#and AGAIN. I live in a red state and I vote in most elections from federal to local levels

[deadpresidents]

"What emerged in two interviews with Trump, and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisers and confidants, were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world. To carry out a deportation operation designed to remove more than 11 millions people from the country, Trump told me, he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland. He would let red states monitor women's pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans. He would, at his personal discretion, withhold funds appropriated by Congress, according to top advisers. He would be willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn't carry out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with a tradition of independent law enforcement that dates from America's founding. He is weighing pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury. He might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn't paying enough for its own defense. He would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the White House pandemic-preparedness office, and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen."

-- "How Far Would He Go", TIME Magazine's interviews with Donald Trump, April 30, 2024.

I know we're saturated in coverage of Trump and it's easy (and probably better for our mental health) to usually ignore most of the articles when we see them, especially since he's so full of shit and infuriating. But it's also important to recognize that he is going to be the Republican nominee for President and he could absolutely be elected in November, and if you thought his first term was scary and dangerous, you need to understand that in a second term he's going to have people around him that are better prepared and VERY willing to do the crazy shit that he wants to do to this country. They aren't even hiding the fact that they are seeking vengeance against political opponents whom they feel have wronged them, and are ready to fundamentally dismantle the democratic foundations that are barely holding this country together after nearly 250 years.

Just look at what Trump says about the people who he incited to attack the United States Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election and halt the peaceful transfer of power that has happened every four years since 1789:

"Trump has sought to recast an insurrectionist riot as an act of patriotism. 'I call them the J-6 patriots,' he say. When I ask whether he would consider pardoning every one of them, he says, 'Yes, absolutely.' As Trump faces dozens of felony charges, including for election interference, conspiracy to defraud the United States, willful retention of national-security secrets, and falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments, he has tried to turn legal peril into a badge of honor."

Oh, and please note that Trump -- a former President of the United States and possible future President of the United States -- said on the record in these interviews with TIME: "There is a definite antiwhite feeling in the country and that can't be allowed either." We are at a point where political leaders are outright saying that in this country again, and it's because of Donald Trump.

So, take the time to recognize that Trump is straight-up telling us the country we're going to be living in if he wins again in November. And understand that your vote matters -- and WHO you vote for matters -- because, as I've been saying for years now, ELECTIONS HAVE FUCKING CONSEQUENCES.

[nevermind-i-forgot-whats-that]

Sometimes, as much as I love internet communities and spaces, I really think a lot of people have spent so much time in sanitized, morally pure echo chambers that they lose sight of realism and life outside the internet.

I live in Alabama. My fiancée and I cannot hold hands down the street without fear of homophobic assholes. We have an abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. We are one of the poorest states in the US with some of the lowest scores on metrics related to quality of life, including maternal mortality, healthcare, education, and violence. It’s not a coincidence that we are also one of the most red, one of the most Republican states in the Union. In 2017 the UN said the conditions in Alabama are similar to those in a third-world country.

Trump gave a voice to the most violently racist, sexist, xenophobic groups of people who, unfortunately for most of us in the Southern U.S., run our states and have only grown more powerful since his rise to power. The Deep South powers MAGA, and we all suffer for it.

We have no protections if they don’t come from the federal government.

I know people are suffering internationally and my heart is with them. However, this election is not just about foreign policy - we have millions of Americans right here at home living in danger, living in areas where they have been completely abandoned by their local leaders. We need this win.

No candidate is perfect, but for the first time in my voting lifetime I’m excited to vote. I’m excited for the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz ticket because they are addressing the issues close to home. They’re advocating for education as the ticket to a better life, but without the crippling student debt. They’re advocating for the right to love who you love without fear and with pride. Kamala has always been pro-LGBT+ and so has Tim. Again, if you’re queer in the South, we don’t have support unless it comes from the federal government, and we absolutely will not have support if the Republicans regain the White House.

Kamala speaks in length about re-entry programs to reduce recidivism and help people who have been arrested and imprisoned regain their lives. Tim Walz supported restoring voting rights to felons. In the South, you know who comprise the majority of felons? Members of minorities. It’s one of the major tools of systemic racism and mass disenfranchisement, and arguably the modern face of slavery (there are some fantastic documentaries and books that explain the connection between the post-Reconstruction South and the disproportionate rates of imprisonment for BIPOC). Having candidates who recognize this and want to restore the freedom and rights to people who have come into contact with the criminal justice system? And keep them from having to go to prison in the first place? That’s refreshing. That’s exciting.

I would *love* to live in a country where women’s rights are respected, where LGBT+ rights and protections are a given, where we treat former criminals and individuals experiencing mental health crises with respect and dignity. I would *love* to live in a country where education is free of religious interference and each and every citizen is entitled to a fair start and equal opportunities.

But I don’t live in that country. Millions and millions of Americans find their rights and freedoms up for debate and on the ballot.

Project 2025 poses the largest threat to the future of our democracy as we know it. We are being called to fight for the future of our country.

We have to put on our oxygen masks first before we can help others.

You don’t have moral purity when you wash your hands of the millions of us who are still fighting for own freedoms right here.

The reality is that a presidential candidate is a best fit, and not a perfect fit. But comparatively speaking? Kamala is pretty damn close.

[tchaikovskaya]

You’re really failing to understand the point here.

What the College Dems tweet is expressing (quite succinctly, I must say) is the idea that the left-of-center of the Party’s base is being taken for granted, because there are no better viable options on the table.

This is effectively what would be in a parliamentary system a vote of no confidence.

Doing whatever the fuck you want because [your] half of the country knows that the other side is going to do the same but to a greater degree is absolutely what I would consider “holding democracy hostage.”

