this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2024
1155 points (89.9% liked)
Political Memes
5441 readers
4529 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I don't like Joe Biden, I'll never forget the Neoliberal bullshit he did with the Republicans in the 90s we are still suffering from further eviscerating the safetynet to the draconian war on people suffering addiction. He's one of the OG former opposition party members the Reagan Revolution convinced to take the bigger bribe checks from Wall Street than Unions could ever match, today's neoliberal(D) party.
That said, I voted for him in the last election, and I will again out of harm reduction. He has improved on policy, but l even if he didn't, the American people do not get a vote on whether or not to elect a senile President this cycle.
You can have any President you like, as long as he's senile. If you vote, we'll get a senile President. If you don't, we'll get a senile President.
The question is whether you want senile and gleefully cruel(R), or just senile(D). I'll take just senile.
Or vote third-party, and you'll probably get a senile President, but maybe not.
And more importantly, you're helping to break the Duopoly and normalize voting third-party.
If a minor party manages to get 5% of the vote, they qualify for federal funding in the next election, and that might lead to real change.
Cornel West is polling at about 3% (and after Biden's performance, I wouldn't be surprised if Cornel picks up a couple more percent). We could be close.
Edit: Or just keep on thinking you have to settle for the lesser of two evils. (How's that working out for you?)
Vote third party and we are guaranteed to get a senile president. It's a two party FPTP system.
Better than telling people to throw away their vote. How's that working for you? How many 3rd party presidents have you gotten elected with your strategy? How many fascist policies has your strategy avoided us?
I’ve long fantasized of people being so fed up with both parties, that along would come a third party at the right time and enough people would flock to them that and vote them into office.
But it’s just that: A fantasy.
And anyways, there’s always the chance that said third party would be way way worse and maybe there’s a good reason why they weren’t more prominent to begin with.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't have the same fantasy, but until we get election reform it will only ever be fantasy.
And until it happens, we will never get election reform.
Not necessarily. The MAGA crowd took over the GOP. The same could be done for the DNC, but with actual leftists and election reformists.
There are several reasons why the MAGA crowd were allowed to take over the GOP. First, because they weren't pushovers, if the party had tried shenanigans to stop them there was a real possibility of people defecting from the party en masse, and even of violence at the convention. Second, because the things they wanted weren't really all that contrary to what the rich donors wanted.
The Democratic base is much more weak willed and willing to go along with whatever to stop the right. We don't have enough of that Karen energy, that "my way or the highway" attitude. And election reform is directly contrary to the interests of the establishment, and the aim of prioritizing ordinary people over the rich goes against the interests of the doners. They'll crush any internal movement in that direction, and people will still vote for them because of "vote blue no matter who" and lesser evilist ideology.
I think this overstates where things were at when Trump first got nominated during the GOP primary in 2016. If Trump had lost that, they just as easily could have voted red anyways. Republicans have been doing it for decades, they use their geriatric & evangelical blocs to strong arm their nominee to the presidency regardless of who it is.
Sure, but a lot of the time DNC candidates do things that the rich donors hate. Biden's cap on insulin prices is a good example of that. There will always be pushback on good policy. Complaining doesn't get us anywhere.
This is only really relevant for the actual elections. This effect isn't nearly as strong in the primaries where it counts and is needed.
Look, either we work within the system to make things better, or we have a violent revolution. There isn't much of a middle option. And I can pretty much guarantee you that a violent revolution would be the worse option given that it is a militarized police state with citizen tracking out the ass.
If every single leftist wins their DNC primary, the DNC doesn't have much of a choice but to run with them. That's how you get better candidates like AOC/Summer Lee/Jamaal Bowman, etc. They aren't perfect by any means, but they are a hell of a lot more to the left than the DNC is. And I can tell you the DNC fuckin hates having said candidates within their party. But they suck it up and deal with it.
It is very much possible to get more candidates like that, but it requires focus on the primaries, just like the MAGA crowd did.
The DNC has literally testified in court that they don't have to abide by the results of their primaries because they aren't real elections. They don't even have to hold primaries at all. The primary process is a joke and people who want genuine change won't be allowed to win, it's a dead end.
There is, actually. Ditching the party and moving to a new one, for starters.
Yet the candidates I named won their congressional seats.
And that's how you get the spoiler effect, and another round of fascist SCOTUS appointments for the next few decades, a fascist president, project 2025, etc.
Unless enough people do it.
Which will not happen. Millions of people are not going to suddenly change their two party voting behavior, as it has been established for well over a century at this point, because the system itself is the problem.
You are gambling with peoples lives if you vote 3rd party.
Won't stop me from trying. If a third party gains enough strength, they could at least leverage an endorsement in exchange for concessions, while at the same time challenging the belief that they're useless.
It's true that lesser-evilist ideology has a vice grip on most Americans, so it's an uphill battle. But it's an incorrect ideology, and one that's going to screw me over sooner or later, so I can't accept it. I'd rather play the longshot, unless and until the democrats are actually willing to come to the negotiating table.
The key word there being "if". It's a gamble, and it is likely to result in Trump getting installed as president. When he kills gender affirming care programs, the blood of trans people will be on your hands. When he kills renewable energy programs and environmental protections, the deaths caused by the resulting heat waves/air polution/industrial runoff/etc will be ok your hands.
You are quite literally gambling with peoples lives.
