#if you vote for third party or you abstain from voting just because you don't want to you are handing your vote to trump and vance

[flying-cat]

US politics shit sorry. I don't understand how anyone could possibly want to actually vote for Trump and Vance. I know plenty of the old fucks voting for them are on social security. Including my own dad. He's disabled and retired and already goes through his monthly money in like, a week and a half. And he still wants to vote for Trump and Vance... For what? To make it so transgender people don't have bathrooms to piss in? To make it so that transgender people can't exist at all even though it's none of anyone else's business because it's not their life? To make it so same-sex marriage is a state-by-state thing again? To stop the imaginary mass amount of illegal immigrants from Mexico or wherever the fuck who are apparently smuggling drugs and people and stealing jobs from Americans? Even though you need to provide information that proves your citizenship on job applications (such as a social security number) which non-citizens will not have? He's not even a nice person. He's not even a good businessman. He has had SEVERAL failed businesses. And you want to put him in charge? Of our country??? Again???? When he hardly did anything good or even significant the first time????? Are you for real?????? He can hardly even hold a fucking conversation anymore. He can't answer questions coherently. He rambles on forever about things that aren't relevant to the topic. Isn't that the exact thing that they all shit on Joe Biden for? Being incoherent?? I don't like Biden at all but both of these men are genuinely INCAPABLE of running a country. Incapable. They're too old. They should be in fuckin rich people retirement homes or whatever. The minimum age point for a US president is 35 but I believe we should have a maximum age as well and they need to take some sort of test that proves they are coherent and competent because this is just fucking insane. That we would allow people who can hardly speak or stay on a topic to run our country. Insanity.

[avelera]

PSA: You should question news articles that make you not want to vote

Hey Tumblr friends, but especially young Americans in this, the year of our Lord 2024.

Unfortunately, it is an election year.

Unfortunately, a US election year becomes everyone's problem, and yes everyone else, we are very very sorry that you have to deal with our nonsense.

But in all seriousness, the level of propaganda that's going to be flung around on all sides is going to reach peak levels this year for the English-speaking internet in particular. There's going to be a lot of influence operations, on all sides, and yes including on sides you agree with but they are still influence operations.

Source: I am speaking as a cybersecurity professional who also did a great deal of work in election security.

So, here's what I am going to ask you to do. What I am going to beg you to do: be careful of any article that makes you think there's no point in voting.

That's it. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, or how to think, or that you should trust or distrust every article out there. I don't care about that. I care about whether or not it makes you think you shouldn't vote.

A lot of influence operations are about making you feel like there's no point. That both sides are just as bad as the other. The the election is falsified. That you can "protest" by not voting (false: you will simply not be counted and your voice will be ignored). All sorts of reasons not to vote.

No matter what you do, what you believe, or who you trust, you really really have to vote this year, and every year, and you need to not listen to articles that say there's no point because among those articles are in fact active foreign influence campaigns trying to promote one side or the other for their own reasons, I am deadly serious right now.

(More context, sources, and examples sources below the cut.)

In 2016, Russian influence operations were focused on tearing down Hillary in order to specifically depress voter turnout among young men of color in the belief that this would help Trump get elected.

From the article: "“Buried literally in the middle of the indictment is a paragraph that should jar every American committed to the long fight for voting rights,” Anders wrote in a statement. “The Russians allegedly masqueraded as African-American and American Muslim activists to urge minority voters to abstain from voting in the 2016 election or to vote for a third-party candidate.”

This is the flavor of influence campaign that has been proven, that does exist, and is the sort of thing that does numbers here on Tumblr.

Things like the situation in Gaza, for example, are incredibly fraught situations. Articles don't even need to lie about facts on the ground there to make people feel hopeless and angry. Again, I am not telling you who to trust or not trust when it comes to news sources. But if an article about this event, for examples, makes you think or even outright tells you, "There's no point to voting, both sides are awful, I just shouldn't bother." You need to pause and at least consider that this might be an influence operation. You need to think critically. You need to check sources. You need to think about the world you want to live in, to vote for, and who might not want that world to happen for any variety of reasons.

