#Biden sucks but right now voting for a third party would be like voting for Green

[strangerlsdanger]

Image description for the image in original post:

A spread sheet listing 13(thirteen) policies Trump and Biden are for and against. Policy 1(one): Trans Rights. Policy 2(two): Abortion Access. Policy 3(three): Enviormental Reform. Policy 4(four): Healthcare Reform. Policy 5(five): Prescription Reform. Policy 6(six): Student Loan Forgiveness. Policy 7(seven): Infastructire Reform. Policy 8(eight): Advocating Racial Inequalities. Policy 9(nine): Diversity, Equaity, and Inclusion. Policy 10(ten): Vaccines and Public Health. Policy 11(eleven): Criminal Justice Reform. Policy 12(Twelve): Military Support to Israel. Policy 13(Thirteen): Israel/Hamas Ceasefire. Trump is against all policies except for policy 12(twelve) which he is for). Biden is for all policies.

Look.

I have made you a chart. A very simple chart.

People say "You have to draw the line somewhere, and Biden has crossed it-" and my response is "Trump has crossed way more lines than Biden".

These categories are based off of actual policy enacted by both of these men while they were in office.

If the ONLY LINE YOU CARE ABOUT is line 12, you have an incredible amount of privilege, AND YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT PALESTINIANS. You obviously have nothing to fear from a Trump presidency, and you do not give a fuck if a ceasefire actually occurs. You are obviously fine if your queer, disabled, and marginalized loved ones are hurt. You clearly don't care about the status of American democracy, which Trump has openly stated he plans to destroy on day 1 he is in office.

[mama-qwerty]

Okay, I'm gonna get political here.

I've been seeing some alarming posts going around, in which people seem to think that Biden is somehow as bad as, or worse than, Trump. And a lot of the reasoning seems to come down to how he's dealing with Israel. He's not doing enough to stop Israel and is actively supporting them. Which, he has to, because the US is Israel's ally.

Is it ideal? Is it great? NO. It absolutely sucks, and we really should not be involved, and be doing more to stop them.

But that seems to be the single issue most people mention when talking about not voting for him. And my question to them is, do you seriously think Trump will handle it any better??

And let's put Palestine aside right now. I know it's terrible, I know it's my privilege to look away for a moment, but I implore you, I fucking BEG you to remember that the US president affects laws and policies here, which affects each and every American who lives here.

This post lists, in a convenient little checkbox format, what each candidate is for and against. As you can see, Trump will support Israel, too. Moreso than Biden. But he will also remove rights and destroy protections for countless other groups.

Both candidates are absolutely NOT THE SAME. Biden, while not perfect, has done a lot of good for the country, it's just not reported because negative things get more views than positive. He had A LOT of cleanup to do after Trump finally dragged his ass out of the White House. And he's done what he could.

I get that Biden isn't ideal. He's not who I would want, either. But he's the Democratic candidate, and we absolutely cannot afford to "send Washington a lesson" by abstaining or voting third party. We are a two party system, and with Trump on the ballot, we cannot, CAN FUCKING NOT afford to split our forces.

Every Republican will be out in droves, casting their vote for Trump. One vote for a third party candidate, is a vote for Trump. If you do not vote for Biden, you are essentially handing Trump the victory.

This country will not survive another Trump presidency.

I sincerely believe that. The damage he did the first time around was bad enough, when he didn't know what he was doing. But now? Now he's had 4 years to scheme and plot and work behind the scenes with his cronies so that when/if he gets back into office, he can go all in on gutting the government, stacking the Supreme Court, enacting whatever laws he likes, and simply declaring himself dictator and never leaving office again.

And the Republicans will help him.

Every one of those spineless bootlickers will be trailing behind him, nodding like a fucking bobblehead, agreeing with whatever asinine idea tumbles out of his third grade brain.

"For the good of the country," they'll cry, as they gut support for the poor.

"For the helpless little babies," they'll weep, eliminating health care services for women and removing any help for families.

"Make America Great Again," they'll chant as they send the military to drag children away from parents and lock them in cages because they dared come to the US--a country that was founded on the backs of immigrants--for a better life.

Republicans only care about keeping themselves rich and in power. They don't care about the poor. They don't care about women or minorities or LGBTQ+ rights. They don't care about YOU. They only care about themselves. They've proven it time and time again, yet they always try to convince their base that it's really the Democrats and radical Left who are the bad guys. Because they constantly want to *checks notes* make sure people are safe, healthy, and cared for.

And that's not the America the Republicans want.

I am begging all US voters to look past Palestine, for just a moment, and realize that choosing the wrong man in November will have very, very, VERY long lasting repercussions for this country. We can't afford to "send a message". We can't afford to simply not vote. We can't afford to throw out the old "they're all the same" line.

THEY'RE NOT.

Please, please, please. Think about the people who will be hurt under another Trump administration. Think of those who will lose their support, lose their aid, lose their protections. Think of those who can't protect themselves.

The only message we need to send to Washington this November is NOT TRUMP. NEVER TRUMP.

[thealogie]

does the US have fascism on the rise? yes, it's insane how much. but trump got just about the same number of votes this election as he did last election. meanwhile dems are out 14 million people (biden's 81 vs kamala's 67). stop acting like this is not also on the left. whether it's about gaza or about russia-ukraine or about the economy/healthcare/infrastructure, both leftists and moderates who should've been voting dem just sat it out. not voted third party, but sat out the election completely. should kamala have had a more liberal/leftist stance on some things? yes. but it doesn't negate the fact that the far left are delusional freaks who would rather usher in a fascist than vote centrist. happened in 2016 and now with the stakes even higher, happened again. should we bemoan moderates leaning right / saying both sides suck and they don't care? sure. should you also get real for a fucking second and also assign partial blame where it belongs, to leftists refusing to vote (as most of them loudly proclaimed on social media for the entire past year)? yes you should.

Considering the counties where Harris underperformed Biden, what you are saying is simply not backed up by the data (ie it’s not clear that it was leftists sitting out).

And also blaming marginalized voters is simply not productive. I don’t even “blame” the right-wing fascist who want me dead - I simply bemoan their existence. I blame a supposed liberal party that knows all of this and refuses to provide a compelling alternative. If you (establishment) think leftist voters suck and don’t turn out (which is actually true!) work to change that.

I say this btw as a leftist who hated this campaign and still organized and voted for it.

[mugiwara-lucy]

Spoiler: This is going to be a very ANGRY rant.

Now as we've all heard by now, there was a peace agreement reached between Hamas and Isreal:

Now disregarded the idiotic MAGAts on Twitter giving their literal shit stirring diaper wearing rapist pedophile the credit (As well as himself doing the same thing 🙄) I'm sure we all remember all the fake Palestine leftists harassing, threatening and being overall nasty and hateful to those encouraging people to not only vote for VP Harris but at the time President Biden;

You all remember the hate I got. All I have to say is WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU IDIOTS now?!

We TOLD ALL OF YOU had you all sucked it up and voted for Harris or Biden THIS would have happened. We even said DON'T think of it as a vote for Biden or Harris but a way to keep SHITBREAK TRUMP OUT OF THE FUCKING OFFICE.

What's frustrating is that this peace deal isn't going to last. Trump and his fucked up son and law want to make Gaza a resort while that drunk idiot Pete Hegseth is cosigning an invasion of that land. So seeing the children Gaza excited about this not only breaks my heart but enrages me.

And where the fuck is that dried up old wrinkly faced hag Jill Stein? Back to crawl into whatever hole she? Or probably under her master Putin.

