It’s an election year, so the usual suspects are going to be screaming that any good person will vote party line Democrat and if you don’t you’re letting the fascists win and you’re a a bad person and a bad liberal/leftist/anarchist/communist/whatever.
Of course, every candidate from every major political party is a fascist of some flavor, but “you have to vote for the slightly better fascist or the slightly worse fascist will win” doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Just a reminder that voting is not the default, it’s not a civic duty, it’s not a requirement of being a good member of your community.
Voting, for United States citizens, is the personal choice to participate in one specific form of capitalist neoliberal politics - a form that claims the mantle of democracy while being one of the most profoundly undemocratic forms of government in history.
Don’t shame people for not voting.
Don’t shame people for voting third party.
Don’t shame people for write-in votes or protest votes.
Frankly, don’t talk about voting with random people at all. The choice to vote, or not, is a personal moral choice. You have no right to assume that someone considers voting to be a moral act - and there are strong arguments that voting in the United States is a profoundly immoral act - and assuming someone is a voter and asking them to pick a candidate to vote for is no different than assuming someone supports sex work and asking them to pick a sex worker to employ.
If you know someone is a registered voter, go ahead and talk to them about voting. But keep in mind voting third party, or abstaining from voting in a specific election, are also legitimate moral and political choices, and shaming someone for not voting party line Democrat is offensive, counterproductive, and rude.
And if you don’t know someone is a voter, don’t recommend they vote for or against someone or discuss electoral politics in general. Many of us find electoral politics profoundly immoral and the assumption that we would participate in such equally offensive.
Be respectful. Don’t vote shame. Thank you.
Sure, by then it’s too late. Encourage or better yet, help people to vote. Offer to go with them to the polls.
Nothing wrong at all with encouraging voter participation, regardless of who they may vote for.
When more people vote, it is better for everyone.
Oh you sweet summer child.
In the words of Rush even if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice. Just because you don’t like the system or the candidates sitting out the election doesn’t mean you get to sit out the repercussions.
I can’t stand people who shun a system they are part of and probably benefit from as well. It takes a good deal of narcissism to complain about a system and then refuse to help influence it.