I don’t think that both parties are the same, no. But the Democrats feel that they have license to act similarly enough to the GOP on a great number of issues as long as they maintain some distinction. The difference is used as something to dangle over the electorate’s heads as a looming threat of something worse to come, as a consequence if they don’t fall in line. And party-loyal voters have had enough of it at this point. THAT is what’s happening here.

Yeah biden is fucking toast lol

[seannessy]

⚠️POLITICS⚠️

haha bet you forgot through the shitposts that i have a bachelor's degree in political science

here's a bunch of reasons why Kamala Harris is going to win the presidency because i can never find the effort to edit this into a video:👇

1. The current polls are VERY biased towards republicans. Most large polls just take the averages of other smaller polls, and right now the GOP has been dumping LOTS OF MONEY into publishing a lot of fluff polls in swing states to make themselves look better and to get more donations. Democrats don't usually publish their polls publicly. Odds are it's another red mirage.

2. The majority of people who Trump is catering to just don't vote. A lot of the latest pushes in the Aiden Ross Gamerbro communities are not reliable voters, even as loud as they are online. You cannot convince me that the twitter edgelord crowd has ever even seen a ballot in their lives.

3. In elections canvassing matters by about 300% more than advertising (my own ballpark estimate, not a specific datapoint, but still very true having worked in both canvassing and campaign marketing). The only people signing up to canvass for Trump are just stealing Elon's money, meanwhile people are flying out from all 50 states to swing states to canvass for Kamala.

4. "This is Hillary Clinton all over again." No it isn't. Hundreds of papers have been published that all agree that the reason Hillary lost (besides the Michigan debacle) was that largely a lot of people already assumed she was going to win, and so they didn't go out to vote. Sean Westwood did a really good paper on this in 2018, the more likely you are expected to win, the less of your supporters turn out. The entire narrative is that Kamala is either tied or behind, so anyone who supports her will NOT be sitting this one out.

5. Kamala just did a MASSIVE rally event in Texas. Texas. In this part of the campaign, any sane strategist would tell you to do ALL campaigning in the swing states, so this makes no sense... unless internal democrat polls are saying that Texas is now winnable for democrats. I will remind you that Texas is not NEARLY as red as the stereotype says, and Greg Abbot has himself previously said that Texas would have gone blue if not for all of the voter suppression he did. I'm not joking. This is real. The only reason Texas is still Lean Red instead of Moderate Blue is because of insane levels of voter suppression by Texas GOP.

6. When turnout is low, republicans win. When turnout is high, democrats win. Turnout is already STUPIDLY high in the early voting metrics. Even higher than 2020 (which i will remind you, we won) in some cases.

7. Voter demographics just aren't on Trump's side here. Lots of republicans have bled out of Trumpism, and in a close enough race as this one looks to be even a few thousand republicans deciding to stay home could make or break it in a lot of states. Additionally, while Trump has made a lot of progress in minority voters (daily reminder that the median voter is stupid enough for "median voter" to be used as a slur in political science communities), Kamala has the white woman vote locked down. And oh no! Look at that! Which voter demographic is orders of magnitudes both larger and more active voters than all of the minority demographics that Trump has been gaining in? Yep! Kamala's lead in the white woman demographic has entirely erased Trump's gains in other communities. Abortion was the final nail in the coffin of republican chances, they took the mask off too early. The dog caught the car and didn't know what to do with it.

8. Voter demographics are STILL not on Trump's side even ignoring all that other stuff, because keep in mind, Trump voters have largely been older people, and the waves of people who elected him previously have... well they've kind of died. Covid really didn't help with that. I mean obviously not everyone, but like, this is a close race, and a very large chunk of those voters have been reincarnated as plants or whatever now.

9. "The X Factor" is 100% on Kamala's side. By that I mean just the force of raw charisma, the Kamala campaign is just more appealing and less unnerving to the general population. I really hate to keep hammering this but oh my god dude have you SEEN JD Vance????? Even after the debate where he performed as best as he possibly could and Walz performed as bad as he possibly could, samples STILL said they supported Walz over Vance by a factor of 85 PERCENT.

10. "The Shy Trump Effect." There's a myth a lot of people believe that Trump underperforms in polls and overperforms in elections because voters are shy to admit they're fans of him. A few things. #1: This was disproved so many times, including in Sean Westwood's previously mentioned paper. #2: Even after it's disproved, many polls already factor it into their calculations, which is actually INFLATING his odds in the polls. #3: Anyone who would have been a Shy Trump Supporter either just isn't going to vote this election cycle or is going to follow the Cheney's lead and vote for Kamala instead. This is probably the one election in our entire lives where Democrats have appealed to the right and it actually fucking worked.

11. Polymarket. A lot of people point to the new Polymarket as evidence that Trump has a lot of support among the average joe crowd. These people have no idea how the Polymarket works. American citizens legally can't bet in it, and the only way to get around that is by using Crypto. How many tech illiterate boomers do you think are going to know how to use both Crypto and a VPN? All of Trump's support there is coming from techbro whales or people in other countries. Infact, I think the number was that about a whopping 30% of all bets made on the side of Trump were sourced back to this one French Billionaire.

That being said, it's not a predetermined victory. Currently I'd put the odds at anywhere between 60-40 and 70-30 in favor of Kamala, but that still leaves Trump plenty of room.

The moral of the story is that things aren't hopeless! We have a very good shot at winning--as long as we all keep pushing like hell!

Oh also, if they try another Jan 6th, reminder that Biden is now the one in control of the military and national guard at the capital. Lol, Lmao, even.