Protesting by failing to vote isn't a real thing.

Old politicians ignoring young voters because they famously do not bother to vote is absolutely 100% a real thing. It is why so many policies that are popular with young people are low priority for politicians: they are not afraid of losing the young vote because no one plans on having it in the first place when it's never there in big enough numbers to matter.

So please, please, read what you want. Believe what you want. Follow your heart and your brain and whatever other organ you want to think with. I'm not here to tell you who is right, wrong, trustworthy, good, or bad. I'm just here to tell you that despite all of that, whatever you read, you must vote in your elections, no matter where you are in the world and you must not listen to voices that tell you not to as a protest.

[pluckyredhead]

Hey, I don’t blame you if you don’t want to respond right now, but I just wanted to acknowledge that you were completely right to insist that people should have voted for the Democratic candidate if they didn’t want Trump, regardless of if they completely agreed with the Democratic candidate or not. We wouldn’t be in this situation if more people thought like you. And I hope more of the “both sides are just as bad” people remember this for next time.

I appreciate the thought, and you're right that we need every vote, every time, all the time.

But that's not what swung this election. There was a big shift to the right among men, particularly low information voters. And exit polls show that the economy was the biggest driver of those votes. It was not the very small number of extremely online leftists who abstained from voting or voted third party who caused this. It was people who absorb Fox News uncritically and/or fail to understand that Trump was terrible for the economy and will be terrible again, that Biden pulled us out of a recession, that prices are high because of greedflation and not inflation.

And, you know, fascists. But mostly people who are so under-informed and actively dis-informed that they think Trump deporting thousands of people will magically make gas cheaper.

I don't know how to reach those people. Our media landscape is so fractured that they are literally living in a different reality than I am, where the things I see as so obvious and self-evident don't exist to them, or exist only as lies. A second Trump presidency with its inevitable rolling back of regulations about social media disinformation and equally inevitable threats to honest journalism is only going to make it harder.

But here's what I know:

We're going to remember to eat, and drink water, and sleep. We are going to hold our loved ones close.

Lock down your birth control. Get your vaccines. Know where your important paperwork is.

Read On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder. Read Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit.

Check for misinformation and disinformation before you share something.

Posting online is not activism. Fighting online is not activism. Share resources, yes. Otherwise, block and move on, because...

Infighting didn't save us this time, and it will never save us. We are going to have to build coalitions. I'm going to get involved in my local progressive politics. I urge everyone who can to do the same. You are going to meet people who are not exactly like you, who disagree with you, who you don't like. If they believe in democracy and equal rights and justice for everyone? Then they are your allies in this fight and you need every single one of them.

America has never lived up to her ideals, but I still believe in them: that we are all created equal. If we never get there, it will still always be a fight worth fighting.

So let's fight.

[catboybiologist]

Honest question, why bother voting if you live in California?

Like it's not going to change the outcome for sure

So the most obvious reason is that the president isn't the only thing you vote for. Local candidates and statewide measures are in the ballot too. And those are ABSOLUTELY worth voting for. This is big fucking reason number 1. California has ballot propositions right now on ending slavery as a form of criminal punishment, rent and housing reform, and a dangerous crime and punishment bill.

This alone should be more than enough reason to vote in California, I'm begging you (general you, not the asker, I'm p sure you're not American iirc).

As for the president, yeah, I was initially with your other ask that "voting third party will send a message", BUT, I've had some major shifts in how I view my vote.

One, no state is as safe as you think it is. I know "red California" seems like a fairy tale, but remember that we're the state that gave the world Reagan. There's a vicious undercurrent of neoliberal right wing mentalities here, and I don't want to abstain from the vote in the year that this current takes over enough.

Florida used to be a swing state. Now it's solid R. And there are endless examples.

This year it's not gonna happen, of course. Hell, we're Harris' home state. But I'm a little too scared to make that judgement call right now.

The other shift I've had is in the way that parties view their votes. These thoughts are way more poorly formed and I know people are going to judge me for them, so please don't pounce.

Major politicians don't view abstain or third party votes as protest votes. They view them as demographics that they've already lost. Permanently. They view them as either lazy young people who won't vote, or idealists who they can't appeal to. And yeah, maybe I fit that bill.