And you pieces of shit that voted for that old hag, voted Third Party (when NONE of the options were worth a damn and you idiots ONLY realized that AFTER you voted) or chose not to vote (and were smug about it like this one idiot on Twitter who just wants to "see Amerikka burn to the ground" not realizing her dumb ass has to live in it too) are JUST AS COMPLICIT AND RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THE BULLSHIT THAT"S ABOUT TO HAPPEN COME MONDAY than the MAGAts.

Hell I have more respect for the MAGAts than you idiots. Hell they ACKNOWLEDGE they're pieces of shit voting for a piece of shit but you guys act like you're above EVERYONE? WHatever happens considering Police Brutality, loss of Human Rights and overall Government Corruption; you dumbasses are just as culpable as the MAGAts. If not MOROSO.

Yep because Pete Hegseth and Pam Bondi WILL get confirmed despite the former being an alcoholic who all but confirmed he would violate the constitution to appease Shitbreak coupled with Bondi's dumb airheaded ass who acted stupid but I'm sure even she knows what the 14th Amendment is. (P.S: Does anyone notice Trump's affinity and him appointing JUST blondes? Then again he wants to fuck his daughter so....why am I surprised).

You have ZERO RIGHT to complain for all the horrors that's about to pass.

Hell just look at Shitbreak's Presidential Photo. (Sorry for those that have to see this and leave if you want. This is a jump scare warning)

This is a foreshadowing on what's to come.

This is a mentally ill, morally bankrupt, corrupted, evil, petty, vindictive old man that's out for blood and doesn't care who gets caught up in it.

He's going to burn this country to the GROUND (along with the world with his Far Right scrotum strokers) and you idiots that voted Jill Stein or didn't vote at all ARE TO BLAME.

FUCK YOU.

[possessesnightshift]

i'm not an eloquent political speech person so im just gonna be direct about this

americans, please please fucking register to vote and vote for joe biden in november

and before you jump to whatever policy thing or weakness of his to counter this plea, just stop. it doesn't actually matter. trump is worse. trump is fucking so much worse

our job from here on out is not only to hold our noses and vote for biden, but also to convince all of our friends family and whoever else to also vote for him in spite of all of his flaws. yes all of them

we need to make the fucking argument that trump is so dangerous, the country would be better off with a drooling old genocide lover whose mental faculties are drying up faster than the sahara desert. we need biden voters to be keenly aware of his shortcomings and refuse to back down. there's no use in pretending biden is still sharp as ever or has this mass grassroots support (he does not). he sucks. he is probably the worst democratic candidate in the party's history.

don't care. trump is worse. he needs to be stopped from taking power by any means necessary. he needs to be STOPPED.

from a non-republican pov, democrats constantly leaning on the "but the other guy is worse" argument is frustrating as all hell. i certainly hate it myself. but what gets lost in the conversation is that the republicans are essentially so beholden to this principle nobody even notices.

i know plenty of small town midwestern republicans who were embarrassed to admit they voted for trump. they voted for him in spite of his nastiness and blatant buffoonery (not in spite of his racism bc they're likely ok with that) because he was on the republican ticket, and to them any republican is better than a woke liberal who wants to take away our gas stoves and force drag queens to read us stories at bedtime

so yeah i kinda don't fucking care at this point

biden is a laughably bad candidate for the election of 2024. any other time he could've run (including 2020) is completely different than now, when he's just too fucking old. so should we just roll over and let him lose? just for trump to finish his term, be biden's current age, and either run for a third term or just stay in power bc the supreme court is on his side and they've been preparing for this for decades? fuck that

actually i think a rotting, pulpy corpse would make a fine president compared to dumbass donald "reality gameshow host" trump. literally if biden dies the day of the election he's still got my vote because it is not for him

the left has to learn to have the tenacity that republicans have. we emulate the right in the worst fucking ways (e.g. closing the southern border for no reason) but we never emulate their pettiness. we never say 'i hate the republicans so much i will willingly vote for someone i kinda hate to spite their smug asses'

remember when trump used to be a joke? remember when he was a giant embarrassment? remember the memes about his illiteracy and his lack of awareness? (see 'covfefe' for more info) trump may have the means to become a brutal dictator, but he relies on people smarter than he is to pull it off

if trump continues to hype up his project 2025 and his fascist ambitions with the swagger and confidence of fdr running against herbert hoover, what does it signal to the rest of the world for that man to LOSE to a corpse with the stamina of a wet flounder? it could stop the fascist momentum in its tracks by associating it with weakness and incompetence (you talk up all this hype and you lose to THAT man?? i guess you must be full of shit huh)

these are fraught times. there's no way to get out of this without letting go of our ideals of a perfect candidate who responds to the political desires of the people. that candidate does not exist and never will

right now we have not just an opportunity to preserve our rotting democracy for a little longer, but something much more special. we can fucking put an end to the trump experiment once and for all. we can make trump wannabes like ron desantis scramble to dissociate their image from the toxicity of the trump administration. we can turn him back into a joke.

at this point im screaming into the wind. no person who isn't already voting for biden is gonna read this far. but i want these words to be here anyway because i think they have value. 2024, 2028, and 2032 are all going to be pivotal election years. we can't wait around. we have to act NOW.

vote rotting fish 2024. i will plug your nose with a clothes pin if you refuse to do so yourself...

[threewaysdivided]

Gaza is NOT an excuse to sit out this election

I don't usually post about politics on this blog (if anything I try to avoid it since I know it can be a distressing topic) but, to be honest, the upcoming U.S. presidential election has me concerned.

This is going to be one of, if not THE most globally consequential election of our time, and I have been deeply perturbed to see people spreading sentiment that sitting this vote out (or even voting for Trump) is justified by the Democratic Party's handling of the genocide in Gaza.

I was going to write a post about why I think that's really dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric, but then U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders came out and said the same things far better so I'm going to share his video, and some key quotes:

"SOME of you are saying: "How can I vote for Kamala Harris if she is supporting this terrible war?" And that is a very fair question. And let me give you my best answer. AND that is that, even on this issue, Donald Trump and his right-wing friends are worse. In the Senate, in Congress, the Republicans have worked overtime to block humanitarian aid to the starving children in Gaza. [Current President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris] support getting as much humanitarian aid into Gaza as soon as possible. TRUMP has said Netanyahu is "doing a good job." And has said Biden is holding him back. [Trump] has suggested that the Gaza Strip would make excellent beachfront property for development. [...] AFTER Kamala wins, we will together do everything we can to change U.S. policy towards Netanyahu: An immediate ceasefire, the return of all hostages, a surge of massive humanitarian aid, the stopping of settler attacks on the West Bank, and the rebuilding of Gaza for the Palestinian people. AND let me be clear: We will have, in my view, a much better chance of changing U.S. policy with [Kamala Harris] than with [Donald Trump], who is extremely close to Netanyahu and sees him as a like-minded, right-wing extremist ally. [...] AS important as Gaza is [...] it is not the only issue at stake in this election. IF Trump wins, women in this country will suffer an enormous setback and lose the ability to control their own bodies. [...] IF Trump wins, to be honest with you, the struggle against climate change is over. [...] Trump believes [climate change] is a hoax. And if the United States, the largest economy in the world, stops transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel, every other country, China, Europe, all over the world, they will do exactly the same thing. And God only knows the kind of planet we will leave to our kids and future generations."

And now I am going to editorialise a few more points:

Firstly, I want to emphasise that the upcoming election is about damage control and harm reduction, not about political allegiance or moral purity. The point of casting your vote is not to signal support for a candidate, but to cancel out a vote for the more damaging candidate by voting for their opposition in the two party system. Let me be clear on that: under the U.S.'s current first-past-the-post voting arrangement, voting for a minor third party or independent is functionally useless during an election of this magnitude. It is a symbolic gesture that's functionally and morally equivalent to sitting out.

