1y ago

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.

429 comments

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.
- If Trump is the Republican nominee I would vote for Biden even if he was dead.
  
  Honestly, which one of the other candidates would you vote for in Trump's stead? All of them suck and kiss trump's ass.
  
  Truueee
- 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.
  
  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.
- 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.
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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.
- This sham democracy that you fervently support kills people everyday.
  
  It also happens to be where I live. Doing nothing doesn't help anything.

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.
- Yah I can vote for the red mayor who wants more cops or the blue mayor who wants more cops. Freedom rings!
  
  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.
  
  One of them also wants to ban books.
  
  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.

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

I’m voting for the most progressive candidate possible in the primary, and then whoever’s not the Republican in the general, and I fully intend to do that for the rest of my life.
The Republican Party has some plans they’re putting together, and between that and the rhetoric that most major Republican politicians and candidates spout these days (very specifically including Trump), it’s abundantly clear they’ve more or less completely given up on democracy, and are planning on dismantling a significant proportion of the core institutions of our country and government, which will effectively usher in the American Empire (as in: a possibly theocratic, but definitely authoritarian and likely outright fascist dictatorship). To be clear: that would be a Very Bad Thing. You think Russia is troublesome now? Wait until Trump or someone similar starts treating them like an ally, emulating as much of Putin’s power structure as possible just because they think it’s cool and would make them look powerful, and potentially teaming up to do shitty things to the rest of the world because we have something like 95% of the nuclear weapons ever produced, and while Russian ones are in a questionable state, ours definitely work.
If Republicans win this next election - and especially if they are able to secure the presidency and both houses of Congress - I genuinely don’t think things will recover without significant domestic political violence, which may ultimately result in a civil war. I’m doing my best to prepare for some “GTFO” contingencies that could be executed in the next few years, but it’s not an easy thing to do, and there’s still a huge number of unknowns in a ton of dimensions.
If you think I’m being hyperbolic, you’re not paying attention.
- Oh hey look, it's the only rational voting strategy in a FPTP elective structure! Anyone who thinks different is just more evidence we need Civics back in our schools.
  
  more evidence we need Civics back in our schools
  Maybe we need more math as well - have you heard of the Ultimatum Game? Sometimes the rational strategy is to reject unfair split offers, even if that makes it a guarantee that you both get nothing.
- Is there a neutral review of project 2025 that you can point to? That site is ass and either points to a book you can buy or a thousand links to PDFs.
  
  Please define “neutral review” in this context.
  The whole thing is unrepentantly and deeply biased, and it’s intentional.
  I don’t know if this matches your definition of “neutral”, but it must be said that “neutral” is not synonymous with “unbiased”.
- The Constitution needs to be rewritten anyway and we are overdue, preserving the status quo is enabling American fascism.

Well I won't be voting for the fascist party.....
- Which one? The Democratic Party has been supporting genocide. It's well past time we recognized that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are both fascist and reject them accordingly.
  