[batboyblog]

How concerned do you think we should be about election officials who are election deniers refusing to certify results? I’m trying not to be anxious about it but it is a challenge.

well this was a worrying moment

my understanding is that Mr. Richer will oversee this election before his term is done, it's super duper VERY VERY important that any Arizona voters who see this make sure to vote all the way down to the Democrat Tim Stringham to make sure ALL Americans get free and fair elections.

ANY WAYS, how worried should you be? well, I think its always important to not let fear and worry paralyze you, its important to remember that in 2020 election deniers did try, but Joe Biden had won too many states, they had to try to overturn Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada, too many state courts, too many election officials, too many moving parts. So our best hope of frustrating them again is to win big. Many of them will lose their nerve and not want to be on the "losing side" which again happened in 2020 with most Republicans going along with the election. In 2024 Trump will be an old-old man, to try to run again for President he'd be 82 years old, everyone says his public appearances have slipped from the past, his legal battles drag on, he could be sentenced to jail in 2025, all to say if I'm a scummy Republican Congressman in January 2025 and Trump has lost every swing state commandingly I'm not sticking my neck out for him.

SO! you want to feel better? you want to not feel worried, get involved, its the only cure, I swear to god it is, I know no one believes me when I say that but its true, want to not have election anxiety? Volunteer, the anxiety comes from a sense of a huge out of control event looming over you, if you take action your brain won't feel out of control, you will feel better.

look for an event to volunteer with here, if you live somewhere super red or blue without an important Senate/House race, I recommend checking Run for Something they support young progressive candidates running for lower profile offices. If you're super stressed about the federal thing Democrats do Phone Banking a group called Field Team 6 is doing Text Banking to help register likely Democrats in key states, Swing Left is writing letters and Progressive Turnout is doing Postcards starting on the 5th

EVERYONE! can do SOMETHING! even from their own home, but trust me, door knocking is the easiest, most satisfying, and most cathartic thing you can do. And it's all any of us can do about Republicans plotting, win, and win big.

[palms-upturned]

genuine question, what should voters do for the presidential election? i agree that biden is horrible and i don't want to vote for him, but the idea of trump being in power again is horrible too and i just feel lost

I say this as gently as I can, I don’t really know what you want me to tell you. I can only say the same thing I’ve said every time someone asks me this question, which is that no matter who wins the 2024 election, the colonial status quo is going to remain the same, which means that the work we have to do will also remain the same. If you feel that getting behind a third party/write in campaign is a good strategy for you, go for it. If you feel that abstention is a good strategy, go for it. If you still feel the need to vote for Biden, it’s not like I can stop you. But as a disabled usamerican living paycheck to paycheck in a red state while trying to help support two transgender brothers, I can tell you that the most material aid to us has come from local mutual aid networks and from good friends, not from the government.

Get involved in those community networks. Learn about the colonization of your own land and what you can do about it. Join a labor union and add to the pressure for US labor to divest from Israel. You’re going to need to do these things regardless of who you vote for. Electoralism isn’t going to change things. Building collective power to exert pressure is how you change things.

[fortunelowtier]

i hope the 2 million people who voted 3rd party are happy with their "moral high ground"

i hope the ~100m adults who chose not to vote are happy with their "protest" of the election

i hope theyre happy knowing that whats going to happen the next 4 years coulve been prevented

i hope every queer person, trans person, and every minority in general that voted for him knows what they voted for, who they voted for, and what he plans to do now that they helped put him in office again. i hope they know that the man they voted for actively has plans to shut them out, to dehumanize them

i sincerely hope that theyre all happy with their decision

my advice to any folks who voted blue and are living in red states? get out, that's really all I got. The next 4 years are gonna be bad, there's no sugarcoating it. The next 4 years are going to be very, very bad. it might start a week into the term, a month, a year, but things are going to get bad. Things won't be magically perfect just because youre in a blue state, but they'll be better. And in the world we're about to move into, that's the best we can hope for.

Find a friend to roommate with, touch base with family, split the rent with your parents, whatever you have to do. Get the hell out of dodge, that's all we can do

I'm not a religious man, far from it. I believe if there was a god that was wholly good, he would not have allowed what happened to have happened. But the absolute most i can say is may god help us all. Whichever one, if any, exists.

[loki-erlking]

I understand where you're coming from with that post and obviously battleground states matter the most of all. But the truth is that any state could flip depending on how many people choose to vote. There have been historic red or blue states that flip and can change the outcome of an election. And truth be told, I'm in a deep red state where a lot of Republicans have told me they didn't vote because it was going to be red anyway so there was no point standing out in the cold when it wouldn't matter. Imagine how many of those people are on either party, and what could happen if enough of them sat out and enough of the opposing side stepped up then any state could flip. It's not likely but it's not impossible. And with the extremely low democratic voter turn out in comparison to 2020, it was absolutely up to people to vote blue to swing the election and because they didn't. We once again have Donald Trump as president. Especially people who did not show up to vote (because they chose not to obviously, not because they were unable to for legitimate reasons) it's absolutely their fault we're in this situation because the Republicans were going to vote for the fascist, and people didn't do what they could to stop that fascist from winning

Aye, I see your point, I do. And on a certain level I agree with it. But I also know what I physically see in my home state of MN.

When I say that it was completely red outside of the 2 main metro areas, that is not a joke. I've lived in the metro for the past 5 years now, and the people here are much more diverse and socially aware of the problems that plague this country. But I also grew up in the sticks up north before that. For the 2016 and 2020 elections all I saw where Trump signs. All I heard customers talking about while I served them food was how much they love Trump and he is gonna save America. And most of these people where older folks, farmers, etc... and it still didn't matter. MN was always gonna be blue. As it has been for the past 52 years. So in my home state, knowing people, even relatives who voted for Trump, 3rd party, or not at all. I don't feel angry with them, because even though Trump won, they personally didn't make it happen. Our 10 electoral votes went to Kamala.

