#THE SUPERDELEGATES

[dykeseinfeld]

here’s how gideon/cytherea can go canon in alecto the ninth-

[nfinitefreetime]

One more tiny Biden detail

I don’t have a ton I want to talk about tonight, but I did discover a piece of information earlier today that’s relevant to yesterday’s post and the Biden conversation in general. It occurred to me that we haven’t heard any talk about superdelegates during this primary. Now, on one hand, I wouldn’t expect to hear much about them, on account of there’s only one credible candidate and he’s the…

[theshehulkproject]

Quickly, before we all forget for another four years

Here’s how the Democratic primary system works in the United States, mostly:

The Democratic primary system looks a lot like the Electoral College system, but there are some differences. Each state gets a number of delegates, based largely on the proportion of Democrats in that state. People get chances to vote (or caucus) during their primary race, including in places that don’t have electors in the Electoral College (e.g. Guam and Puerto Rico). Then those votes are tallied up and distributed to the appropriate number of delegates (I think some states are winner-take-all and some states are proportional).

Crucially, people have voted for delegates to vote for their candidate at the convention, and not the candidate themselves. Party rules were set up in a time before easy mass communication over distances, so you literally had to send a guy! Usually, this is a distinction without a difference, but not this year! This year it was great to have people making a decision and not statistics that couldn’t change after a candidate dropped out.

Secondarily, there are superdelegates or automatic delegates (who are basically Democrats who are elected officials or formerly elected officials), who may also cast a vote as a delegate at the convention. This came up during the ‘08 election when Clinton and Obama were neck-and-neck even after Super Tuesday. This year, superdelegates  they only get to cast a vote if there’s no definitive winner after the first ballot (a rule change since 2020). 

So! Ultimately you have a bunch of people who get together at the convention to decide the candidate, informed by the primary votes from their state. In most years, it’s pretty straightforward and we have a frontrunner by Super Tuesday, and everyone knows who the candidate will be. That makes for a pretty uncontested convention. But that’s not always the case! In 1968, for instance, Bobby Kennedy was maybe the front runner, but he was assassinated two months before the convention, leading to a super dramatic convention. 

But back to 2024. If, say, the leading candidate declares they are withdrawing from the race, the delegates (who were technically the people who got chosen during the primary) get to make a decision about where their votes go. 

It’s important to note that these rules are not laws and are instead based on party policy. Political parties are not technically public or governmental entities (though I wouldn’t go so far as to call them “private” entities either, instead they are a tumblr classic, that secret third thing). 

I find this stuff super interesting. I think it really does a disservice to our country that we don’t teach more than a cursory course of civics in high school, and I worry that people end up feeling weird and disenfranchised if they don’t understand it (when really, it’s not that hard to become a delegate in most states—you could be one of the *most* enfranchised party people by 2028 if you wanted). Let me know if you still have questions!

[bungerc0re]

😭🚨IT’S JOEVER🚨😭😱 THE ➡️👨‍🦳 PRESIDENT 🇺🇸🧎‍♂️🫥 HAS 🔽DROPPED🔽 HIS👁️🫦👁️ RE-ERECTION 🍆📥🙋‍♂️ BID 😤🕺HELLA LOW💃😳 AND WE’RE ⚠️ OPENING 😛👀 WIDE 🤤FOR THE 🎊 CONVENTION😍🥳, NO ❌ CANDIDATES REFUSED‼️💯🙇‍♂️ SEND THIS 📫🏃‍♂️TO THE 4️⃣6️⃣7️⃣2️⃣ DIRTIEST 😈😷🟦 DEMS 🟦🤵🥴🟦 YOU KNOW 🫵 AND YOUR VOTE 🗳️ WILL COUNT 🧛🏻‍♂️ FOR 🔊 TRIPLE 📶✅ IF YOU GET 💯 BACK 🆗 YOU ARE A 🤩🤩 SUPERDELEGATE 🤠 IF YOU GET 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ BACK 😍😇 MAMALA 🥥🌴🥺 WILL VISIT 😘 YOU IN A 😩💦 DREAM 😳🥵 IF YOU GET 0️⃣ BACK YOU WILL BE BURDENED 🏋️‍♂️ BY WHAT HAS BEEN!!!

