I don't have a reason to vote for either a democratic candidate or a republican candidate.
It's simple as that, but since you're asking for an explanation:
The DNC has managed to convince me to vote for them up until 2020.
They promised a lot, but once they got into power, they walked back what they said and started talking about strategy and pragmatism. Legalizing marriage equality could cost the midterms. Cancelling student debt is too big of a risk to the economy right now. Healthcare will come gradually if we just make these concessions.
And now?
It's worse.
Biden's carcass barely skidded into the white house after fuckery in the primary, the same campaign promises trotted out from previous elections, and the utter shitshow of trump's presidency. For god's sake, it took mismanaging a pandemic to get the win.
Here we are now with people still suffering and dying from COVID, the dissolution of abortion rights, worsening climate disasters.
And the Democratic party can't even deliver on biden's campaign promise of financial relief. They're telling people to still go to work despite having covid symptoms. They're forcing trains to continue running without maintenance.
It took Thanatos to remove Diane Feinstein from office because nobody else with power in the party had the political will.
And that's what it comes down to. The democratic party doesn't have the will to make things better because it doesn't benefit them.
Why should I vote for them if they won't benefit me or the people I care about? What material conditions would I expect them to improve?
I'll vote in local elections and I'll continue what I'm doing in my community, but as I said, I won't vote for a candidate who doesn't give me a reason to vote for them.
But what about the people here in this thread who said why they're not voting for democratic politicians?
Do you not consider our actions informed or motivated by survival?
Do you personally believe voting for Biden in 2024 would improve my chances for survival? You're talking a lot about what other people believe, but what do you believe?
Do you think the democratic party is doing its best to fight fascism? Do you think Biden will do something different in 2024 to prevent fascism?
As a non-white person who is constantly harrassed by right-wingers, and who knows that voting won't overthrow the burgeoisie, voting blue is a means of not getting lynched on the street and to be able to get enough time until the revolution is ready.
If the fascists start burning my people in crosses and genociding them, no amount of voting third party is going to do shit.
That is what I believe. I don't have the cracker privilege of voting third party.
As a queer non-white person who is constantly harassed by right-wingers, voting blue is a way for people to check in with their community one day in November every four years.
The fascists are already here. They have been lynching my people, your people, and anyone else they can get away with. They escape the law because the law in the US is upheld by fascists and their enablers.
Biden didn't close the camps at the border. He didn't make covid safer. He didn't pack the courts or use his executive powers to prevent the overturn of Roe v Wade.
I don't have the privilege of voting third party. I have the priority of taking care of the people in my life because the two major parties are engaged in political theater.
I refuse to let one side's boogeymen browbeat me into supporting the people who sold my community, down to my blood relatives into fucking carceral slavery. There is no good guy, no option to even critically support in this fight. May they bleed each other.
I hope that if republicans win, they wont make more laws to make it easier to throw us in prison and for crackers to more easily get away with murdering us and our allies. Republicans are just full nazis now and that is terrifying. I am not being hyperbolic here.
I don’t have an issue with people who won’t vote for a right wing party. I understand the reasoning and am not interested in trying to convince them to vote.
For myself, I am scared of how much worse things can get. I have lost rights because of Trump’s appointments, but also he would not have been able to do so if Democrats hadn’t enabled him to with their apathy and desire to not solve wedge issues to maintain voter turnout.
I personally will vote because the amount of effort for me is minuscule and it’s a bit of a Pascal’s wager. Either way, we’re heading towards disaster, but I guess I’m too scared to be the frog jumping out of boiling water into an inferno.
it's interesting you bring that up because one of the huge holes in the wager is "what if one of the other religions is right" and we'd all support the fuck out of a vanguard if the FBI took too long to murder it.
I think it's valid to vote if you feel a need to. I'm not gonna tell other people not to vote. It's your business, and besides, I get the impression that your political involvement doesn't start and end with voting.
Please identify any serious difference in actual governance between Trump and Biden. Politeness doesn't count, I'm talking about real material differences.
this is milquetoast compared to what he could do with the executive order pen, it's a nothing done to look like he's accomplishing things without actually having to accomplish anything
The essence of what I am saying is this is nothing. Any actual action would be better, this is a can kick to jingle keys in front of voters and make them think Biden might actually still do something (he will not). It is a pretend action to look busy without actually using the power of the office to help trans people.
To further dig into this, Biden gets to do fake shit and pretend to be nice and the media and liberals will just sit back and think everything is good and nice. Trump will galvanize actual pushback and people pressuring Democrats to do concrete actions, while Biden lets them all go to brunch and imagine that things are better when they are simply not.
Can you explain how its nothing? I read the article and it sounds decently substantial. Like I agree there's MUCH more he could do with executive power here but it doesnt seem like a complete nothingburger to me.