For the states that went red though like Texas, and down in the Bible belt. (A place that I honestly can't view without biased due to northern pride) I'm sure that tons of educated and caring people went out and voted Blue. But in those places, racism, bigotry, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia run rampant. I personally never expected them to be anything other than red.

No it's the swing states that are to blame in my opinion. They could have changed things and they didn't.

So in conclusion (for me) I feel no anger towards the red voters in my state as their votes didn't matter. And I feel sorrow and pitty for the blue voters in the Red states for the same reason, and I pray to the old gods that yall most at risk are able to take measures to protect yourselves and your loved ones.

[evidence-based-activism]

Vote

We are now only two weeks from the US election. I know a lot of the women who visit my blog may feel politically homeless (i.e., ideologically opposed to the republicans/conservatives, but feeling betrayed by democrats/liberals).

As such, this is reminder that you do not need to agree with every position of a candidate to vote for them. (In fact, I’d argue that agreeing with everything a candidate says/does means you are either under-informed or misinformed about the issues, candidates, or both.)

So, here’s an incomplete list of reasons to vote for Harris/Democrats in this upcoming election:

Despite what you have been (not) seeing in the news, the current democratic office has actually done a lot of very important things that have improved and will continue to improve the lives of many. Making sure these sorts of actions continue, and are not reversed, requires continued Democrat leadership.

While you may not agree with all of her policies, most of Harris’s positions will benefit marginalized people including women, LGB individuals, and the poor/middle class.

In contrast, Trump’s (and Republican’s) policies are explicitly hostile to all these groups.

As such, you will - at the very least - mitigate harm in most to all areas of life (prevent environmental regulations from being cut, prevent further national attacks on abortion rights, etc.).

Demonstrating you are an active voting bloc will make the institutions (the Democratic Party) more likely to consider and compromise with you. Abstaining from voting or voting for a third party does not indicate resistance to the party, instead it simply expresses disinterest. (Perhaps it would be different if Americans were more politically active, at which point abstaining would signal dissatisfaction with the available options. As it is, all it suggests is that you are part of the politically uninterested population who will not vote and is therefore – from a candidate’s/party’s point of view – not worth listening to.)

You will be — effectively — voting to determine if we have a liberal or conservative court for the next several decades.

You can (and should) vote for the other offices on the ticket. Much of your personal daily lives are affected at the local and state level, so these elections are vitally important to you specifically.

The same argument for local/state initiatives. Many high profile topics (e.g., abortion, electoral systems) as well as local budget/tax policies are decided in these elections. Again, these will have a direct effect on your life.

Voting blue in a majority red state signals (1) to other liberals who chose not to vote that voting may be worthwhile (2) to the Republican Party/conservatives that they need to swing more left to maintain an advantage, (3) that your state may become a swing state in the future, which increases the Democrat party’s interest in you/your voting bloc.

Trump is a rapist.

Please allow me to emphasize this: Trump. Is. A. Rapist.

If you like identity politics: Harris is a woman of color. (As opposed to a white man.)

And ultimately, there are only two realistic outcomes to the election: Trump wins or Harris wins. Given this, if nothing else will convince you, just make sure Trump doesn’t win.

Ballotopedia is a great resource for federal and state elections, including a specific page about state ballot measures. They also have a page for municipal elections in some of the most populated areas.

But if you need help with something related to voting feel free to ask me. You can send a message or an ask and I will help you to the best of my ability.

[atwoodsfemalefantasy]

hey people! just a reminder that Vance quite literally said that he would willingly lie to Americans and make up a false story to feed them!

just a reminder that Trump has been convicted of actual real like rape!

just a reminder that Trump is a convicted felon!

Just a reminder that Trump dodged the draft and called vets "losers"!

Just a reminder that most of Trumps cabinet (aka the people HE CHOSE) aren't voting for him!

Just a reminder that project 2025 involves the government tracking women's pregnancies!

Just a reminder that Harris is pro ceasefire between Israel and Gaza (she can't call it a genoxide because Israel is our ally, and she can't risk upsetting them right now, but she CAN and IS calling for peace!)

Just a reminder that Trump mocked the disabled

Just a reminder that Harris came from a working class family and worked for what she has while Trump was always rich and had it handed to him!

Just a reminder that Trump sold his own modified Bibles, which is incredibly NOT GOOD CHRISTIAN BEHAVIOR PEOPLE

Just a reminder that Walz and Harris are both gun owners, so they are pro-gun, but they also understand the danger of guns, so they are pro-gun regulation! Walz feels this way because he fears for his kids' lives!

Just a reminder that Trump is a rapist. just thought i'd say it again.

Just a reminder that Harris is young! Trump is old as balls!

Just a reminder that Trump said he'd sleep with his own daughter if she wasn't his kid!

Just a reminder that Trump/Vance want to take away no fault divorce! mo fault divorce basically just protects women from their abusers! (but also allows for couples to divorce without financially harming the other, and to even get remarried if they wanted!)

Just a reminder that Trump made up a blatant racist lie! and Vance admitted it was a lie, yet kept on saying it!

Just a reminder that Trump made his hotel unusable for disabled people on purpose!

Just a reminder that if you're a woman, you might be republican, but if you value your life, you better be voting blue! even if you vote red again next election. (come on yall, take a page out of my conservative grandmas book. she's a republican, but she has the common sense to know Trump will steal her human rights!)

Just a reminder that Trump will make the rich richer, while Harris has been middle class and wants to help the middle class!

