this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
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In a two party first past the post system, not voting (or throwing away your vote on a candidate who will not win) benefits the candidate you least want because it effectively gives half your vote to each side
In the general elections, voting blue no matter who is harm reduction, the time for activism was back in the primaries
Okay? The point I'm making, which you have totally ignored, is that votes are the only leverage that we have. By throwing my vote away the Democrats can't have it, and if enough people do that they lose. Supposedly they want to win, so they need to convince me to note vote for Aaron Bushnell this November. By deciding to enslave yourself to the Democrats and slavishly give them your support no matter what they have no reason to not get even worse. By next year they'll have moved even farther to the right and it will be your fault because you refused to use the only leverage you have to move them to the left.
Every election cycle the Democrats just become the Republicans from the last election cycle. Biden is doing genocide, violating international law by limiting asylum seekers, and marching us towards WW3. How much worse will they get if they aren't stopped?
and then things get even worse for everyone, including Palestinians
There might not be Palestinians by November.
Oh ffs
And not voting for a major party will fix that how?
Even if a significant portion of the population goes third party (and assuming they all agree on the same party), splitting the vote has only ever helped the opposition.
And if Democrats are just Republicans from the last election cycle, which is an absolutely unhinged notion but I'll humor you anyway, voting for Democrats is still in my best interest since Republicans are even further right
You've legitimately lost your mind in a purity test if you can't see that.
Refusing to vote for genocide isn't a purity test.
Imagine if it was your family under the rubble. Would you vote for that just because the other guy might be worse?
Yes, are you retarded? Like you've gotta be actually fucking stupid to be queer and think letting republicans win to punish dems is better for you, or Palestine. American politics is harm reduction, and the choice for less harm is clear.
I'm voting Dem downticket. Just not for Biden.
It's not like Biden has done fucking anything about Republicans attacking our rights in the State legislatures. When my red state decides to make it illegal to use the bathroom he won't do anything about it.
I'd still vote for him if he'd stop doing genocide, of course, but until then 🤷♀️
https://youtu.be/t3Vah8sUFgI
There's primaries for federal elections every 2 years in the US, if you want to change the makeup of the party, vote for different candidates in them
Y'all attacked the uncommitted movement too and circled the wagons, ensuring it would fail to accomplish anything.
Thanks to you Biden knows he can do as much genocide as he wants and not lose any of your votes. You are to blame.
I never did, that's the least destructive way to let your displeasure be known, as long as you still vote for, and encourage others to vote for, the least bad candidates in the general elections (spoilers, the least bad candidates will pretty much universally be blue)
All this that does is ensure this election's Democrat is the same as last election's Republican, they constantly move as far to the right as you let them because they know they can count on your vote no matter what. You are making things worse. Maybe you, specifically, didn't speak out against uncommitted. The whole .world instance definitely did, though. We remember.
Even if this is true and we're in a metaphorical political nosedive, that's still harm reduction, it's 4 more years to be politically active in a functioning democracy, vote in every primary and general you can from your local school board up to the presidential election, and hopefully pull up hard enough that we don't actually smash into the ground
If you think our democracy is already too far gone and completely unsalvageable, you shouldn't be advocating for other people not to vote, you should instead be advocating for people to join/form a local militia and start training to defend it because clearly it's already time to break out the 4th box
If voting matters, if this is a democracy, then non-votes matter too.
So which is it? Is this a functioning democracy, where refusing to vote unless certain demands are met can be used as leverage? Or is this a kleptocracy where you must vote for the fascism lite party if you don't want the fascism delux party to win?
Non-votes literally do not matter, mathematically it's the same as if you had two votes and you gave one each to both candidates. Parties cannot appeal to you as a non-voter because they have no idea what you want, the only way they can is if you vote in primaries for your candidates of choice so they can see the sorts of things their constituents value. Only don't vote if you truly don't care whether we have "fascism or fascism-lite", because if you would prefer one then not voting only helps the other win.
Again, general elections are about harm reduction, sometimes you have to be an adult, grit your teeth, and choose between two bad choices because one is clearly the better option. We'll have to eliminate FPTP first if we want anything different.
By refusing to vote unless my demands are met I can exert pressure on Democrats. You, by voting blue no matter who and no matter what, literally have no impact on Democrats. How else do you think we push them left?
Also, genocide isn't harm reduction.
You're an enabler. This genocide is on your head, blue no matter who's have made it impossible to convince Biden to stop.
If that's what you have to tell yourself when you and others like you not voting enables Donald Trump and the GOPs super genocide on the Palestinian people, I'm sure their spirits will rest well in their mass graves knowing that you really stuck it to the Democrats
I for one will be trying to save lives come November
There might not be anyone left alive in Gaza by November because you refuse to pressure Biden. You are an enabler.
You are cutting off your nose to spite your face, your selfishness and inability to move past your moral grandstanding on this single issue will guaranteed cause untold suffering across the globe (especially to domestic minorities) should the Republicans gain more power
More dead Ukrainians, more dead Gazans, more dead women, more dead LGBT, and if they get their way, the death of American democracy as we know it
There might not be any people left in Gaza by November thanks to your support for genocide. You are an enabler.
The point that you are making is that you are a fascist little Untermensch.
Fascism is when you don't vote for genocide. 🇺🇸
Don't forget that he's also made more progress on building the southern border wall and killing the asylum process than trump did in his 4 years. But he wears a blue tie (Good Guys) and that's all that really matters.
Also blowing up the Nordstream pipeline and putting sanctions on China's green transition.
Also drilling more oil than any other president in US history!
Ahh the ol CCP. Here we go.
No, no, DO go on.