The executive order calls on the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services to increase access to gender-affirming care and develop ways to counter state efforts aimed at limiting such treatments for transgender minors.
Increasing access is liberal speak for doing nothing, or at best ensuring that expensive services are "accessible" if you have enough money.
The federal health department will release sample policies for states to expand health care options for LGBTQ patients. The federal education department will release a sample school policy to achieve full inclusion of LGBTQ students.
These are not policies - they are sample policies, as in, "here's what would be nice, now please tell us why we shouldn't have just already done that" and they'll walk it back to some inane non-committment to anything.
This article doesn't have much detail so I'm switching to the WH press release:
President Biden is charging HHS with leading an initiative to reduce the risk of youth exposure to this dangerous practice.
This is in response to conversion therapy. Biden could have signed an order declaring it illegal and instructing the FBI to immediately begin investigations into every conversion therapy practice to identify abuse and abusers, with interviews with the victims of the abuse. Instead, he's told agencies to investigate plans to do the thing he has directly in his power but will never do.
President Biden is also encouraging the Federal Trade Commission to consider whether the practice constitutes an unfair or deceptive act or practice, and whether to issue consumer warnings or notices.
TO CONSIDER
And, he is directing the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and HHS to develop an action plan to promote an end to so-called “conversion therapy” around the world and ensure that U.S. foreign assistance dollars do not fund the practice.
AN ACTION PLAN
. To safeguard access to health care for LGBTQI+ patients and address the LGBTQI+ youth mental health crisis, President Biden is charging HHS with taking steps to address the barriers and exclusionary policies that LGBTQI+ individuals and families face in accessing quality, affordable, comprehensive health care, including mental health care, reproductive health care, and HIV prevention and treatment. The President’s Order charges HHS to work with states to promote expanded access to gender-affirming care. It also charges HHS to help prevent LGBTQI+ suicide by expanding youth access to suicide prevention resources, and to issue new guidance through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on providing evidence-informed mental health care for LGBTQI+ youth.
CHARGED WITH TAKING STEPS
PROMOTE EXPANDED ACCESS
NEW GUIDANCE
I could keep going, but this is the reality: his order is nothing. It does not name specific changes, it does not ban or forbid anything, it does not rescue anyone from peril, it does not prevent that peril from occurring in the future. These are worthless, do-nothing words to pantomime the real actions he is refusing to do. This is can kicking. This is tasking bureaucracy with writing some reports that will be ignored, but the EO will be on his list of accomplishments. This is what the Democrats have done with every single real issue, be it gay marriage, trans rights, healthcare, police violence - the only thing they will ever do is going through the motions of pretending to care and act.
I don't have a reason to vote for either a democratic candidate or a republican candidate.
It's simple as that, but since you're asking for an explanation:
The DNC has managed to convince me to vote for them up until 2020.
They promised a lot, but once they got into power, they walked back what they said and started talking about strategy and pragmatism. Legalizing marriage equality could cost the midterms. Cancelling student debt is too big of a risk to the economy right now. Healthcare will come gradually if we just make these concessions.
And now?
It's worse.
Biden's carcass barely skidded into the white house after fuckery in the primary, the same campaign promises trotted out from previous elections, and the utter shitshow of trump's presidency. For god's sake, it took mismanaging a pandemic to get the win.
Here we are now with people still suffering and dying from COVID, the dissolution of abortion rights, worsening climate disasters.
And the Democratic party can't even deliver on biden's campaign promise of financial relief. They're telling people to still go to work despite having covid symptoms. They're forcing trains to continue running without maintenance.
It took Thanatos to remove Diane Feinstein from office because nobody else with power in the party had the political will.
And that's what it comes down to. The democratic party doesn't have the will to make things better because it doesn't benefit them.
Why should I vote for them if they won't benefit me or the people I care about? What material conditions would I expect them to improve?
I'll vote in local elections and I'll continue what I'm doing in my community, but as I said, I won't vote for a candidate who doesn't give me a reason to vote for them.
By this point people Dont vote for Democrats for progress, but just for survival since Republicans have gone full fascist
But what about the people here in this thread who said why they're not voting for democratic politicians?
Do you not consider our actions informed or motivated by survival?
Do you personally believe voting for Biden in 2024 would improve my chances for survival? You're talking a lot about what other people believe, but what do you believe?
Do you think the democratic party is doing its best to fight fascism? Do you think Biden will do something different in 2024 to prevent fascism?
As a non-white person who is constantly harrassed by right-wingers, and who knows that voting won't overthrow the burgeoisie, voting blue is a means of not getting lynched on the street and to be able to get enough time until the revolution is ready.
If the fascists start burning my people in crosses and genociding them, no amount of voting third party is going to do shit.
That is what I believe. I don't have the cracker privilege of voting third party.
