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

[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...

[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.

[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.

[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?

[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

[walnutbun]

Adding to this: vote411.org offers a way to view what's going to be on your ballot just by entering your address (or, y'know, your neighbor's address, if you really want to be safe). vote.org does too, but they want more info from you.

Both sites will also help you register to vote and/or check your registration, which is SUPER FUCKING IMPORTANT especially right now. Republicans have been (and AFAIK still are) purging voter registrations. Even if you're 100% sure you're registered, CHECK. It's free, it's quick, and it's extremely important, because you know they'll be fighting tooth and nail to make sure that ballots from unregistered eligible voters don't count.

They'll also show information about your state requirements for absentee voting (aka mail-in voting), and help you request an absentee ballot. If you're planning to vote by mail, you NEED to do this early - and make sure you're eligible under your state's requirements. If you're able to, though, I would urge you to vote in person - absentee ballots will absolutely be scrutinized to hell and back this election. If voting in person, the sites also show you information on early voting.

Finally, some unrelated tips:

As OP noted, you shouldn't wear anything political to your polling place, and you shouldn't try and convince people to vote one way or another (or engage with anyone who is doing so). There WILL be people there doing this. Do your best to avoid engaging with them. Personally, I would recommend not talking with anyone that isn't working the check-in desk - just cast your vote, grab your sticker, and leave.

Another point OP made is that some areas have laws against photographing your ballot - this is true, and doing so in these areas can (and likely will) result in your ballot being tossed out. Even if you know for a fact that you don't live somewhere that has those sorts of laws, though, I strongly recommend not taking any photos or videos inside the polling place - especially of your ballot.

If your local polling place uses electronic voting machines and doesn't allow you to request a paper ballot (I'm unsure if this is a legal requirement or not), double-check your selections on the summary screen and on the print-out (if possible). If the summary screen doesn't match what you selected, go back and redo your selections. If the printout doesn't match, inform a poll worker. It is unlikely that any electronic voting machines are "rigged", but glitches are possible (as is hitting the wrong button by mistake), and it's better to be safe than sorry.

Finally, encourage your friends and family to vote. If you have a vehicle, offer to transport them to the polling place if they need a ride. The most important thing we can do this cycle is encourage voting - Trump doesn't have an issue getting his supporters to go vote. Democrats, historically, do, and Biden is no exception. If you've got family or friends who intend to sit out, do your best to explain what's at stake. As a reminder, the Supreme Court just ruled that the President cannot be held criminally liable for any actions taken that constitute "exercising [their] core constitutional powers" or are otherwise "official acts".

Also. If you're considering sitting out, protest voting, or voting third party solely (or primarily) because "Biden sucks" (or something similar), you're cutting off your nose to spite your face. Whether we like it or not, our options are Trump or Biden - and Biden is the only one of those options that gives us a chance of seeing another election.

Because I remember disinformation being spread around the last few elections and I’m sure assholes will bring it back:

YOU CAN’T VOTE ONLINE.

YOU CAN’T VOTE FROM YOUR PHONE.

IN MANY STATES THERE ARE LEGAL CONSEQUENCES FOR PHOTOGRAPHING YOUR BALLOT.

DO NOT WEAR CAMPAIGN GEAR TO THE POLLS.

DO NOT TRY TO PERSUADE PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR A CANDIDATE AT THE POLLS.

DO NOT ENGAGE IN ANY KIND OF POLITICAL DISCOURSE AT THE POLLS.

NO ELECTION IS EVER A SURE THING, EVEN IF YOU’RE IN THE BLUEST OR REDDEST OF STATES.  IF SOMEONE TRIES TO TELL YOU THAT YOU CAN SIT THIS ONE OUT, THEY ARE EITHER IGNORANT OR MALICIOUS.

VOTE.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 12, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

As expected, this morning the House Republicans removed Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney from her position as conference chair after she refused to stop speaking out against the former president for instigating the January 6 attack on our Capitol and the counting of electoral votes for President Joe Biden. The Republicans ousted her by voice vote, which meant that no one had to go on the record for or against Cheney, and the Republicans kept the split in the party from being measurable. It also ensured that she would lose; she has survived a secret ballot vote before.