  I get the concept. I do. And I wrestle with the notion myself, as I’m an anarchist (you and I don’t agree on a few things, lemmygrad friend).
  But I don’t subscribe to the notion that not voting as a principled abstainer is a righteous act…I don’t think. Because I do agree, of course. The democrats are capitalist, war-mongering shitheels. They aren’t “good” or just or righteous by any stretch of the imagination. They destroy the environment and will kill us if we challenge the status quo of lte stage consumer capitalism. I have no illusions about this.
  But doing nothing in the face of a Republican Party that is hellbent on wiping trans people from the face of the earth, strapping us all to the whipping chair until they can establish a Christofascist nightmare in which we are all beaten into straight, white submission is…not a heroic act. Because, yeah, the democrats support Israel, they are neoliberal capitalist pigs. They boost police budgets whenever they can, they take obscene amounts of money from special interests and work for them, not for us. But the republicans do all the same shit PLUS hating trans and gay people and pass laws that make it so they can lock you away for protesting and they are clearly more “business friendly” because they can be open about it while the democrats have to do slightly less because their rhetoric and their base don’t approve like Republican voters do.
  My point is, there are two terrible options. Yes, we are in agreement. And yes, electoralism is bullshit, incrementalism will get us nowhere. But hierarchy is bullshit. Capitalism is bullshit. These things will exist until some insanely devastating event upturns the way the world has run for a long time.
  Not voting won’t change these realities. VOTING won’t change them. But all the people that are hurt by an emboldened xenophobe and vicious bigot WILL be hurt. Actual, measurable hurt. PLUS the Palestinian people you’re basing your position on will continue to be killed. Because the US supports Israel. Not the democrats or republicans, but the US.
  Not voting against a party that is openly using REAL LIFE fascist methods and speech so you can maintain your perceived purity isn’t noble.
  We can all hate capitalism. But we’re stuck with it right now. We can all hate electoralism. But we’re stuck with it right now. Capitalism kills way more people than the genocide currently happening in Palestine. But you’re way more involved with it than you would be in electoralism by casting one vote.
  These things are truths right now. You’d do a lot more good (or at least contribute A LOT less hurt) by abstaining from capitalism than you would abstaining from electoralism. We can all be principled. But all-or-nothing-ism that is rampant on “the left” (read: in modern people with principles and humanity and half a brain) isn’t noble because it helps. It’s perceived as noble because you can say, “pfft. I didn’t _____.” You’re not helping anymore but yourself.
  Engage in praxis. Fight for your beliefs. But when your abstinence will be weaponized by insanely powerful and horrible people, and leveraged against minority groups, your “purity” is nothing but self-aggrandizement.
  Not voting against anti-trans Christian fascist bigots is a huge show of privilege.
- Ah, a third party supporter I see
  
  Fuck off.
  We don’t like that we are only allowed to have two choices.
  The problem is that a moderately small number of people and corporations who combined have more money than god have decided it’s a great idea to execute regulatory capture of the entire US government.
  I just hope guillotine season starts before the world catches on fire.

I'm going to complain about not having a primary option for president, vote for the left-most person I can in the primary, and then vote down-ballot (D) in November. There's nothing I need to research with respect to these modern conservatives. Most democrats aren't really much better in most ways, but at least I can look my marginalized friends and colleagues in the eye after the election.
- Yeah pretty much this. Not much point to me following the political discourse and all that, all it'll do is just make me angry and depressed.

I like the Green Party’s eco-socialism, but their anti-vaccine lunacy and inability to do anything electorally beyond run a presidential candidate every four years doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies.
I like Cornel West, and I appreciate his long-standing commitment to left-wing and anti-racist values.
That said, I live in the real world, where Donald Trump is running as an open fascist promising to make America a dictatorship if elected, and Joe Biden is the only candidate running with a realistic chance of beating him.
So I’ll be voting for every Democrat I possibly can, while wishing they were better than they are, as always.
- Joe Biden is also an open fascist who is proudly facitating a genocide and ethnic cleansing
  
  You won't find an American president that doesn't support Israel, you were close with bernie.

I see a lot of people here frustrated with our two party system. I too am frustrated. Donate to FairVote to get ranked choice on the ballot in more states. Ranked choice voting allows voters to express actual preferences between more than two parties and it is a win no matter who you normally vote for. Many states have a ballot measure system that can be used to pass legislation without requiring the agreement of the state legislature. Several US states have implemented ranked choice voting already. http://fairvote.org
- Preferential voting is a far superior system.
  For those unfamiliar, here's an example:
  If you like a minor party, say, the Green party, hate another minor party, say, Libertarian, more than you hate the Republicans and would settle for Democrats if you had to, then your vote would look like:
  Green
  Democrat
  Republican
  Libertarian
  And if your (1) Green candidate didn't have enough votes to win outright, and no-one else did either, then your vote would go to the (2) democrat, who has all the (1) democrat and (2) democrat votes added together. If the democrat didn't have enough votes to win, then it would go to the Republican.
  This is simplified, but should be enough to give the idea of how your vote always matters, and allows a better variety of ideas to flourish.
  ALSO: post-election, say the democrats won, but only did because they got a lot of second round preferential votes from the Greens voters, that would help convince them that if they want to stay in power, they need to adopt more Green policies.
  If parties get elected with no help and just because the other option is orange meltdown, it does little to encourage improvement. All they have to be is better than the other side (who lies all the time anyway, making "better" appear more subjective than objective).
  How to help fix voting in the USA:
  Preferential voting
  Nonpartisan government body to create voting districts (remove Gerrymandering completely)
  Fix the money: Caps on political donations. Full transparencies on all political donations and spending. Corporations aren't people.
  Standardised ballots
  Disband the electoral college
  Change the size of the house/senate
  Even some of the best countries' voting methods are being constantly tweaked and improved. Nothing is perfect, but it's an embarrassment how far behind the USA is.

