I've noticed a lot of posts asking how we're going to vote, and people coming in trying to shame people for not voting for Biden, or any candidate in the general election at all.
So I'm curious and, asking in good faith, want to know - what will make you stop voting for Biden?
The real question I have is, what is the alternative plan? I think I know the answer sadly: there isn't one.
We like to walk around with our big materialists dicks swinging about but once that theoretical rubber hits the material road its all road rash and no action.
So what's the plan? Are we all just hyper-individualists or are we collectivists? Could we even unify behind a candidate at all?
Because ill keep it 100 with you: I don't have a fucking plan, and I think no one else does either and instead of just saying that out loud, we'll justify whatever we do with some pious notion centered around some moral ideal.
"A vote for Joe is a vote for Genocide"
"A vote for Trump/whoever is a vote for Fascism"
"Given the choice between Hitler and Mussolini, I'll chose neither"
A bunch of paper mache pillars we build for ourselves to stand on while looking down at everyone else around us.
Call me when theres a plan.
If you want an electoral solution, then withhold your vote on the explicit demand that Biden and the Democrats must bring Israel to heel and end the genocide immediately. If that seems unworkable, then so is this supposed democracy.
What you are correct about, though, is that simply saying "i'm not gonna vote" has always failed to be convincing to anyone but ourselves. That has to be paired with an alternative. The UAW is calling on other unions to negotiate for all their contracts to expire in 2028, in hopes of amassing an actual general strike. There are weapons manufacturers in the US that are not particularly well defended were they to be occupied. We can make the brands of those on the BDS list utterly toxic.
Remember that, for a moment during hte 2020 uprisings, the bourgeoisie blinked. They actually, briefly, were genuinely afraid that they could lose their power, and they had to at least pretend to support the protests. They libs had to grin and bear it as the third prescinct burned with a higher approval raiting than any presidential candidate. There is the capacity to render this entire country ungovernable, and if we focus on preparing for that and making sure the prescincts keep burning and don't stop, if we can create more unrest than what the cops can manage even with all their ahrdware that can't actually be everywhere at once. People have to learn to engage in politics outside of the actual existing US government.
If we want this to work, then it needs to be combined with action. I've already called my reps a couple times letting them know they will not recive my vote come arround. But we need to mobilize that kind of message to as many as we can. Its not enough to say here that were not voting, we need to call in every week from now until the election \ a cease fire and tell them were not voting unless something changes.
I agree with the rest of your comments too. My problem is the lack of planning. There needs to be a plan, a plan that is digestible and distributable.
Were supposed to be the collectivists, we need to put I and Me on the backburner for Us and We. That's the first hill to climb.
Just swinging my big materialist dick around here, but real change isn't going to happen through electoralism under any circumstances. But if we can pressure the establishment to move on the issue of genocide in whatever way we can, including, but not limited to, withholding our votes and convincing others to do the same, we should. It's also an excellent moment to highlight the fundamental contradictions of American "democracy" and foreign policy, to agitate and organize.
Being a materialist is about working within the conditions as they actually exist. I'd rather be storming the capital and putting Biden on trial for his crimes, but that's not happening right now. What is happening is this movement and this conversation.
Word. All the libs screaming "you have to vote for genocide!" Are doing more harm to the notion of democracy than any fascist coup could. The democrats should be killing their electeds for this, not whining at us to endorse their genocide. The fact that they can't conceive a course of action other than supporting genocide and bullying everyone else to support genocide too is damning.
I would very much like to believe that anyone would take away the right lesson from that, but the "gosh, it seems the young people/Muslims/whomever are just too lazy to vote" articles are already written and cannot go to waste.
Seriously, though, this is the answer to the thread's question: if there's more value in a protest vote than a strategic vote in a swing state, that's what changes my vote. Even if the only value is convincing a generation of political consultants that "supporting genocide is bad optics and a big oof"
If Biden gets WAY less votes than downballot Democrats he will be flagged as "underperforming" and will be blamed for "dragging the ticket" if those downballot Dems lose. So for an individual you can vote for the local candidates and leave President blank, do a write in, vote 3rd party, etc.
Then pundits will go "Why did Biden eat shit while Sally McDemface won this district that was red for the last 10 years?"
I hear you, but almost half of eligable voters do not vote regardless of what is happening. How is our abstinence going to read as signal in that noise?
If we want to make a point I don't know that pissing into the ocean of non-voters is going to do it.
Respond to surveys, make it clear that it's your disillusionment with the Democratic Party's support for genocide that's making you withhold your vote.
You guys are getting survays to respond to? I think I'm going to just call every week and say the same shit unless things change.
You can spoil your ballot or turn in a blank one. That gets seen as an "undervote" by politicos. Or if there's an unusual surge for a 3rd party candidate that could help.
Or IDK, stage some protests at Dem Party events. Every county has a local meeting and they're very easy to crash!
Supporting literally any left third party is superior for the purpose of extracting concessions
I have a plan.