[lady-raziel]

Going to give some of my thoughts on the overall situation in the Democratic party and pre-empt this by saying that the intention is NOT to say "don't vote" or give up, before people in the notes claim that anyway. Not voting doesn't help, but also thinking that voting once will solve systemic problems instantly is setting people up to become disillusioned with everything when it doesn't happen like that. Anyway.

What's happening in the Democratic party is a tragedy, because I think due to their own faults, including allowing elites to cling to power and refusing change, the party might have signed their death warrant. And in a moment where the US has long been a two-party system and the only way to pose a challenge to the other party is to unify behind a candidate and participate in the system as it exists...if the Democratic party suffers such a severe crisis of confidence and credibility that it cannot pose a challenge, then it becomes significantly harder to oppose Republicans in any meaningful way.

I've spoken before about the Democrats' history of preferring one of their own elites as a presidential candidate and their history of suppressing changes to the status quo. Joe Biden is the product of all this. In a better world, he might have been convinced not to try for re-election early in his term and the party could have prioritized elevating alternative candidates so that there was a base of awareness and rapport by the time 2024 happened. But that didn't happen, and Biden chose to run again.

When his candidacy faced questions about his age and capability for duty from the start, it would have been a challenge even if those concerns weren't seemingly confirmed in increasing incidences over the past few weeks (but the debate particularly). The resulting crisis of confidence has brought questions of Biden stepping down to the forefront, and it seems like now that Biden has been diagnosed with COVID, compounded with events on the Trump side of things, it's becoming more likely that he'll listen.

I think all of this highlights how stuck the Democratic party is, and how they've maneuvered themselves into a very tricky corner. In all honesty, it was likely a mistake to pick Biden as nominee in 2020 because I think it was more anger with Trump than genuine belief in Biden that caused that result-- I don't believe that Joe Biden and Joe Biden alone is the factor that caused Trump to lose then. In retrospect, it would have been much wiser to prioritize a candidate who wouldn't have been at risk for the natural challenges age poses and would have been sure to be able to defend the presidency in 2024. But the Democrats didn't do that, and the seeds of all this might have been in place even then.

Because if Biden chose not to run again, it would have meant the Democrats had backed someone who couldn't "finish the job" and running someone else after a single term would cast doubt. Just like if Biden backs out now that the Democratic establishment has been backing him, cleared the field so no other candidate could run against him, it's an admission they chose wrong. That's part of the degradation of credibility I'm talking about-- why would anyone trust a party that doesn't know what it's doing? It erodes confidence. It erodes already-strained faith.

The terrible thing is that even if Biden bows out, the Democratic party is still very, very stuck. I'll tell you why, after spending some time examining the rules the party has established around its nominating process. Parties can write their own rules about how candidates can get chosen, and the way the Democrats have structured their system, surprise surprise, gives enormous power to their elites-- the "superdelegates."

Democratic superdelegates are existing and former high-ranking elected officials, members of the DNC, etc.--basically the ruling class of the party. And they have the power to independently vote for whichever candidate they want to be the nominee. This makes up a large portion of the Democratic delegates-- a nominee is chosen when the majority of all delegates agree on a candidate.

The rest of the delegates are chosen from states, and most operate with the assumption that they will use their vote to back the winner of their states' primary or caucus.

Here is the critical problem-- the primaries and caucuses have already happened, and Biden won all of them. The people in those states (even given that there were, by design, not many alternatives) CHOSE Biden. If Biden drops out, there is not time to redo every primary. The delegates would, independent of their now-void state results, have to vote for someone else.