Story time: I come from a country which uses a preferential ranked-choice system and where voting is compulsory for all eligible citizens (a system which lowers campaign costs, incentivizes governments to make voting more accessible country-wide and limits attempts at voter suppression not that right-wing parties haven't tried). Despite us actually having a few substantial progressive third parties, there have been several times where I've sucked it up and voted for the major centrist party specifically to keep the major conservative right-wing party from gaining or maintaining power. We call this vote-them-out and keep-them-out politics - it's pretty much the default approach here, and it should be yours too because the idea of a "perfect party" is a fallacy. When human rights are on the line, pick the least-worst major option. The aim is to cancel out a vote for the other guy. Even with this, we recently lost our state to the major conservative-right party (running on a platform of youth-criminalization and abortion-bans) by a mere 8 percent margin - just in case you want evidence of how much impact a small number of votes can make, and how dangerous it can be to get complacent.

Secondly, for those Americans who still believe that not voting will keep you from being complicit in the Genocide in Gaza. Let me speak to you as a White Australian: you are already complicit in and benefiting from a genocide. Multiple, in fact. You and I both live, learn, work and profit on land that was forcibly seized through the murder and dispossession of First Nations peoples, similar to how Palestinians are being murdered and dispossessed of their land right now. When you enjoy chocolate and vanilla, you are benefiting from spices that were brought to the Global West via the colonization of Latin America, and that were historically (and in chocolate's case still is) cultivated by enslaved people. The phone/tablet/computer you are reading this post on is likely made using conflict minerals. I'm sorry, but you don't get to wring your hands over Gaza at a distance and pretend that sitting this vote out absolves you of genocide, while ignoring the ones your (and my) ancestors committed to bring you that luxury. You just don't. And again, as Senator Sanders said, Trump wants to bulldoze Gaza and turn it into Netanyahu's beachfront property development. You don't get to pretend that standing aside and knowingly letting someone else vote for him to do that is the more moral option.

Thirdly I want to point to that last part that I highlighted in Senator Sander's speech. I am not a USAmerican, but this election scares me because of America's global impact. If you are an American voter reading this, you need to understand that your country is too globally influential for you to neglect your civic responsibilities. I was working as a member of my country's national public service under a right-wing government during the Trump era and things got bad. A woman was raped inside Parliament House, video emerged of male staffers masturbating on female colleagues' desks and our then-Prime Minister quipped that it was a "triumph of democracy" that the women who marched in protest weren't "met with bullets". There was the same sort of culture-war mismanagement and misinformation about COVID-19, there were Neo-Nazis, and there was a failure to properly condemn or correct either of those things. Progress towards sustainability and clean energy slowed, and our Prime Minister secretly tried to seize personal control over five separate government departments. Sure, some of that would have happened with or without a Trump administration after all, we didn't need a Republican U.S. President to produce an onion-eating misogynist who hates homosexuals despite his own sister being one but the rest of the world looks to the U.S. to set the tone on what is acceptable in government. When the largest country votes in (or sits aside and lets other people vote in) someone as egocentric, openly prejudiced, corrupt, anti-science, greed-motivated, war-hungry, and dictatorially-minded as Donald Trump, it signals to other leaders that that is the acceptable standard. Even when it's absolutely not. When you choose to sit out (or cast a meaningless symbolic vote) rather than effectively use your civic power as a U.S. citizen, the outcome affects millions of global citizens who never had the option of giving their input.

Finally, I want you to listen to this podcast by Dr Robin DiAngelo and think about what the choice to waste your vote signals to the people around you. To the members of your community who are women, BIPOC, LGBT+, disabled, have migrant parents or who live countries that are effected by American policy (which is all of them, by the way. Y'all are big). We are not asking much from you. Queue for a slightly-annoying amount of time, get your identity confirmed at a sign-in table and then cast a ballot. Tick a box that indicates you'd rather let a qualified centre-left attorney and former senator have a chance of improving things, instead of a dictator-lionizing convicted felon who openly wants dismantle voting systems so that he'll never lose again. That's it. Get yourself to a polling booth and tick a box. We are not asking you to make an effort. We are not asking you to volunteer. We are not asking you run petitions, or call representatives or donate money or do meal deliveries or any kind of community work. Just tick a box. Vote. Anonymously. No one even needs to know what box you ticked.

If that is too much to ask of you, then what right do you have to call yourself any kind of ally? Think about the enormous privilege you are displaying by deciding that you can neglect this, and the fragility you are showing by deciding that a simple anonymous vote is too morally taxing. What reason would we have to ever believe you'd help us compromise on future solutions when you've shown you'd rather throw away possibly the last meaningful vote you may ever get on a Nirvana Fallacy? Why would we ever believe that we could rely on you to help or defend us when you couldn't even work up the courage and stamina to tick a box?

If that's too much for you, then fine. You're a coward, but fine. Just don't pretend to be anything else. And certainly don't hide behind the actual, ongoing suffering of real people as justification for your civic negligence. Do not use Gaza as an excuse to sit out this November 5th.

This website provides information on how to check your registration, register if you haven't, and find a polling booth. So does this one.

Do your duty. Get yourself ready. Go vote.

Then buy yourself some ethical chocolate to wash the bad taste out of your mouth.

[rjalker]

hi i saw your post for americans about how they should vote coming up and i just wanna say im really sorry so many people are being such dicks to you about it. this year will be my very first presidential election that i can vote in and i am so scared to go down to the polls in november because i know its just going to be a shitshow. you said voting blue is bad and we shouldnt do that because the blue candidates would just continue the genocide, but voting red would be much much worse because trump has promised to be MUCH more supportive of israel’s disgusting actions in palestine as well as promises to strip millions of minority americans of their basic rights and protections. so obviously voting red is just as bad but were not supposed to not vote because thats basically just another trump vote. i am completely at a loss for what to do this election because everywhere i look people are saying ‘if you vote for x youre evil’ ‘if you vote for y youre a genocide supporter’ ‘if you vote for z youre basically human garbage’ theres quite literally 0 good options and everyone in the us knows that voting third party is just throwing away your vote

so like what should i do? cant not vote, cant vote blue, cant vote red, and cant vote third party, which doesnt leave a whole lot of options for what i CAN vote for without hundreds of people telling me i suck and should like go die

anyways really sorry for the long rambly kindof negative ask, this was typed out pretty quick im sorry if the tone is weird im genuinely looking for advice and you seem to know a bit about politics. i hope you have a beautiful day ❤️🍉

To get this part out of the way first, yes, you Can "just not vote"

Please read the entire article. Refusing to vote is the most basic form of protest for this entire system. There are quotes in that article going as far back as 1905 from indigenous people talking about this.

It's around 5,000 words long so set aside some time to read it.

Second of all, yes, you can vote third party.

Democrats and Republicans are equally as evil, but right now the Democrats are the ones literally comitting genocide and putting all their effort and money into doing so. Voting for them is explicitly telling them, and any other politicians who will ever exist, that genocide will win them support, so they should keep doing it.

Rewarding people for comitting genocide will of course lead to more genocide. And considering this is the most public genocide in the entire history of the world, can you imagine how much worse it will get if we tell these people that we're happy with them when they do this?

trump has promised to be Much more supportive of israel’s disgusting actions in Palestine as well as promises to strip millions of minority americans of their basic rights and protections.

I will just keep saying what minorities have been saying for forever: Trump may have promised to do these things, but the Democrats also plan to do them, they just don't tell you about it ahead of time. They, in fact, promise the opposite.

