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this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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politics
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Dammit, they're right
I'm all for citizens occupying government buildings for their cause. It's our property. Yes these people are insane but it's the principle of free assembly and speech. I also support the right of the Black Panthers to occupy the California state house.
I'm not for government officials overturning a legitimate election
To make sure that people don’t get hurt in mob scenes and to keep the level of chaos down I have an idea. Every two years we can. All get together and decide on a few people to go and occupy the halls of government for the next couple years. We can send them to act as our representatives.
Yes but what if the people choose a terrible representative. We need a system that limits their options to people we choose. Ideally they only get two options we vetted.
But I'm afraid that won't even be enough, we should come up with a system where the people aren't directly voting on those representatives but other people will then go and vote on behalf of the people. That way we can divide things so even if the people vote with a majority we can still claim they didn't get enough electoral votes to win. Since these are next level voters we can call them something like a college of electors. We should also make sure these electors are not distributed equally among the population.
I'm afraid that still wouldn't be enough for the ruling class to maintain power. Maybe we should also divide their votes into arbitrary lines. We can call them districts. They won't correspond to any other districts and we can arbitrarily change districts when it's in our favor.
Even with all that I think we will have to occasionally come up with more measures. Maybe we can jail people for minor crimes more than every other nation in the world and take away their voting rights after they've been jailed. We can target specific groups and make new laws that allow us to remove from the system those whose votes would be unfavorable.
Perhaps then and only then will we be a beacon of freedom and hope to all those who wish to be a nation ruled by the people.
That's what elected officials are meant to be doing already, anyway. They're only there through our votes. Elections need to be modernized, imo, to at least guarantee every qualified citizen a mail-in ballot.
I'd be down to occupy some local, state or national land for that message, but organizing also takes a fuckton of resources. Women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, men's rights, whatever - everyone should feel unified by the right to vote. Who gives a damn what anyone votes for; it's none of my business. But when local elections get less than 15% turnout, states <50, and presidential maybe 65, I'm just enraged that the people left out are the most needing to be heard.
Democracy isn't only elections. It's organizing. It's hard work. It's punching nazis in the face. It's standing up for marginalized people and groups.
But our system is set up to make that process difficult or impossible. It is set up to make us vote and then forget it for four years, until we can vote for another turd sandwich or giant douche from the same two parties that caused our problems in the first place.
If people show up in large numbers, shit gets done. If they threaten to harm government officials or destroy the tools of capital, shit gets done. Why do you think the CPC immediately prevents any spontaneous public gatherings and limits wechat groups to 500 people? Why do you think Korea could unseat a president?
If you only vote every four years you are not participating in our system.
There is an election every year. There are party primaries that are critical if you have strong political views.
Participate! People should be showing up in large numbers on the second Tuesday in November if they want to get shit done.