The new nominee would be selected by the Democratic establishment elites and delegates who had really just been intended to rubber-stamp the states' results. The magnitude of this needs to be spelled out explicitly-- the candidate option for millions of people, the only chance in the current system for defeating Trump, would be chosen without ANY input from the common people. The Democratic party, with democracy in the very name, would choose a nominee openly and publicly in a very non-democratic way.

And yeah, in the end it would be the people's choice in the general election, but if there are only a limited number of choices and one of the two who even have a shot of winning was picked without input of the people, is that really a totally democratic choice?

Whatever the Democrats decide, they lose credibility-- either by pushing forward with a struggling candidate and ignoring signs of crisis or by pulling out and choosing someone new undemocratically. It looks bad for them in any scenario from a long-term viability standpoint. Lose because they refused the signs and refused to change, or possibly win but severely cripple their ability to claim their own NAME?

It would be bad at any time. It's especially bad when the other main party is having a moment of power, and the US isn't set up for a coalitionary system of government if the Democrats were to splinter into smaller ideological faction parties. To pick a president, a coalition would still have to pick one leader from one of their parties--and I don't know how likely that would be to happen in short amounts of time.

Here is my best-case scenario outcome-- rally progressives to back the Biden-replacement candidate with the knowledge that the common people didn't pick that person, and then use that as leverage to demand massive overhauls of the Democratic party top to bottom on both policy and process. Win with 2024's Democratic candidate, outlast and overcome Republican backlash claims of election fraud, and relentlessly force the Democrats to reform. Because otherwise they will not wake up to their mistakes, would use winning the presidency as a mandate to continue with business as usual, and continue to fuck over everyone who doesn't want a conservative future.

It's a hard path to accomplish. But it's one of the only ones that mitigates the destructive effects of a second Trump term and forces the Democrats to change to ACTUALLY be all the things they claim to be, including, you know, democratic.

[decolonize-the-everything]

I’m not a registered democrat, I have campaigned for a progressive before, but I’m gonna be real with you. If democrats are “pro-Democracy” and republicans are the “fascists” than why the fuck do the democrats not have debates this year but do have superdelegates? But the repubs don’t have superdelegates and do have debates (even when RFK Jr and Marianne Williamson are both doing better in the polls against Biden then any of the republicans other than DeSantis are doing against trump)? You can make the case he’s an incumbent but half the democrats want someone new. I can’t be the only one who sees this nonsense

fascism(n.)

fas·​cism ˈfa-ˌshi-zəm

a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that

exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader

severe economic and social regimentation

and forcible suppression of opposition

I can't post more than 10 links on a post anymore so I can't provide sources proving that the USA has met all-if not most- of these check marks. But it has. And it has for a long time, before Trump and before Obama. Regardless of party.

Because fascism is fascism. Just like democracy is democracy regardless of which party you align with. Why would which fascist party you like matter? Its fascism.

Like when was the last time any of us Genuinely had a say in anything? We're just now coming out of centuries of genocide, slavery, and systematic abuses against minorities. We all just got human rights within the last generation and not even all of them. And we had to fight tooth and nail, lose family for the ones we do have.

And that's not even talking about how long it took us to get our right to vote and it's still actively & shamelessly suppressed every election.

And we're slipping backwards? Already?

Does our "democracy" think the people suddenly lost interest in the rights and protections our previous generations fought for? Funny that while also adding more laws to make protesting illegal and more funding and protections to police. Did you know Biden labeled people protesting specifically against fascism as terrorists part of a terror group (antifa)?

Why?

Who does it benefit to strip us of rights?

Why do it when that's Not what we want?

What could They want for us?

Why are they censoring protests critiquing capitalism?

Do you want people deciding which rights you should have For you when they think you shouldn't have less?

Is the way this country is functioning right now a healthy democracy?

This is something that someone just made in contrast to the above images I'm sure. I can't find any indication online this is a genuine list.

But it does make a very strong point about the political leanings of the US political climate. And it's certainly not leaning towards any of these things. Always seems to be justifying attacking them or not supporting them instead...which goes back to the scapegoats checkpoint.