Biden has put more kids in cages at the border than Trump did. Biden denied Covid19 harder than Trump did and removed all protections and systems of support for it.

Biden has given more money and weapons to cops:

Specifically, the Plan calls on Congress to appropriate $10.877 billion in mandatory funding over five years for the COPS Hiring Program, which, combined with the President’s discretionary funding proposal for this program, will fully fund this goal with $12.817 billion in total. These funds will be used to get officers out of their stations and squad cars and into the community, walking the beat on foot patrols that have been shown to enhance officer morale, improve community relations, and have a deterrent effect on crime.

from the literal official White House fact sheet.

This allowed, and encouraged, the cold-blooded murder of Sonya Massey, and countless other victims of police brutality and outright murder.

The Democrats will do every single thing the Republicans tell you they're going to do, but the Democrats expect you to thank them when they put their boot on your throat and then kick you while you're down.

Biden and even Obama could have protected Roe V Wade to ensure abortion rights, but both refused to do so, because they don't actually want half the population of this country to have the right of basic bodily autonomy. Joe Biden is a Catholic. He hates abortion just as much as any Republican, but he pretends otherwise when he needs people to vote for him, which is what any Democrat is going to do.

The people who are okay with genocide will keep telling you you're a horrible person if you vote third party or withhold your vote, but I cannot stress enough how little you should care about their opinions. They will tell actual Palestinians that they're "the real racist" if they refuse to reward Joe Biden, or now, Kamala Harris, for murdering their families. They will tell actual Queer people that we "just hate Queer people" if we refuse to reward people for comitting genocide.

They will pull out every stop they can think of to make you feel guilty for refusing to support genocide.

It doesn't mean you're not doing the right thing. These people will even outright admit that they would have voted for Hitler. And they will try to shame and harass you into doing the same.

If you want to help people, and not just the privileged white Americans who insist that we all must support genocide to protect their feelings of security, then you can vote for whichever "third" party (which is an oxymoron because there's literally more than one of them but whatever) appeals to you the most, or just withhold your vote entirely.

And if someone tells you that "only privileged bigots withhold their vote", just share the article above and tell them to read it. Indigenous people have been doing this longer than either of us have been alive. They know what they're doing, and that article is just one essay. There are more. Going back to 1905 and earlier.

If you do something as simple as hand a homeless person $10, you are doing more to help minorities in this country than a thousand votes for Democrats or Republicans ever will. Donating to verified relief funds for Palestinians does more to help than any number of votes for Democrats or Republicans ever will.

Voting is not the most important thing you can do to help anyone. The only people who want you to believe that are the people who claimed they would "push Biden Left", and "hold him accountable", but all they've done is follow him into complete fascism with a smile.

The Democratic Party supports genocide. They threw out all pretense of being "the good guys" when they censured Rashida Tlaib for calling for an end to the genocide and an end to the colonization of Palestine. (And note: The genocide and colonization are the exact same thing. They are inseparable. You cannot have colonization without genocide.), and because they continue to push to send more weapons to Israel when doing so is literally, explicitly supporting genocide and allowing it to happen.

Joe Biden got up in front of all of these people on June 5th, 1986, and said that if Israel didn't exist, they'd have to invent one. Because it is a direct extension of American's colonization and oppression.

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans regret any of the genocides or slavery that founded this country. They are pouring as much energy as they can, right now, into making sure that more happen. If they could go back in time, they would be leading the charge to massacre and enslave indigenous people themselves.

There are many things you can do to help people if you genuinely want to do what's best for everyone and not just what privileged white Americans think will benefit them.

Voting for either Democrats or Republicans will help no one but millionaire and billionaire white supremacists, whether they're actually white or not. Kamala Harris is just as complicit in white supremacy and genocide as any of her old white man accomplices.

You can withhold your vote entirely, as many indigenous people have been doing since they were given the "right" (I cannot stress enough how much you need to read the first article I linked) to vote.

You can vote for whichever third party appeals to you the most.

You can share verified Palestinian relief funds. You can click once a day to help minorities all over the world. You can donate whatever money you can spare to Palestinians and other minorities mutual aid funds. You can give your pocket change to homeless people. You can treat them like people.

Anything you do to help the people in your immediate area, or overseas, or wherever you are able, will do more to help minorities than anything the Democrats or Republicans will ever do. If you can't afford to donate, you can share people's mutual aid requests anyways.

Here's a protest in Washington DC that's live on youtube as I'm pasting it in here. Literally just watching this will do more to help than Democrats or Republicans ever will.

Edit: 1:48PM: The live protest continues here.

Edit: 3:36: Both livestreams are over now, but you can still watch them.

Anyone who tells you that voting is the only, or the most crucial, or the most urgent thing you can possibly do are lying to you. They do not want to help anyone, no matter how much they claim to. Most of them will not even aknowledge the genocides going on, and if they do, it's only to say, with a fake tear, that some things are just inevitable, and it's better for Palestinians to die than them.

Vote third party or withold you vote. Share posts and essays written by Palestinians and other indigenous people. Do whatever you're able to to help your local community. Look for places you can volunteer, libraries, community gardens, anything you can think of.

None of us are free until all of us are free. Palestinians and other minorities around the world do not exist to be sacrificed for the sake of privileged white Americans, no matter what those privileged white Americans try to tell you.

They will harass you and try to guilt trip you into supporting genocide. They will pretend that you're "the real racist" for refusing to sign off on the murder of Black and brown people the entire world over, including in America.

They are wrong. These people are not your allies, or the allies of anyone in this world who is oppressed and cares about other oppressed people.

If you want to help Palestinians and minorities everywhere in the world, including in American, then either withhold your vote, or vote for whichever third party most aligns with what you want to see in the world.

Do not give in to the idea that supporting genocide by voting for the Democrats will magically lead to a world without genocide.

Trump will not be "worse" for anyone who's been suffering under this system since day 1. The only difference between Trump and the Democrats is that Trump tells you what he wants to do, and the Democrats lie through their teeth while doing the exact same thing.

The Democratic and Republican parties pretend to be two separate factions, because this allows them both to maintain shared control of this government and this country. This is why people are so rabid about telling you that "voting third party is a vote for the bad guy", when by that logic, voting third party equally supports both Republicans and Democrats.

Listen to Palestinians. Listen to indigenous people. Listen to the minorities who actually care about other oppressed people. Try to ignore the white supremacists who will scream at you that you must support genocide in order to protect them.

[heathersdesk]

THIRD PARTIES IN AMERICAN POLITICS ARE POINTLESS AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL AND IF YOU VOTE FOR THEM IN 2024, YOU'RE A CLOWN

All right. Civics for Dummies from the American History nerd. Sit down. If any of you suggests voting third party anywhere near me between now and November, I'm going to throw chalk at you. And we're going to talk about why right now, so there's no more confusion.

The Electoral College makes voting third party the stupidest, most unproductive thing you can be advocating for right now.

To become president under the system we have now, you need to reach 270 electoral votes. It is physically impossible for a third party candidate to do that with two other parties at the table. It's not that it won't happen. It's that it CAN'T happen.

As long as we have the Electoral College, voting for third parties for president is a waste of a vote. You might as well stand outside of your polling place and piss on a wall, for all the good it does anyone.

There are two ways forward if you're tired of the way things are. You're not going to like either one of them because they're both hard.

1. Get rid of the Electoral College

2. Get rid of both of the parties we have and replace them with different ones who will do what we want instead of engorging themselves on our money like the corrupt, bloated ticks they all are.

Get rid of the electoral college?

You need a Constitutional amendment to do that. You need 2/3 of the states to hold a Constitutional Convention, then 3/4 of either the Conventions or the state legislatures to ratify and pass it.

