech in its entirety just to see what she had to say and was very impressed. I think the Dems have done very well to have Joe step aside. God bless him, but it was driving me nuts. I thought to myself:
Trump is the worst candidate we could possibly
ever run against. And the best the Democrats got is
some doddering old man.
I still was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I could easily see what everybody was upset with. Then again, the Democrats have done this before. We had George W Bush back in the day and he came up for reelection. And the best the Dems could do was a guy named John Kerry, who was as uninteresting a candidate as there could be.
Bobby sitzt hier öfters – im Café Rue De La Course. Meistens findet man ihn eher am Rand und so oft es geht draußen an der Sonne. In der Hand hat er dabei immer etwas zu lesen: eine Zeitung, mal ein Buch, das Handy. In der anderen hält er eine Zigarette, locker abgelegt am Rand des Tisches oder am Knie. Er ist etwa Mitte 50, die blonden Haare hat er nach hinten gegelt und sagt sagt selbst über sich:
“Three quick, easy things about myself: I’m left handed. I play guitar and je parle francais. I currently work – I take care of a patient with ALS in a wheelchair. I have done some traveling earlier in my life, but I’m kind of settled at the moment, so that’s about it.”
How do you think the Democrats fare this year with Kamala Harris now being their prime candidate?
The choice this year is so clear, it’s ridiculous. I mean, we cannot have that buffoon [Trump, Anm. d. R.] in the office again. What is astounding to me and really sad is how much of this country actually is on the Trump train. The Brits had Boris. The Italians had that womanizing Italian guy. You know, everybody’s got a goofball like that. But for nearly half the country to jump on board with it is really disconcerting. I think that this election is very important.
I certainly hope Kamala wins – and if she does, I fully expect the Republicans to stage another January 6th. Nobody else is talking about that, I think. But I’ve become concerned.
Can you elaborate on what concerns you about the Republicans?
I think they have become anti-democratic in regard to the whole country. They want to win and they’re not above cheating, as they showed already. I’ve been paying attention, but I feel like I don’t really have to because I already know who I would vote for. At the same time, I’m just a guy out here on the street and I don’t know what else to do but vote. Neighborhood by neighborhood, we’re all going to vote for who we vote for. And I think that this election, there’s not much middle ground, because it is at times so vitriolic yet very partizan. Nobody’s going to be half and half. And I think most Americans already know who they’re voting for. I think if everybody voted that could, Kamala would win in a landslide. That’s why the Democrats need to get out and make sure we vote. And I think the Dems will have the majority if we all do that.
New Orleans itself was solidly Democratic, but most of the rest of Louisiana votes Republican. In the end, all the electoral college votes go to the Republicans. What do you think of the electoral system?
I mean, it served us well here for 200 plus years, so I can’t be too upset about it. You know, it is what that is. But whoever wins the popular vote gets all of the electoral college delegates of Louisiana. And I guess that makes a better surety of getting a winner and not getting too bogged down. But I always bothered me because clearly the Republicans are always going to win. And so, I go vote Democratic, and now all of our electoral college votes go for the person I did not vote for. It kind of makes me feel like I didn’t vote. If there was a system where the Republicans won 60 percent to 40 percent and we have ten delegates, so they get six and we get four, that would be a little more solid.
Das Wahlsystem in den USA und New Orleans
Das US-Wahlsystem ist ein indirektes Wahlsystem. Heißt: Der nächste Präsident oder Präsidentin wird nicht direkt von den Bürger:innen, sondern über das sogenannte Electoral College, zu deutsch Wahlkollegium, gewählt. Insgesamt sind es 538 Wahlmänner und -frauen, die auf die 50 Bundesstaaten verteilt sind. Wie viele die einzelnen Staaten haben, kommt auf die Bevölkerungsgröße an.
In 48 Staaten gilt dabei das ‘Winner-takes-all’-Prinzip. Der oder die Kandidat:in, der/die meisten Wähler:innenstimmen in einem Bundesstaat bekommt, gewinnt damit auch alle Wahlleute dieses Bundesstaates, der/die andere geht leer aus. Nur in den kleinen Staaten Nebraska und Maine werden die Stimmen der Wahlleute annähernd proportional vergeben. Um Präsident:in zu werden, muss der/die Kandidat:in mindestens 270 Wahlleute für sich gewinnen.