Before the vote, Cheney allegedly told her Republican colleagues: “If you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, I’m not your person; you have plenty of others to choose from.” After the vote, she went in front of the cameras to say that she would lead the fight to reclaim the party from Trump, and said: “I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again goes anywhere near the Oval Office.”

After her ouster, Trump Republican Representative Madison Cawthorn (NC) tweeted ““Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye Liz Cheney.” The former president echoed Cawthorn: “Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being. I watched her yesterday and realized how bad she is for the Republican Party. She has no personality or anything good having to do with politics or our Country.”

After convincing his caucus to dump Cheney and embrace Trump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told reporters: “I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election. I think that is all over with.”

This was a breathtaking statement. McCarthy himself challenged the certification of Biden’s win, and just last week, Trump made a big announcement in which he called the election of 2020 “fraudulent.” The Big Lie animating the Republicans today is that Trump, not Biden, really won the 2020 election.

But McCarthy is not alone in his gaslighting. Yesterday, in the Senate Rules Committee markup of S1, the For the People Act protecting the vote, ending gerrymandering, and pushing big money out of our elections, Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said: “I don’t think anyone on our side has been arguing that [voter fraud] has been pervasive all over the country.”

The false claim of widespread voter fraud is, of course, exactly what Trump Republicans have stood on since the 2020 election. It is the justification for their voter suppression measures in Republican states, including Texas, Iowa, Georgia, Florida, and, as of yesterday afternoon, Arizona.

In today’s House Oversight Committee hearing on the January 6 insurrection, Republican lawmakers in general tried to gaslight Americans, as they tried to paint that unprecedented attack on our democracy as nothing terribly important. Although 140 law enforcement officers were injured, five people were killed, more than 400 people have been charged with crimes, and rioters did more than $30 million worth of damage, Republican representatives downplayed the events of the day, insisting that they were not really out of the ordinary. Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said that calling the attack on the Capitol an insurrection is a “bald-faced lie” and that “if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit…."

CNN later called Clyde’s remarks “absolute nonsense.” Even the definition of insurrection Clyde quoted—“an organized attempt by a group of people to defeat their government and take control of their country usually by violence”—showed the attack of January 6 to be an insurrection. And, as lawyer and CNN analyst Asha Rangappa noted tonight on Twitter, at his second impeachment trial even Trump’s own lawyers did not dispute that the events of January 6 were a violent insurrection. The record is clear.

Republican lawmakers like Clyde did, though, echo the former president’s interview on the Fox News Channel in March when he said that when his supporters went into the Capitol they posed “zero threat” and were “hugging and kissing the police and the guards…. A lot of the people were waved in, and then they walked in and they walked out.”

The former president appears to be continuing to exercise control over his underlings. Former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and former Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller provided testimony at the House Oversight Committee hearing, and what they would not say was revealing. Rosen refused to answer questions about whether Trump asked him to try to overturn the 2020 election. Miller’s prepared remarks had included a sentence that said “I stand by my prior observation that I personally believe his comments encouraged the protesters that day.” In his testimony, he omitted that line, and later tried to walk it back, trying to draw a line between people who marched on the Capitol and those who broke into it.

But with Cheney and her supporters now in open revolt, and with news about the Capitol attack dropping, and even with more information coming about the ties between the former president and Russia, will Republican Party leaders manage to sweep everything under the rug?

Today, at a hearing on domestic extremism today before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas both testified that the most serious domestic national security threat in the U.S. right now is that of white supremacist gangs. “I think it's fair to say that in my career as a judge, and in law enforcement, I have not seen a more dangerous threat to democracy than the invasion of the Capitol,” Garland said. “There was an attempt to interfere with the fundamental passing of an element of our democracy, the peaceful transfer of power. And if there has to be a hierarchy of things that we prioritize, this would be the one we'd prioritize. It is the most dangerous threat to our democracy. That does not mean that we don't focus on other threats.”

