De-emphasizing electoralism is a classic left-wing position, not everyone who shuns voting is a right-wing troll. I’m not saying I agree with this but just because you don’t agree doesn’t mean they are right wing.
Taking the stance that voting alone isn’t enough and that we need direct action like the Labor, Civil Rights, and Women’s Suffrage movements to accomplish change isn’t the Right side of the aisle.
The folks who insist that electoralism will save us are misguided.
That said, as someone who votes down ballot anyways I’m going to vote for the farthest left candidate that can win. I can’t find a compelling reason not to vote as a leftist. Then again, I can do it absentee in my state and my polling place doesn’t have huge lines.
As someone who is struggling to find a reason to vote for biden for who he is, rather than vote for him for what he is not, its so disheartening to see the only valid reason to vote for him is just that he isn’t trump.
And I hate that discussion about this is always so black and white about this, and just sneering at people who have no policy reason to vote for biden, throwing shade at people who genuinely hate biden’s neoliberal platform for criticizing because trump is the opponent.
Voting for someone because they aren’t trump didn’t work in 2016, and Im worried it isn’t going to work in 2024. And I’m starting to see why people are feeling so hopeless when it comes to electoralism
Yes you need to acknowledge that your democracy is broken.
I acknowledge this.
Letting Trump burn the last of it won’t fix it though.
You’re right. I think the concept of framing elections solely around who someone is not is an antipattern. Viewing it from this framing makes what the candidate stands for less important than who they are not, meaning it is less important to have a policy platform that is beneficial to the general populace. And I hate that.
Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t want trump to win, but I think it’s wrong to simply fall in line because biden isn’t trump. This line of thinking is what makes me so mad when I meet other queer folks who go “Well, he ain’t a democrat and that’s what matters,” or a person deep in poverty who says something similar. I think people should be chastising him for his shit takes, mistakes, and support of genocidal states.
I am having a very hard time believing this post is meant in good faith. Biden has many good and progressive accomplishments under his belt and the negatives, while glaring, are almost entirely shared by his opponents.
If you can’t find reasons to vote for biden for “who he is” then you either have willful blinders on or are trying to push an agenda.
I don’t know your definition on what is good faith or not, but I genuinely mean this. I don’t know how I can prove it in any way other than explaining my views.
I’m a libertarian socialist, an anarchist. Admittedly, I’ve got some standards that will not be met by anyone currently viable, but I’m not going to put aside my views for realism, since if that’s the case, is there any point in having a political philosophy? I used to have a lot of faith in electoral politics, and I volunteered at polling stations before I was even old enough to vote. I have voted in every single election that there has been since I turned 18, including local elections.
Right now, I’m not feeling a lot of faith in electoral politics, full disclosure. For me, the big reason I don’t like biden is, even if there is a “progressive win,” there are a lot of him doing terrible things that I find repugnant. Every step forwards is has a step backwards somewhere else. From his immigration policy to his zionism, I don’t see a lot to love. One of the most important issues to me is the climate, since I want to live a full life on this planet without climate collapse, but he has been working for the interests of fossil fuel industries. This can be seen in his approval of pipelines, drilling, etc.
Before you say “But trump…” I realize and acknowledge that he has the same opinions, if not worse ones on all the things biden did that I don’t like. But does that excuse Biden?
The thing that pisses me off is that this system does not feel democratic. Due to so many issues with the current system it is impossible to get someone on the actual left. Between lobbying (legalized bribery) gerrymandering, PACs and super PACs (Citizens United), super delegates within the Democratic party, the electoral college, think-tank fueled media, and possibly some things I forgot about, I have no voice. To go back to the upcoming election, why do we find this acceptable? Why do we have to accept that it’s biden vs trump, neoliberal democracy vs proto-fascism. The fact that my vote should be dictated more by who biden is not rather than who he is, this harm reduction ideology, is antidemocratic at the core, and that’s what I have an issue with. When you couple that with the inability for an individual to make any change in the system without reinforcing it, everything feels hopeless.
If you managed to read all that rambling, I’m sorry if it came off as wild ranting, i’m very upset at the state of the system, and I’m kinda venting right now.
I mean you’re right but your expectations on political freedom are indeed unrealistic in the current order. The US isn’t functioning very well as a democracy but even in countries where democracy is mostly working the options aren’t all that much better.