In vielen Staaten ist bereits klar, ob die Demokraten oder Republikaner gewinnen – dort wird seit Jahrzehnten mehrheitlich demokratisch oder eben republikanisch gewählt. Andere Staaten, die Swing States, sind dagegen stark umkämpft – hier haben die beiden großen Parteien keine sichere Mehrheit.
Dieses Jahr kommt es vor allem auf diese sieben Bundesstaaten an: Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia und besonders umkämpft – Pennsylvania. Dort entscheidet sich die Wahl. Louisiana gehört hier nicht dazu. Auch wenn in New Orleans stark demokratisch gewählt wird, überwiegen im gesamten Staat die Stimmen für die Republikaner – und das schon seit dem Jahr 2000.
Durch das indirekte Wahlsystem kann es sein, dass ein:e Kandidat:in zwar landesweit insgesamt mehr Wähler:innenstimmen bekommt, aber trotzdem verliert. Da sich der Gegner, die größten also mit den meisten Wahlleuten besetzen Staaten sichern konnte. Das war beispielsweise 2016 der Fall. Hillary Clinton (Demokraten) hatte insgesamt mehr Wähler:innenstimmen, Donald Trump (Republikaner) sicherte sich aber mehr Wahlleute. In der Geschichte der USA war das bisher fünf Mal der Fall.
So do you doubt the legitimacy of U.S. elections?
I think that the ones we have are free and fair and I think there’s a lot of effort that goes into to make sure they are. States have election boards which tabulate these votes. There are also members of each party present to witness the counting and to throw in questions if they feel like there’s something amiss. And they’ve recounted state’s votes. Not just in 2020 when everybody’s making a big deal of it. Every election goes through this. They always do it and they’ve done it for 200 years. In short: I think our system is legitimate.
The thing with the Electoral College votes kind of gets my goat because I’m on a blue island in a red state and we vote, but then they get all our bar votes.
And that kind of pisses me off. But whatever, as long as it is free and fair, as long as they count the votes accurately, I’m fine. I think that we have integrity.
What wishes do you have for the remaining election campaign?
The only wish I have is that the side wins that I want to win. I think it would be very bad for the country if it doesn’t. I’m not generally opposed to a Republican being the president. That’s democracy. And some of the points they wanted to do and the way they sought to govern – you know, I wasn’t against every single one of them. For example, on how we should balance the budget and keep Congress from having too much debt. I can agree with that. That’s what they used to say. They don’t say that anymore. They used to be the party of family values. That’s not the case anymore. So I just hope that we win and that Kamala runs an effective campaign. I think she and the whole party did very well with what I saw out of the convention.
That’s regarding the Democrats’ election campaign. What about the Republicans?
I think if you watch the Trump campaign… It’s just astounding the things that he has done, that he’s getting away with, that their side just let go. The latest I saw was when he took a picture for political purposes at Arlington National Cemetery. Yet there’s a big old law against that very thing. And he was mad that they tried to call him out on it. If a Democrat did that, you guys would do the cross next to Jesus. It would be horrible. Watching the campaign – Trump’s going to do what he’s going to do and it’s going to look stupid to those of us that have any sense. But otherwise they don’t have control of him, he’s just going to talk about what he wants. The saddest part is that his base is just going to say yes without any regard to what it is they’re saying yes to – unfortunately.
What do you expect the Democrats to do better, if the next president of the U. S. will be a Democrat?
Well, Kamala and Joe Biden’s policies have been less than helpful for the Gonzales thing, that’s for sure, and it needs to change.
America’s position needs to change.
And I agree with that. I also think that if you don’t like Kamala because she was tied to Joe and you want to point that out, that’s great. But it’s not going to change the other guys in office. Maybe the Dems can change their tune on that. They changed their tune on Joe Biden, and that’s a pretty big deal. He was and is the guy still in the seat. And now he’s going to not be in it for them to be able to make that change happen. Why can’t they make a policy change on Gaza happen? We’ll have to see. But I guess my point is: I am open to criticism of what it is that I’m voting for. I’m not a toe-the-party-line-guy-and-if-you-disagree-you’re-wrong guy forever. No, I have disagreements with our side, just a whole lot less than with what the Republicans are offering right now.
Going by your answers to my questions this entire topic is very important to you. Why is that so?
My problem in this world is: I go beyond some of the surface level policy things. I look at philosophies and at least, even if they don’t actually do it right, the Democrats talk about trying to elevate everyone in the country – you know, trying to bring about the poorer or middle or working classes or whatever you want to call it up for everybody and not just serve the rich, wealthy people. This is what we got going on, in my opinion, with the Republican policy. Even if they don’t do it right, they try to be inclusive of blacks and whites and gay people and straight people and trans people and Asians and immigrants and making an effort towards that.
