NYT: Why you shouldn’t vote

The writer:

Mr. Walther is the editor of The Lamp, a Catholic literary journal, and a contributing Opinion writer.

Is he’s a devout Catholic, then, dude, please DO NOT VOTE!

^If he’s a…

why I won't subscribe and haven't in over a decade

Surprise!

[quote]To everyone appalled by NYT's July 4 op-ed "Why I don't vote. And maybe you shouldn't either", note that 1) author Matthew Walther DID vote in both 2020 and 2022, and 2) he's an extremist Catholic graduate of Hillsdale College, part of the religious-right faction behind Jan 6.

An unvote is a Trump vote.

I canceled my subscription months ago and don't miss it.

R4. Bingo!

The author’s choice adds another vote to Column D!

Why I won't wear a red ribbon... Oh, wait, on on the wrong thread

I’m not voting. I live in a blood red Trumper state and my measly one Biden vote doesn’t count. So I’m just not going to vote— it’s pointless thanks to the electoral college.

R9 Down ticket candidates need support.

Yes, vote anyway r9, just as a gesture that you still give a fuck about this country and its future.

R9, I live in Texas. My presidential vote has never made a difference, but senate and house races still matter as do the state races.

Whatever, R9.

Though I live in one of THE reddest of Southern states, and ALWAYS vote Blue, I'm not interested in arguing with an anonymous poster. But if you're a Democrat or Indy, I do hope you'll at least for your local and state Democratic nominees, both up and down the ticket.

[quote] How is this newspaper still running?

Generational wealth. NYTimes is at least 3 generations of Sulzbergers. That’s means they had plenty of money to invest in 1980s and 1990s during tech boom and the insider trading continues. They’re fabulously wealthy. They went to same schools as politicians and CEOs. They’re all pals. We’re the dopes.

Originally published with the headline "Why I Don't Vote." After it was revealed the author voted in 2020 and 2022, NYT stealthy changed the headline to "Why I Won't Vote."

disgusting, probably an incel too

R12, I'm another Texan in a solid blue county, safely blue congressional district and I'll be voting. We all know Trump will win the state, but there are down ballot races that are more competitive. If we could somehow throw that smug ass, unlikable Ted Cruz out of office for Colin Allred, it would be a great day for Texas. Anything to disrupt the Republican stranglehold on the state is a plus.

Another reason to vote:

It’s an opinion piece.

R19 understands… sigh.

Jesus, r4...

Paywalled!

[quote]It’s an opinion piece.

That gets a bright light shined on it that it doesn't deserve.

"To everyone appalled by NYT's July 4 op-ed "Why I don't vote. And maybe you shouldn't either", note that 1) author Matthew Walther DID vote in both 2020 and 2022, and 2) he's an extremist Catholic graduate of Hillsdale College, part of the religious-right faction behind Jan 6.

Walther voted in both 2020 and 2022. (His Michigan voting record was posted by Timothy Burke on Bluesky.) In fact Waltjer wrote an entire essay about voting. The NYT did not do the most basic fact-checking. Even an op-ed shouldn't be a lie.

This account has written often about how Hillsdale was a driving force behind Jan 5. The "1776 Commission", chaired by Hillsdale president Larry Arnn, was the quid pro quo for support of Trump's coup - letting the religious right control US education.

Hillsdale, which runs a network of for-profit charters, was all in for the coup. Three Hillsdale officers helped with the MI fake-elector scheme: its president (Arnn), general counsel, & DC Dean. Even the NYT covered it, though they omit key texts showing Arnn was in the loop.

Hillsdale was a "feeder of staffers" for Trump. Hillsdale set his education agenda (via Betsy DeVos). In 2020 Hillsdale officials met with fake electors; Hillsdale graduates filed election-fraud lawsuits. The NYT article just scratches the surface.

On Jan 6, Hillsdale president Larry Arnn was out and about in DC, taking pictures with rally-goers. He'd come to DC to chair the one and only meeting of the "1776 Commission", hastily called by Trump for Jan 5 - to design an education agenda for a 2nd Trump term.