Vote DNC and hate it.

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.
- 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.
  
  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.
- 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.

In 2016, I was an Independent. Straight down the middle. Would consider reasonable Democrats, Republicans, and 3rd party candidates.
In 2020, I was an Independent leaning Democratic. Would not consider Trump. Biden was locked in. Would hesitantly consider reasonable Republicans or Independents on a split ticket.
In 2024, I'm a Democrat. Will only consider Democrats up and down the ballot. No 3rd parties.
- I dont think republicans have been reasonable on the whole at any point in my lifetime. Even Mccain was questionable and he was the best the republicans had.
  
  Imo, there used to be a few reasonable individual Republican candidates here and there. But now they litmus test into these insane issues and they don't adapt when things change in society. They just dig in their heels and start mud-slinging. I'm not even bothering with them anymore.
- Do you live somewhere where voting for Democrats even matters?
  
  Its the US so.....no.

Right now, the choices are between boring corporatists and 100% concentrated evil. It's not that hard a choice.
- the boring corporatists are fully backing a genocide rn
  not really seeing how that doesn't qualify as 100% concentrated evil
  
  I think they're saying that the not-hard-choice is to abstain
  
  Every single US president has backed Israel. Trump was the one that actually moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
- Frankly I don't think there much boring about the genocide the corporatist is enabling.
  
  If you avoid everyone who supports Israel in this fight you won't have anyone to vote for. I swear Israel is part of the national narrative on both sides and I don't understand why.
  Volunteer and try to primary those old bastards out of office. The Squad is getting bigger every election.
- Third Reich 100% glitchless speedrun (NO WARPS) vs a plate of room-temperature ketchup.

Vote against Republicans.

Blue no matter who. Nothing has changed about that.
- I think leftists ranting about not voting for Biden in the general election at the moment are just blowing off steam, and when election day comes, everyone on the left will remember 2016 and vote blue.
  
  I absolutely will not. Vote blue no matter who is why we have the situation we have. 2016 did not give us trump. Generations of shitty corporate politicians on both sides of the aisle gave us Donald Trump. Populists win because they're popular, and trump got popular by pointing out the factual information that the house, the Senate, and the oval office are filled with corporate skills and corrupt puppets. Sadly, it was the fascist who got popular pointing it out, but it doesn't make that part of what he says untrue.
  I live in a red state where my vote for federal office does not count. So I will cast my pointless protest vote for the green party in the hopes that one day they'll get their 5%, and maybe something can change. Down ballot I'll hold my nose and vote for the Democrat in most offices, and if I ever move to a competitive state, I'll do the same for federal, because I'm being held hostage by the corporate shills, and I'd rather my family not die in concentration camps that are inevitably coming if/when the fascists fully take power.
  But no. Fuck blue no matter who. Who. Fucking. Matters. If it didn't, we wouldn't be in this mess. Have some standards.
  
  Don’t care. I don’t want to hear their BS. Apathy is the enemy. Re-elect Biden, then go out and yell at him for whatever the hell you want. The alternative is never being able to vote again. Not hyperbole. Republicans are actively trying to change the rules to disregard your votes.
  
  I remember what the "blue team" did in 2016 by forcing an unelectable shit candidate upon us. So I will never vote for them again.

