Americans of Lemmy, what is your approach to next year's election?

2020 was… truly unique. It was so hard to stay away from doom scrolling, and I (and many others) were pretty disillusioned by the sad fact that so much of our country legitimately supported the Orange Man. I didn’t get a wink of sleep the night of the election because I genuinely considered it to be a make or break decision for America.

My point is that looking back on it, in the end the only real difference I made was at the ballet box. This year I’m going for the Head-in-the-Sand approach. I’m done with the political memes. Done with the Twitter screenshots. It just riles me up and this year I’m gonna do my best to fight that.

FoundTheVegan,
FoundTheVegan avatar

It's not a question of policy. Republicans literally killed people last election trying to overthrow democracy.

Not that I even like democrats, but anyone who votes red after Jan 6th is fundamentally an enemy of democracy.

snownyte,
snownyte avatar

The GOP will still have 70 million strong vote for them, with only the million dropping off. We sadly know the volume of people that'd vote GOP. I'd be more worried if we find out the number is higher than 71 million, referring to the amount of people that really believed Trump was what was best for the country.

PowerCrazy,

This sham democracy that you fervently support kills people everyday.

lukini,
@lukini@beehaw.org avatar

Ok, so what’s your solution? Vote third party? Don’t vote? Both of those help the republicans.

Protest or something similar? Sure, but the election is still happening.

PowerCrazy,

Voting is the least you can do, so I will choose to vote against Capitalists and not for genocide. If you can’t even do that bare minimum, you don’t deserve democracy.

TheFriar,

…what anti-capitalist do you think you’re voting into office?

PowerCrazy,

The PSL candidate.

DarkGamer,
DarkGamer avatar

The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is a communist party in the United States. PSL was established in 2004 and claims to be active in a wide range of social movements. PSL describes its primary goal as the overthrow of capitalism and the institution of socialism.

Yeah, that sounds viable. 🙄

!deleted488580,

deleted_by_author

    •
    PowerCrazy,

    I’d be happy to vote for someone better who isn’t pro-capitalist and pro-genocide, who do you suggest?

    !deleted488580,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    PowerCrazy,

    It’s a bit cliche and a little too individualistic for what is supposed to be literally rule by the people, so I’ll gladly embrace the democratic ideal of voting for the organization I think will not support genocide and is not capitalist. After all it is literally the least anyone can do.

    ilinamorato,

    It also happens to be where I live. Doing nothing doesn’t help anything.

    PowerCrazy,

    Agreed. So don’t vote to make things slightly less worse, vote to make things better!

    ilinamorato,

    If we used just about anything but FPTP, absolutely. But as I see it, if I want to have any hope of being able to vote to make things better next time, I have to vote to just make things slightly less worse this time.

    Perfect is the enemy of the good, and the GOP is the enemy of both.

    But hey, if you see it differently, I don’t see any reason we can’t be friends. I just disagree.

    Joker,

    I’ve voted for both Democrats and Republicans in the past. Frankly, neither one of them deserves too much power.

    If Trump is the nominee I’m voting for the other candidate no matter who that is. There is no circumstance in which I would vote for Trump. The devil himself could be running against Trump and I would either vote for the devil or abstain. If he is the nominee then the election is essentially a fight for democracy.

    Although I generally like Biden’s administration, I am concerned about him and his age. If there was a normal candidate running against him I would consider voting for them, but it’s mostly a bunch of wackadoos on the Republican side.

    Chris Christie and Nikki Haley were the only ones in the last Republican debate who had any common sense. Christie’s campaign isn’t going anywhere because he’s anti-Trump. Haley is too conservative for my liking. Ramaswamy and DeSantis are garbage humans. The Republicans need a reboot because they really suck.

    In other words, I’m team blue - not because I’m thrilled with them but because I’m afraid of the alternative.

    Name-Not-Applicable,
    Name-Not-Applicable avatar

    The Republicans need a reboot

    That sums it up. I’m conservative, but the GOP is such a train wreck now I just can’t support them.

    furrious09,

    I’m on the same page. The republicans need some feedback that what they’re doing isn’t going to win elections. Unfortunately I think it will take losing several more elections to sink in.

    scrubbles,
    @scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech avatar

    Spot on friend. Trumpers look at us and think we like Biden as much as they like Trump. Noooope. There were way better candidates. If anything the Dems are the party of the status quo and republicans are the party of “Fuck anyone who isn’t rich, white, and male”. I’d love an actual progressive party - I don’t see anything that the democrats have done in the last 8 years that has actually been progressive.

    MedicPigBabySaver,

    Unless he dies, I’m voting Biden. I don’t like him, but, best option.

    Truly hoping Cheeto chimp gets thrown in jail and disqualified.

    I’ve tried to avoid news well before anyway.

    hellweaver666,
    @hellweaver666@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

    youtu.be/KGmXGkIr7w0?si=xKOceCuPEXa3Mvt2

    Nollij,

    If he were to die after the ballots are set but before the election, it effectively becomes a vote for his running mate. Still getting my vote over the dollar-store fuhrer.