For his part, President Biden is refusing to get sucked into the Republican drama, instead focusing on the country. Today an advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed the Pfizer vaccine for children as young as 12, and the CDC signed off on the recommendation, making it easier to reopen schools in the fall.

Today Biden met at the White House with Republicans McCarthy and McConnell, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), to try to hash out an infrastructure plan, although the Republicans have said they will absolutely not consider raising the corporate tax rates from where Trump’s 2017 tax cut dropped them. It was the first time McCarthy and McConnell had visited the West Wing since Biden was elected.

It was in the context of visiting the president that McCarthy tried to say that there was no Republican questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election (although, of course, more than two thirds of Republicans currently believe in the Big Lie). “We’re sitting here with the president today,” he told reporters.

Will today’s gesture be enough to make swing voters forget the party’s wholehearted embrace of the former president? Shortly after House Republicans removed Cheney from her leadership position, nine out of 14 voters in an Axios focus group said they would be willing to vote for a Republican in next year’s congressional races. But of those, 8 said they would not back any Republican who supports Trump’s lie that he won the 2020 election.

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[mysherlockstardis]

Don’t waste your vote.

Please don’t throw your vote away on November, 3rd.

Please don’t write in Bernie Sander’s name or vote 3rd party or ignore your civil duty all together.

Please vote for Joe Biden if you truly believe that Trump is not good for this country. You can either stomach Trump, support Trump, or acknowledge that he needs to go!

For those who supported Bernie and now want to sit out of this election or cast a vote with his name in protest please consider what Sanders and Biden have in common.

On Criminal Justice:

1. Biden and Sanders want to abolish capital punishment.

2. Biden and Sanders support ending the cash bail system.

3. Biden and Sanders support scraping sentencing disparities (on cocaine).

4. Biden and Sanders support abolishing the minimum sentences on nonviolent drug offenses.

5. Biden and Sanders support scrapping previous pot convictions.  

6. Biden and Sanders support eliminating private prisons.

On Economy:

Biden and Sanders both want to increase the minimum wage to $15.

On Education:

Biden and Sanders want to boost teacher pay.

I would like to add that while Biden and Sanders certainly don’t share a lot of similar views on education, it should be noted that Biden does support 2 years of free college, and wants to work on reforming the student debt problem in our country.

On Climate Change/Food & Agriculture:

1. Biden and Sanders want to pay farmers to adopt climate friendly practices.

2. Biden and Sanders support protecting the rights of farm workers.  

Again, they don’t share many views in this department, but I would like to note that Biden supports the development of nuclear technologies to fight climate change, end new oil and gas leases on federal land and offshore drilling, and place a tax on carbon emissions.

On Gun Control:

Biden and Sanders support a ban on assault weapons and a plan to have a federal buyback on such weapons.

Biden and Sanders support universal background checks.

On Immigration:

Biden and Sanders want to grant citizenship to DACA recipients or dreamers.

On the Supreme Court:

Either Biden wins and when RBG retires, she is replaced with a judge of similar temperament or Trump wins and puts another conservative judge thereby shifting the dynamics of the supreme court in favor of conservative values for the rest of our lifetimes.

I do not want to debate anyone about any of these individual policies. This isn’t about debating politics, but looking at the similarities of the 2 candidates that divide the only party that can defeat Trump. I just want those who supported Bernie Sanders and can’t stand the idea of voting for Biden to understand that by not actively voting against Trump for Biden, you are enabling Trump to remain in office. We could debate about how Trump lost the popular vote and still won, and how the electoral college devalues individual votes. 100%. We could also debate that in 2016, if third party voters in Florida had chosen to vote for Clinton instead of giving their vote to a person that had no chance of winning, then she could have won that state.

The more progressives, democrats, liberals, and left-leaning idealists argue about how disappointing of a candidate Biden is, then the more likely Trump will be re-elected. Trump’s base is not divided. We are.

Can it not be agreed upon by both the moderate democrats who support Biden and the liberals who supported Bernie that Trump needs to go?