Right now, the messaging the Dems need to be sent is that yes, they can actually get a turnout.

Federal presidential candidates aren't going to try to appeal to people who are voting green. They're going to continue appealing to center suburbanites and forgetting about the left.

Does all this mean "blindly rally behind the Democrats"? God fucking no. It means plug your nose, mark a piece of paper, and hope they win because they'll listen at least the TINIEST but more when you raise hell in the future.

The question also is, do I believe in the Greens at all? Or is it just a "stick it to the Democrats" vote? And is giving the Greens legitimacy an unintended side effect, or an intent for that vote? I don't want to say personal answers to those questions

[vintageseawitch]

i get this sick feeling that certain leftists, especially white leftists, who are abstaining from voting or voting third party & are still encouraging others to do the same while being the loudest at complaining about "vote shaming" 🙄 will be the type, if heaven forbid trump wins, to suddenly go silent on them being far left & will GLEEFULLY turn in their neighbors a la the 1940s if only to save themselves.

they've made it clear that only certain types of genocides count to them, they're ignoring actual Palestinians who are BEGGING people to vote for Harris, & they've been glossing over how trump is bibi netanyahu's preferred candidate because they need to focus really hard on punishingnthe black woman. these leftists are death cult accelerationists who are okay with fascism as long as it affects those who "deserve" it, such as citizens of the US & Ukraine & eventually the rest of Europe should trump win, NATO gets abandoned, & putin gets to do whatever the fuck he wants.

these leftists are vile. i don't care that you claim genocide is your hard line because i don't believe you. say as much as you want on your privileged soap box but i'm not seeing you go to prison for not paying your taxes because last i checked ALL of our taxes are funding this so like it or not you're just as complicit & your shiny slogan words won't be able to cancel that.

I DON'T BELIEVE YOU'RE THE HERO YOU CLAIM TO BE. you will ABSOLUTELY throw neighbors, acquaintances, hell maybe even friends & family under the bus after a period of time in order to save your own skin & please the authoritarians in charge. you're a dangerous enemy.

you have no plans about how to handle a trump presidency & all i hear when y'all claim we're already in a fascist country is you saying that without facing any consequences & you being too stupid to miss the irony. you don't know what that word means & you just want to see this country burn while conveniently forgetting you'll be burned right along with thr rest of us. it's stupidly short-sighted. you're hardly a revolutionary if you're so inclined to suicide. please be for fucking real.

[coldgoldlazarus]

It's frustrating how, regardless of where you fall, there's this assumption of a binary between Biden or Trump. Voting in November or not voting at all. Those are the only options we have guys. Biden or Trump. Vote or no vote. It's so easy to fall into binaries. If you criticize Biden or his policies, the assumption is you're obviously angling to abstain from voting and land us all back in the same mess as 2016. If you try to urge people to vote who actually ARE getting nilhistic about it, obviously you're a liberal shill who supports the same atrocities Biden does. On some level I get it, because third-party candidates simply aren't viable.

BUT LET ME TELL YOU ALL A LITTLE SECRET!

There's this little thing happening earlier in the year, before November. It's at different times in different states, and you should go look up when it's happening in yours, but it's really important to know about. It is the Democratic primaries.

Because guess what? The world is bigger than two shitty old men. Instead of going to bat for the slightly less shitty of the two, I'd rather direct everyone's attention to the possibility of other options that lie outside that binary. If you want to avoid a slide into facism, but you also don't want to just vote for the lesser evil who will keep supporting a genocide, guess what! You don't have to!

Go look up the Primaries. Find out when and where they're happening. Talk to other people you know about them too. Look up the other candidates in the running, and find someone who you can at least stand to see in the Oval Office. None of them will be perfect, but there has to be someone better than the current selection. And push for them. Push for them, get other people to consider backing that person instead of the decrepit one, and vote in the primaries. And then vote in November too.

It doesn't have to be a matter of choosing between Biden or Trump, if we make sure someone else wins the Primaries instead. Instead of a binary of voting or not voting, consider voting twice.