The first thing Nazis did was blame minorities for the state of the country. As soon as they had enough support, they started rounding us up.

Kinda like how Mexicans are stealing jobs, Black people steal cuz they don't work, queers are perverting our youth and welfare queens are stealing from taxpayers.

And what are the Dems doing about this rhetoric?

Pushing you right every chance. Like using the pied piper strategy for their nationwide campaigning. Like having superdelegates and not letting progressives participate.... But yeah Republicans will.

At least they listen, right? At least they're honest.

Makes that step right seem way easier than you thought before. Funny, innit?

Democrats are truly personifying the ratchet effect but not just by allowing republicans to pass awful policy while doing Nothing in return. They're also doing nothing at best while the right recruits more and more people (and helping at worst).

I think there are a lot of people in our government who are there for good reason and with good intentions and are "pro-democracy."

I think very few of them are aware enough of the bigger picture to realize they're cogs in a well oiled fascist machine.

That is to say only fascists work in fascist governments.

They're all fash. Not just repubs. Not just Dems.

The only people I have any hope for are progressives and leftists willing to throw a wrench in it.

I'd happily vote for Marianne or Bernie or Andrew Yang if it meant giving fascists a run for their money.

Nothing would scare them more than the people having spare money and time to organize. And we'd have that with higher wages or ubi or universal healthcare.

Voting for a socialist is the best way to beat a fascist. Socialists fundamentally believe everyone deserves rights. There is no greater challenger to fascism than that.

It's why Democrats refuse to push Bernie and Marianne and Andrew Yang. It's why candidates like them with campaigns focused on social programs and increasing life quality are reduced to clowns and radicals nobody should take seriously.

It's all propaganda. All of it.

As long as we still have the ability to vote we should be voting for people like them.

Who cares if they aren't perfect, you know? We're living in the setup stages of another genocide.

Who cares if we lose when we lose either fucking way at this point. Biden is the fucking president and he can't stop what Desantis is doing???? Won't challenge it???

We need someone who will. And WE, together, need to stop settling and putting up with less when we can have So Much More.

Anyone telling you to vote for Biden is a psyop for fascists and I stand by that.

Voting for parties like green party or independents or whatever is not "fascism" because it's splitting the vote. I don't care what Democrats and liberals tell you. It's just you exercising your right to vote for a representative that represents you. Which is what a healthy democracy is supposed function like.

If they call you a fascist/psyop/Russian/bot it's time to start really analyzing what principles and beliefs Democrats stand for in 2023. Do they want you to vote with their beliefs and principles or have they shaped their nationalism to align with their political party which they want you to support without question?

And if they start pressuring you because "the fascists" will win without a unified vote on a democratic candidate then it's time to start considering more aggressive approaches to fascism if we are ONLY ever one election away from it.

If we are One vote away then voting isn't enough to keep it away anyway. And this "warning" coming from the same party year after year that's ALSO promised to "address (voter sticking point) after we win the votes we need" for decades in a row now.

They didn't. In fact we don't have Roe v Wade over it. We're losing human rights over it.

And now Democrats are the Only ones who can stop fascists, huh?

[azspot]

We got in this mess because the Democratic machine decided that Hillary Clinton was going to be the nominee no matter what, despite the fact that she was always clearly a uniquely risky candidate whose obvious vulnerabilities would be exploited, and they were. They pushed aside Joe Biden, a reasonably popular vice president in a very winnable election, to kneel before the Clinton-Obama center-right dynasty, risking the entire country on Hillary’s colossal sense of entitlement. Then they used all of the party apparatus, like the absurd and hideously anti-democratic “superdelegate” system, to ensure that the party’s choice was the nominee. But because Hillary Clinton is one of the least popular figures in the history of American political polling, she deservedly lost, after running a campaign built on celebrity glamour in a country that was slowly decaying from years of deindustrialization and winner-take-all capitalism. This very year, we’re seeing the terrible outcome of the Democratic machine deciding that there would be no primary process for the 2024 election, moving all the levers to ensure that the party’s choice was the only choice. Turns out he’s incapable of campaigning. Whoops! Biden’s infirmity is precisely the kind of problem that can be revealed in a primary process, but the party elites didn’t want one, and the party elites decide. Now they’re doing it again, doubling down on total control by the party, handing the nomination to the wildly unpopular Kamala Harris despite the fact that she has earned zero votes for the role. It’s incredible.