Our country is unfortunately a two-party system. It sucks, but it’s a fact. There are 2 choices for President. Joe Biden or Donald Trump. You either choose one or admit that you don’t actually care enough about the leadership in our country to even cast a vote. Or maybe you do care, but not enough to cast a vote that could make a difference in the election. Writing in Mickey Mouse or Bernie Sanders is not gonna make Mickey Mouse or Bernie Sanders the President. It just means that you better hope that your fellow Americans who are casting the votes that actually count are looking out for your best interests; because you aren't.

Under Trump, Dreamers will not be offered citizenship.

Under Trump, if he is reelected, the Supreme Court will likely become a completely conservative leaning court (arguably endangering the rights of women and the LGBTQ+ community, don’t @ me).

Under Trump, climate change is not and will continue to not be addressed with the seriousness it deserves.

Biden is not a perfect candidate (trust me I don’t wanna defend his character or all of his politics), but he is literally the only option we have. Other than Trump.

I truly do not understand how people who oppose Trump and Biden, but like Bernie, can seriously sit back and debate throwing their vote away. Listen, I get it. This post probably sounds like I don’t get it. This post probably sounds like I’m trying to ignore all the problems Joe Biden presents as a person and politician.

I do not agree with Joe Biden on everything. There are few people who would probably agree with Joe Biden on everything.

I just know I agree with Joe Biden more than I agree with Donald Trump, which makes casting a ballot in his name a lot easier than sitting back and being upset that we only have two bad choices for president. People always get upset when I argue about the lesser evil, but if we are going to be stuck with an evil either way, isn't it better that you get to choose which of those evils will hurt you less?

[projectilecry]

exactly. biden isn’t great. we all know that. but he’s miles better than the alternative. he’s miles better than trump, and miles better than whatever the republican party is coming up with right now.

you might say “oh well since i don’t like biden or trump/other republican candidate, i’m going to vote for a third party”. please don’t. at least not just because biden isn’t your absolute favorite. third parties have never and still do not have the power to pull votes in america like the democratic and republican parties do. sure we’re not technically a solely two party system, in that we do have more than two parties, and because more than two large parties are definitely possible in america if we wanted them, but we are effectively one.

vote for a third party candidate for your more local government if you like them the best and think they’ll do the best job 100%. vote for whoever you actually like most for primaries. but please don’t vote third party for president right now, at least not until a third party is popular, and i mean very popular. i mean polling at least 1/3rd of the vote.

vote democratic in the general election. if biden wins the primaries, fucking vote for biden. i know it sucks, but it’s the best option. because otherwise, if you vote third party that gets 1% of the vote total, you’re essentially “wasting” your vote on this type of situation. this type of situation absolutely sucks, and it really shouldn’t exist, but sadly it is the reality. (yes, no vote except one not cast at all is actually wasted, but in this case it often acts like a sort of sunk-cost fallacy. “wasted vote” is a loaded term and i don’t really like to use it because it’s typically very subjective, but it’s the best term i have here.)

if our political situation in america was normal right now, if we didn’t have one absolutely despicable and dangerous candidate, if both main candidates were alright and the differences between them were differences with small policy and not basic human fucking rights, voting third can be viable. it can be okay. but if we’re dealing with this type of situation, the kind where we’re picking the lesser of two evils, vote for the lesser of the two.

at this point in america, there’s no way a third party is going to win the presidential vote. voting third party in generals right now is basically equivalent to not doing anything, and even sometimes worse. we cannot once again afford the greater of two evils in office. the better of the two may not be ideal, may not be what we really want, but it’s definitely closer.

republicans are much more unlikely to vote third party, at least the trump fans/trump-esque liking ones. they’re going to vote for the republican elect. their vote will not be split over multiple candidates, they’ll be concentrated on one. democrats are much more likely to vote third party right now, because they don’t really like biden either, but that splits the vote. vote splitting can be very dangerous, and is something that many political elects, especially republican ones, intentionally attempt to cause by things like gerrymandering.