If anyone doubts Walther's Hitler-esque photo, it comes from a 2023 article by Hillsdale College's own newspaper. Everyone signed off on this look. (Note: Walther's often called a Hillsdale graduate, but seems he didn't quite finish his degree...)

There's so much more on Hillsdale. The Prince/DeVos support. (It's Erik Prince's alma mater). The charter and vouchers scams. The tie to Moms for Liberty. This is who NYT editors think Americans should hear on July 4. Do we really trust these guys on what's good for democracy?

Coda: NOW the NYT is editing! First title: "Why I don't vote. And why maybe you shouldn't either". Then just: "Why I don't vote". Now they realize the lie: title suddenly is "Why I won't vote" (graphic not changed though). Archived link is from 10 AM."

[quote] disgusting, probably an incel too

Enough with the incel crap, frau. Find another word.

"Q&A: MATTHEW WALTHER

Matthew Walther is the editor of The Lamp, a Catholic literary journal, and a contributor to the New York Times..."

[quote] It’s an opinion piece.

No shit, Einstein.

He looks 12.

Nice Hitler haircut

Catholic and Hillsdale is an odd mix. The op-ed reads like something a smart high school edgelord would write.

More on Hillsdale. Don't let these freaks take Democracy from us. Don't let them take away everything you've worked for and dream of having.

"Nashville’s entangled ‘Prayer Trade’ is a warning to the rest of the country

'God,' we might say, is big business and big politics, too, in Nashville."

This is what I think of polls and opinion pieces

Mick Mulvaney was such a worm.

The media is complicit by having these 'all opinions should be heard' position. They give equal time to radical positions that are not held by 50% of the people.

^ Exactly, I have an opinion that's better than this joker's. Where's my piece? 😠

R9 Same here, but I'm in California where the Dems should be business as usual. Down tickets too.

Literally nothing will change whether I vote or don't.

Bless your heart, r36.

[quote]Literally nothing will change whether I vote or don't.

Hey everybody in California, r36 says don't bother voting. Got it? Cuz ya know...

[quote]Dems should be business as usual. Down tickets too.

What a FUCKING IDIOT. I wrote him and told him just that.

such a weird little piece. Don't vote, because voting is like being in a slave patrol or part of a rotten borough before the English Reform Bill, or something. Very odd and pointless the whole thing.

[quote]R19: It’s an opinion piece.

And the NYT is responsible for platforming it.

They've really gone completely over to the right, haven't they?

The problem with not voting because you view one of the candidates as the lessor of two evils is you help to elect the greater of two evils.

always

Yes, I care deeply about the non-voting habits of a single Catlick crackpot.

that he is given a voice in a major news source is the subject, not his ugly ass, bunky

… and that is why I only use the NYT for Wordle.

"The problem with not voting because you view one of the candidates as the lessor of two evils is you help to elect the greater of two evils."

Please explain beyond "DEMOCRACY! EVERY VOTE COUNTS!!!" Because they don't.

Vote, or dont vote - but IF you dont vote, dont go bitching about the outcome.

I always vote myself

They're committed to a "diversity of viewpoints" which is a fancy way of saying that they'll publish some truly asinine shit written by certified idiots. It's the reason Ross Douthat writes a NYT column instead of working at Chick-fil-A.

False Headline Troll gets the old ff.

Hillsdale College is well known to Michiganders to be a conservative wingnut college. I hope the NYTs runs a piece to counter this one.

I hope the NYT acknowledges they changed the title of the essay.

[quote] Please explain beyond "DEMOCRACY! EVERY VOTE COUNTS!!!" Because they don't.

No each individual vote rarely ever counts but there have been elections that are decide on a coin toss, but you get a few thousand people who just decide to sit it out and that does count.

I am a Democrat in a very red state, my vote never counts for much but I vote in nearly every general election, I did skip the last primary because there was only one contested race on the Democratic ballot and that race wasn't even close. Republicans vote and they vote en mass that is why they win so many seats despite there often being fewer of them.

Even Douthat isn't as loony as this guy.

Will we be seeing an op-ed from MTG next?