In Sweden we don’t have first past the post. I don’t see any major issues with our voting system. Any party that gets at least 4% has a place in the parliament. The left still struggles immensely and seems kind of bewildered. Our alt right party just keeps growing.
I mean you’re right but your expectations on political freedom are indeed unrealistic in the current order.
I agree that it’s unrealistic, and it’s sad that having good democracy is seen as unrealistic. The thing is, I’m not going to back down on my desires for a better democracy, since it feels more achievable to me compared to other issues I care about, such as stopping the climate from collapsing. I know that a lot of other democracies are struggling, but I don’t feel that a representative democracy has enough resilience to withstand abuse when the powers that be are accountable for only one day every 2-6 years.
As for your second paragraph, I’d love to get rid of first past the post voting, it’s a good thing IMO. I’m not fully on board with a proportional representation, I do think it’s one of the best schemes. I know it would give a voice to some truly fascistic groups, but I hope the pros of having real leftist groups could outweigh that, but whether or not it would happen, IDK.
The left still struggles immensely and seems kind of bewildered. Our alt right party just keeps growing.
As an american, I see the same thing here. I get that there is a rise in fascism everywhere, and what I have seen in other places, such as italy, is terrifying.
In the US, there is a history of left wing oppression and infiltration, such as COINTELPRO, and I know that for some groups, especially older groups that have gone through it, there’s a lot of paranoia and disorganization that comes from that. Even harmless groups like Food Not Bombs have had some organizational problems caused by COINTELPRO. I just hope someone smarter than me will be able to figure things out, since I’ve got no ideas on how to organize in the face of this shit.
Infrastructure spending, supporting unions, taxing, prevented Israel from invading Lebanon, supporting Ukraine. Seriously there’s tons of reasons. So many I think you’re faking it.
Good juxtaposition - in the US situation, the solution to two evils is not choosing neither, but choosing the lesser of the two. Only then can we make progress towards a world we all want
Once we get ranked choice voting, sure. In the current landscape, the only viable option is the less bad of the two most popular. One choice only per vote, any ties in specific districts lead to a runoff until one choice wins. If we could push an actually good candidate into the top 2, then great! Otherwise, we’re kind of forced to either do damage control or risk splitting the vote. That’s the system right now.
With that attitude yup. The attitude of self-disenfranchisement against electoral participation is a close bedfellow with the attitude that self-disenfranchises against direct action and revolution.
Buddy we are disenfranchised. How the fuck do we ranked choice voting? The DNC and Boomers would fight against that the same way they’ve fought against everything else that would benefit any generations after the boomers.
Wake the fuck up. These rich fucks hate us and you’re here acting like they’re gonna give us what we need to start winning? What fucking planet are you on?
Buddy we are disenfranchised. How the fuck do we ranked choice voting?
By working on getting it passed at the state and even local level where we can. Some states already have it passed, such as Alaska of all places.
The rich fucks won’t give us what we need to start winning. We have to build that ourselves. That’s kind of the whole fucking point of getting people politically involved
it’s not the responsibility of voters to vote for certain politicians, it’s the responsibility of the politicians to represent people so they vote for them.
if you think joe biden is gonna lose then you gotta force joe biden to take more popular positions (he is literally running right now it’s the time you make up your platform), not yell at people “refusing” to vote for him as if they are just petulant children refusing to eat their veggies and act like the most logical and rational option is locking your vote for joe biden and whoever disagrees just cannot understand the correctness of your reasoning.
(to be clear i’m not american but it’s just ridiculous how many times i have heard this exact song and dance)
You’re living in a fantasy world. The reality is that we have a not great candidate, and a REALLY BAD candidate. The people voting for the REALLY BAD candidate are die hard zealots. We really don’t want the REALLY BAD candidate to win because it would be the end of democracy in the US, so the only ethical option is to vote for the other popular candidate, the not great candidate.
you’re living in the fantasy world since you think philosophically mugging people is actually gonna convince them to vote for “genocide joe”. I don’t want the big bad orange guy to win, so you guys supporting biden need to do better. maybe make him take more popular positions instead of trying to shame people by talking to them like a child not understanding your superior ethics philosophy. just a thought.