Make the list right now. Go ahead. Find me 38 states that would pass an amendment to get rid of the electoral college, so you can vote for whichever socialist is promising you they can somehow get people in red states to listen to them without starting a civil war.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Y'all can't even agree on which socialist without a snowball's chance in hell of winning you expect people to vote for instead of Joe Biden in November!

You've had since October 7th of last year to come up with one and you haven't done it! It's over! Pack it up and call it a day! We don't have time for this! Start picking who you want to replace Biden in 2028, if we're not in the middle of a civil war by then.

Why do I keep saying that? Because I went through a Civil War phase and we've been checking the boxes off one by one for years now in how that war started. Down to states trying to remove the opposition candidate from the ballot in an election year.

Anyway, Constitutional amendment sounds too hard? We're going with the party dunk tank approach?

Cool. This is the one I actually think we could achieve in the next 20 years.

Before you can get a third party candidate to win, you need a party that has mass appeal that people would actually want to join, then have it usurp and replace an existing party. Then that party runs a candidate that could win in a national election. But at that point, they're not a third party candidate anymore.

Ever heard of a Whig? Seen one on a ballot? Exactly. We have a history in the US of ditching parties that have outlived their usefulness. It's been a few centuries, but at least there's a precedent for it.

I don't know if y'all recognize what you're looking at, but this is already happening within the Republican party. They've been infiltrated by fascists and foreign agents, and any Republicans who aren't down with their corruption are currently getting tossed out of the cuckoos nest. Republicans can't win elections through democracy anymore, so they're just going to get rid of democracy now.

WHEN THE LDS CHURCH STARTS TELLING YOU IT'S OKAY NOT TO VOTE FOR REPUBLICANS, Y'ALL NEED TO WAKE TF UP AND REALIZE THAT PARTY IS GONE NOW, AND IT'S NEVER COMING BACK.

So the Democratic Party is what we have left now, and they suck. We know they suck. They've sucked since Jimmie Carter, and even then the poor guy was in over his head. Their leadership is full of hypocrites and liars who are too busy taking Israeli PAC money, putting kids in cages at the border, letting Facebook engage in genocides across the globe, and banning TikTok to have a conscience. They squander every opportunity they have to truly fight back effectively against anything, and they're never going to change. I've lost all respect for Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. If they won't let go of power, it's time to take it from them. I agree with that sentiment 100%. I mean, I think it's better to primary the old guard, but y'all want radical change! So let's talk about it!

You want to usurp the Democratic party with another party? You need a well-funded coalition of people in every state, fully mobilized with quality candidates they can run locally, to get the ball rolling. That needs to go on for many years. It needs to be a party that attracts the disaffected from the left and right, and has a platform they all can agree on. What Republicans and Democrats won't do, this party would need to do. It would need celebrity endorsements. It would need to be something that the vast majority of Americans would pull out their wallet right now and give money to because they believe it's capable of change that will actually help them.

You want to replace the Democrat and Republican establishment with something better? You put it together correctly and it can be done. Like I said, I think y'all could get that done in the next 20 years.

You don't have 20 years?

Exactly! You're not getting any of that done before November! I don't care how hard you try.

Fastest amendment to ever be ratified was the repeal of Prohibition. 3 months and 10 days. This ain't that. No one wants to vote for your inexperienced socialist candidates as badly as they wanted to drink during the Great Depression. To give you some perspective, it took 41 years to pass the women's suffrage amendment. THAT'S a more realistic timeline.

As for forming a party... why do you think the opposition is doing a hostile takeover of the Republican party instead of forming their own and starting from zero?

Because it's easier and faster!

People on the left who are still talking about third parties in this country will literally do anything but build a coalition with those they consider morally inferior to themselves. But the problem is, they can't do anything with the microscopic group of people they consider to be morally acceptable. They can't pass an amendment to get rid of the Electoral College. They can't form an alternate party to replace the Democrats. They can't do a hostile takeover of the Democrats. They can't unite behind a single candidate and get them funded to win campaigns except in the bluest districts of blue states. And they're totally unprepared to take any idea they have on the road to the Midwest or the South where they'd truly have to deal with people who don't trust them.

All y'all have to offer is the same dysfunctionalism we already have.

There's no way forward into the future where you get the kind of policies you want AND to opt out of being in community with people you don't like. You have to pick a struggle. If you don't have the skill set and temperament to work with Democrats, you don't have what it takes to replace them either. You just don't. Not in this economy. Not in any economy. Not on this timeline or any other.

I don't care how much you don't like Joe Biden. That's who we're voting for in November because there's no one else. Y'all waited until Gaza was on fire for the umpteenth time to become a single issue voter, and you want all of us to jump off the cliff of the moral high ground with you?

Nah. I've decided I'm going to live through this.

I'm strategizing what to do if Biden dies in office and how to primary Kamala Harris as a potential incumbent in 2028. And if (God forbid) Trump wins, I'm picking out people at church who would hide me in their basement when the round ups start. Because I live in the purple section of Boise, surrounded by nothing but Klan members and neo-Nazis in the middle of the desert. It's nothing but Confederate wannabees for hundreds of miles in every direction.

When you're ready to get serious, you're welcome to join.

[angrbodic]

So, I just need to get something off of my chest and this post may piss some people off and I'm fine with that because I'm not going to hold back here.

Today, I have deleted my main TikTok account. And it's not just because of the rampant misogyny, transphobia, racism, and xenophobia. It's not just those things that pushed me off the app.

As I was scrolling through my friends' page, I came across a video of a mutual making a video reply to someone saying "they're going to be extinct soon, anyways" in reference to Palestinians. So they said something along the lines of "the hotels there are going to be great" and another mutual making the comment (and I'm paraphrasing) how Jared Kushner has potential investments in it.

It was just the nail in the coffin and listen, I am (mostly) white, but I also have indigenous heritage. My paternal grandmother's family were Yoeme (Yaqui) and I grew up hearing things like "natives went extinct" and things like that. I have had the chance to talk to Palestinians who DM'd me on that app. I would tell them that "what you're going through happened to my ancestors too" and the plight of indigenous Americans being so similar to Palestinians.

Plus, after a year of watching parents literally having to carry the remains of their own children in bags and parents holding the bodies of their headless children, I am so disgusted beyond belief that the people I thought would never say this.

And this was because people were so upset with the Biden administration that some didn't vote at all, voted Trump, or went third party. I, personally, voted Harris -- not because I like her, I voted against Project 2025. And the thing here is, BIPOC and queer people said this. I get the anger, but this?

Like, here's the thing: yes, some people within the pro Palestine movement are problematic. Some of them rely on their white savior complex and some are absolutely anti-Semitic as hell. The anger towards the problematic creators is absolutely warranted and the criticisms to some content creators of having anti-black rhetoric. Some of them have pushed BIPOC people down and have been so caught up in this that they can't acknowledge it.

But to sit there and say how an ethnic group is going to go extinct and joke about how the Gaza strip is going to have great hotels while people are still under the rubble is not acceptable. It's not right to take your anger out on Palestinians, they didn't do anything to deserve this.

Like, be mad at the white people abusing BIPOC under the guise of pro Palestine and anti genocide, but don't gleefully hop online and do this shit. I was willing to shrug off people saying "well, I'm going to buy all the Starbucks now" (and I'm going to put aside how problematic Starbucks is before BDS) but nothing will change the fact that the only reason why we have this outcome is because the Democrats consistently have failed since 2016. They have downplayed racism, xenophobia, economic disparities, transphobia, reproductive rights, and misogyny since 2016.