Just a reminder that Trump staged an insurrection. that's about as anti-American as you can get!

Just a reminder that abortion bans are unconstitutional, as the constitution demands a separation of church and state!

Just a reminder to all you transphobic queer people- once they come for trans people, they're coming for you! so stick by your own community damn it! stonewall was started by a trans black woman

Just a reminder to transphobic women that once they restrict trans women's rights, they're coming for ALL women's rights. this is only the beginning

Just a reminder that "Tampon Tim" should be a compliment, not an insult! what is so bad about helping women not bleed everywhere people??

Just a reminder that project 2025 brings back the draft (and guess who racist Trump and Vance will draft first! go on, guess!)

Just a reminder that you might not like Kamala Harris, but Trump is much worse, so settle.

Just a reminder that i saw a real Trump commercial that said (and i quote) "Crazy Kamala is for THEY/THEM. Trump is for you". i just think it's funny

Just a reminder that if you're mad Trump got shot, there's a very simple solution! it's called gun control, and it makes sure only people who are mentally stable and will use guns safely get guns! except yall have been calling it "taking away the second amendment"

Just a reminder that there is a goddamn genocide happening in Gaza. one candidate is a racist motherfucker who hates Muslims. one is a woman who wants a cease fire. go on, make that choice (look, again, Harris is not perfect on the Israel/Gaza thing but TRUMP IS A RACIST MF. HE WILL BE W O R S E!)

Just a reminder to women that we are STILL being ridiculed and not taken seriously because we don't have children. FUCK THAT THANK YOU

Just a reminder that Trump is a little bitch baby (or to quote my man Jack Antonoff a little bitch baby bitch muffin) who used AI to make Taylor Swift support him, and then when she released (a very polite actually) statement supporting Harris he was a little whiny bitch baby who tweeted "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!". you know, the way a competent grown up man does. not a kindergartner who had his little ball taken away.

Just a reminder to fucking vote. vote vote vote vote votevotevotevotevotevotevote! especially if you live in a battleground state! if you can't vote, get an absentee ballot. this is very important, and every vote counts.

Just a reminder that one candidate is an elderly, decrepit, extremely unhealthy, rich, military-hating, racist, rapist, pedophile, pervert etc etc etc etc.... and one is a woman liberals have a few problems with.

[lifewithchronicpain]

I said live/vote because some people are registered to vote in one place but are not living there for various reasons such as being military posted abroad.

I’m from a deep blue/red state, why should I vote?

I live in Massachusetts, my state will undoubtedly go blue for Harris and re-elect Senator Warren. Still, I will happily vote, not only to show my support for Harris and Warren, but also because there is so much more on your ballot and it’s just as important as the presidential election. You should vote because:

1) The House of Representatives is up for reelection every 2 years. While gerrymandering helps the GOP gain a majority, there are still many districts where they could flip blue if more left leaning voters turned out. In order for Harris to implement many of her promises, she needs a Democratic House to pass them.

2) 1/3 if all Senate seats are up for reelection. Once again, Harris needs a Democratic Senate to pass the bills with her plans in them.

3) Every state has local elections where maybe you won’t influence congress or the presidency, but you can still help elect progressive local candidates. In fact, these are some of the most important races. They pass laws that directly affect you, and for things like Secretary of State, they handle all elections. If your state is gerrymandered to hell and back, a progressive Secretary of State would be one way to combat voter suppression by the GOP.

4) Every state has ballot questions that directly impact your lives. Right now, 10 states have abortion questions on the ballot: (AZ, NV, CO, MD, NY, FL, MO, MT, NE, & SD) Ohio has a referendum that could end gerrymandering. They are one of the direct ways you can impact life in your state.

5) Last, but not least, even if you’re not in a swing state, every single vote still counts towards a popular vote. While it doesn’t decide the election, Trump is such a self absorbed ass that a huge popular vote against him will hurt just as much as losing the election via the electoral college. Vote to bruise is massive ego.

Vote.org is a wonderful site that can help you register, check that you are registered (been a lot of voter purges lately), see what’s on your ballot and more. Remember, if your vote didn’t matter, then the GOP wouldn’t be trying so hard to stop you from voting!

[glareraw]

Accelerationists are pathetic

Accelerationism is a range of revolutionary and reactionary ideas in left-wing and right-wing ideologies that call for the drastic intensification of capitalist growth, technological change, infrastructure sabotage and other processes of social change to destabilize existing systems and create radical social transformations, otherwise referred to as "acceleration". “Accelerationism.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Aug. 2024. Link

Let's be so fucking for real.

We are in a hopeful political landscape right now. Trump looks more and more like he will lose, and Kamala Harris alongside her VP pick Tim Walz are winning over the hearts of Americans, and increasingly beating Trump in the polls as he rambles on about how Kamala changed her race or something. And we are learning how to parse the alarmist claims of news media, and deny them ad revenue from scaring us.

But there is a thorn in side of the Democratic Party. A small group of very loud accelerationists who claim to be leftist online act like Kamala is the antichrist. Their two main claims are that she imprisoned over 1,500 people for smoking weed during her time as a prosecutor, and they still act like she fully supports the genocide in Palestine, despite the first claim being a lie told by Tulsi Gabbard in the 2020 presidential race, and the second claim a case of "I pretend I do not see it" in terms of the truth.* (see footnote) They seem to forget that a Trump presidency would be FAR worse for Palestinians.

