I did some political stuff back in the day. We used to say “when people vote, democrats win.” I don’t need a win, I just need the fascist pedo kleptocratic octogenarian to lose.
Posts about blaming a minuscule minority of voters are specifically designed to encourage people to not look for the causes of rising fascism.
Keeping people distracted and attacking their socialists allies is the only way Democrats can continue to move further to the right and join Trump’s new “War on the Extreme Left”.
If you don’t see the connection, you have a problem.
This is a misunderstand. It’s not about voting. It never was. It’s about organizing.
Sure vote for harm reduction. Yes, it can slow things down a bit temporarily, but don’t think it’ll save your life. Both parties are genocidal fascists who will continue to escalate war and state violence. From a capitalist standpoint, fascism is correct and necessary. Profits have fallen too low, democracy is no longer profitable, no matter which party is in charge. The billionaires need living standards to drop much lower. But in a democracy, people would not be willing to accept that, so they need to be disciplined violently.
Democrats, just like Republicans will come for your loved ones, arrest communists, continue imperialist wars and genocide, shut down strikes and unions, militarize the police. Simply because Democrats are capitalist and within capitalism, fascism is the next logical step. Not for ideological reasons, but because of real material economic facts. The facts demand fascism. Democrats will adapt or cease to be Democrats.
When Nazi fascism was defeated in Europe, it wasn’t by voting for the lesser fascists. The only way to save democracy is to organize real resistance, that’s able to enforce demands.
If you have limited capacity to contribute and organize, don’t waste your time campaigning for the Democrats. Vote for them, if it makes sense in your state, but that’s just one day. If you have any energy to spare the rest of the year: talk to your neighbors and coworkers about real solutions. For example general strikes and anti-fascist community self defense. Learn communist theory, start a reading group. Join a Marxist org.
Which side thinks that food, medicine, and shelter are a human right and not just access to them is a right? I’ll always vote for that side.
It’s far from the only way. They have the means to rig elections or cancel them altogether.
If you think voting is getting you out of this mess, you’re in for a reality check.
Literally why Israel got trump in office
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Fyi… vote in fing primaries, that is the only way to fix the kinda bad side.
Nevermind that we hold parties accountable and make them actually represent the people. If centrist/corporatist Democrats wanted to win, they should be listening to the people, and they refuse to do that. They are absolutely complicit in what’s been happening over this past decade, even long before that.
Both sides are bad" is true, though. The Democrats and Republicans are infiltrated by Zionists. The reality that both sides are bad could also motivate people to vote for a third party.
The fact that this is still a thing is baffling to me. I am, by no means, a fan of Establishment Democrats. But this is why we have primaries. We can walk and chew gum at the same time; vote for progressives in the primaries, vote agaist the fascists at the same time.
And while we’re at it, between primaries, we criticize the people we elect because we demand better of them. And we warn them that they will lose to a progressive next primary if they don’t find the plot again.
This is not very hard. We can’t just note vote if we want to escapw the jaws of fascism without a civil war. We don’t have to like establishment democrats, but right now electing a do-nothing is objective improvement. It’s voting to get more time. And if the narrative for the democratic party is a progressive narrative, then progressive candidates can drag them kicking and screaming further to the left where they either find some values, or we send them to an early retirement next primary. We call this process “democracy.”
And I don’t wanna hear shit about it being “rigged.” If Viktor Orbon couldn’t hold on to an openly rigged system, the DNC doesn’t have that much more control either! Half the fucking country doesn’t vote. If everyone did, they couldn’t ignore the mandate. And so we circle back to the meme above: if you’re discouraging people from voting, you are part of the problem. Get them informed, get them motivated, get them registered, make a plan, and go with them if you have to! This is the easiest call to action we will get. If we fail to meet it, the next one will be a lot more painful for the whole world.
Its amazing to me that there are still people who believe their are "two sides " and that voting works.
Just gotta vote harder guys and next time we won’t get an Israeli puppet!
Orban lost because everyone went out and voted for the other party. If you watch interviews of voters, a lot of them said they don’t agree on everything with who they are voting for, but it must be done to progress away from the Orban era.
Democracy is a slow process, and sometimes, voting for the lesser of two evils is the only choice you have. It opens the door for better candidates in the next elections to come.
Or, you know… you can do an armed revolution. But lately, they don’t bring the change everyone hopes for.Both sides are bad. One is markedly worse though.
Yes. Also, there is zero, ZERO path to anything better through the Republocan party.
There are plenty of ways to eventually get somewhere through the Dems. It may mean “suffing” alot of do nothing bull shit, but there are paths and ways.
The fun part is, that the Republicans didn’t even start out as a Maga cult party. They got infiltrated. Not just by rich people, but by people from all sorts of backgrounds, joining or voting for support. Nothing is stopping the left from doing the same with the Democrats. But for that to happen, they’d need to stop with the constant purity tests…
Nothing is stopping the left from doing the same
Intellectual honesty. The left will say what they actually want, the alt-right will lie their way in. “I’m literally an anarchist” versus “oh I’m just a fiscal conservative”.