I'll vote for a non-Zionist candidate in the primaries with no real expectation of them winning. But I will vote blue no matter who for national and state politics, and Working Families Party for local if any run.
Is "Genocide Joe" an accurate nickname? Yeah. But fuck that, it's not like Trump will be any less zionist and third parties/independents don't work in FPTP. I'm mixed race, I'm bisexual, I'm worried about worst case scenarios with a second Trump presidency (which is basically "what Trump is saying out loud" at this point,) and I am willing to vote in enlightened self-interest.
- Joe Biden is no more pro-Israel than any president before him. In fact, he's publicly asked Netanyahu for humanitarian pauses so they can actually get Palestinian people out of the line of fire. Small gesture yes, but no one else has even mentioned Palestinian survival before.
  
  "asked"
  Yep, found your problem right there. It's your argument, full of holes, it is.
  You don't ask a genocidal power that you're supplying to stop commiting genocide. You tell them they'll stop or best case scenario (for them) they're on their own. Worst case scenario (for them), you stop them yourself.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place. It sucks.
I’m tired of the 2 party system. I don’t think I really have a party or political ideology that aligns with Democrats or Republicans and third party candidates are all over the place. I want to start voting on issues and not just politicians.
I don’t care what my politician’s feelings are. They represent a constituency and the only things they should be speaking about and for are exactly what they’re being asked for. Instead we have this political machine that takes every issues and gives it a red spin and a blue spin and then it’s force fed to the people.
Congress should not be creating our ideologies they should create the laws that structure the things the citizens want.
The Supreme Courr overturned Roe v Wade, put it on the ballet and let the people decide.
Gun control, put it on the ballet
Universal health care, put it on the ballet
Abandoning fossil fuels, put it on the ballet
Stop forcing your political and personal ideologies on us and start listing to the people. If we vote “Yes” on universal health care, the politicians must then go and figure out how to make it happen.
Let it truly be a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
- i'm pretty sure the u.s. will collapse before it becomes a democracy, but it certainly is a nice dream
- Preach!! That's how a democracy should operate!

Democrats. I'd rather vote green party but I'm not an idiot. Even if the green party won they would be able to get far less done than Biden has. Biden isn't amazing or good but he's not the actively trying to harm LGBTQIA and he's not trying to destroy democracy. Anyone who can equate Trump to Biden is completely bonkers.
Looks like napovointerco might pass before the election. If it does we might see a civil war.
- Yeah I feel you, the green party has some good positions. But then they go ahead and nominate people like Jill Stein, who has some good but many horrible foreign policy ideas like ending NATO and allowing Russia to do whatever it wants to eastern European countries. In climate areas has relatively good positions, but then despite claiming to follow science she will constantly reject it when it comes to her own bizarre theories about vaccines, banning wifi from areas with children, or trying to ban gmos that have extensive evidence for safety until they meet some arbitrary threshold in her own head and scientists prove a negative, which is impossible. Not to mention what that would do to food prices and create widespread shortages and hunger and cause actual harm around the world if she got her way.
  I'd love viable third parties, but they've been picking terrible candidates lately, so I don't really see the appeal atm. I think the path forward there is being active in primaries and pushing candidates forward in the main parties forward who support alternative voting systems like rank choice. Otherwise while we still have first past the post voting, any but the main two parties is never really going to be viable and will probably just end up being counterproductive to their own stated goals.

There is no electoral solution to the accelerating depravity of this evil and crumbling Empire

Definitely voting for someone who doesn't support genocide for president. Down ballot I'll likely vote 3rd party as well, but I haven't decided for sure.
- Congrats on helping to ensure you'll never again have the right to vote during traitor trump's fascist dictatorship that you'll be enabling.
  
  Hey I'm voting third party in a deep blue state also, you wanna be wicked condescending to me too? Take that energy to the phone banks, I bet the democrats never tried making a total ass of themselves before.
  
  Congrats on saying "genocide is an acceptable price" out loud
  
  If Trump is one vote from winning NY then he swept the board. There's no way NY goes red in any election that has NY as the tipping point state.

Definitely not voting for either of the parties that killed Roe v Wade or any of the parties that support the zionist genocide of Palestine. That leaves...PSL again I guess
- Pumpkin spice latte?
  
  is the Party for Socialism and Liberation
  
  Fred Flinstone about to flip his shit

Same as usual. Vote for the least harmful candidates while advocating for actual grassroots improvements, because voting harder won't move America to the left, ever.