It's not. It's the natural, mathematical result of a FPTP voting system. If two candidates are close to each other on a hypothetical political map, and if everyone votes for the candidate closest to them, then the candidate farthest away wins.
Take this graph. If a 3rd candidate was running, and whose policy positions were at (-0.75, -.5) and Clinton at (-0.5, -0.75) then Clinton gets half the votes they otherwise would, and the same goes for the new 3rd candidate.
This is what happens when people just vote for whoever is closest to them. They split the vote. You cannot avoid this unless the system is changed, because this is the natural result of FPTP voting, a two party system.
It's already screwing you over. It's been screwing you over since you were born. And it will always continue to do so until the system is changed.
Because even if some 3rd party magically gained prominence, either the DNC or GOP would die, and we would be right back to two parties, and your options again limited.
No, it will be on the hands of the people who voted for Trump, not mine.
For the record, I am trans. The only viable long term strategy for minority groups is to band together and draw a red line that the democrats cannot win without meeting, and that red line means opposing the Palestinian genocide. I believe there's a famous poem about what happens when the government starts picking people off and you do nothing, because you are not part of that group. We will be next. Your guilt tripping is meaningless to me, it will not get me to abandon my commitment to solidarity and to opposing genocide.
Incorrect. You are treating the options provided as set in stone, when they are not. Voting is a negotiation, and the party can change who it runs or how they act based on the actions of voters.
If I walk into a negotiation saying, "My only option is literally Hitler, I will vote for you no matter what," then I have sacrificed every modicum of bargaining power I might have otherwise wielded. The mathematics of the situation are irrelevant, it is a game of chicken and they will flinch before I do. It's their job to win us over, and if they can't do that, they will lose and it will be their fault.
Except that a third party could enact voting reform to get us out of this situation permanently, something which is impossible otherwise.
If there is a mob boss threatening to kill your family, and you fuck around trying to negotiate with the useless police to do something, and during that negotiation the mob boss kills your family, it is absolutely on you.
You wasted your time negotiating when your family was getting killed. You can't just stand back and doing nothing while people's lives are in danger.
I am well aware. And telling people to vote 3rd party is equivalent to doing nothing, and letting the Palestinians go first. Because no matter how hard you tell people to abandon the DNC, at best you can only hope for people voting for the closest candidate to them, which means that Trump wins.
And the SCOTUS just ruled that Trump is immune from persecution for "official acts". How much do you want to bet your life and your trans brothers and sisters lives on your/our deaths being "official acts"?
I implore you, please continue your opposition to the Palestinian genocide. But Trump will make their lives significantly worse in addition to the queer community.
That's exactly what I've been saying. If the establishment democrats get trashed in their primaries, the party will shift, just like the GOP shifted towards the MAGA crowd.
This is exactly what I've been saying.
They didn't flinch in 2016. They didn't flinch in 2020. They're not gonna flinch this time.
They ran with Clinton and Biden despite knowing how hated they are. You may be willing to play that game of chicken, but you're not the only voter, you need everyone else to play it with you. Not everyone is willing to play that game of chicken, which is why 3rd party candidates don't win.
Your strategy is a losing one.
Could. They could, but they also could find that they quite like power and keep it the way it is.
And no, it is not impossible otherwise. I've already shown you how actual leftist candidates can gain power within the DNC (unless I got you confused with a different user).
It's possible that my strategy is a losing one. It's possible that every strategy is a losing one. This is the only possible route I see, regardless of how likely it is to succeed. Maybe we'll have more strength this time. Maybe we'll have more strength next time. All I know for sure is that "lesser evilism" doesn't work, and like I said, it cedes all my bargaining power. Maybe I don't have any bargaining power in the first place, in which case what I do is irrelevant.
Point is, I have something they want, and they have something I want, and until they sit down at the table, and respect that genocide is a red line, there will be no cooperation. End of story.
The only power you have outside of protesting and activism is voting in the primaries and general.
We have the power to reduce harm in the general election, but not to stop all harm. Either Biden or Trump will win, and there will be harm regardless. Voting 3rd party doesn't stop that.
There wasn't enough political will to vote for a better candidate than Biden in the primaries, so there sure as hell will not be the political will to vote for a better candidate in the general.
I'm bi, so chances are I'll be next on the chopping block after you if Trump gets elected, so believe me I can empathize with your position. Trump will make the genocide in Palestine worse, and on top of that probably start a new one here. Biden isn't going to get either of us killed.
Bargaining with the useless police while your family is getting murdered isn't helping anyone. The negotiation table doesn't mean anything, because the negotiation table will take too long. By the time it works, the mob boss will already have you dead.
Well, I disagree. Lesser-evilist ideology that calls for sacrificing the Palestinians today will call for sacrificing trans people tomorrow, and like you say, other LGBT people next. To accept it is to accept that I will be put on the chopping block and no one will care or do anything to stop it, and it's just a matter of time. Enforcing a red line is the only possible way to ensure long-term security. If you say it won't work, then I may die trying, but I'd rather do that than resign myself to death the other way and be complicit in my own demise. That's all there is to it. I understand the situation and I've made my decision and I'm not going to change it, unless they come to the table.
I'm not calling for the sacrificing of Palestinians.
You don't have long term security with this approach. Because Trump won't give a flying fuck whether you force the DNC to act better. Trump is your security risk.
Allowing Trump to get power will be what makes you complicit in your own demise.
They will never come to the table in time. You'll/we'll be dead before then.