You’re truly ignorant on the matter it seems. You say we should make someone take better stances? That’s just dumb, if you don’t have a progressive candidate nothing you say as a constituent matters. As someone who has written, emailed, met in person their representative I have not once felt I was heard. Letters and emails were responded to with generic responses, in person I either got to ask a question which got a non answer or brushed off completely.
Granted, I live in red state so what I have to say matters less and is more dangerous to be let known publicly. There’s not much a lot of us can do to have our voices heard, short of a revolt. But I’m just going to keep doing what little I can in hopes that maybe we can keep chipping at the corruption. I’m going to keep campaigning and voting for representatives I believe try to actually help everyone, not just their chosen few.
Both Biden and Trump suck, but you better believe I’m voting for the lesser of two evils.
For people who claim to be concerned about fascists yall sure do spend way more of your time acting like faschies towards leftists than you do caring about Republicans.
exactly so while half of one faction already said “fuck it i’m with you” and the other half undecided, it would be very dumb of the other faction to not even move an inch or try to find a common ground, instead stomping their feet and saying “but i want vote now!!!”. that isn’t good for coalition building as far as i know.
This is wild speculation but I’m not even sure the Biden administration understands what people want at this point though. I see sort of the same problem in Swedish politics. Left wing politics has stagnated and doesn’t understand how to win people over. Alt right is growing.
The major difference is that we don’t have first past the post so even when our alt right party is second largest and the right is in government their influence is somewhat limited. They certainly get to ship their agenda but at least there are others in the room with a voice when they do.
Democracy ended in the US the moment voters felt it necessary to unconditionally support the man aiding a genocide because the only alternative on the ballot is someone even worse.
The Democratic Party will never become introspective and seek to improve in any meaningful way because they know they already have your vote for the above reason. Not only that, but they create the conditions for it by donating to far-right politicians with the purpose of ensuring victories in elections.
If the Democratic party was given reason to think they’d lose support from their voter base, they would actually be compelled to start implementing popular policies. This is something you people could be doing instead of shaming people for not being okay with the backing of a literal genocide.
Nothing is going to improve unless you leverage the power of bargaining. As it stands now you’re only slightly delaying America’s further descent into Fascism and barely protecting what little you have left, which won’t even last as the Overton window keeps moving to the right with each election because of what the Democrats are doing.
If you were playing tug of war with both of your arms, and one of your arms decided “not to vote”—but like, equally between you and your opponent—then, you know, your one arm just loses.
And low turnout is caused by low voter enthusiasm, and low enthusiasm is caused by poor candidates, and poor candidates are made by poor policy.
I suspect social media influences voters somewhat. Or at least those who seek to suppress voter turn out believe that. I think it’s important to take a stand for Democracy and remind people what is worth fighting for. We can energize people by reminding them that democracy is the most powerful tool we have to create a better future.
Whoops, I mean, low enthusiasm is caused by -checks notes- principled leftists? Wait that can’t be right
There is nothing principled about letting Trump, a fascist, take office and commit ethnic cleansing and green light genocide. In fact, there is nothing particularly leftist about it either. It sounds like accelerationism to me.
If you, your child, or someone in your household has symptoms of pinworm infection, call the doctor and ask about the tape test. Simply take a clear piece of tape and press the sticky side to the skin around the anus. Do this as soon as you or your child wakes up – before you use the bathroom, shower, or get dressed. The pinworm eggs will stick to the tape.
Inspired by the OP. Democrats put forth the shittiest candidates that they can but they’re immune to criticism because republicans are shittier. Gee, that’s certainly a winning setup.
Nah, allowing Trump, a fascist who will enable even more genocides, to have a second term through inaction doesn’t make sense and should be discouraged. It’s like the people who are saying they won’t vote for Biden are trying to suppress voter turn out. It seems to be accelerationists who think they will somehow benefit from the chaos and death caused by a fascist takeover. edit: typo
Oh I’m right there with you. I mean, I do think the system has been engineered to maximize voter disenfranchisement still, but regardless I also think it’s one’s moral imperative to participate and vote anyways. It’s the bare minimum, and harm reduction is better than nothing.
One thing I think a lot of people in this thread don’t realize is that, the more people are mobilized to vote, especially for a ‘lesser evil’ candidate that they may not be excited for, the more velocity we have to propel a more desired candidate into office.