The tea party was supposed to be normal “folks” but was really funded by the Koch’s Americans for Prosperity (a proto-superpac).
The MAGA cult is basically onky two groups.
Fanatic idiots who cling to religious fantacy like its fact because they are too stupid to comprehend the world, this stupidity also fuels a shitload of racism and bigotry, for the same reason.
And richblibertarian assholes who want to tear the world of regulation down to better allow them to rape the population and planet for maximum profits.
The rich assholes figured out how to weaponize the idiots using fear to grest advantage. I used to feel a bit sorry for the idiot cult for being manipulated but they basically refused to ever change so fuck those people.
Actual mainstream Democrats are not doing “purity tests”, a lout, super left wing branch is. I am not saying they have bad wants and desires, and ultimately they are right on a lot of issues, and personally, I agree with them on a lot of issues, but they are loud, and a bit of a fringe part, and for the greater good, for now, can be mostly ignored.
Mostly.
They should NOT be ignored in favor of just, sliding more tonthe right. Like, just picking an issue, maybe there is a compromise on trans athletes, because it probably is tricky, but that doea not mean compromising on trans people ompletely, andletting it start to slide to other queer groups, which is starting to happen.
The big lynchpin that feels like its brought up a lot is the Israel/Palestine war. Which is probably the stupidest one. Yes Israel sucks, and what they are doing to Palestime is very terrible, but hesus fuck you don’t sacrifice the country and ultimately everyone else in the world to the fucking Fascists over it. Both sides are shit, and who fucking cares in the end.
Actual mainstream Democrats are not doing “purity tests”, a lout, super left wing branch is.
Yeah, i’m not talking about democrats as a whole, they’re not “left” from a European perspective, i was talking about those who are quite a bit further left of centre. The people who “taught the Dems a lesson” by *checks notes* hiding at home, writing performative bullshit on social media and are dogpiling on anyone who dares to cast a shadow of a doubt at their imaginary moral high ground. As i had the pleasure of experiencing first hand, when i dared to question the decision of some random US non-voter commenting on Bluesky…
The point is, that pretty much every party can be changed from the inside, if people are persistent enough. Change never happens on its own. At least not for the better. And if you want to help people in other countries, you first need to make sure your own country stays safe. Sadly, the US is a two-party failed state, and in my opinion, the only realistic peaceful way to change that, is to join the lesser evil of the two parties and force the change from within. The other option is to just burn everything to the ground and start from the beginning.
Progressives would have to vote in primaries first.
We pragmatic progressives are doing that right now
We unfortunately do not seem to be the majority of the progressives, at least as represented here. Way too many here advocate not voting.
Bruh, I’m trying to be pragmatic and that includes voting, so many tankies and doomer selfish leftists here
And these days, the left is doing that as we speak.
It’s called reforming a party. And yes, the Dems are much more likely to be reformed and it is the true path forward.
As long as people are not apathetic what most likely will happen is that Republican will disappear and Democrats will split into two parties. It happened in the past.
Okay, but there’s a difference between “both sides are bad” and valid criticism of the democratic party.
Exactly. Only fight the Democrats 364 days a year.
So vote blue no matter who?
If you push them 364 days a year you actually might want to vote for them
How delightfully reductionist. Though essentially, yes. Our system of elections is antiquated and should be changed, but until it is, voting how you WISH the system functions instead of how it actually functions is working against your own interests.
To side-step the electorialism conversation a bit: Americans need to take a page out of the French handbook. Civil engagement should not begin and end at voting.
We should be joining leftists organizations, anti-capitalist reading groups, mutual aid groups, workers unions, tenants unions, self-defense groups, community gardens, and real grassroots communities built on trust. These will form the foundation for future protests, boycotts, workers strikes, renters strikes, and, if necessary, civil disobedience. The workers of America have become so anemic that our politicians no longer fear us.
We were trained how to protest, and the history of protest, wrong on purpose. Our cities were atomized which happens to make quelling, compartmentalizing, and hiding unrest much easier. We would be doing great if we were simply anemic. If I had to put numbers to the current landscape: 1/3 anemic, 1/3 actively supporting their own oppression, 9/30 concerned but confidently doing the wrong things to solve their problems, 1/30 pretty much fucked.
Our cities were atomized which happens to make quelling, compartmentalizing, and hiding unrest much easier. We would be doing great if we were simply anemic.
On a personal note, I’ve been to several protests were (it feels as though) the only people who are watching us are the police on the ground and the drones in the sky. We march down the approved path, which has been sectioned off from the rest of the city, and yell about various issues. Pretty demoralizing at times but it’s better than being terminally online.
Well that’s just nonsense. Any criticism of the democratic party, a famously spineless and dismissive organization, is a psyop?