So Just Literally No Democratic Process From the Democrats

[newtypezaku]

Or as they call it in America, Superdelegate Simulator

[lordnot]

Since Dr. Cornel West, by name recognition alone, is clearly the best Third Party Presidential candidate we've had in at least twenty years, it seems like a good time to clarify my stance on the Democratic Primary.

If I could snap my fingers and make a current candidate President, I would choose Marianne Williamson or RFK Jr. in a heartbeat. Flaws and all. They are leagues above Biden, Trump, DeSantis, or Harris when it comes to the good they could do for this country. The problem I have with their candidacies is that supporting them props up the illusion that the Democratic Primary is by any stretch a democratic process.

What people seem to have forgotten is that between Bernie's victory in the 2020 Nevada Caucus and Super Tuesday, the Democratic Party Elites started to get anxious and tipped their hands a little too much. The narrative quickly became "You know we don't actually have to make the person who wins the most delegates our candidate, right?" This all culminated in the February 19th debate, where every candidate was asked whether they would support allowing superdelegates to give the nomination to someone who didn't win the most delegates in the primaries, and everyone but Bernie said they would.

To me, that means the cat is out of the bag. Unless Marianne and RFK's goals are just trying to win support before launching their own Third Party run, which is unlikely, then they are wasting their and everyone else's time. The Party Elites want Biden. Biden wants to run again. Therefore, he will be the nominee.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

#20yrsago Argentina: stranger than fiction https://infinitematrix.net/columns/sterling/sterling54.html

#15yrsago JK Rowling sues to stop publication of Potter reference book https://web.archive.org/web/20071115040824/http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/11/13/harry_potter/

#15yrsago Gitmo operating manual leak https://web.archive.org/web/20071216093109/https://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Gitmo-sop.pdf

#15yrsago Magic and Showmanship: Classic book about conjuring has many lessons for writers https://memex.craphound.com/2007/11/13/magic-and-showmanship-classic-book-about-conjuring-has-many-lessons-for-writers/

#10yrsago UPS to Scouts: no more money until you drop anti-gay policy https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2012/11/12/ups-cuts-funding-to-boy-scouts-over.html

#10yrsago Wall Street is not made up of “numbers guys” https://scienceblogs.com/principles/2012/11/12/financiers-still-arent-rocket-scientists

#10yrsago Tune: Derek Kirk Kim’s alien abduction romcom https://memex.craphound.com/2012/11/13/tune-derek-kirk-kims-alien-abduction-romcom/

#5yrsago One week after release, iPhone X’s Face ID reportedly defeated by a $150 mask https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/13/16642690/bkav-iphone-x-faceid-mask

#5yrsago The secretive wealthy family behind the opioid epidemic are using the same tactics to kill public education https://www.salon.com/2017/11/15/the-super-wealthy-oxycontin-family-supports-school-privatization_partner/

#5yrsago Bernie Sanders: to fix the Democratic Party, curb superdelegates, make it easier to vote in primaries, and account for funds https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/10/bernie-sanders-how-to-fix-democratic-party-215813/

#5yrsago Watson for Oncology isn’t an AI that fights cancer, it’s an unproven mechanical turk that represents the guesses of a small group of doctors https://www.statnews.com/2017/09/05/watson-ibm-cancer/

#5yrsago Roy Moore’s scandal is just the tip of American evangelical Christianity’s child bride problem https://web.archive.org/web/20171119043741/http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-brightbill-roy-moore-evangelical-culture-20171110-story.html