    Joker,

    If Trump is the Republican nominee I would vote for Biden even if he was dead.

    popcap200,

    Truueee

    PeleSpirit,

    Honestly, which one of the other candidates would you vote for in Trump’s stead? All of them suck and kiss trump’s ass.

    atlasraven31,

    Can I write in McCain?

    PeleSpirit,

    Sure, if you want to waste time and vote as if you didn’t vote at all.

    atlasraven31,

    That’s how it typically goes.

    Joker,

    None of them this time around. Christie is a moderate, but he will be out pretty soon. I’m surprised he’s hung on this long, although I’m happy that he has because he and Hutchinson are the only ones with the guts to tell the truth about Trump. Hutchinson hasn’t been polling high enough to be in the debates, but at least he’s on the sidelines saying Trump is trash.

    Out of the declared candidates, my preference would probably be Christie or Haley as the nominee. I still wouldn’t vote for them, but they would be better than the others if the Republicans somehow win.

    Overall, it’s a pretty piss poor field on both sides. If Biden was 15 years younger I would consider it a pretty solid ticket.

    I hope Antony Blinken eventually runs. For me, he’s the brightest star in a pretty solid administration. Best Secretary of State in decades.

    PeleSpirit,

    I realize you said this, but I still have to clarify what a dumpster fire that whole field is on that side.

    I still wouldn’t vote for them, but they would be better than the others if the Republicans somehow win.

    Christie is as petty as trump, he held up ambulances and shit to get back at someone. He also let his employees take the blame for him for that. He shut down a beach and decided it was a good idea to take himself and his family to his own private beach. The only reason he stands up to trump is because he wasn’t picked as trump’s vp. He’s a POS, imo.

    Haley seems to still have ties to russia: abcnews.go.com/…/haley-us-forces-align-countries-… I knew she did, but she still does too. Plus, she’s a woman, there’s no way in hell she’ll get enough votes.

    I don’t know anything about Blinken, I’ll look into it.

    dingus,

    He may be as petty as Trump, but at least he has never planned a coup to overthrow the freaking government. A Republican willing to call out Trump for his bullshit is better than those that continue to lick his asshole imo. Sure it’s a low bar to meet and Christie has a whole other bag of problems, but sadly most don’t seem to get to that bar.

    Ashyr,

    Christie only did that because there’s literally no other way to make himself stand out from other Republicans.

    prole,

    Christie is a piece of shit. Ask anyone alive in Jersey during his tenure. Fuck that guy, he should be in fucking prison. There are people literally serving time behind some shit he did.

    Joker,

    Just goes to show how bad the rest of the field is when he’s the voice of reason on the debate stage.

    OceanSoap,

    Haley is literally a war monger. She stated she wanted us to get into 3 active wars, with China, Russia and Iran.

    You would vote for the candidate who is most likely to start WW3???

    Joker,

    No. I said I would not vote for her, although I view her as less problematic than Trump, Ramaswamy and DeSantis. It’s a terrible field. I mean, you’ve got a fascist, a racist and whatever the hell kind of nutcase Ramaswamy is. It’s hard to get on a stage with DeSantis and be the bigger asshole. Haley is none of those things so that’s a start. One of these people has to be the nominee.

    scrubbles,
    @scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech avatar

    best take. Dems don’t follow Biden religiously. He’s just better than the godawful alternatives that are on the otherside.

    I will stay informed on the issues, but unless the GOP does a 180 on about most of their platform I’m kinda forced to vote Dem (Stop denying climate change, stop trying to de-humanize LGBTQ, stop the culture war shit, come up with a real gun control plan, those would be a start). Hooray 2 party system.

    I just turn off the news now, all sources are meant to keep us angry in an “us vs them” situation and never really talk about the real issues, so instead of it just flare up my anxiety and anger I’m just going to keep my headphones on and play games. Someone ping me if suddenly the GOP decides to be pro-humanity again and I need to reconsider my vote.

    paddirn,

    I hate that I’ve been forced into this same position, I always thought I was open-minded and didn’t follow parties, but when the choice is a literal fascist trying to tear American democracy apart with the worst takes on every position and a generic semi-left-leaning politician trying to maintain the status quo… I guess I’ll just stick with generic status quo, that’s pretty much the only rational choice for a sane individual. Even just sitting out the election isn’t an ethical choice, that’s surrendering to fascism.

    argo_yamato,

    Voting straight Democrat. The republican party is the biggest threat to the US right now.

    BennyHill500,

    maybe-later-kiddo

    Captainvaqina,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    PosadistPotatofish,

    That commenter is from Hexbear. There’s no way they support Trump.

    furrious09,

    While I agree in my dislike for the current Republican Party, the attitude of blindly voting for your team because the other is evil is exactly what my (late) fox-addicted grandfather used to uphold. I loved the man, but I think we ought to do better and do the hard work of researching every candidate and choosing the best, be it democrat, republican, or independent.

    RecursiveParadox,
    @RecursiveParadox@lemmy.world avatar

    Gave you and upvote to get you back off zero and agree with your general sentiment.

    But - the elections since Trump took the ROC convention have all been different - we must get rid of all the R’s we can no matter what at the local, state and national level as soon as possible now that the have proven to be an existential threat to democracy itself.