One thing I think a lot of people in this thread don’t realize is that, the more people are mobilized to vote, especially for a ‘lesser evil’ candidate that they may not be excited for, the more velocity we have to propel a more desired candidate into office.
This summarizes it nicely. High voter turnout in 2024 can only help us in 2028 with a better, more progressive candidate.
Hey hey hey! Let’s not bring racism into our ageism! But for real, 80 year olds do not represent me and my pals. They’re just there to preserve the status quo. Fuck em.
Honestly, you’re not. You’re really voting whether you want to continue the democratic experiment in America or return to despotic imperial rule.
In a way it’s kind of cool that your voice will be part of an event that will certainly be in history books for centuries. It’s possible to be your only long lasting legacy on earth. Pretty neat if you ask me.
All American politicians are involved in turning the world into a corporate oligarchy. Trump and Putin just want be emperors in the meantime.
Currently the “progressives” are pushing RFK Jr as an alternative to Biden. 😂 And the Republicans have a bunch of women(and several men) who are lining up to suck Donny’s cock to get a VP slot.
Then you want election reform, taking the form of ranked voting. The US currently utilizes a First Past The Post system coupled with an Electoral College. The only outcome in this system is a 2 party dynamic. If you want a viable 3rd party, you want election reform.
Until the states push to amend the constitution, ranked voting (aka, instant runoff) will never become law as long as the 2 big parties maintain their stranglehold on our central government. They have too much to lose.
Our ‘first past the post’ voting system makes that strategy very dangerous.
We need a third option but we need a better vote counting system to make that third option not throwing away your vote. The chances of such a reform coming from Democrats are slim, but the chances of such a reform under Republicans are less than 0. Several Republican-led states like Texas have preemptively banned ranked choice voting because it’s a direct threat to their hold on power.
Primaries won’t fix this. We need a voting system that isn’t reductive to only two candidates. There is some progress in that area but it won’t be fixed by this election.
If I’ve learned anything from talking with disgruntled tankies it’s that Biden controls the universe and singlehandedly killed all the dinosaurs after stubbing his little toe on a coffee table. The monster.
Wait. You make me participate in a system (capitalism) that I did not choose, and offer me no alternatives. Then, demand that I have to vote to prevent this system from collapsing. And, somehow this is all my fault?
Stop blaming your fellow humans and start blaming the system (capitalism).
Nope. I’ll blame you and the rest of the trendy tankies that are staying home and letting Trump win. . Trust me- you’ll understand why everyone hates you when you grow up some. Sure… It’ll be cringy. And you’ll probably feel a bit of shame- but hopefully it’ll be a good learning experience.
The reality is he has very little power over the events people are upset about but a lot of power over other important things he’s doing fairly well at.
There is no good choice in the Middle East, if he pulled out of the historical agreements with Israel and left them defenceless then he’d get even more people blaming him for a genocide, or the US would have to step in directly when the amount of dead Israelies reached a point public opinion demanded it…
People already complain that Israel created Hamas and when you look into those arguments they stem from articles saying that in prior conflicts Israel has stopped before completely defeating them… this is a situation with no good move. Even if some people got their wish and all the Jewish people were killed it’s not going to solve all the issues in the region, the current situation is possibly the path with the least amount of human tragedy and suffering that we have available.
Picking the most emotive term for everything has a very short lived power, everything is a genocide these days according to someone.
The reality is it’s a very complex situation with many facets, it’s an asymmetric war with very well funded and trained terrorists getting support from Iran and other fundamentalist groups - it’s not a small group of innocent people in an open air prison as you want to paint it, there’s a huge oil rich and bloody handed gang of despots who maintain power much like any despot by distracting everyone with ideological conflicts - Iran needs the region to hate Israel so they need a war like this, they get their trained terrorists to fire missiles they supply and that’s all they care about.
Israel has been making great progress politically in the region, the deal supplying Jordan with desalinated water transformed a crisis everyone predicted to be the start of the water wars into a partnership. With Saudi Arabia moving towards similar partnerships countries like Iran didn’t want to sit idle and outy happen. How should Israel and it’s allies respond?
Read the article, the world did not say it’s a genocide nor did they suggest a ceasefire - you’ve been caught up in emotive memes probably largely pushed by Russia et all and are using headlines you don’t understand but like the sound of.
Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant declared it in no uncertain terms on October 9th: “We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we will act accordingly.”
You’re acting like you don’t know how the world works and it’s silly, why would anyone expect you to have a sensible opinion when every response involves you willfully ignoring the most basic facets of life.
Yes people use emotive language for political and personal reasons, yes people make dramatic claims about world events for a variety of reasons on both sides.
I don’t know if you’re aware but October 9th 2023 was a while ago, it’s getting close to February 2024 - this means we can use a magic tool called retrospect to evaluate statements. We do this by looking at the statement and seeing if the thing said happened, in this case the thing said did not happen - in fact the rafah crossing was opened for humanitarian aid only nine days later so we didn’t need to wait so long, or we could have looked December 17 when the Kerem shalom crossing was opened for aid, or whenever maritime aid corridor was opened which is how British and EU aid is entering gaza…
The UK has delivered aid into gaza and the west Bank via UN agencies with a £87 million commitment, USA $100 million, EU €100 million plus extra as individual donations from member nations…
So the reality very strongly disproves the statement made and therefore we can in retrospect discount it from being useful in your argument.
Yes and as the article actually says all they actually said is
“take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of the Genocide convention.”
Which is an obvious non statement, of course Israel is going to continue to abide by the various conventions which it’s signed upto and which according to them they’ve been obeying, something they expect to be proven in the case that’s going ahead.
This is a court agreeing to hear a case, it’s like when they agree to hear a libel case and the person is told not to make defaming comments in the lead to the trial - it says nothing about their actual guilt or intent, it says we’re going to start trying to find out.
It’s because these kids don’t understand that there are the bullshit bandwagon socialism they’ve subscribed to can only succeed in theory. And they don’t know theory isn’t really- so when they attempt to debate political topics- they have no idea what they’re talking about.
Isn’t that the far right viewpoint as well? Apparently Biden has has his finger held firmly on the “raise gas prices” button since he planted himself at the resolute desk. Or at least that’s what conservatives want everyone to believe.
When I get that whole “hurr durr gas prices are high” spiel I always clap back with a “gas prices were much lower under clinton, so you must really like old bill huh?”
Our first amendment rights are only exercisable with the permission of the government, preferably in silence tucked away where no one can see us.
Our third amendment rights are non-existent because SCOTUS draws a line between the police and soldiers. (Never mind the British soldiers were here to police the colonies)
Our Fourth amendment rights exist only notionally. If officers get a dog to jump at your car or have a “good faith belief” that they’re within their rights to search.
Fifth is almost just gone. Civil Asset Forfeiture means only the rich can afford to keep the state from taking their stuff at any time. States routinely re-run criminal trials by deliberately getting a mistrial declared if they’re losing.
The sixth is a joke. Public defenders in some places have as little as 7 minutes to look at your case. And if you’re accused of a misdemeanor you probably won’t have a jury at all. But you will lose your job, your house, and everything else in a chain reaction as you have to figure out how to pay hefty fines with no job. Also you’ll probably end up in prison for contempt of court when you have trouble paying.
The eighth amendment is likewise a joke. Instead of protecting poor people in the system, it’s used as a cudgel to force confessions.
And this is all on top of decades of wealth transfer out of the working class to the point that it’s getting hard to buy food for half the country.
Oh yeah, Trump would be horrible. But he’s the guy we’ve been getting set up for, not the guy the establishment is trying to avoid. I’ll probably vote for Biden but I’m not going to be surprised when the “status quo genocide” guy gets his ass handed to him. Democrats needed to fight for this and they just aren’t.
Edit to add - Y’all know the second the GOP puts up a reasonable sounding asshole we’re fucked right? Like if Nikki Haley got the nomination? All that pressure drops away and she’d still institute project 2025 just like Trump.
So first thing to know is SCOTUS ruled the third amendment does not apply to police. Because the amendment literally says “soldier”. Seems simple enough right?
The problem is we didn’t have the concept of police back then that we have now. And the problem the amendment is addressing is the forced quartering of British Soldiers in homes during the American Revolution and the years leading up to it. To be clear, the consent of the homeowner was not required, some loyalists obviously welcomed it. But the majority did not and there were serious problems with it such as the soldiers considering everything in the house to be fair game, from the food to the daughters.