But let's be real. The originators of this argument are cishet white people who live in major cities of coastal blue states and whose parents pay their rent. They have a feeling of emptiness in their life because they have everything given to them, so they argue with LGBTQ+ people and POC online instead of making an actual difference in the real world. They sit behind their screens and convince unsuspecting netizens of their delusions that we could have a viable 3rd party candidate come out of nowhere in less than 3 months, and completely ignore the fact that a candidate with their ideology would absolutely tank in an election. They don't care that the American people are not ready for the nation they want to make.

One of the talking main strategies these accelerationists are trying is to get people to abstain from voting --if they don't get their third party candidate. Their goal is to get less votes for Kamala to make Donald Trump win so the world will go to shit and they can remake society from the ashes how THEY want.

They think that their lives are sheltered from the blatant danger of the republican platform, to hell with the women and LGBTQ+ and POC of the red states! They are totally fine with sacrificing the safety of women and minorities in service of their unrealistic headcanon. They simply do not, or refuse to understand the severity of the situation we find ourselves in. If Trump wins 2024, there's a pretty strong chance there won't be an election --at least a real one-- in 2028 or ever again.

And if they think they will actually be able to start a revolution against the federal government? If they can get past the SWAT team arrests at their peaceful protests and CIA assassinations of their movement's leaders, they will have the honor of battle with the most powerful and overfunded military on Earth. Good luck with that! But these people would be lucky to even have leadership to begin with, because none of them actually have a viable plan or real knowledge of how to make their maladaptive daydreams real and govern their dream society.

If you read all of this and look at the facts and still believe Kamala Harris is a horrible person and you don't WANT to vote for her, then fine. I don't feel the need to argue with you further. But you NEED to vote. Change will have to be made gradually, it can't happen all at once this time. As I said, the country isn't ready for that. But if enough leftists don't vote, and Trump actually wins, it will set us back decades, if not a century or more. The government will not collapse, it will just become stronger under fascist rule. They will not get the chance to make the change they want.

I don't think the ideology of accelerationism poses a huge threat in this election. The overwhelming amount of support for the Harris Walz campaign, combined with the long-expected downward spiral of Donald Trump makes it more and more likely that we will see Kamala in the White House. And the media fear mongering about insubordination from the electorates --and Kamala's defeat in the Trump-appointed federal courts after the election-- is largely overblown. They forget how we won in 2020. AFTER Trump was ousted.

But as I said, overall, I don't think accelerationists will be successful in causing a Trump victory. They just really piss me off.

*She supports a ceasefire and the two-state solution, but can't make that happen just yet as she is just the VP but that's a whole can of worms and a conversation for another time. Just know I personally support a ceasefire and understand that what is happening in Palestine IS a genocide.

[fandomsandfeminism]

Maybe it's just a lack of perspective thing, but when I see "blue state"* liberals making blanket statements about "red states"* and how how they are getting what they deserve etc etc for voting for Republicans, I'm just like.... why do you think Republicans being in power in these states is a bad thing?

(* caveat to remind people that there are no blue/red states. All states are politically blended and no president carries any state by even 70% and its an illusion made by first past the post winner take all elections.)

Like, who do you think is actually, tangibly, materially hurt by Ted Cruz?

Because if Ted Cruz contributes to voting down universal health care, or federal protections for trans people, or recognition for same sex marriage- that will not affect those of yall in "blue" states. Blue states with blue govenors and blue legislators will and have passed state laws and state protections at a state level for these things. Blue states will double down on abortion access and voting access and trans health care. They have! Trans people in California aren't impacted by any fucking nonsense that comes out if Ted Cruz's mouth except for the inherent psychic damage of hearing his voice.

It's those of us in "red" states, who can't rely on state protections, who suffer when federal protections fail. Who's access to health care is limited, who's protections from discrimination are stripped, who have abortions banned and birth control threatened, who have government officials threatening to make registries of trans people and chip away at voting access again and again and again. Greg Hot Wheels Pointy Boots Abbott is actively out to get us, and without federal protections, he can do what he wants.

(The maybe one big exception here is climate change actions, where lack of federal action is in fact bad for everyone. )

But for the most part, the people who are actually harmed by Republicans in power are the people who live in the states where they have power. It's the queer people and women and nonwhite folks in "red" states who are actually harmed.

So it is deeply stupid to decry those politicians AND then write off *all the people who are actually hurt by those politicians* as "deserving it."

(Yes, REGARDLESS of who they actually voted for. I can wax poetic all day about how damn gerrymandered and voter suppressed Texas is, but at the end of the day, my republican voting neighbors are hurt by this shit too, and I don't think they deserve it either.)

[lazyscience]

so there's something I feel like young leftists are not getting at all when they rail furiously about how "we keep voting for Democrats but they keep just pandering to the right, what are we supposed to DO to get them to change OTHER than not vote for them?"

It has to do with fundamental assumptions about what "governing" is supposed to mean in the modern era, and this is a conversation that has to happen culturally in and around what is happening at the ballot box in a lot larger sense than it is. putting in a readmore because this gonna get long and also ranty.

It also means I'm taking another Tumblr break because I can not, I CAN NOT with the current political discussion any more and even with terms blocked I'm seeing it, and I don't want to spend my evenings alternating between rage and depression, I get enough of that from the news.

This conversation was happening even earlier than this, but the timepoint at which it was first coming to a head and when I became familiar with it was 1994 and Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America". Prior to this point, the ethos on both sides of the aisle (in public) was that in general, a congressperson's job (especially in the House, a little less so in the Senate maybe) was while you were under the umbrella of one of the two parties, you were mostly looking out for the particular agenda of your state and only secondarily working towards a national agenda. And secondary to this idea, most of them agreed on basic principles that gridlock was bad (wouldn't produce anything useful/re-electable for your state), civil service employees and appointees weren't supposed to be blatant political operatives (there were, of course, but that was considered more sleazy and corrupt than "elections have consequences, hurr hurr") and that for the stability of the country, things like the debt ceiling were best mutually avoided.

