When given a choice between a millitary industrial neoliberal with a rainbow voting base and a fascist who is one elon musk golf session away from banning HRT, the best option is certainly not to refuse to play out of protest
I vote Jagmeet Singh
Pictured: Newly-unveiled biologically-engineered troops of the National Guard enforcing the new State Ideology of Obamunism in Mar-a-Lago (2009, colorized)
this is my American Dream™
This is what’s in Alex Jones’ dreams
the last thing Mitch McConnell sees before his ping hits 8000
Ted Stevens.
“The internet… isn’t a dump truck. It’s a series of tubes.”
The best way I’ve seen anyone put it is that by the time the election arrives, you are exclusively in damage control mode. If you want actual change, you have to have it done by getting your personal choice voted in during the primaries.
And I’d add - get active the other 364 days of the year.
If we want better options we first need ranked choice voting and we need to get money out of politics. And none of that is going to happen if our only political action each year is voting.
Proud to say that in Colorado, ranked choice voting is on the ballot this year! It’s even supported by the big political names here, including the governor.
Exactly! They’re putting in the work there and getting some fantastic things done. Lots of other great stuff on that ballot too.
At local level. Organize school board, dog catcher, judges, city council, planing commission, library board, community college board, do what the right wing does
do what the right wing does
Maybe with just a little less cross burning, lynching, and religious extremism.
This is really key, though the state level is probably most important. If your voting activism doesn’t go beyond the presidential election, it’s performative at most. A third party candidate without members of their party is state houses and Congress is going to be fairly ineffective even if they somehow did do the impossible and get elected.
fr
We had a primary?
Yes. And Biden was chosen, which includes Harris being next up if Biden couldn’t perform the duties of president for any reason. If Democrats didn’t want the status quo, they should have chosen someone other than Biden.
How did nobody notice Biden’s brain no longer works if there was this robust primary process you describe and we all just missed it?
we all just missed it?
You missed it. I was well aware of it, and concerns about Biden at the time, and I don’t even live in the US.
Not everyone else’s fault if you don’t engage with the political system until less than a month before the election. That’s what this entire post is about.
The party not allowing debates and threatening everyone to stay out so only an ice cream millionaire who was leaving congress anyway did a quixotic “run” in an attempt to hide how bad Biden had gotten is not a real primary. Just because you don’t grasp verbal irony isn’t everyone else’s fault.
Honestly we just had an election where I live where the options were (not to this extreme at all) but pretty similar in the “not great” vs “fucking awful” choices. Of course we had an actual third party with good policies but they had no chance. The race was so close here that in some areas the difference in votes was in the hundreds for the top two choices. They’re still doing recounts and I guess we’ll see, but every single fucking vote has counted on this.
I honestly don’t believe that not voting is ever going to work. If we want change we need an actual fucking revolution. Not voting, in American’s case, would just allow for the literal militants to take over and then you really won’t even have the choice to protest anything in the future.
We need to focus on prefigurative politics, I.e, build the world we want to see with direct action, unionizing, and mutual aid, since voting and governments are never going to do it for us.
However, who is in charge of your country will make those prefigurative politics more or less hard, or even impossible (can’t imagine much of the above going on in Nazi Germany…)
I think it goes without saying that it will be less hard under Harris.
for those, like me, who can’t remember where they’ve seen the original image before, it is the necrons from Warhammer 40k :)
https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Necrons#Necrons_in_the_41st_Millennium
Obamna prisom
For those wondering about Obama’s last name: Here is a mathematical proof
Obama stone
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im sorry i love greeen policy but jill “ran the green party into the ground” stein???
Jill Steinyou are actually voting for Trump. Stein knows where her funding comes from, and who those funders want to win, and allows that all to happen.Not trying to attack or anything, I just don’t understand the logic of voting for someone who actually is just consciously being a spoiler candidate so the worse one will win.
You are voting for Trump.
Honestly I’ve got a lot of hopes that overseas citizens will mail in so as to upset the polls.
It’s so easy to fuck our registration, I wouldn’t bet on it.
Don’t forget he has bars
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3 hour old account.
Are you having fun LARPing?
And remember to vote for whoever you want. Just because you vote third party doesn’t mean your vote is wasted or to vote for somebody else because who knows who you would have voted for if it wasn’t for third party. Those people that say that shit can fuck off.
Edit: y’all are just as bad as maga losers. If I don’t vote for your guy, it’s a wasted vote. Just go out and vote, period, for whoever you want. Ignore all these people trying to get you to vote for their person. Vote for whomever YOU like. Nothing wrong with endorsing a candidate but trying to make someone look stupid or evil for voting is really pathetic.
Either Harris or Trump are going to win the election. Not voting for Harris is voting for Trump. Yes, it fucking sucks, but especially if you’re a woman or a queer person, really think about whether you actually think it doesn’t matter which one wins.
Voting is not an endorsement of a candidate. It’s a tool. Don’t let them take away your rights while you’re waiting for the perfect candidate that will never come.
Charitable read: I think they’re talking in general, not just for the president. voting third party is actually pretty viable in certain areas of the country for certain state positions
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any vote not for Harris is a vote for trump.
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Not if they were gonna vote trump instead
Literally no. If they were gonna vote Trump instead but decided to go with Harris, their vote is worth the same as someone who would always vote Harris or the vote of a leftist who decided on damage reduction.
