I think American leftists should stop treating voting as a means of achieving strategic political goals and assign it the seriousness it deserves - Something you can do if you have an hour free, but not something of any real priority.
It was the lowest form of political participation. Now that the "Choice" is literally between two different flavors of fascists who are actually engaged in actual genocide it's not something you should expend resources on that could be used elsewhere. If it you can work it in to your schedule, fine. But treating it as though it's important, at this stage in the game, is farcical. It's the sunk cost fallacy when the ship has already blown up, split in half, rolled over, and fallen to the bottom.
I have voted in every election since 2006 and it hasn't stopped things getting worse.No.
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America is not, and never has been, anything close to a democracy. Elections, and the entire public face of government, is just a farcical veil, a distraction from what's actually going on.
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History has shown again and again that engagement with bourgeois "democracy" leads communists to opportunism. Leftists should organize against the bourgeois state, not participate in it.
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Even were that all false, and electoralism not at best a waste of time, then the actual move would be to refuse to vote for the ddemocrats until the moved left. If you tell them they have your support no matter what, then why would they do anything to appeal to you instead of appeal to "moderates" who might vote republican?
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As a European who is very familiar with Weimar era Germany and its terrifying similarities to the US right now, my opinion on this is as follows:
The AmeriKKKAn left needs to be prepared for all-out fascism, whether now or a few years down the line. At this point, a DemoKKKrat victory, which hinges on beating a rigged system in the first place, barely even means stalling the machine on its way to domestic extermination camps, as has been evidenced by Biden's total inaction when it came to Roe v Wade or the more than 500 bills persecuting trans and other queer people this year alone. He's the president, he would have a ton of options even against RepubliKKKan action on the judicial and state level, such as offering abortions and gender affirming care on federal land, which exists in any of the states ran by evangeliKKKal fascists, to give just one example. Yet he chose inaction, or at best a measly finger-wagging when he talked about protecting gay marriage (when the battlefield is not if some cis gay yuppie can marry his boyfriend, but the very right of people like me to even exist). Anybody telling you that you should vote D to protect trans people ignores how that "protection" has played out in practice over the last 3 years. You cannot count on elected rulers to save you from this nightmare. You need to take things into your own hands or you're all lost.
Sure, you can still try and buy a little bit of time with voting, but treat it as just that. Do not fall into the liberal trap of making electoralist theater the central arena of political activism, that will get all of you murdered. You need to prepare yourself and your local marginalized communities for the worst case, not hope that it won't be that bad if you wish upon a star hard enough.
Get organized. Now.
No, leftists should work on building mass organization so we’re not just constantly rehashing the same dumb struggle sessions of “should I vote? should I vote dem?” for every election until this country finally collapses.
Fwiw I’m voting dem. I have my reasons for this, but I’m not gonna tell other people to vote or how to vote since it doesn’t matter. Do what you feel justified in doing. The real struggle will not be fought at the ballot box.
I think I'm gonna write myself in, I've decided. "Vote pooh no matter who"
every winnie the pooh joke about xi is a vote for you, so you should get to figuring out what your first 100 days in office are gonna look like
My first 100 days would likely involve rounding up all those people who make “Xinnie the Pooh” jokes and sending them to reeducation camps.
Questions like this make me think of John Fetterman.
I don't live in Pennsylvania but if I had - I would have voted for him because the alternative was Dr. Oz. I would have voted for Fetterman and held my nose doing it. Before the election - I knew he was awful on Israel and on fracking. Of course - if I voted for him - I would be utterly disgusted now and I would be regretting my vote. Relatively speaking - he was supposed to be one of the good ones - a "progressive".
Should American leftists vote blue no matter who to prevent Republicans from taking office?
I guess I'd change the question. I'd remove "blue no matter who" and make it three parts.
Should American leftists vote blue prevent Republicans from taking office in three situations: federal, state, and local?
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Federal. I assume this is usually pointless and probably a loser à la Fetterman.
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State and local. It could be worthwhile if you keep your expectations (very) low.
At this point I will never vote "blue no matter who" again. I did that in 2020 because I was worried about republican fascism. And - of course...
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Biden and the dems didn't pack the supreme court.
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They didn't pass police reform. I know, I know - it would have been nearly certainly shit but a man can dream.
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They didn't pass federal laws on voting and election systems.
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They didn't pass a Roe law.
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Build Back Better was totally gutted. All the progressive stuff was stripped out and all that remained was climate change spending which wasn't nearly enough.
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There's probably more stuff they didn't do but I'm not remembering it right now.
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Biden's AG is shit.
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Biden's Director of the CDC was shit. Her replacement is shit too.
And the joke's on me probably. We're probably going to get Trumpian fascism in 2024 anyway. Meanwhile the dems entire message is our least favorite four letter word: Vote!
Biden turns 81 in three days. I feel like a fool for voting for that old, vile fucker. I hope he dies (of natural causes, FBI) and he falls face first into his Israel's Gaza War Crimes birthday cake.
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I voted for Hillary and she lost
I didn't vote for Biden and he won
The only thing a leftist should feel obligated to vote for is making weed legal
No, it does nothing but push the dems right, because they know they don't have to fight for votes so they can get away with anything, to the incredible point they're now trying to get away with genocide
