
Ask HN: What sources do you use to inform your vote? - phantarch
For an American who isn&#x27;t well plugged in to things like candidate&#x27;s histories or policies beyond mass media, what resources would you recommend to give a non-partisan view of what a Trump vs. Clinton presidency would likely mean?
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sytelus
US media has dazzlingly became op-eds instead of journalism so I decided to
set up Google News with many internal sources which stay away from opinions
and focus on facts. Surprisingly, one of the quality source I found was Al
Jazeera! Here's my Google News sources:

    
    
      - BBC News
      - The Guardian
      - Bloomberg
      - Al Jazeera America
      - Associated Press
      - Reuters
      - The Economist
      - NPR
      - Wall Street Journal
      - ABC News
      - CNBC
      - The Atlantic
    

I'd to forcefully turn of New York Times, Washington Post, Poltico, Fox News,
CNN etc to reduce noise.

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rtpg
I like WSJ's reporting and am subscribed, but I would recommend against the
WSJ's editorial section. The mental gymnastics present in it (especially
during the Trump campaign) are mind-boggling. It's painful and frustrating,
and seem to have absorbed nothing about the politics (or economics) of the
past 40 years.

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ericzawo
They certainly do know how to tow a line or two on the editorial section, but
I can't stop reading them for their business journalism. They are number one
in that department for a reason.

~~~
wmeredith
It's, "toe the line" by the way not, "tow".

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe_the_line](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe_the_line)

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diafygi
The League of Women Voters puts together neutral candidate information and
Pros/Cons for ballot measures.

They are by far the best source for informing yourself on state and local
races.

[http://www.vote411.org/](http://www.vote411.org/)

[http://votersedge.org/](http://votersedge.org/)

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dhruvkar
[http://www.isidewith.com/political-quiz](http://www.isidewith.com/political-
quiz)

You take a little quiz that asks you questions relating to political issues.
It then compares your answers to the candidates.

~~~
shoo
similarly, and less specific to the us election (so maybe of less relevance)
is this site, that asks you a bunch of questions then plots you in two
dimensional social/economic space:

[https://www.politicalcompass.org/](https://www.politicalcompass.org/)

Amusingly political compass says I completely disagree with both Trump and
Clinton - they're both in the Authoritarian-Right quadrant, whereas I end up
in the Libertarian-Left quadrant. Whereas isidewith says I agree 98% with
Clinton and also with Jill Stein, on environmental + criminal + electoral +
social issues.

So I'm not sure what we conclude from that. If both sites are accurate then my
best choice on the menu is Clinton, but the menu is terrible and doesn't have
any options remotely like what I actually want.

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mcv
I think politicalcompass.org takes the international view, separate from
specific local political issues, which puts a lot of space to the left of
nearly every single politician in the world (who tend towards right-
authoritarian), whereas isidewith looks at specific issues for this election
and the US specific situation.

So for this election, you're closest to Clinton, but your ideal situation
looks completely different from anything that could realistically result from
this election.

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ludicast
The Rubin Report is very unbiased and open minded. Mostly interviews, but a
fun show.

There's a lot of other great sources mentioned already, but wanted to add my
fave to the list.

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NumberCruncher
The presidential election - and I mean not only this US election, but
generally - is not about electing an emperor who can do what he/she thinks is
the best but more about electing a remotely controlled mascot. And the remote
controllel is not in our/your hand, except you have a too big to fail business
and/or a lot of cash on your account. Sometimes good emperos get elected by
accident, but they have a short life expectancy.

A heavily subjective answer to your question: there would be no difference
between the two presidencies. Don't waste your time with gathering information
on the mascots. Just lean back and enjoy the show.

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yellowapple
Mostly the comments sections of news aggregator sites like reddit and HN. I
figure actual news sites are about as valuable as refrigerators in Antarctica
at this point; if I'm going to get decent information I really am better off
with quantity over "quality".

I'm only half joking here, too, which is the saddest part. Every article ends
up being eviscerated by the comments section because of some bias in one
direction or the other, so I might as well just cut to the chase and watch the
actual discussions unfold.

Also, forum.nationstates.net. For the uninitiated, it's the forum for an
online political simulator; unsurprisingly, it attracts people who actually
study politics or are otherwise psychologically invested in the political
world, so it's interesting to see the perspectives of people who may or may
not actually be experts in political science. Sometimes they seem to just
enjoy politics for politics' sake, though, which gets fascinating in the same
way that a train wreck is fascinating.

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goddamnit3
I use ballotpedia.org. However, in the state I live in, Utah, the population
seems too small to merit a blog post about the candidates competing for
positions less important than governor. So for example, a possible description
of the positions of senatorial and gubernatorial candidates, but nothing on
people to be elected to the teacher's board or attorney general.

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joeclark77
I'm afraid there's no simple shortcut to knowing what the future will bring.
The study of history and politics is a lifelong endeavor. Start perhaps with
the Old Testament and then Plutarch's _Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans_.

If you want a shortcut, the only one that works is to find someone whose
knowledge and judgment you can trust. That could be a celebrity commentator,
or it could be your father. Plumb the depths of their knowledge by asking
questions, and challenging the answers, and (here's the hard part) if they
prove themselves worthy, make the decision to trust their recommendation even
if your emotions tell you to vote the other way.

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tmaly
There is just too much noise these days.

I tend to try to find the candidates platforms posted on their official
websites. I look at each of their points and try to see how that agrees with
my own stance.

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bbcbasic
Tim Ferris apparently asks an intelligent friend with similar ethics etc.
According to four hour work week.

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aaronhoffman
Here are a couple good alternatives to mass media.

[https://mises.org/](https://mises.org/)

[http://reason.com/](http://reason.com/)

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htwillie
noagenda.com