Any voting system flattens our personal motivations into a single action. Any statement you’re looking to make is moot unless you have a massive campaign to make it clear outside of the ballot box. Even then, the establishment can downplay and misinterpret your motivation as not being representative or as less important than what they want to believe.
There’s no better way to translate our will into results. Any system that doesn’t use free and fair voting can be tainted and colored by bias, making it impossible to ever undermine the will of the establishment. They will always choose to believe whatever is most convenient, but votes can deliver a reality shock that forces them to adjust their behavior, even if they never change their minds. The only other thing capable of that is violence.
yes but also if you’re in a swing state maybe don’t vote third party for the executive office. Rn the thrid party persidential candidates aren’t super strong, and the bulk of political momentum is bipartisan. Local and state gov is a totally different situation depending on your state.
Good point. A candidate from a party that doesn’t really have a presence in any level of government and especially zero seats in congress will probably never have a realistic chance of winning the presidential election, barring some exceptional circumstances. If you like a third party, trying to make it viable at the local level and moving up from there seems to be the only realistic option to me.
like the working families party, who actually have some substantial influence in the new york area
Working Families is actually stronger than the democrats out here. I vote WF everywhere their name pops up. They got governors in out here in Oregon.
I’m a big supporter of the working families party. They rule. I honestly think they have the best chance of any of the third parties of eventually becoming a viable player in the American political sphere
(Also WF backed Harris/Walz, they’re not dumb enough to try to tamper with the big race.)
it’s such a smart move. best third party by far
empowering parties in this way could pave the way for future third party presidential candidates
Except it is wasted because there is literally zero chance a 3rd party candidate will win the presidency. If we’re talking lower offices, then maybe, but if you’re not voting Harris then you are directly assisting Trump.
There is value in showing third parties are growing more popular. It’s the first step that needs to happen for a third party candidate to become truely viable.
And yet, if there was ever a time where that isn’t worth it, it’s when fascists have a high chance of winning. Trump is not a right wing liberal; he wants to destroy the liberal world order that America controls just so no one can threaten his dictatorial power at home.
That may seem like it could benefit leftists elsewhere, but he wants to go to war with neighbors and bully other countries even harder than the liberal empire did. Where the American empire leaves, the Russian empire will take its place. All the while, an old man with no desire to leave a lasting legacy for his family or country is in control of the most powerful war machine on earth.
The first step that needs to happen is building up a third party through local politics, not ignoring politics for 3 years and 11 months and then suddenly expecting a third party to become viable.
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“If you don’t agree with me 100% you must be against me.”
Oddly enough the same thing “3rd party” voters complain about Democrats doing.
Also, for people who want to succeed it’s odd I only hear about “3rd party” in October every 4 years. I’m sure in January you’ll still be talking about the importance of building a 3rd party right?
Edit: I don’t know why your post got removed, maybe you were banned for something else, but for the record: I’m not a Democrat, but I’m a realist. I would love for there to be a viable 3rd party, but that’s not going to happen in the next 2 weeks and allowing Donald Trump to become elected is going to actively make that less likely. Considering what happened on Jan 6th with minimal consequences, if Donald Trump gets elected you might even lose the option of a 2nd party.
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I’m down for leaving people to vote for who they want, as long as they allow their protest votes to weigh heavily on their consciences when January comes around and we suddenly live in the fourth reich
I’ll never pretend to respect their decision. They might not even accept they were wrong when they’re inside the gas chambers. Besides, them feeling guilty is no justice for dooming people to death. It would be an injustice nobody could ever set right.
I’m just being cheeky I don’t respect it either. Although I truly do hope it weighs on them
Remember: the only people who say this want to see Trump win. You can vote with your conscience all you want, but it’s only mathematically possible for only one of two parties to get elected.
If third parties or independents actually wanted a shot, they’d put in the work outside of elections, building coalitions and locally from the ground up.
That’s probably the dumbest take I have read yet. If I wanted trump to win, I would vote for him.
Your motivation doesn’t matter, only the result of your action.
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Wow. So brave. Watch out, don’t cut yourself on all that edge
They are all so against it but have no problem voting for it. It’s disgusting really. And they have the nerve to try make me look like the bad guy in this thread. There’s a bunch of shitty people here.
You’re not a “bad guy.” You just refuse to accept reality. A fool is not a villain, but they can cause comparable damage.
Just think if everyone voted for what’s right and not because someone online is calling them a fool if they vote different.
Obviously you believe I’m not voting for what I think is right, except I actually am. I’m not Harris’ biggest fan and thought she was a mid Senator, but she was probably the conservative dem I would’ve been the least upset about in the 2020 primary. She’s far better than Biden, who only beat out the actually billionaires in my ranking.
On top of that, she manages to be the best option for president on the ballot in my state.
I despise the green party for focusing so exclusively on the presidency. It makes me think they aren’t serious about accomplishing anything outside of thoughts and prayers. On top of that, Stein is shit as an individual politician and my view of her worsens with every run.
The only other left wing 3rd party is the openly tankie party, and I’m not big on those that lend support to empires for simply not being American. I’m not voting for RFK Jr., Capitalists, or Homophobes, so Harris is actually the best choice in my view.
The president shouldn’t be as powerful or important, and quite frankly, we’ve been more successful working within the Democratic party than outside of it. The 2 party system will not go away without election reform done by working within the parties. It’s shit democracy, but the only right thing to do is play with the cards we’re dealt.
