• Magician [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • ComradeLuz [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      By this point people Dont vote for Democrats for progress, but just for survival since Republicans have gone full fascist

      • Magician [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        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?

        • ComradeLuz [none/use name]
          hexagon
          ·
          1 year ago

          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.

          • Magician [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            1 year ago

            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.

            • ComradeLuz [none/use name]
              hexagon
              ·
              1 year ago

              Have you read project 2025? That will probably change your mind. It is terrifying.

              • Magician [he/him, they/them]
                ·
                1 year ago

                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.

          • Black AOC@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            1 year ago

            The crackers still sell you and your rubber-stamp either way. Toeing the line is not going to save you and yours.

            • ComradeLuz [none/use name]
              hexagon
              ·
              1 year ago

              Have you read project 2025? That will probably change your mind. It is terrifying.

              • Black AOC@lemmygrad.ml
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                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.

                • ComradeLuz [none/use name]
                  hexagon
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  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.

                  • CyborgMarx [any, any]
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    It's the dems who are building cop cities tho, and bidens funding for police outstrips Trump's and broke every record

        • GreatWhiteNope [she/her]
          ·
          1 year ago

          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.

          • JohnBrownNote [comrade/them, des/pair]
            ·
            1 year ago

            a bit of a Pascal’s wager

            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.

          • Magician [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            1 year ago

            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.