How Leftists Need to Think About Voting This November
slate.com
The lessons of history are vital for 2024.

Leftists who don’t like Biden don’t want to see him in office again, so they don’t want to vote for him, or they want to withhold their vote until he changes course. Seems simple enough.

But that’s not how politics works.

So announcing that you'll vote for him no matter what he does will make him change course? Is that how politics works?

Never, in the history of this country, has there been a president who hasn’t engaged in what the left would regard as unforgivable crimes. This is the nature of presidents, and politicians in general. If you, like me, are on the far left, you should never fully trust or have faith in any elected official.

But when I look at the Biden administration, I see a group of people who can be bullied in a leftist direction on some policy priorities.

lenin-laugh

Can anyone today truly argue that the world wasn’t drastically changed by Gore’s loss in 2000? Even if you don’t accept the argument that Nader’s candidacy is what lost Gore the election, how can you argue that the world wouldn’t have been at least a little better if all of those Nader votes had gone to Gore and put the Dems over the top?

Democrats have held the presidency 50% of the time since 2000.

  • Infamousblt [any]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Ah yes just what I need. A corporate media entity telling me how I NEED to think. Thank you slate very cool

    • Wertheimer [any]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Perhaps in response to your concerns the headline has now changed to "The Leftist Case for Voting—Yes, Even for Biden"

      • Infamousblt [any]
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        2 months ago

        I find it fascinating how every 4 years major media makes the exact same Leftist case for voting, and it is literally never "Look at all of the wonderful progressive things the Dems have done!" and instead is always "well MAYBE you MIGHT get SOMETHING done with the Dems but you'll DEFINITELY get NOTHING done with the GOP!"

        Interesting that they are completely incapable of making any other case.

        • Adkml [he/him]
          ·
          2 months ago

          It's also not compromising when one side has to keep making sacrifices for decades and the other side not only won't concede anything but will shiv you if you try to do something for yourself.

          • Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            2 months ago

            We are not making sacrifices. The people being killed by dem policies are making sacrifices. This shit is 2 serial killers trying to pull a good cop bad cop on us.

        • Wertheimer [any]
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          2 months ago

          When Biden was elected someone here made a post I cannot find with a timeline about how the Democrats would respond to critiques - something like "2021: It's too early to criticize him, let's give him a chance"; "2022: We have to win the midterms before we can criticize Biden"; "2023: The election's coming up, now is not the time"; etc.

          It's been the same since 2000 and they've never changed the script.

      • culpritus [any]
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        2 months ago

        the sub header is a trip:

        We need to think about this election differently. Just ask Trotsky.

        So the article is doing a Vote Blue No Matter Who Blue MAGA move, but also says you should vote for (and bully) your preferred enemy. jesse-wtf

        The point of electoral politics, as it is lived, is not to vote for a friend; it’s to vote for your preferred enemy. You will never find a morally pure candidate, or one whose positions perfectly align with your own preferences. So you must find one whom you can effectively bully.

        That's what real leftists are doing right now! Trying to bully the Dems/Biden is what has been happening, and this dorks just tell us we are helping Trump.

        Deeply Unserious.

        • CommunistBear [he/him]
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          2 months ago

          it’s to vote for your preferred enemy

          Iirc liberals were cool with burning police stations when Trump was in office and were actively opposed to putting children in cages at the border. That disappeared the moment Biden went into the office. Sounds like Trump might be the preferred enemy then thinking-about-it

          • culpritus [any]
            ·
            2 months ago

            Libs when seeing red liberalism:

            That's fascism like in the USSR, China, North Korea, Cuba and other AES! I will fight against it as my duty as a patriot!

            Libs when seeing blue liberalism:

            This is fine this-is-fine and we have saved democracy!

        • ExotiqueMatter@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          2 months ago

          You will never find a morally pure candidate, or one whose positions perfectly align with your own preferences.

          I HATE when liberal pull that shit, this smug fucking way of pretending that we only have small unimportant disagreements with Biden, dismissing in the most disgustingly intellectually dishonest way I've ever fucking seen the fact that our "single disagreement" with Biden is his conscious and unconditional complicity in a fucking genocide.

          I hate it not only because it's an absolutely monstrous rhetoric carrying water for a monster's monstrosity but also because it's SO obvious to anyone without terminal blue MAGA brainworms why they are doing that: they know deep down that there is no way they can pretend to be the good guy if they try to face the truth, which means they know what they are defending, for who and what they are carrying water. They know yet they still do it.

          • culpritus [any]
            ·
            2 months ago

            Sartre quote: find and replace "anti-Semites" with "Blue MAGA"

            https://hexbear.net/post/2966510