(vote splitting is what (likely) caused the outcome of the 2000 presidential election. it (likely) caused al gore to lose to george w bush because of the green party canadate ralph nadar getting enough votes to split votes that would have likely gone to al gore. ralph nader only got 2.7% of the popular vote that election, but he likely made a massive impact with just that small amount, and not necessarily in a good way. if al gore had won, america likely would never have gone into iraq.)

that makes it so that sure, 47% of people are voting for trump/the republican candidate, but only 46% are voting for biden/the democratic party candidate. the other 7% are going to third parties. this means that although 47% is less than half, and we usually think of the presidential election as being won by the candidate that gets more than half of the vote, that 47% in no way means that they are not winning. with third parties it makes it possible for a candidate to win without getting over 50% of the vote, which is entirely fine and valid, but it’s not intuitive when america is treated like an entirely two party system.

that 47% is still going to win. the views of the 7% that voted thirds and the 46% that voted democratic are probably more alike in ideas and views than they are to the republican sector, but that doesn’t mean that what is actually the popular view wins out. if the 7% that voted thirds voted democratic, the democratic candidate would have 53% of the vote, and would win. even if only 2% of those third party voters voted democratic, and 5% still voted third, the democratic party would win. the candidate that you have more similar views to would win, rather than the one whose views are less like yours.

again, it’s absolutely shit that this is so crucial right now. you should be able to vote for a third party or whoever you want, without feeling like you’re unintentionally hurting people. you should be able to actually vote for who you want most without unintentionally causing harm. but because of how america currently runs, it’s tricky. it doesn’t really work like that. and it’s shit, because it shouldn’t work like it does right now, it shouldn’t be fucked up, but it is. and we unfortunately need to accommodate for that.

please consider not voting third party for president. at least not for now. they may sound like a good idea, but they can be dangerous. we cannot afford another four years of trump or republican leadership. american politics has turned into a game, play it responsibly and play it well.

(plus, it’s not like trump or republican leadership would care about the issues that people are mad at biden for not taking a stronger or better stance on either. trump/republican leadership would not be doing anything more to help anyone in palestine or israel right now, would not be doing anything more to help the actual innocent civilians that are being killed en masse. would not be calling for a ceasefire. would not be doing anything more than probably trying to drop our own bombs there too. they would not be doing more to support minorities, to support women. they would be actively trying to ban abortion even more than they are already. they would be trying to ban gay people, yet again. they would be, and already are, trying to legislate trans people out of existence. would not be trying to help the people of ukraine any more, would not be trying to prevent more innocent civilians from being killed. would not be doing any more to prevent the rampant gun violence in america, in fact would be doing much less. would not be doing any more to help prevent innocent civilians around the world from being killed. i saw someone describe this election as “more war crimes” v.s. “less war crimes”, and that’s exactly what it is. please vote for less war crimes.)

People are talking about not voting for Biden.

Again.

I'm just so tired of this argument.

I just can't do Trump again.

I can't.

His incompetence killed so many people. A panel estimated 40% of COVID deaths could have been averted.

One of those deaths was my mother.

She was killed because people didn't trust the vaccines and they didn't think masks were worth the inconvenience. That man could have gone on TV and said "This is the Trump vaccine and it is great." He could have sold fucking MAGA masks on his website. He had 100% influence over his dipshit followers and could have used that for the greater good. But he was too vain to wear a mask in public and bungled the vaccine rollout.

And now I worry some of my trans loved ones may not make it through another far right administration. They have this giant target on their back right now and conservatives seem determined to eradicate as many trans lives as possible.

I wrote a whole ass post about how I didn't care for Biden. I still don't. But when I try to imagine what a right wing administration would be doing right now... that seems like it would be a nightmare orders of magnitude worse than the current nightmare.

As someone with an untreatable chronic illness, I know the feeling of being presented with choices where all of them suck. And I have had to survive by choosing the least sucky option over and over.

It feels bad every single time.

I hate it.

And I still fucking choose.

It should be different. There should be better choices. I shouldn't have to choose the least bad thing among all bad things.