Let’s circle back to the topic of immigration which just doesn’t stop making waves worldwide. What is your stance on the state of it in the U. S.?
Do we have an immigration problem? Absolutely. Do we need to do something to maybe try and stem the tide? Sure. If you’re going to be here, let’s get you some papers and see who you are. And if you’re really legit, just let you start living, go get you a job and get your kids in school. Come on, we need to be able to do that. And we’re not doing that. Also there’s this fearmongering that every last immigrant is some sort of criminal. That’s just ridiculous. America was supposed to be the immigrant country. Is it too much at the border? Probably. Are there some people we don’t necessarily need to have? Sure. Do we need to have a system of trying to figure them out? Yes. But we also need to get them in and this incessant notion of isolationist “let’s-build-a-wall” crap just got to go.
And for a change of pace: What are your views on taxation legislation?
Lord knows nobody likes paying taxes. But here’s the thing that most people don’t understand: Taxation was encoded in the Constitution and it’s an amendment. It’s not just a law that they’ve passed. It’s listed in the constitutional amendment, I forgot which one. I’m not that great of a civics minded person and might not be able to quote it, but it’s in there. In order to remove taxation, we’d have to vote on a law and then have it be passed by two thirds of the states through the legislatures. In other words, it’s never going away. So if we’re going to have it, then they need to spend it on us, like these roads that flood all the time.
Let’s get us some infrastructure or schools
that aren’t falling apart.
If you can put money into it, that’s what I want. You’re supposed to help people and so I’m not opposed to some of the money, a lot of the money being spent on other countries.
But a large chunk of this money is used for military purposes overseas. Do you support those expenses as well?
How much of it goes to the military, that’s just insane. We’ve got the most gigantic freaking military budget in the universe. And we think that we need it. I was talking about this with a friend of mine. We saw a big piece on Norway and how they managed to come back from the late 1800s till the early 1900s, how they managed to turn themselves around from just a rural backwater to a good strong country. They did a bunch of stuff and they kept the taxes high when they started getting money in, which they reinvested in education, health care and infrastructure. And now they’re listed in the top three happiest places to live in. I looked at that and said “See, that’s the example right there”. People think that that’s some sort of socialist thing and it’s not. And then Thomas coined a little phrase: He said “It’s capitalism with a social conscience” and I thought, that’s what it is. Our capitalists don’t have that. We’re all just about getting the money – short term thinking, making a profit and that’s it. If that means firing a bunch of people, if that means cutting corners on the safety of the food that we’re producing, if that means spreading chemicals because we don’t know how to dispose of them when we make a product, then it’s a buy, but we don’t care. Money first is the problem.
Do you believe the U. S. is able to change in the long term?
I don’t know how we change all of that. But I certainly know that the right side of our current political landscape will only try to increase what I’ve talked about, at least as far as I can tell. And even if we got somebody that could see all of what I’m talking about and say “We’re going to institute that” and then everybody did it, it would still take years to do so. I mean, to change the way America perceives its responsibilities with regard to the capitalist resources we have.
This country is still pretty cool overall.
It’s not just a big pile of crap, but we could be doing so much better. I won’t see what that is completely in my lifetime, but who knows? Gay people can get married now. That didn’t use to be the case. Slowly but surely, we can make changes, I guess. Black people used to suffer. Well, they still do, but it’s not like it was in the 30s. There’s incremental change happening. Maybe we can get around to it. We’ll see.
If you were to choose three topics that you wish people talked about, what would they be?
In no particular order: The immigration has to be dealt with. Also we need to change the position on Gaza in the Gaza Israeli conflict in such a way as to not feel like we’re leaving the Israelis out in the cold. Then making sure that our economy is functioning to a degree that is indeed beneficial to people that don’t live in gigantic houses and drive expensive cars. Those are three very broad things. But I guess for the country, those are the things that really stand out to me in the election.
Ihr wollt mehr über die US-Wahl 2024 erfahren? Dann abonniert unsere M94.5-Podcastreihe Ballot Box Breakdown und folgt uns auf Instagram unter m945.ballotboxbreakdown
Bobby hört ihr übrigens auch in unserer ersten Folge von Ballot Box Breakdown. Hört rein!