Probably vote blue all the way down the line but I'm going to be shitting on the democratic party publicly and loudly for all the fucked and/or cowardly shit they do because not as bad != not bad.
- I honestly think the worst kinds are the delusional people who try to make themselves believe they're "above it all" by voting Democrat for the president and then Republican for their representatives...
  Ffs learn how government works in today's era... Maybe that was ok 50 years ago, but now it's just "you're on the other team, fuck your clean bill that's just saving puppies and children, I'm voting no so my supporters don't see me voting with Democrats!"
  
  Everyone should vote for whomever represents them best despite whatever letter follows their name, and everyone should know all of their local and state options to be able to do so. Please do the same for your primaries if you at least want a slim possibility of having a decent option. Ranked choice voting would help a lot, but engagement at least helps a little. Hell, third parties got elected this year even.
  People blindly straight party ticket voting after skipping the primaries simply because they just hate the other team is how all the shitty entrenched old guard like Pelosi, Manchin, and McConnel (extra especially McConnel, who even republicans hate) stay in power on both sides. And forgetting about the primaries is how we end up with such weak ass candidates as Trump and Biden. It's so good damn infuriating.
- Very fair and measured approach. I wish more Americans would adopt this strategy.

Honestly there's not that much one can do, but I will:
Hope Trump is thrown in prison
Vote straight ticket Democrat
Hope another Jan. 6 doesn't occur
Try not to lose my shit when idiots say stuff like "both parties are equally bad"
I live in a solid blue state, so my national-level votes don't do much (though I'll cast them anyway).
In past years I've thrown a few hundred dollars at close senate and house races. In 2020 I volunteered for a phone/text bank sort of deal to make sure people were registered to vote.
- Do people say both parties are equally bad? I’d agree that both parties are bad, but ‘equally’? Maybe a decade ago, but not anymore.
  
  You'll find republicans say that. Equally was more than a decade ago. They actually had a chance too. When the Tea Party started, it was actually grassroots. But then they got hijacked by people like the Coch brothers which twisted it to their desires.

I'm checked out of voting, I live in Texas. Nothing but card-carrying neo-nazis in this shithole. Shame too, because I'd love to live in Austin if I could afford to.
Maybe I'll just vote PSL or something.
- Hello fellow Texan. I also plan on "throwing my vote away" for PSL. If they are even on the ballot, that is.
  Also, I recommend North Austin if you are looking for something less expensive. Depending on how close to the metro rail you are, life might be more car-dependant. But you'll still be close to more like-minded individuals, and will have a clearer path towards moving more in town if you want.

I emigrated. I'll vote by mail and hope for the best, but the two party system America has will inevitably produce horrible results.
- Choosing between only two options is not freedom by any means.
  
  It's why we have primaries. People's inability to understand the importance of primaries simultaneously means they don't vote in them and hate the results. (On average)

Well, I've had to remove multiple people that used to just be right leaning for outright fascist statements and ideas in the last few months as they've deteriorated into hate speech and ethnic cleansing....so while I grew up conservative...yeah, I can't support that shit.
Democrats are a mild improvement at best but at least they aren't constantly being approved of by the KKK and being touted by mass shooters.
I'd like a proper left-leaning candidate, but with America's history. They'll end up assassinated.
- but at least they aren’t constantly being approved of by the KKK and being touted by mass shooters.
  Just the IDF and Likud, which shares nothing in ideology or methodology with them.
  
  Yeah.... heavy sarcasm I'm loving the two terrorist groups slugging at each other right now. So good.

Well my choices are backslide slowly by voting dem, maybe buying enough time to get out of the country safely in the next few years, or risk being federally persecuted for being trans. So I'm going to dissociate through the whole thing and hopefully won't be able to remember voting for fucking Biden. Outside the election I do what I can to support actual leftist movements but until any of them have a chance to win against the fascists on ballots I'm team 'slightly better of two shitty choices'. I just want to be left alone to garden I hate all of this
- Come on out down voters, I'd love to hear you attempt to explain why I'm making a bad decision
  
  I downvoted you because of this comment. Does that help?
  