Now the crucial point is that policing back then was a sentry system. Citizens in good standing took turns on night watch and if they ran into a problem they would use a noisemaker like a whistle to call out anyone willing to help. This obviously is no good to the British and loyal colonial governments when the people are beginning to turn away from Britain.
So they got a few thousand British Soldiers in to do the job “properly” and they needed somewhere to house them.
So when the amendment was written, the word “police” wasn’t in large use yet. (it takes off as we know it in the early 1800’s) They didn’t think a citizen in good standing would need to take over a house, that kind of policing wasn’t even dreamed of, except as a measure of a military occupation. So they wrote in plain language as they knew it.
The intent was always to make sure the government couldn’t force you to house it’s agents. Now in modern times we have cases where police force people out of their homes to conduct surveillance on their neighbors.
In even more fun, the third and fourth amendments are where we get our right to privacy. If the government isn’t allowed to force itself into your home without a probable cause warrant then the right to privacy must be inferred. But with the recent Roe ruling and the state laws expanding the definition of a person based on religion (first amendment) we have some serious violations of privacy going on now as well.
Basically, we have the rights the police and conservative elite allow us to have, and not the rights enumerated to use by the Constitution. They may look the same, but they aren’t, and they change depending on how much money you have, the color of your skin, and who you know.
Obviously not since the biggest argument against enforcing the 3rd amendment against the police is the very semantics I talk about.
And we demonstrably do not have the rights the Constitution says we should have. So where do the rights we do have come from? Well the police and justice system have broad power to ignore the Constitution, so they and the political power behind them must be the actual arbiter of our rights. It’s not hard to put that equation together. Nobody is out here saying there’s a shadow cabal or a world government. Just a shitty reality.
You forgot your 2nd amendment, which gives y’all the right to arm yourselves in case the government is working against the people. Which with the way things have changed since it was written, basically allows you to bring knives to a gun fight. Your government has tanks and fighter jets and aircraft carriers, but sure - pencildick Jim Bob’s collection of 30 glocks will be really useful against even one drone.
Yeah, your Republicans have been systematically shitting on your country with almost no reaction from your Democrats and some people sit there, covered in shit up to their eyes, breathing through a straw, and still somehow find it in them to say “vote Republican, this shit doesn’t even smell” or “vote Democrat otherwise they’ll take the biggest dump so far”. I mean, come on. Find another option already.
Oh I didn’t forget about it. It’s just broken the other way right now.
And I agree that we need another option. Unfortunately the choices seem to be a party that wants corporations to just take the mask off and actually run the country and an eco party that’s been largely co-opted by the Russians.
Progressives are still working inside the DNC but they keep getting stepped on by the donor class because the liberals routinely fall for tech billionaires who profess progressive ideals but only if we hand them a ton of money. So the liberals hand the money to the billionaires instead of actual progressives. Which just ends up furthering private governance.
That entirely depends on how many people pick up a rifle. One person? Yeah, it’s Chinese repression of democracy all over. 1M people? Nah, the gov’t gets overthrown.
You need more like 18 million. The stats on insurgencies are 10 percent supporting and 1 percent acting. And supporting isn’t just in theory, these are stash houses, escape routes, and weapons builders. But that’s just to get started. You need to convince a majority of people otherwise when you actually try to march in the open the military will just crush you.
Insufficient people, insufficient support. You need more than 10,000 people to win a revolution in a country of 340,000,000. And 6 January was really close; if they’d actually been armed–and the overwhelming majority were not–it would have been very, very different.
Trump is actually not much worse than Biden on foreign policy. Bypassing congress to supply ammo for a genocide is something I would have literally only seen Trump do until three months ago. Then I found out the israeli lobbies supplied Biden with three times as much funds as Trump.
While Trump is pretty shit on American domestic policy, he doens’t seem to be much worse for the Palestinians.
Yeah but it doesn’t get any less evil. It gets more evil too but slower. Voting democrat harder even has been done for quite a while. It’s just a scale that slides more and more to the right.
Unless someone’s decides to break that circle, someone that is somehow worse than Trump is going to win the right wing soon. And the Democrats are going to vote for a Trump like figure because he’s gonna be the lesser evil.
Question for the libs who are flailing, trying and failing to understand how their country is backsliding into genocidal fascism (and taking shots to the left):
The deluge of Biden admins who have resigned because of the war - are they now supporting Trump since they are withholding their support for the Biden campaign?