So for the better part of the 20th century, the Democrats were more the party of regulation, the social safety net and the reality and use of powers on a federal level; the Republicans were the party of "leave these decisions to the individual states" (this is obviously a grotesque oversimplification, people have literally written dozens, probably hundreds, of scholarly books about this shit). And Newt Gingrich, ambitious little shit from an at the time deep red Republican state, said "you know what, we need to embrace a national party and federal control the way the Democrats have--because until then, WE can't control it." So the Contract With America was born - and the goal became instead of "well, whatever, as long as I can weasel out concessions for my state/special interests that hired me" the game ALSO became "demonstrate that federal government doesn't work by MAKING it not work." By using all the procedural stupid dirty tricks that a reactionary old bunch of white dudes that had just been through a war put into place to make any point of settled law that had happened basically as hard to change as fucking possible.

Now, the Democrats couldn't/didn't WANT to play by those rules, because their biggest and most popular successes (qualified, imperfect, but still) - Social Security, Medicaid, the civil rights movement, antitrust, worker protections, environmental protections - are all contingent on a federal government apparatus that actually fucking works. And now that the Republicans can win either by getting what they want OR by yelling "look, this process is clearly broken and doesn't work!", the only way Democrats can make sweeping changes without having to fight tooth and nail every step of the way is to have a majority in both houses of Congress, control the Presidency, and the Supreme Court.

Because again, the reactionary old white men who had just lived through a butt ton of social upheaval wanted to make it hard for one group of (rich white, male enfranchised) people to control another - and they literally at that time could not have envisioned the way the country would grow into both a far more unified AND polarized place that would take these safety rails and exploit them to block every achievement their opponent might make, whether or not it was actually in the best interests of the people they're representing.

(I mean, they should have, political parties and all that toxicity were not new to the British Empire before the colonies even existed, but well, I think we all know by now there's a lot of things they couldn't have imagined. See also: the second amendment)

So here's the deal - if you punish Joe Biden for being a confused corporate-friendly war-hawkish atrocity-enabling weenus - which he totally is sometimes! - you are kneecapping any actually progressive congressional candidates you elect unless you can also deliver 67+ solidly Democrat/Green/whatever the fuck Angus King is votes in the Senate, and 290+ equally staunch Democratic representatives. Because otherwise, that Republican President's just gonna veto everything they legislate that isn't what he wants. And yes, the Senate has to approve any federal judges or Supreme Court justices he wants to appoint - but again, the Republican party sees the federal court system being slow, backed up and impossible to use as a totally acceptable compromise in return for being able to block any significant Democratic legislation from going forward.

Since 1789, do you know how many vetoes have been overridden by supermajority? 109, out of 1,484.

Now, if you could GET that supermajority in the Senate and the House? You could amend the Constitution! You could make mail-in votes mandatory, and/or mandated paid time off for voting. You could mandate ranked-choice voting, so that leftists could vote for the candidate they actually want without splitting up the bloc to the advantage of the fash/fash-adjacent. You could do things like mandate that a Presidential election isn't valid until a minimum threshold number of votes has been achieved that's actual a majority of eligible voters, not just whatever fanatical minority shows up that day, so some asshole who won with 20 percent of eligible voters can't claim to have "a mandate from The People."

BUT WITHOUT THAT SUPERMAJORITY, VOTING TO PUNISH ELECTED OFFICIALS FOR NOT DOING THINGS THEY CANNOT FUCKING DOOOOOO MEANS NOTHING BUT LOSING FOR ALL OF US!

Especially when the other fucking asshole candidate wants to make it legal for the National Guard to LIVE FIRE WITH ACTUAL MILITARY BULLETS ON PROTESTORS, and the Supreme Court has just made it possible for him if elected to order that and have it not be illegal! If he wants to start deporting all Muslim immigrants like he was trying to push for last time he was elected, or round up LGBTQ people and put them in re-education camps, if he gets elected, he could do that now! Because crimes committed as "official acts" are no longer crimes!

So you want to not have to regularly make shitty compromises in the voting booth any more? Great, neither do I. Here are the only ways I see this going forward:

Get 2/3rd of the states of the union to call for an Article V constitutional convention - and be willing to have the process potentially hijacked by fash nutjobs at the state level if those 2/3rds aren't all Democratic-controlled. It's possible - I mean, the system was specifically designed to work that way - but the fact that a) an Article V convention has not successfully been called in the history of the US, and b) the only people advocating for that in the year 2024 are the actual fucking Heritage Foundation of the infamous Project 2025, Ben Shapiro of "but pussy doesn't get wet" fame, Greg "the solution to Uvalde is arming teachers" Abbott and similar nutjobs make me think that's not the safest way to get the outcome we want here.

Hold your noses and get 67 Senators and 290 Representatives elected that are either Democrats or who will reliably caucus with them like Socialists or Greens and have them pass a law to require ranked choice voting for the presidency - there's a chance it'll get a constitutional challenge from the Supreme Court, but there's not a solid precedent either forbidding or encouraging, and by the time it's an issue hopefully we're back in 5/4 liberal court territory if Alito and Thomas either retire or get canned. That will mean a lot of mid corporatist conservative Dems who will make decisions you don't like and don't want to support, but with an endgame of someday getting to stop doing that. This is honestly probably the most achievable, so it is also the one Republicans are fighting against hardest with gerrymandering and voter suppression, and they have banned it on the state level in Florida, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee and Idaho.