As a queer non-white person who is constantly harassed by right-wingers, voting blue is a way for people to check in with their community one day in November every four years.
The fascists are already here. They have been lynching my people, your people, and anyone else they can get away with. They escape the law because the law in the US is upheld by fascists and their enablers.
Biden didn't close the camps at the border. He didn't make covid safer. He didn't pack the courts or use his executive powers to prevent the overturn of Roe v Wade.
I don't have the privilege of voting third party. I have the priority of taking care of the people in my life because the two major parties are engaged in political theater.
Have you read project 2025? That will probably change your mind. It is terrifying.
I have read about it. It's bad. The republican party is getting overrun by mask-off fascists. I know they're an existential threat to me and mine.
It's really something the DNC should consider when making their campaign platform. They still have time to engage people and mobilize voters.
The crackers still sell you and your rubber-stamp either way. Toeing the line is not going to save you and yours.
Have you read project 2025? That will probably change your mind. It is terrifying.
I refuse to let one side's boogeymen browbeat me into supporting the people who sold my community, down to my blood relatives into fucking carceral slavery. There is no good guy, no option to even critically support in this fight. May they bleed each other.
I hope that if republicans win, they wont make more laws to make it easier to throw us in prison and for crackers to more easily get away with murdering us and our allies. Republicans are just full nazis now and that is terrifying. I am not being hyperbolic here.
the liberals are just as likely to do this, and more likely to have their version actually become reality
They are both liberal
It's the dems who are building cop cities tho, and bidens funding for police outstrips Trump's and broke every record
I don’t have an issue with people who won’t vote for a right wing party. I understand the reasoning and am not interested in trying to convince them to vote.
For myself, I am scared of how much worse things can get. I have lost rights because of Trump’s appointments, but also he would not have been able to do so if Democrats hadn’t enabled him to with their apathy and desire to not solve wedge issues to maintain voter turnout.
I personally will vote because the amount of effort for me is minuscule and it’s a bit of a Pascal’s wager. Either way, we’re heading towards disaster, but I guess I’m too scared to be the frog jumping out of boiling water into an inferno.
it's interesting you bring that up because one of the huge holes in the wager is "what if one of the other religions is right" and we'd all support the fuck out of a vanguard if the FBI took too long to murder it.
I think it's valid to vote if you feel a need to. I'm not gonna tell other people not to vote. It's your business, and besides, I get the impression that your political involvement doesn't start and end with voting.
Please identify any serious difference in actual governance between Trump and Biden. Politeness doesn't count, I'm talking about real material differences.
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/15/joe-biden-texas-transgender-care/
There's been a few more like this.
this is milquetoast compared to what he could do with the executive order pen, it's a nothing done to look like he's accomplishing things without actually having to accomplish anything
The essence of what I am saying is this is nothing. Any actual action would be better, this is a can kick to jingle keys in front of voters and make them think Biden might actually still do something (he will not). It is a pretend action to look busy without actually using the power of the office to help trans people.
To further dig into this, Biden gets to do fake shit and pretend to be nice and the media and liberals will just sit back and think everything is good and nice. Trump will galvanize actual pushback and people pressuring Democrats to do concrete actions, while Biden lets them all go to brunch and imagine that things are better when they are simply not.
Can you explain how its nothing? I read the article and it sounds decently substantial. Like I agree there's MUCH more he could do with executive power here but it doesnt seem like a complete nothingburger to me.
Increasing access is liberal speak for doing nothing, or at best ensuring that expensive services are "accessible" if you have enough money.
These are not policies - they are sample policies, as in, "here's what would be nice, now please tell us why we shouldn't have just already done that" and they'll walk it back to some inane non-committment to anything.
This article doesn't have much detail so I'm switching to the WH press release:
This is in response to conversion therapy. Biden could have signed an order declaring it illegal and instructing the FBI to immediately begin investigations into every conversion therapy practice to identify abuse and abusers, with interviews with the victims of the abuse. Instead, he's told agencies to investigate plans to do the thing he has directly in his power but will never do.
TO CONSIDER
AN ACTION PLAN
CHARGED WITH TAKING STEPS
PROMOTE EXPANDED ACCESS
NEW GUIDANCE
I could keep going, but this is the reality: his order is nothing. It does not name specific changes, it does not ban or forbid anything, it does not rescue anyone from peril, it does not prevent that peril from occurring in the future. These are worthless, do-nothing words to pantomime the real actions he is refusing to do. This is can kicking. This is tasking bureaucracy with writing some reports that will be ignored, but the EO will be on his list of accomplishments. This is what the Democrats have done with every single real issue, be it gay marriage, trans rights, healthcare, police violence - the only thing they will ever do is going through the motions of pretending to care and act.
Damn ok.
For sure - I'm about to cook dinner but I'll come back in a bit