But there are people and things in this world I feel are worth sticking around for, so I continue to choose the least sucky thing.

[theorangedead]

PSA About Third Parties in the US

The US doesn’t have third parties with any political power. This is not because of lack of support or interest in third parties and it’s not about media coverage of third parties. It is because of the structural institutions of the US. It doesn’t not matter if third parties have support, because the way the US legislature is set up means that third parties cannot have any real power. It doesn’t have to be this way, it’s not like this in other countries, but this is because other countries are *structurally different* and this cannot change in the US without *institutional reform.* I’m saying this because a lot of people seen to think that if only people would get excited for and vote for third parties in the US we wouldn’t have only two options, but that’s not true. That wouldn’t work, because of how legislative districts in the US are set up. 

Explanations below the cut. 

The US as single member, winner take all legislative districts. This means that US legislative districts have only one representative who is determined by the getting plurality of the votes. I said plurality and not majority, because it doesn’t matter if they get the majority of votes or not. As long as they get the *most votes* out of *all the candidates running* they get *all of the power as representative*. There is one seat and it is taken by the person who gets the most votes. This means that if there are 25% Green Party votes, 35% Democratic votes, and 40% Republican vote the Republican candidate wins and gets all the power. It doesn’t matter that 60% of people had more progressive beliefs that they voted on, the most conservative candidate won and will now get all of the power. In a different system with 5 seats that are proportionally represented the Green Party might get 1 seat and the Democratic and republican parties two seats and then the Green and Democratic parties both have more influence. That does not happen in the US. It is not how our system functions on a structural level. 

That is why voting Green is useless. If voting third party is what gets you out and voting in local elections that’s good, but yeah, your third party vote for president means nothing. That’s why Democrats don’t like the green party. In any close race, if the Green Party takes voters who would otherwise be voting democratic, but think they have a third option, then it enables a Republican more conservative than the Democrat to win. this is why Republicans who sometimes work to enabled the Green Party, because they know that (aside from on a local level) all they can do is hurt democrats. The idea that you have a third option in the presidency is *an illusion* that is just structurally untrue. 

I’ve seen some people saying vote blue on the presidency, but support and organize for the Green Party on a local level if that’s what you believe in. This is a much better idea because on a local level there’s more flexibility and the Green Party can get more support. However, the idea that you’ll work up the green Party on a local level to be powerful enough to be a major party is probably not true in the current system. If you really want more than two options you need to advocate for structural reform. That’s the actual third option. Currently there aren’t any large-scale movements for this that I know of, but that’s the movement you want to build up that could actually get somewhere in allowing for third parties. Choosing a third party and supporting it will not change the US legislative institutions. 

This system is also why the republican and Democratic parties end up so similar in rhetoric. When you just have to get the plurality and there are only two real options it makes the most sense to go to the center. Imagine two points on a sliding scale from left to right. The point to the left gets everything to the left of it and the point to the right gets everything to the right of it. In order to get the most possible that on that scale both points benefit from going to the center. It’s more complicated in real life with who actually votes and who has protected voting rights, the difference between rhetoric and policy, the influence of lobbying, etc. but that’s how it basically works. 

Now, I don’t hold that the two parties are the same because the differences that some people wave away as insignificant is actually incredibly important to my life. the Trump administration has tried to legalize healthcare discrimination against transgender patients and the Biden administration will probably not make huge headway on trans legal rights, so some people consider that the same. I, a transgender person living in a red state during a pandemic, consider it the difference between life or death for me. I voted Blue early and think you should, too, to be completely honest with you, because I enjoy living. But I will say that there are two similar parities in America and many different parties in other countries and often the two parties don’t give the option of voting your full values. This is true and it sucks. But it’s true because of institutional, structural reasons that need to change, not because the media or other voters have decided it should be. 

[mutantrenegade]

@impossiblepackage you're right btw. It would be great if the democratic party ran like an actually progressive candidate. Shame that's not gonna happen! Shame biden is convinced he is the only person who can beat trump and is limping along as president despite being just so, so sleepy.