They have consistently underestimated the fervor and tenacity in the GOP and catered to the centrists, flip flopping on issues like immigration, police reform, and reproductive rights.

The people pulling this shit have to suck it up and admit that the Democratic party didn't work hard enough in the past eight years. There's a reason as to why people voted third party, and while you can blame third party results in some states, eventually, you need to ask as to WHY people voted third party. Democrats stuck to a populist, standard "we're not ___" and didn't take the time to reflect as to what their constitutes were saying. I'm sure some of the policies regarding Palestine have had a role in this, but when you continue to dismiss concerns hurting the working class and marginalized communities? Don't be surprised with the outcome.

And at the end of the day, that's still not an excuse to joke how an ethnic group is going to go "extinct". It's gross, absolutely abhorrent.

[eowynstwin]

i’m sorry if this isn’t the right place to ask but it’s my first year voting and idk who to talk to,, abt that voting thing you reblogged,, is it still worth voting even if i don’t vote for typical red or blue parties? the candidate i want to vote for runs for the green party which is literally almost unheard of in the us but with how strictly red vs. blue politics seem to be here i’m not sure if it’s even worth voting for the person i actually want to have my vote bc i know they won’t compete with the blue party. as much as i hate both the blue and red leading options i would much rather contribute to the blue party winning than the red, but i don’t actually want to vote for b***n. but i just don’t want to waste my vote on a party that can’t compete and contribute to t***p getting elected, like im not sure what to do. i know who i actually want to vote for but i feel like actually voting for them is a wasted vote and it’ll do more harm then good even though the other options aren’t great either

again i’m sorry if this is like a completely inappropriate question, feel free to just delete this, but this two-party-only thing is so fkn frustrating. i want to give my vote to the person i feel actually deserves it but most people i know don’t even realise that there are other political parties aside from red v blue so instead of creating a situation where people can vote for who they want it’s people have to vote for option A even though they suck because option B is SO MUCH WORSE and option C isn’t even viable because A needs as many votes to beat B as possible like …..what is the average person even supposed to do?? does this even count as democracy???

So I don't understand why you censored Biden or Trump, first of all, because they're not slurs. I find the asterisks infantilizing.

To put it to you simply, no, it is not worth voting third party. That is an emotional vote and I'm sorry, but your feelings do not matter. I don't care how bad you feel voting for Biden. You know your third party candidate is not going to win. I still blame every single blue voter who wrote in Bernie for Hillary's loss in 2016.

Splitting the blue vote means red win. That is just how it works in this country and you need to learn that now. You need to stop treating your vote like an endorsement of Biden's policy and start treating it like the only scrap of power you have in this fucking country, because other than voicing your complaints to your representatives, that really is it.

Oh, and speaking of Biden--the House rejected the $17.6bn aid bill to Israel after Biden threatened to veto it. I strongly recommend you start getting your political news somewhere other than Tumblr or TikTok. Constant public pressure on Biden and his administration is working. Do you think Trump would give a rat's ass about what the public wanted him to do? Do you think Republicans would for a second consider pulling back on a war they are desperate to escalate?

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm not saying it isn't a shitty situation. I AM saying that your favorite candidate is not going to win, and I'm even saying that your favorite candidate will put us at risk for a Trump victory. We have a two viable parties because that is the reality of our socioeconomic political system. Rs and Ds are the only choices available because they are the only parties with significant financial power. Investors back Rs and Ds because they know Rs and Ds will give them a return on their investment. Green party candidates, and any other third party candidates, will not win because they do not stand to benefit investors.

It's shitty. It's unfair. It's unethical and immoral. But it's the world we live in. It's the world YOU live in. You have to play the political game whether you like it or not.

So play it smart.

[bioswear]

Idk hot take for a Saturday morning, but maybe people shouldn’t be SO quick to switch to a mentality of: “well I’m not voting at all” about American politics in regards to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict/genocide just bc America has had its dick in those affairs LONG BEFORE fucking Biden Presidecy and people are seemingly just NOW feeling publically vocally outraged about it bc it’s in the forefront news (as you should be), but maybe also let’s use our fucking brains for a moment if you are American:

we should, and can easily, also still focus on that which is in our own backyard, if you don’t vote fucking blue, because green/third parties are not actually viable in the deeply established two party system we have had for CENTURIES, we get fucking DeSantis or some other horrible Fascist Republican and then America is going to have its own genocide against LGBTQ+ people, fascism goes up, continued attacks against drag/immigrants/etc.

You also know damn well that any Republican, If one were president, would be doing the same fucking thing of providing aid to Israel, so I guess personally I’m just confused as to why everyone is surprised biden is doing the same.

You can and should support a free Palestine, and hold contempt for Israel and condemn their actions, AND also know that voting blue is Americas literal only chancE RIGHT CURRENTLY NOW this upcoming year, to remain somewhat of a democracy instead of a ChristoFascist regime, especially with Biden being one of the ONLY blue candidates like… our hands are TIED

Like YEAH it’s gonna fucking suck to vote for Biden but like you also gotta fucking Buck up sometimes and do things you don’t particularly WANT to do. It’s called duality and compromising in life and sometimes it’s fucking unavoidable.

But idk what the fuck do I know 🤪 I’m just a girl who thinks maybe you shouldn’t just fucking give up one of your only recognized rights in America just because some actions you can’t control from a crusty old moderate blue white man in a country whose affairs are more complicated than your messiest situationship is upsetting (rightfully so, I might add) you

[implausiblyjosh]

“Vote shaming” is so silly because it shows two things.

First, it shows a failure of the candidate. Sorry that Joe Biden sucks ass, and that the Democrats have run almost exclusively on a “well, at least we’re not those guys, am I right?” campaign, so now you feel the need to take on a similar tone. That is a failure of the candidate to run on anything meaningful, and trying to convince other voters to be interested in that failure is sad. You hate to see it.

Second, it shows a failure to understand how voting in the US works. Because of the electoral college my vote has never mattered in the presidential race since I started voting over 10 years ago, as I’ve been voting blue in a solidly red state. I can’t “vote harder” in my situation, and it’s not like there’s a Democratic effort to get more Democrat votes in Texas that I would be undermining by not voting, so your shaming does nothing for me or my situation. Hell, the primary system in the US is so fucked, since the votes are staggered such that states at the end of the line don’t get a meaningful say in their party’s primaries because either the candidates dropped out or the votes just don’t mathematically matter at that point. And this doesn’t even touch the fact that third party votes basically don’t meaningfully split the Democratic votes, they really only meaningfully split the Republican votes.

It all shows a lack of material understanding of the situation. You don’t have an answer for a Blue voter in Red states like Texas and Florida. These places have basically been all but forsaken to Republicans. What do you want them to do if there is no support or effort being made here? How is that shaming going to work for you?

[lockyle-and-skull]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I saw a few of these takes yesterday and just... what???????

believe me. BELIEVE ME. I want a more leftist president too! more than anything!! but that's not a viable fucking option right now!!!

I don't want to vote for Biden!!! I don't like him!!! he's done a lot of shit and he does deserve to be called out on it and held responsible - just not in a way that opens the door for fucking Trump to hold the presidency again!! someone I know loves Biden and I literally call them out on it daily. he's handling the Palestine crisis like a fourth grader, but not voting or voting third party isn't going to do anything to help.