#1yrago How to be safe(r) online https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/13/opsec-soup-to-nuts/#secured

[songsofprotestpeacerevolution]

Superdelegate · Roy Zimmerman

[federalistpixels]

A Contested Convention - Superdelegates

As the 24-hour news cycle continues to churn out opinions, forecasts, alternative takes, and legal definitions, take note of what isn't being reported. What stories have gone dark, what narratives have disappeared, and what noise is no longer being generated. July 22nd-26th will be very telling as to whether the convention will be contested or not.

Contested Conventions are where The People have the smallest amount of power.

Primary delegates are about to find themselves in the position where they must vote for a candidate that was mostly likely not on their district's primary ballot. If no clear nominee wins the majority, then superdelegates will toss their weight wherever they please, an even further removal from representative government. Considering Super PACs have become gatekeepers of successful campaigns, few if any Super Delegates are free of corporate or financial influence. Simply put, the will of The People is not reflected in this process and is further removed the less united the delegates are. The Harris/?? ticket has technically received zero votes or delegates; can party unity coalesce around this candidate and this situation?

Only time will tell.

Points of interest:

The majority of those that called for Biden to step down were large donors, safe seats, and legacy politicians.

Dean Philips, a 2024 Dem Candidate and owner of a distillery business, called for a vote of no confidence, one hour later Biden dropped out.

The Biden/Harris 92-million-dollar war chest can go to Harris but no other candidate. Only big money can subvert a Harris ticket.

If Harris and her chosen VP do not win on the first round of votes at the convention, it will become contested. Nominations will be made, and present delegates will continue to vote until a nominee holds the majority.

The 2024 convention will likely be decided by superdelegates.

Party conventions are not in the constitution, they are traditions that have taken shape over time out of societal necessities in the given moment.

Harris, while few Americans first choice, is the only nominee still in the race that has received both donations and votes. Dean Philips would be the next contender with 4 pledge delegates, although his campaign has ended, and he encouraged his delegates to vote for Biden.

[theidlerwheeliswiser2012]

wrt aipac throwing millions into ads to sink progressive candidates-- this one of many things that drives me crazy when i see liberals insist that Your Vote Is Your True Power because anyone who pays attention to and studies US politics knows this is and HAS been a problem since the citizens united supreme court case that gave corporations the same political donation rights as individuals. they've been diluting our votes with money, with "superdelegates," etc. for years.

the genocidal old man you're all falling over yourselves to support "because he's the better option" before the options have really been decided is actively lying, playing dirty political games, and harnessing millions on billions in money from the zionist lobby (and almost certainly weapons corps) to eliminate any of the candidates i'd even consider voting for

[dan6085]

In the United States, each political party has its own process for selecting candidates for public office. The Republican Party, like the Democratic Party, uses a system of delegates to select its presidential nominee.

In the Republican Party, the delegates are elected or appointed individuals who represent their state or territory at the party's national convention. These delegates are often chosen through a series of state-level caucuses and primaries, where voters choose which candidate they prefer.

The number of delegates for each state is determined by a formula that takes into account the state's population, past voting patterns, and other factors. Some states use a winner-takes-all system, where the candidate who wins the most votes in the primary or caucus receives all of the state's delegates. Other states use a proportional system, where the delegates are awarded based on the percentage of the vote each candidate receives.

At the Republican National Convention, the delegates cast their votes for the candidate they have been pledged to support. The candidate who receives a majority of the delegates' votes becomes the party's nominee for president.

In addition to the delegates, there are also superdelegates in the Democratic Party, which are party officials and elected officials who are not bound by the results of the primaries and caucuses. However, the Republican Party does not have superdelegates.