[uote]No each individual vote rarely ever counts but there have been elections that are decide on a coin toss, but you get a few thousand people who just decide to sit it out and that does count.

statisticians have pointed out (the UK election in point) that elections these days are often decided by those who stay home and don't vote, the election inevitably going to the party they wouldn't have voted for

R55 If you're in a state where the electoral college vote is almost guaranteed to go for one candidate, Alabama and California as examples, I don't get the logic that your vote or nonvote makes a difference. Even with abysmal voter turnout, Alabama will go to Trump and California to Biden. If someone wants to sit out because they don't like either, doing so is largely inconsequential.

I'm of the opinon that voting for the lesser of two evils is not really a choice. It's pandering to the greater of two evils. I can't fault those who aren't happy this situation and I think you will see that will play to the Republican's advantage in November. Don't blame nonvoters or Republicans. Ask the DNC why they couldn't get a candidate that its own party is largely happy to support.

If you are in a Red State, if you are in a swing state

YOUR VOTE COUNTS.

It counts for President, it counts for Senator, it counts for dog catcher. If you don't show up, you are giving your votes to Republicans. This is what they want. Don't give your votes to the enemy.

And inept Democrats aren't the enemy? They're literally driving people away from the party and polls.

I've dropped friends who tell me they don't vote. Oh, they're just not political. Fuck stupid people!

It's an opinion piece.

R59 Political people are tiresome. Your friends are probably glad they don't have to listen to your drivel anymore.

I was a subscriber to the NYT for over 30 years, and for a while longer when it became basically digital only. Their headlines and op-eds are an anathema to the journalistic integrity they stood by for over 150 years. I unsubscribed when they were continuously normalizing Trump during his presidency. I don't regret it one bit. Sometimes someone will link me an article and I will sigh at their own pathetic spiral they have allowed.

R30, I heard this a lot after Butker gave his commencement speech, that Catholics aren't this conservative. There are pockets of ultra-conservative Catholics all over the U.S., and I met them in Wichita KS, Phoenix AZ, and in northern Indiana. Some of them belong to Latin rite movements; other belong to charismatic Catholic factions. Their politics and religious beliefs are aligned with many Baptists' or Pentecostals' attitudes..

That's just a reheated version of Reagan's "I didn't leave the Democratic party, the party left me", r58. It's fine if you want to be more socially conservative in your old age, no need to pretend that Democrats are incompetent fanatics.

I really think we ought to be organizing a total boycott of mainstream media because they are clearly not standing up for Democracy. First they continue the relentless bullying of Biden, which causes him to be defiant. They have left him no graceful exit. If he leaves under these circumstances it will d amage the party going into November. The people who've stood by him would look ridiculous and the people who joined in with the bullies would look small and ugly. I firmly believe if Biden had some space and an exit ramp he would have concluded that he was ready to pass the torch. But the problem is that he went through all the primaries, and he's only a few months younger than he is now, right? ANd he has united his party as he did in 2020. So to simply walk away now would fuck everything up and the party would fragment into a mess. But rationality seems beyond the reach of our media. So BOYCOTT all of them. The Times, CNN ABC NBC CNBC< Fox, and the rest. They're fucking us. They're not to be trusted. I get my news off NPR and the BBC. Get get the traffic, weather and Mayhem news from my local stations, and I stay informed. I also have found solace in reading business publications. Lots of good information to be had there. But we need to stop this bullshit with the NYT and CNN most especially and the rest of them too. There's a lot going on. Trump has literally been hiding for ten f ucking days. No coverage at all. he has disappeared from the headlines. That is simply unacceptable.

I know I haven't been watching the networks like I used to prior to the debate. At this point, I'm down to the BBC because they aren't spending the majority of their airtime on Biden's age and whether he will drop out of the race or not. When they do mention it, I'll briefly change the channel and return once they finish and move on. The American networks are obsessed with it and are now ignoring the Trump campaign's lies and the extremist rhetoric coming from him, his endorsed candidates and his supporters that any other politician would have been raked over the coals for. I find it all unbelievable, disgusting and stressful.

NYT is basically trolling America at this point. Why don't they just come out and say it.