I saw someone in the replies say that not voting is just as much a vote for Biden as it is a vote for Trump and just... no! that's not how it works!! because I guarantee you that anyone who has decided that they're just not gonna vote in protest was never going to vote for Trump. the only time someone not voting helps Biden is if that person was going to vote for Trump!! and let me tell you, Trump supporters are absolutely going to the fucking polls. These are the nationalists, the people who don't see anything wrong with our country!!! They consider themselves pure blooded americans and take pride in participating in our broken fucking system.

and the people protesting the two-party system are acting like we don't know that it's broken. BELIEVE ME, WE KNOW. even when I was in elementary school and just tagged along to watch my parents vote, I knew that voting democrat sucked!! I actively questioned why they were continuing to do it, but the fact of the matter is that, as it is right now, there is ZERO chance of a third party candidate winning. so yes, it is a wasted vote. sure, it's showing defiance to the two party system, and I absolutely get the appeal of that, but it's not actually DOING anything!!

The people who vote democrat are divided into two groups - people who are more moderate and actually want the democratic candidate, and people who are further left and want to vote third party but know that they can't do that safely. and I'm gonna be honest with you - it's not even close to 50-50. my best guess is that at least 65% of people who vote democrat are doing it because they actually want to. so even if everyone who wanted to vote third party got organized and decided to do it, it wouldn't do anything!! it's not like we can magically migrate all the democrat votes to a more appealing candidate!! all it would do is split the liberal votes up, which, guess what?? means the republicans win!!

the reason candidates act more moderate while running for elections is because that's the only way to get elected!! if a presidential candidate, democrat or not, came right out and said what we all want them to say and do, it would lose them votes!! and guess where those votes would go? straight to the fucking republican party!! leftist candidates have to be moderate if they have any chance of getting enough swing votes to win an election. this is the only way for actual change to happen. sure, it fucking sucks and physically pains me sometimes, but small change is better than no change; and it's definitely better than active damage, which is what will happen if Trump wins.

the plan was ALWAYS to vote safe until there was enough momentum and supporters for a third party candidate to have a chance of winning. and we are nowhere near there yet. The ONLY way I, and I'm sure a lot of others, would feel comfortable voting third party anytime soon is if there was a big change to how the ballot works. if our country transitioned to a ranked voting system, where we can put the candidate we actually want to win first but if they aren't going to win then the vote goes to the second choice, I would vote for third party candidates every fucking time!! but that's not how it works, so that's not what I do.

and it's not just about what the presidents themselves do!! do you want MAGA fuckers thinking that they're in the right?? that they can keep doing the same shit and get away with it?? that their views go unchallenged?? that they're in the majority??

because I'm gonna be so honest with you right now. Trump sucks. so fucking much. but I would argue that a lot of his followers are worse. obviously they don't have the power behind their hateful rhetoric that he does, but they have much more radical, violent, and harmful views. videos and interviews at his rallies have shown us that!!

I am NOT giving those people a win.

Gonna need yall to stop putting Biden is Just As Bad propaganda on my dash. Had to unfollow someone because I don’t want to a start a fight with them over it, but I’m about to bite the next person who puts that shit in front of me.

If you don’t like Biden, vote in your god damn local and mid term elections for third party or further left candidates so that we get better democratic candidates for future elections. But this one is already fucking decided, and I’m NOT ending up under a Trump led dictatorship because yall value protecting your personal sense of moral purity over the collective good. Whether it offends your personal morals to vote for Biden is IRRELEVANT in the face of the alternative.

This isn’t a lesser of two evils situation. One guy sucks. The other guy is LITERALLY PLANNING TO OVERTHROW OUR DEMOCRACY AND INSTALL HIMSELF AS A PUTIN STYLE DICTATOR.

PLEASE look up Project 2025 and stop acting like abstaining is some kind of personal ethical decision!

[disappointmentthemusical]

Hi, don't vote for a third party. None of them will get enough votes to overthrow either trump or biden. People tried to vote for third parties in 2016, which ended with trump winning the election. Don't throw your vote away.

Also I'm not sure if you've already heard of Project 2025, but if you haven't, PLEASE look it up. If trump wins, he'll essentially become a dictator day one, while all laws become harsher and harsher towards marginalised people, especially trans people and immigrants. Everything about Project 2025 is absolutely nightmarish, and I don't want to live in a world where that'll happen. Please take it seriously. Yes, biden sucks, but trump is going to be so much worse for everyone

hi, not sure which of my posts this is in response to, but here's basically my thots summed up:

you have to think big picture. you probs feel like you already are, in a way (i.e., project 2025, etc), but zoom out more.

the united states tells its citizens that it's a democratic republic, meaning that we the people have the right to vote (democracy) for the candidate we feel best represents our peasant interests (republic).

what does it mean, then, that we are only presented with bad options? (pause: let's be clear and honest with each other, here. both biden and trump are bad options. neither is good. in fact, one is not better than the other, and to believe so – either which way – is cognitive dissonance, meaning you are actively making mental concessions in order to support an action/opinion that is contrary to your morals.)

to answer the question posed, here is an excerpt from Noam Chomsky's "Media Control," where he quotes and summarizes liberal democracy theorist and former-dean of American journalists Walter Lippmann, who was part of several U.S. gov't propaganda commissions in the 20th century.

"...'[T]he common interests elude public opinion entirely' and can only be understood and managed by a 'specialized class' of 'responsible men' who are smart enough to figure things out... We'll drive the stupid masses toward a world they're too dumb to understand for themselves... [The public's] function in a democracy, [Lippmann] said, is to be 'spectators,' not participants in action... Occasionally, they are allowed to lend their weight to one or another member of the specialized class... That's because it's a democracy and not a totalitarian state. That's called an election."

i would also warn you against the white supremacy inherent to your position.

biden is right now, in this moment, not in january or the next for years, currently providing funding, munition and troops toward a genocide. hundreds of thousands of innocent people are dead, and it's his fault. (the US is a sociopolitical hegemony, and one of our largest exports is military aircrafts; biden could have – can still right now – stopped the genocide at any moment.)

so not only do you vote in favor of white supremacy and genocide if you vote for biden (as you would if you voted for trump, yes), but in telling others (particularly minorities) that they should not care about what's happening right now in favor of the hypotheticals of later, you are actively participating in white supremacy. you are being a white supremacist.

(clarification for understanding: white supremacy is a system of oppression that includes but is not limited to racism, homophobia, sexism, transphobia and classism. the only way to combat white supremacy is through anti-racism, which is the active fight against racism and its intersectionalities of oppression, i.e., anti-racism is anti-homophobia is feminism is anti-transphobia is environmentalism is anti-capitalism is anti-ableism is anti-racism, etc.)

so, yeah. vote third party. (and we should all agree on a single third party candidate to rally behind, for this to be effective.)

(added nuance: this all holds true for local elections, but i urge that, while some are abstaining from the presidential election, everyone participate in local elections. those are the decisions that will impact you and others with immediacy.)

[sitten1115]

If people protest vote like they did in 2000, i guarantee more people will die than if Biden is reelected. And i dont just mean Americans. I mean Palestinians too. Trump has been very vocal about wanting to help Israel commit genocide even harder than Biden is helping. It’s an incredibly low bar and Biden isnt that far above it. But ultimately we cant risk a right wing takeover of the supreme court and many many more things.

They plan to redefine the jobs of like 50% of the career government staff and instead make those positions loyalty based hirings. That’s jobs like the fda and more. We know trump doesn’t accept anyone willing to tell him he’s wrong as being loyal. Doing that would make it way easier then for trump to do things like have the fda say abortion pills arent safe. Enact right wing policies, and potentially destroy the tiny facade of democracy this country has left.

Biden fucking sucks, but replacing the incumbent with a new candidate has historically resulted in losses and every single thing that makes Biden suck? Yeah Trump is even more extreme on those.

A third party hasn’t won in 200 years, people voting third party is how we got the first disaster of a trump presidency which happened during a global pandemic. Do you have any idea how much worse this idiot made things?! Even on his way out he caused countless people to die because of his incompetence and stubbornness in being right.