[decolonize-the-everything]

In 2016, I went balls to the wall for Bernie - was a registered democrat for the duration of the primaries, became a state delegate for Bernie, went to the Philly DNC in support of Bernie. I saw first hand how broken the system was - counting delegates by hand raising, expecting people to physically be in person and take off work without pay, providing no child care services or transportation assistance, how lifelong democrats walked through the delegate aisles to tell all Bernie supporters "when Bernie loses, you're still gonna vote blue." I canvassed houses of registered democrats in Iowa to talk to them about Bernie, and the responses were either: "Bernie is way too radical, Hillary is getting my vote" or "I can't afford to take off work/I don't have someone to babysit/I'm too disabled to get to the caucus, but Bernie has my full support and I wish I could participate." People seem to forget how hard folx went for Bernie, how he and Hillary were neck-and-neck. They seem to forget that the superdelegates chose Hillary - despite seeing a massive swell of voter turnout and participation in the system because of a candidate that was finally outside what the establishment was wanting to prop up. Despite seeing how much Bernie stirred and lit up the voters, they fought against the very demographic that they constantly try to win over. The establishment will always pick their people, regardless of what The People want. The experience was disheartening, it was eye opening, it was cruel, it was rigged. It still is all of those things.

And instead of reading your frustrations, your needs, your real pain, people will just... blame you for how the system is set up? They really think non-voters are the problem? That is telling me that they don't really know how the system is set up beyond the ballot - they haven't actually gone through the state delegate process start to finish nor have they even educated themselves on what the process looks like and what obstacles were put in place (that the establishment, by the way, doesn't want changed). The established parties don't want to digitize the process - they still want people to physically show up in spaces (and a candidate will LOSE state delegates if people who sign up to be delegates don't PHYSICALLY show up on a specific day, at a specific time, for several hours to be counted), but they won't offer child care services, they won't pay for travel or work missed. They would rather blame non-voters rather than make the process accessible.

This is by design, this is not a fluke.

I don't know how many of your anons actually have been inside or around Republican circles, but damn a lot of what they're spouting at you I have heard straight up in Republican dominated spaces. "We don't like Trump, but we can't let a democrat win - we will get killed, our families will be broken, the country will collapse. Life as we know it is under attack and on the verge of destruction. You have to vote Republican no matter what."

I say all of this also as an indigenous, trans, queer activist. I say all this as someone who puts together rallies, workshops, protests, and spaces of healing. I say this as a trans refugee, displaced due to hostile legislation, still working out housing. I see you, I hear you, and you are not my enemy. You are not the reason why things are as they are. The system has failed us all, the system is rigged, thank you for all the on the ground work you're doing outside the state. I think these anons are cowards and punching down - they need to direct that anger towards democrats and republicans. They should read your posts, get angry (about what the system is, how you've been treated by it, and where it is now) and tear into the establishment that has done you (and all of us) wrong. The victim blaming has got to stop.

Agree

[vamptastic]

Can people who don't even live in Florida stop putting the blue no matter who Desantis post on my dash. Fuck that guy dgmr but I want everyone to stop spreading this bullshit bootlicking narrative of "democrats lose elections bc people pick fringe leftist candidates and then refuse to vote when they lose the nomination, so make sure you nominate and vote for the most centrist candidate possible".

Democrats lose elections because they pit the most soulless spineless centrists against populist reactionaries regardless of what their actual voters want. The superdelegate thing is so fucked and we shouldn't just handwave away the fact that one of two major political parties doesn't even let their voters pick the nominees. It's oligarchic.

And yes the Republican party also has bigtime issues with representing their voters interests in the party but people aren't passing around sanctimonious Tumblr posts excusing it. Yeah, duh, don't vote for fucking Desantis, but we're not even in the primaries yet and y'all are already telling people to toss out all of their hopes and dreams and morals and vote for whoever is most likely to win against him no matter what awful policy they want passed or what their legislative history is or whatever personal moral failings they've exhibited.

Polls are bullshit, the Democratic party is a fucking joke, ignore their unsuccessful campaign strategies and vote for whoever is actually gonna try to pass what you want passed.