  Didn't downvote you but the only difference I've seen and heard about as far as how things are going for minorities is when there's a dem president libs tell minorities to stfu because they're making them look bad.
  When there's a republican president libs pretend to support blm, when there's a dem president libs tell them they're secretly republican russians.
  Try telling a lib the concentration camps on the border are still a problem and you'll get a lecture about how it's a way more compassionate concentration camp now.
  
  Because Biden's shitty fucking policies got half my family locked up for trying to keep their seed fed on bids anywhere from five to thirty, typically on some mandatory-minimum bullshit; the other half can't get jobs under his "booming economy"; and the fact that he's cosigning a fucking genocide of one of the few peoples in the world to be as brutally colonized as the Black diaspora in Occupied America. You're smoking meth if you think I'm going act like what you're doing is worth uplifting or even cosigning.
  You already are supporting a fascist if you haven't divested by now-- but I don't expect you to get that.

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.

Live in upstate new york so unless I throw my ballot at Biden so hard he dies my vote will have exactly zero effect on federal elections.
So voting for people who think public education is a positive and not communism in local elections where the differential is 12 votes and writing in Hunter Biden for president because it's funny.

It does not matter who I vote for for federal office. My state is never close to competitive and my house district is gerrymandered.
If fascists win my districts for state office, it will not affect the balance of power in the state assemblies.
So I told all of the Democrats running for state and local office that if there is not a primary for the presidential election, then I will not vote for any Democrats in the general elections in 2024, for any office. Maybe they can put pressure on the DNC.
This is the only way I can potentially have any input.
The only way this works is if Democrats would shift left if they started losing elections because people refused to vote for old white male conservative Democrats.
But I fear they would actually shift right. The Democratic Party is not a big tent that holds both the neoliberal corporate shills and the progressives. It is a hostage situation where the neoliberal corporate shills demand our support, otherwise the fascists will kill us.
- I just want to say that your vote for the federal office does matter even if you live in a non-competitive state. Some states allocate a percentage of their electoral votes rather than all or nothing but even if yours does not, voting still adds a data point that says I support this person instead of that person. There have been several times where a candidate has won the presidency without winning the most votes but it was always very close to 50%. If everybody that had a preference voted and the outcome was 55% this guy / 45% the other guy and the other guy won... that could be a real driver for change to the electoral college system.
  
  My state is winner take all.
  If my vote does not affect outcome put only expresses support, I am voting for somebody actually good (often from the Green Party).
  Even if it was 55/45, nothing would change. The Senate would be very close, if not in favor of the candidate who got 45%. The House would probably also be close, because the legislatures of the states that voted for the 45% candidate would still gerrymander. The only change could come from the states that voted for the 55%. If they gave all of their votes to whoever won the national popular vote, nothing would change. If they did proportional allocation, then it would get even worse.
  My vote does not matter.
- People who aren't insane on social issues have been fleeing the GOP. This is, and will continue to pull Democrats right until some viable alternative emerges, if it ever does.

I remember 2016 going to bed with Hillary in a strong lead and waking up to a conman in office.
- Well she did win the popular by several million but it's not like anyone actually cared what the people wanted.
  The miles and miles of empty dirt's vote was way more important for some reason.
- I was in a brewpub in Greensboro that night. They sold a lot of beer that night.

Thinking Green party this year or whoever isn't trying to fuck us over
- Tell liberals they have to vote for Stein because it's her turn.
- A vote for green is a vote for the popular party in your district.
  
  Or, and hear me out on this, it's a vote for the green party.

hard liquor probably

If I dont vote Biden, it's a vote for Trump. If I dont vote Trump it's a vote for Biden. cancels out.
Voting 3rd party is like voting for 3 people it seems, I'll take advantage of that
- Same. I voted 3rd party last presidential election cycle and it was cool because according to partisans (and their "support my team or you love Satan",) this means I also got to vote for Hillary and Trump at the same time! Separate people assured me of this several times, so it must be true. Isn't democracy great?
  In all seriousness, I'd like to see a moderate party run a candidate. "~~No Labels~~" Forward (the party that's totally-not-a-party, founded by Andrew Yang) seems promising.
  