If you really think one president cant make things bad for more than just his term. Look at Reagan, his presidency has caused so much harm and it’s still not fixed. Look at Bush, he used a national tragedy to start a bullshit war for oil and to start destroying our privacy from the government. He also pushed plenty of Islamophobia. Which isnt exactly helping Palestine now that all of America is actually aware of the genocide.

Not to mention, if trump is elected it’s very likely two supreme court justices will either step down or die during his term. We all know who picks the replacements right? A right wing stacked Supreme Court has been really bad so far and if he gets to pick two young new justices, well it’s gonna stay stacked for a while.

And even if you want to protest vote still, you damn well better make sure to vote properly for the smaller roles. Local policymakers may be able to protect people from whatever happens next. And there’s a ridiculous amount of house and senate seats up for reelection.

And no I’m not saying this because i think a trump presidency would personally effect me that much. I’m saying this because i am terrified of what will happen to other people in less safe states. I’m terrified of how much worse the arab hate will get, I’m terrified for the people of Palestine who have been utterly failed by the world already. I’m terrified for the undocumented immigrants, the easy to spot marginalized people, the women who already have to fight to get proper basic healthcare.

[stellardeer]

Putting under a readmore cause what I'm about to say is more in the line of conspiracy thinking and I don't want anyone to read this and take it very seriously but I feel the need to vent this out.

I am.. almost convinced that the entire US government is just in on everything that is going on between the democratic and republican parties.

Like I really feel like they are just fucking playing us and making us think there's a choice when in reality things are going to go how they want them to go no matter who is in office. Who is "they" idk, I am not referring to any kind of shadow govt or antisemitic bullshit, I mostly mean "they" as in the government as a whole, like I would not be surprised if both parties are working together behind the scenes to coordinate.

Like idk, I know that realistically that is probably not the case, it just really seems like the democrats do not actually give a single fuck about undoing anything that the Republicans have done. Like their role is to just publicly condemn their actions and make it seem like the US govt still has a conscience so that the people who don't want outright fascism with be placated and still have someone to vote for. "Come on guys they are putting kids in cages but at least they put the parents in the cage WITH them unlike the other party!!" Like is this really where we are as a country????

The fucking Project 2025 bullshit just further degrades my fucking confidence in the left to actually BE left because like.. idk somehow it just feels like TOO cartoonishly evil?? And too perfectly timed? Like everyone is losing faith in the dems because Biden won't stop funding a fucking genocide, and people are seriously considering "boycotting" voting (something that is not possible and will not work) or voting third party because the dems objectively fucking suck and now it's like "LOOK AT THIS SCARY EVIL FUCKING PLAN FOR A FASCIST DICTATORSHIP, YOU BETTER VOTE FOR THE DEMS SO IT DOESNT HAPPEN!" And honestly the Trump presidency felt much the same to me ?? Like "look how awful the competition is, we gotta save the country from that! Vote for our candidate that nobody even wanted instead!" And they chose such a spectacularly awful candidate that it backfired and Trump actually won and they got to just accelerate making the country worse. I fully believe that Trump did not expect to win the presidency, I don't know how true this is but I remember people saying that his team was like.. scrambling to actually write policy for him when he found out he won because they didn't actually fucking prepare anything. Again, they might have just been misinformation but GOD, it just feels like they WANT us to vote for dems, like they're trying everything they can to make the Republicans look as evil as possible.

But like?? Idk?? Again I do not want to start conspiracy theories and I hope anyone reading this understands that I only half believe what I'm typing right now but like?? It just feels so coincidental??

But of course it also doesn't necessarily make sense for them to push people to vote for dems if they're goal IS to combine the evils of the Republicans and Democrats, cause like.. what would even be the end goal if not total control, but maybe that's part of it too. Like.. if the Republicans win and they actually manage to go through with Project 2025 then.. congrats we are officially run by fascists. But if the dems win then.. idk they just continue doing fasc shit anyway without the dictatorship?? Like when you examine the realities this theory falls apart, and also people have been saying shit like this for decades I'm not really saying anything new, but just.. goddddd I don't know how else to cope with this fucking country right now.

It is so difficult for me to believe that any politicians have our best interests in mind and that the two parties aren't just moving in the same direction at different speeds. And to reiterate and be a little more specific, if I use the word "they" I am referring specifically to the individuals in charge of like.. the selection of candidates for each party and like the heads of the departments in Washington, I am not making any claims that these individuals belong to any specific group, in fact I am almost certain the majority of these people are white Christians, it's probably something I can google even, but I believe that a lot of people in positions of power in the government are acting in self interest to maintain their own positions and have lost touch with the average American populace, like I don't think it's some shady organization or some shit I think it's just people. Certain (fucking old and/or rich most likely) people who are just looking out for themselves and want to maintain their way of life. The dems are not fucking left but they are slightly more left than the Republicans, but I think that the members of the party in charge are just fucking old, they come from an age before the internet where your only source of information was the TV and it was OVERWHELMINGLY white and middle class, and they grew up believing what their middle to upper class parents taught them in regards to lower class and minority people. And, honestly? I think they truly do believe that they have morals and are doing the right thing most of the time, based on what they know. They don't understand the struggles of the average American because they have never known those struggles. They think that homelessness is a problem that can be solved by getting rid of homeless people, because they weren't taught to view the homeless as people. They think that racism is wrong, but they also think that racism only consists of explicit spoken words and violent actions directed at minorities. And even then their definition of "violent action" only includes physical bodily harm and probably only counts if the assailant yells "I am doing this because you are [minority identity]" otherwise "well we can't *prove* it was motivated by bigotry"

Siiiiigh, idk I feel like I've made my point by now and I'm just rambling but, like... I wish it were possible at this point to form a viable third party that would actually reach enough people. But it would probably take multiple election cycles to gain traction and actually compete with the dems, in which time the Republicans will just win and turn the country into a fucking dictatorship. Otherwise like idk, get some new leadership in the Democratic party so we don't have people raised on 1950s pop morality running the party that's *supposed* to be leftist.

I don't care if people will think less of me for doing so but I AM going to vote for the democrats in this election, I just do not see any other fucking choice and if the Republicans are fucking for real, I don't want to risk letting them win a presidential election ever fucking again. I don't know what else to fucking do at this point, it feels fucking meaningless.

Like woooo 4 more years of dems doing NOTHING to undo the policies that Trump enacted, but the Republicans have shown us their hand and its worse than I could have imagined. Not that it even fucking matters what I do because I live in a red state, but hopefully my other votes beside the president will have any sort of effect, idk.

Ughhh. I gotta end this post it's getting too long and no one will probably even read it but I'm just so fucking tired. I'm tired of the USAmerican empire. I want to see the collapse in my lifetime so fucking badly. I can't adopt a hopeless view of the future, I need to start participating in local government shit idk, I don't even know where to start in a red state. All of the advice on how to make a difference never fucking applies to where I live. We don't HAVE community programs like food not bombs and homeless shelters and shit, we have like.. a food bank that only lets you volunteer in the morning on weekdays and a community center that ALSO only operates 9-5 M-F and I'm working during that time so :/

Not to mention I get like.. I don't know if there's a word for it but like.. research anxiety? Learning unsuredness? Idfk, but like if I try to find information on my own I'm always worried I'm doing it wrong or that I'm not able to find the right information because I don't know where to look for even how to look for it, I operate so much better when I have a mentor for stuff, like I wish there was some kind of program that matched people with others who have the information they're looking for so that they can get it from a real person... hmm.. jot that down, potential website/app idea... but anyway fuck I need to be working rn IM DONE