Former democratic party activists are organizing Muslims and Arab-Americans in Swing states to vote against Biden with the demand that he support a ceasefire in Gaza.
I’ll allow them a little bit of electoralism this time.
Former democratic party activists are organizing Muslims and Arab-Americans in Swing states to vote against Biden with the demand that he support a ceasefire in Gaza.
I’ll allow them a little bit of electoralism this time.
I don’t know what you mean. Democrats keep winning by the numbers. Fascism is still encroaching. It’s been encroaching my entire life, and Republicans have won the popular vote once in that time. People do vote. And this still happens.
I’m not telling you not to, I keep saying it’s fine to do if you feel like it. So is watching a movie or getting a snack at 3 in the morning. You do you. But don’t act like it’s fixing anything. It clearly isn’t. That’s why you get to keep doing it.
I’m not sure I understand your point. The way the popular vote influences the result is a travesty. But that doesn’t mean that voting (or not) in a way that encourages anti-suffrage is better. There’s no way things will improve by walking away - that just hands control to fascism faster.
By that same token, if it doesn’t do anything then why are some states working to expand voting and ease-of-voting versus some that are trying to restrict it in various ways? There’s a clear party divide on this topic in the US and one side is more fascist than the other.
Oh I see, yes I should clarify. Democrats keep literally winning elections, in addition to sometimes not winning them. Regardless of the result fascism gets no further away.
Let’s not forget Obama, drone striking American citizens and their children without trial or warrant. Or all the money and weapons he gave the Saudis and Israelis to continue the project of violent extermination they were both embarked on. Or the way he aggressively pursued whistleblowers like Manning and Assange who tried to warn the public about the things the government was doing. Nobody forced him to do those things, he did them voluntarily.
Let’s not forget that he rode into power in control of the entire government, both houses of congress, the Court and the executive, and did nothing to enshrine any protection against the reactionaries that he ostensibly dislikes. Why didn’t they codify abortion protections into law? Or take steps to secure voting rights, if those are so important? Why did they piss away their control of, again, ALL of the government? For what, Obamacare?
Why is Joe building the wall for Trump, overturning regulations that protect sacred indigenous sites and wildlife to do so? Why the fuck are the cages still there? Why are we flying Venezuelans back to a country that our country’s policies have turned into a humanitarian disaster?
I cannot reiterate enough how much it’s totally fine if you feel like voting for these people. Do it, if you want, you’ll contribute in an imperceptible way to the total vote count at the end, and that might be satisfying for you or, as I’ve acknowledged a few times, it might even mean some marginal benefit happens sometimes. I mean, not literally, your vote still doesn’t matter, whether you did or not would not have made the difference. But sometimes an okay thing might happen.
I think it’s fine to do that. I think if you want things to change you should look at historically what sorts of things actually had to happen to defeat reactionaries. It’s basically never voting.
(Well I wrote out a whole thing but then the lemmy web UI disappeared it somehow 🤦 … I’ll try to rewrite some variation of it)
I understand and agree with your assessment of the dems, but to me this is exactly why the “lesser evil” argument sways me. Republicans would be doing all the same things, and worse - e.g., “don’t say gay” bills and other anti-lgbtq policies, rolling back abortion access, etc. Are dems wrong for not protecting those things when they had the chance? Yes – But Reps are the ones actually doing it.
From my casual bystander reading of hexbear/lemmygrad content over the past few months, “totally fine if you feel like voting” was not a part of my understanding of the anti-electoralism sentiment I’ve read. My impression was more “that’s dumb, you’re dumb, anyone who votes is dumb” and no one with a conscience should vote. Which, to me, seems like simply handing over the keys to drive us off a cliff.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to write everything you have, and trying to help me understand. Cheers