Here’s the deal. If you’re living in California - a state that will overwhelmingly go for Biden - and you don’t vote for Biden, then you are directly responsible for all the sins committed by the subsequent President Trump.
However, you are in no way responsible for the sins committed by Kamala Harris or Dianne Feinstein or Gruesome Gavin Newsome, when they send in a SWAT team against another Black Lives Matter protest breaks out in the face of a sheriff’s deputy shooting a pregnant woman to death because he was unloading 20 rounds at a stray dog.
Democrats are only responsible for what Republicans do after a failed election bid. They’re never responsible for what an uncontested string of Democrats in office do in New York or Washington State or Delaware or Minnesota. One blow I see Republicans land on Dems all the time is the “They keep promising you X and they never deliver in their own states”, and - practically since Clinton - they’ve had Dems dead to rights.
Vermont couldn’t even do comprehensive health care reform. They chickened out because it would mean dedicating too much of the budget to a public service people in the state need. Dems are running away from public education and social security for the same reasons.
The only thing we ever have unlimited deficit spending cash for is War, War, War. And then Dems panic at the prospect of Republicans taking the reins.
Fuck American liberals you people are disgusting. Support your genocidal president who does fuck all for you anyway because you’re stupid enough to fall for the good cop bad cop routine of the US government. If you vote for Joe Biden you are voting for genocide. The fact that the other option is just as genocidal does not absolve you of culpability for your complicity.
The final verdict is that you are human garbage.
Edit: Biden just halted all funding for UNRWA to prevent it from providing aid to Palestinians as much as possible. This is exactly the kind of unhinged policy decision that liberals would make a fuss about trump taking. Trump or Biden it makes no difference and you must be extremely propagandized to think it does.
That’s reactionary. Since there are only 2 options, the lesser of two evils provides more room for the Proletariat to make grassroots change and build up pressure. Virtue signaling won’t get anyone anywhere.
At the ballot box, there are 2 options, and there’s no reason you can’t combine grounded electoralism with radical grassroots praxis like Unionization and setting up networks of Mutual Aid, a la Food Not Bombs.
That’s what I advocate for, actually. Focusing on the grassroots for positive change, while defensively voting in federal elections.
What has this strategy that you’ve been following achieved exactly? Have you curbed the united states’ imperialism? Did you get abortion rights? Did it stop the literal genocide that is going on right now? You have nothing to show for it. Strategies are implemented in order to succeed. When one turns out to be ineffective, you abandon it. The only useful thing you people in the imperial core can do is organize outside and against your government. Everything else is less than useless.
Let me reiterate. Your country and president are committing a genocide. If you do not wash your hands of this government then you are complicit.
I am a Palestinian watching my people be murdered gruesomely, sadistically, in the hundreds every day. I cannot stand to see people legitimize the rule of the man arming our genociders. Your government is irredeemable. It has built a system where peaceful democratic change is impossible. Even just telling people to participate in it is complicity. I cannot tell you what has to be done because it is illegal.
Electing Trump would be far worse. He has not at all indicated that he would stop the genocide of your people.
Violent revolution has never worked in America.
Therefore, the best answer is grassroots movements and building up of revolutionary pressure from below to influence the top. Unfortunately, America has a huge number of fascists who are gleefully trying to go even further.
Biden is evil, yes. Trump is worse, and third party does not functionally exist. The best hope is grassroots protest and activism.
Unless if the movements are building organizational power to confront state power then they are useless. American "grass roots movements like AOC’s campaign did less than nothing. It was made a huge ordeal and now look at her, not even voting against genocide. If that is not a scathing indictment of all electoralism in the US then I don’t know what is. The leftmost person you are able to elect is not even against genocide.
I agree, electoralism is not the way to get meaningful leftist change. Unfortunately, the only choices are a Neoliberal or a fascist, so leftists must pick the Neoliberal in elections.
Grassroots movements are the only way to move to the left, and it’s very difficult to do so. Leftists have been battling liberals and fascists for centuries, and slowly building up coalitions.
It is objectively untrue that there is greater room for organizing under a democrat than under a republican. There has proven to be no demostrable difference. Orgs don’t face any less sabotage, infiltration, or state repression under democrats than under republicans.
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