When given a choice between a millitary industrial neoliberal with a rainbow voting base and a fascist who is one elon musk golf session away from banning HRT, the best option is certainly not to refuse to play out of protest

  • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    The best way I’ve seen anyone put it is that by the time the election arrives, you are exclusively in damage control mode. If you want actual change, you have to have it done by getting your personal choice voted in during the primaries.

    • makyo@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      And I’d add - get active the other 364 days of the year.

      If we want better options we first need ranked choice voting and we need to get money out of politics. And none of that is going to happen if our only political action each year is voting.

      • ProfessorPeregrine@reddthat.com
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        2 months ago

        Proud to say that in Colorado, ranked choice voting is on the ballot this year! It’s even supported by the big political names here, including the governor.

        • makyo@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Exactly! They’re putting in the work there and getting some fantastic things done. Lots of other great stuff on that ballot too.

    • bamfic@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      At local level. Organize school board, dog catcher, judges, city council, planing commission, library board, community college board, do what the right wing does

      • MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        This is really key, though the state level is probably most important. If your voting activism doesn’t go beyond the presidential election, it’s performative at most. A third party candidate without members of their party is state houses and Congress is going to be fairly ineffective even if they somehow did do the impossible and get elected.

      • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        Yes. And Biden was chosen, which includes Harris being next up if Biden couldn’t perform the duties of president for any reason. If Democrats didn’t want the status quo, they should have chosen someone other than Biden.

          • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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            2 months ago

            we all just missed it?

            You missed it. I was well aware of it, and concerns about Biden at the time, and I don’t even live in the US.

            Not everyone else’s fault if you don’t engage with the political system until less than a month before the election. That’s what this entire post is about.

  • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Honestly we just had an election where I live where the options were (not to this extreme at all) but pretty similar in the “not great” vs “fucking awful” choices. Of course we had an actual third party with good policies but they had no chance. The race was so close here that in some areas the difference in votes was in the hundreds for the top two choices. They’re still doing recounts and I guess we’ll see, but every single fucking vote has counted on this.

    I honestly don’t believe that not voting is ever going to work. If we want change we need an actual fucking revolution. Not voting, in American’s case, would just allow for the literal militants to take over and then you really won’t even have the choice to protest anything in the future.

    • Lou Frogno@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      We need to focus on prefigurative politics, I.e, build the world we want to see with direct action, unionizing, and mutual aid, since voting and governments are never going to do it for us.

      However, who is in charge of your country will make those prefigurative politics more or less hard, or even impossible (can’t imagine much of the above going on in Nazi Germany…)

      I think it goes without saying that it will be less hard under Harris.

  • SimplyTadpole@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    Pictured: Newly-unveiled biologically-engineered troops of the National Guard enforcing the new State Ideology of Obamunism in Mar-a-Lago (2009, colorized)

    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
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      2 months ago

      So the neocons of the 2000s are the C’tan, providing neoliberals with unending life by running against fascists and also necrosteel bodies but at the cost of their souls. One day we will overthrow the gods and place their shards into our doomsday weapons.

  • auzy@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Simple game theory

    Harris: +1. Because she actually is a good person. The only people saying anything else are Republicans really . Don’t forget she used to fight for sexual assault victims and such (look at her past actions). Walz is just as good as a person

    Trump: -1: no explanation needed

    Anyone else: 0 points

    It’s only logical to vote for Harris/Walz. Unless you actually believe trump . But, if you use the arguments Trump has used against Biden and Harris, you’ll see all of them work equally well on him. He is sleepy, he is old, and he is a criminal

    • glizzyguzzler@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      Amend that, it’s also -1 points to anyone else in a swing state because any possible vote not for the Dems is one that helps the Repubs get closer to the day one dictatorship.

      Those swing states include Texas, Virginia, NC, Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin, PA, Ohio, New Hampshire, Michigan, Maine, Alaska, Iowa, Indiana, FloridA, and Arizona.

      Some are unlikely (Indiana, Texas) but all are possible (maybe Senate only for TX). The repubs are losing strength, maim ‘em so better progressive policies can grow. If you’re in CA or NY or CO or MN its still not exactly 0, you should vote local; you may be able to get 3rd party in in places or resist a local house Republican.