  You mean the forward party? "No Labels" is something different.
  Edit: No Labels do market themselves as "moderate" though. But from what I've seen, it's more of a "corporations' dystopian version of bipartisanship" moderate rather than "roughly middle-ground views of average Americans" moderate.

Afroman until he drops out, if he does, writing in every member of the Wu-Tang Clan that I can remember. I'll vote for anyone that isn't blue or red at this point; and that goes double for local and state elections.
- Saw them live for their tour this year. They're old but still bring da ruckus

Cry most likely. Voting doesn't seem very effective and it's less so when the choices are conservative extremist or conservative light.
- Don't vote for a perfect choice; vote for the best choice, and keep doing it. You're not going to get 'perfect' right now, but excising actual cancer will improve the long-term health of the beast and enable even better choices in a few iterations.
  
  There are more then two choices on the ballot.

The bourgeois elections are the least important part of politics

I'll research the voting habits of the candidates and vote for whoever has proven they can vote for what they believe in and not just party lines. So, probably no one.
For president, there's no way I'm voting for the orange convict if he's the candidate, which he probably will be because people that vote republican are morons. Unfortunately, based on where I live, my vote won't matter. I'll vote anyway.
- I don’t want someone that ‘votes their convictions 100%’ any more than I want a party hardliner. That’s just a different kid of zealot. I want people that lead with their convictions and then vote contextually with a willingness to change, grow, and adapt.
  
  Right, but pretending there's any nuance in a 2 party system where one side is right of center and the other side is full blown proto-fascist is naive. There's no version of history where the Republicans are all of a sudden creating an ecosystem where they support working class policy.

get drunk
- That too.

I think avoiding political memes & etc is probably a good idea.

I'm gonna become the gosh dang joker yall

Not voting. Both parties suckle only at corporate teats. My domicile is in the reddest state so my vote doesn’t matter & it costs like $10–15 to mail in my ballot from abroad making it really not worth my time or money.
They said vaccines for all Americans during COVID then someone had to come in & asterisk that that doesn’t include Americans abroad. You pay taxes but no services like Medicare are offered abroad & you’re one of the last on the list of priorities so feeling disillusioned is the normal.

Not Trump

I'll just vote for whoever gets the coveted Hexbear endorsement.
- So Owlbear
  
  Glory to Owlbear 🥸

Ill do what I always do, vote third party. Not that i think itll do litterally anything, i just hope one day enough people do it so we can atleast get some funding for a third party.
Voting is pretty pointless though, I'm going to try and pay as little attention as possible to the contest of warcriminal ghouls as I can. Maybe we'll luck out and have some of those octogenarian creeps die. Atleast then I can have some brief feeling of satisfaction before the world kicks my shit back in.
Feels bad ( if not alittle freeing ) to know you dont actually have a choice in this clown show, and would be just as well off using your political capital shit posting on the internet, or better yet do some irl praxis.
- Our electoral system is inherently biased against 3rd party candidates due to the spoiler effect of first past the post voting. The only solution is election reform that regulates election finances, a switch to approval/STAR voting, and regulation on political ads.
  
  Still not pencil-whipping the genociders, Jan

I have become a little active in my county party. Trying to learn the Democratic way of doing things (first impressions: no one is in charge). Hoping to be able to use my database and reporting skills to help improve the ground game for 2024.

Point and laugh

Yeah the political theater is just that-- theater. Aside from occasionally checking in to laugh/sob at how awful it all is, I'll be devoting my energy to things that actually matter.
As for voting, I guess if something local pops up worth voting for I'll vote in that. Nationally, the Democratic Party has shown its enthusiastic support for fascism and genocide so there's nobody I can vote for except maybe Cornell West or whoever the Greens or the PSL run. The one thing I know is, I won't vote for Biden or anyone like him. Arab and Muslim Americans are calling for a boycott of Biden, and it would be like breaking a picket line to vote for him, only 1000x worse becauase instead of exploitative work conditions it's literal genocide.

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