But you know what, biden thinks climate change is real, and trans people should be alive, and won't pretend to shoot the black lives matter logo at fundraising events. And will listen to people calling for ceasefire even if only for show instead of you know, all the fascist bullshit trump caused. I hate biden, he sucks, I wish he would retire and then go to jail. I wish he wasn't sucking cop dick while claiming to care about black lives. I wish we had that third, better option where no one dies but they keep removing that track. So I'm gonna vote for biden who sucks and is weak as hell because he's undone some of trumps bullshit, and it trying to cancel at least some student debt, and DOESNT ACTIVELY SUPPORT THE ERADICATION OF TRANSGENDER PEOPLE FROM PUBLIC LIFE LIKE THE GOP DOES.

And hey, as biden continues to do fucking nothing, the liberals I know are starting to realize how useless the democrats are because things are getting worse, and they start to listen more when I talk about things like taxing billionaires, universal basic income, etc.

I know incremental progress sucks and gets undone all the time and we need real change, but we can't do that when the people in charge keep holding you back. So maybe fucking engage with the situation we are in instead of pretending a better option exists right now. And I'm not ignoring fighting for a better tomorrow, I'm not just giving in to liberalism. I'm trying to be realistic about what is happening around me and trying to improve my situation both within the system AS WELL AS outside of it.

You know I used to think "tumblr's absolute refusal to actually engage with the Trolley Problem in favor of insisting that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is just a short-sighted idiot is really fucking annoying, but I guess it's not actually doing any harm".

Anyway that was before we asked tumblr at large to decide between "guy aiding a genocide but making progress elsewhere" and "guy who would actively and enthusiastically participate in a genocide and would also make everything else much, much worse for everyone elsewhere" and the response was that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and that anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is a short-sighted idiot.

[dollopheadedmerlin]

Are you voting this year? I'm leaning towards Jo Jorgensen because Biden is so bad. What do you think of her? I keep getting told "just vote for Biden to get trump out, I know he's bad but he not Trump" but I just can't vote for him. All my friends sound like they have Stockholm syndrome for the dems and it's freaking me out. They think I'm throwing my vote away, but idk. Biden is just as bad as trump imo

Oh goodness, I don't know why you're asking me this since I rarely talk about politics on my blog but Yes. I am voting this year. It's the first election year I have been old enough to vote in. I could understand being weirded out by people who actually LIKE Biden, but MOST people who have been pushing for Biden don't actually like him. He's not their first choice. But voting third party is essentially obsolete this year (as it has been in past years). There is no chance that a third party candidate will win in this election, so I would advise against doing so. Biden is also not "just as bad as Trump". He most certainly is less extreme and will be less dangerous in office. Will he be on our side? Will he be a good president? Probably not! But we have a choice between two evils and Biden is one we know we can probably survive. Think of it like two snake bites. You ARE going to get bitten by one of two snakes. IF you try to chose a different animal or a different snake, one of these two will bite you anyway. But if you CHOOSE from the two available options, you can opt to get bitten by a NON -venomous snake. Otherwise, you leave it up to chance and may be bitten by a venomous one. Trump is the venomous snake. He is going to hurt more and hurt longer. And he very well could kill you. Biden is the non-venomous snake. He is still going to bite you and it is still going to suck and hurt, but it is fa less likely to kill you. It's also worth saying that a person's personal moral compass has no place in this election. It sucks voting for someone like Biden, it does. But this is about strategy, not morals. It's unfortunate but we're not in a place to fight to change the system right now. Biden is awful, his VP is bad too, but Trump is in a position where he could do a lot more damage that will (already) take years to undo. Hopefully one day, voting third party won't be so obsolete, but it unfortunately does little to nothing in current times. I think if you can understand that the person you are voting for is a bad choice but that the decisions to vote for him is a good one, then you're not sacrificing your morals or beliefs. You have to play their game and it's not a fair fight. In this case, the game is rigged and you only have unfavorable options, but if you can see HOW it's rigged (third party candidates not being viable to win) then you can at least play to your advantage for a more favorable (but still unsatisfactory) outcome.