Let Republicans get elected to prove a point. This will result in an unknown but presumably acceptable to you number of deportations, convictions, legal abuse and deaths among people the Trump administration declares undesirable, including Muslims, Palestinians, trans people, anyone working in gender studies or race studies, the unhoused, potential child labor, and people of childbearing potential among others. This is not a threat to get you to fall in line. It is a prediction based on the previous behaviorand stated policy positions of Mr. Trump, the Republican National Convention, and the decision of the Supreme Court allowing his administration to carry out what would otherwise be crimes but for a president are "official actions" now apparently. It will also at the very least make easier the capture of the Supreme Court for another two or three decades during which no effective challenges can be brought for voter suppression, gerrymandering, and violent suppression of protest.

honest question: how, exactly, if it becomes an illegal act to talk about racism, queer liberation or police reform, are you proposing to get your better, more leftist candidates elected? I am so serious right now, why do you think after another four years of Trump provided he doesn't just immediately declare martial law like he already almost did once, do you think people would be willing to stick their necks out to identify themselves as enemies of the state? Think about the stranglehold Joseph McCarthy had on this country from 1947-1957.

[lilees]

I've screamed about this to anyone who will listen, but every single year, without fail, there is a devastating natural disaster in the South that triggers the most callous commentary from so-called liberal and progressive circles and I am so sick of it. Whole towns in Western North Carolina no longer exist. Roads have dropped off into chasms. People do not have power or fresh water. Aid can only be delivered by air. There is no accurate death toll yet because the whole region is inaccessible. Western North Carolina is devastated and it will never look the same. "Why didn't they evacuate?" People couldn't evacuate because they were given a 12 hour notice of how bad the storm was going to be. Where do you go? You can't go west or south. The storm is blowing through there too. You could go north or east, but only if you can afford it. Did y'all know that hotels jack up their prices when there's a hurricane evacuation? That you have to sit in hours of traffic because everyone else who can is doing the same thing? Evacuating, even preparing, is a luxury that not all can afford. Especially not in Appalachia, which continues to be underserved by both Democrat and Republican governments. "They should have been prepared."

Hurricanes are not supposed to blow into Appalachia. This was not supposed to happen. Why would I prepare for a hurricane when I live six hours inland? I'm used to mudslides and snowstorms. But a hurricane? Climate change has exacerbated the severity and frequency of these storms, so what was once considered a once-in-a-lifetime storm is now the terrifying reality in places where this should not occur. I live in central NC where even with the rare category hurricane that we get, we are also not prepared to handle it the same way the coast is. That isn't a failure on the individual-- it's the failure of a bipartisan government that has refused to accommodate for climate change and the threats it poses to everyone. "They voted for Trump." North Carolina is a swing state. We have a Democrat governor and a Republican supermajority in our Congress. It will be one of the most important states in the 2024 election. Of course, I bet the people saying this didn't know or care about the realities of NC politics; they know it's in the South so of course it's Trump country. And don't get me wrong-- western NC is red on a map with the exception of the Asheville. But BIPOC, LGBT+, poor people, otherwise marginalized people, etc., live in every part of the red South. There are states in the South that are predominantly Black. Our states are gerrymandered. Voter suppression still exists. These are the legacies of white supremacy that we are still trying to work through and improve. You're condemning us to suffer for something we didn't choose. We live here too. And honestly? If you believe someone deserves to drown in a flood because of how they voted, I think you are a bad person. We do not share the same progressive values.

I am so tired of seeing the same thing happen over and over again. Regional elitism still exists in this country and y'all still see the South as a malignant growth that should be cut off, that should be abandoned every time a hurricane or tornado or other disaster devastates us. I will never forget how y'all said Texas deserved to freeze over. I will never forget how y'all said North Carolina deserved to drown.

[oneandonlyweirdme]

I don't post on any social media, but for this, I want to get my thoughts out there without starting a political fight in the work place (red state customer service).

First and foremost, find your safe space. It might not be near physically, but we have safe spaces out on the internet. We will continue to form and grow these spaces. I know it can be hard reaching out (heck, I haven't really reach out), but I've seen communities out there. Even if you don't make a presence for yourself, for me, seeing them helps me mentally. You're not alone with these dark thoughts, and if you need, reach out. I'm sure someone would listen in these spaces.

Now:

We knew people who support Trump exist. He has ran for president 3 times, and each time it was 'a close call'.

We know that even if he didn't get elected, those supporters would still be spouting bull and would be wearing MAGA merch. I can picture it now, 'TRUMP FOR 2028' out and about in 2025 before the presidency even switched over.

We will show them that we are different. We will take the results at face value. If we get a recount and it still is the same? We, again, will take it at face value. We will contemplate those around us. We may cry. We may cut some people in our lives because why have them in our lives if they don't hold our lives/rights equally. We may keep our believes to ourselves to protect us from those around us. We will stick with our believes and fight for them in the next election.

More than likely, most of us will stop talking politics at all if we feel unsafe. 'Why would you feel unsafe? It's not like I'm going to punch you for your opinions?' Verbal abuse is still abuse.

What we WON'T DO, is start riots because our candidate lost. We won't be shouting, 'IT WAS ALL RIGGED. PEOPLE ARE USING MAIL IN BALLOTS FROM DEAD PEOPLE TO INFLATE THE VOTE.'

Will we bend and say 'you're right, we're wrong'? No. But we won't attack the Capitol Building in an attempt self-coup d'etat. We will not declare that the 'voting machines were built to flip the votes against Kamala'. We will not claim that the poll watchers were asked to leave before others pulled out suitcases with more ballots to count. We will not cause property damage for a bumper sticker or a sign in the yard.

Thank you for reading this rant.