    PowerCrazy,

    American Democracy is fucked. It needs to go away.

    CarbonScored,
    @CarbonScored@hexbear.net avatar

    This is the argument every single election. Every time, for decades, and yet things get continually worse.

    I’d argue the belief that voting for an establishment party is any kind of a long-term solution is the biggest threat. By all means do it if it’ll help a little in the short term, but the ship’s still sinking.

    Semi-Hemi-Demigod,
    Semi-Hemi-Demigod avatar

    Short term is all anyone cares about, from government to corporations to individuals. Which is why I only give this country another 50 years, tops.

    TheImpressiveX,
    @TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml avatar

    It can be easy to feel like a drop of water in a large ocean when it comes to national elections. But you should also vote in your county and state elections; you can probably make more of a difference there.

    I’m not saying “don’t vote in the national election”, but just know that there are other elections to vote in, and thry are just as important as the nationals.

    AOCapitulator,
    @AOCapitulator@hexbear.net avatar

    I-was-saying

    TheAlbatross,

    Yah I can vote for the red mayor who wants more cops or the blue mayor who wants more cops. Freedom rings!

    redballooon,

    One of them also wants to ban books.

    conditional_soup,

    Unless you’re in a big big city, mayoral and council races can actually have a lot of diversity in terms of political outlooks. Never forget that a town elected a dog as mayor. Nobody that pure would ever make it to federal office.

    PowerCrazy,

    You understand that “voting for a dog” for mayor is just Conservatism right? You know make the government small enough to drown in a bathtub, Reagan etc?

    conditional_soup,

    I was trying to use a funny example to illustrate the point that a lot more things are possible at the local level than the federal level, particularly in terms of electing a candidate with more diverse political alignment. Anyway, most of the time when an animal wins a mayorship, it’s in an unincorporated area where mayor is more of an honorary title than an actual political position. The point is that local races are still worth voting and participating in.

    TheAlbatross,

    There certainly are places like that. I’d vote for a dog over any of our candidates in the last local election. Or anyone running on banning the damn roadside signs. Alternatively, the candidates themselves have to pluck them out from along the highway on ramps and whatever other places they’ve been planted the night of the election and before the morning light.

    Our local election was bupkis. The red one won because the blue one won last time and nothing changed and people are still unhappy. The mayoral race prior went about the same way, but the blue one won because the red one in the office did nothing differently and no one was happy.

    xmunk,

    Vermont, my former residence, has a republican governor that’s been repeatedly reelected who the country at large considers a RINO. Non-federal level parties may differ significantly from their national stances.

    It’s actually the same in BC, Canada where I emigrated… the BC Liberals were partially anti-choice and deeply religious (so closer to the CPC than LPC), as such they recently rebranded to “BC Unity Party”… did they check that their new name didn’t acronym to BCUP? No, they did not.

    Hobart_the_GoKart,

    There’s so many acronyms here my head is spinning

    robocall,

    Vote against Republicans.

    StrawberryPigtails,

    Same as usual. Vote for the individuals that seem like they are the best person for whatever position I am voting on at that point in time.

    Historically, I haven’t cared about what party they were affiliated with, however I suspect it’s going to be a good long while before I vote for a Republican again.

    PsychedSy,

    I’m gonna make sure my loved ones are armed and have ammo.

    Coskii,
    @Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    I just need to go viral on some platform as ‘the people’s choice’ president who will put most major national decisions that aren’t classified up to polls on said social media platform. It’s the perfect solution to rake in those who don’t want to vote for 80 something geriatrics. I have about a year to implant myself into the world of politics.

    I also considered legally changing my name to ‘No Vote’ for a bit.

    DanComrd,

    Oh boi I gotta watch which bourgeoise gets elected again. The Redfash or the Bluefash. vote

    Gorilladrums,

    Marxists are worse than fascists. Just as evil, just as retarded, just as violent, just as hateful. A failed murderous ideology has no place in modern times and it will never happen. You will never be a revolutionary and you will never, ever come to poewr… and for good reason too. All you can and ever will do is larp on the internet while swimming in a sea of willful ignorance. I, like most people, am glad that is the case.

    superfly_samurai,

    I think it was Lewis Black who said, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the two party system in this country is a bowl of shit looking at itself in the mirror.”

    I vote for who earns my vote. I refuse the forced choice of two terrible options.

    Gorilladrums,

    That’s how democracy is supposed to work. You’re supposed to stand by your principles and vote for whoever thinks represents you best. Voting for the lesser of evils a divide and conquer tactic by the duopoly

    charlie,

    football-lucy football-charlie-brown

    vote

    micnd90,

    tell boss I’m gonna vote, take day off

    don’t vote, chill and eat ice cream at Coldstone

    blatantly lie to coworkers the next day, pretend that I voted

    gigachad

    arabiclearner,

    Don’t vote, and whoever tries to shame me can go climb a tree

    s_i_m_s,

    Voting by mail as usual.

    Trying to avoid customers that can’t shut up about how wonderful trump is.

    “I think he’s the antichrist but he’s doing a good job”

    You know, bat shit insane things republicans say.

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