The systems we have in place suck and need to be heavily rebuilt. But we aren't going to do that overnight, so until then, we really should make the full use of those systems to make sure someone at least halfway decent is in charge, someone willing to help tear down and rebuild those systems instead of just shoring themselves up.

IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE ONLY BIDEN OR TRUMP. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. VOTE IN THE PRIMARIES.

[mama-qwerty]

Okay, I'm gonna get political here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This country will not survive another Trump presidency.

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

And the Republicans will help him.

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

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

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

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

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

And that's not the America the Republicans want.

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

THEY'RE NOT.

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

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

[fuzzballsheltiepants]

People always want to say that we shouldn't let politics divide us. That used to be true. The thing is, voting for Trump in this election tells me a lot about who you are as a person. So does abstaining, or voting third party.

If you support Trump, you are telling the world that you don't care about disadvantaged people, you don't care about the LGBTQ+ community, you don't care about the Black community, the Indigenous community, the Latino community. You don't care about pregnant people having complications, or those who don't wish to be pregnant. You don't care about seniors, who are looking at loss of Social Security and Medicare prescription benefits, and the retirement age being raised. You don't care about your own right to vote in the future. If you support Trump, you don't care about honesty, or decency, or fidelity. You don't care about competence. You can deny this, but if at the same time you're filling out your ballot for this man, your denials will ring hollow.

In the past 2 weeks, we've seen Trump's campaign have a horrifically racist rally in MSG. We've seen him threaten political enemies with facing a firing squad. We've seen him pretend to fellate a microphone. We've seen him lie about knowing Epstein, and we've gotten access to tapes of Epstein talking about the real Donald Trump, the one who he was friends with for decades. And we've seen him once again dog-whistling the Proud Boys.

You were paying less for groceries in 2019? Yeah, blame the corporations who took advantage of supply chain shortages to jack up prices and then decided those higher prices were what the market would bear. The government doesn't set grocery prices, and Harris actually has a plan to try to stop price gouging and collusion. Trump has a plan to once again add tariffs to China, something he did in his first term that had absolutely catastrophic effects on US farmers when China did the same to us and started getting their soybeans from Brazil instead. You may not remember the 28 billion dollar bailout that was given - ineffectually - to Iowa farmers, but you better believe the farmers do.

You don't agree with the US continuing to fund Israel's actions? Harris has challenged Netanyahu, called the situation a humanitarian crisis, and has, with the rest of the Biden administration, been trying to negotiate a ceasefire, only to be constantly stymied by Trump. Trump brags about being besties with Netanyahu, who he talks to regularly (despite that being, you know, illegal).

You're concerned about the border? Crossings are way down this year, to 2019 levels, and that's DESPITE the bipartisan border bill being crushed in Congress due to - you guessed it - Trump pressuring the GOP not to vote for it because he thought it would help him politically.

Your rent is out of control and you want to buy a house? Harris has a plan to build hundreds of thousands of new affordable homes AND help first-time homebuyers with down payments.

Your health care costs too much? How about the Harris prescription plan, which will cap ALL prescription costs, not just for seniors, and will cap ALL insulin at $35 regardless of age or healthcare plan?

You don't want to vote, or you insist on voting for Stein despite the fact that she has no plans, doesn't know how the government works, and has done zero for this country ever? You're telling us that it's more important to keep your own hands clean instead of helping take one tiny step in the direction of freedom, the direction of equality.

Your vote is your voice. And we can hear it.

[jessiarts]

Saw someone on Tiktok say "Now that the election is over can we just love each other now?"

And because that phrase sounds so familiar- like exactly what you hear every Conservative say when they want to vote against their loved ones rights and sell them down the river for gas prices and/or tax cuts but don't want the consequences of those loved ones leaving or hating them, I went to the comments- where the OP revealed they voted 3rd party.

So I'm just gonna say it. If you voted third party this election, or abstained from voting, you're on the same level as Trump voters.

You were told over and over again the stakes, and you ignored them. You used Palestinians and held them up as a prop- as a gotcha- as to why you were "morally justified" not voting for Harris all while ignoring those same Palestinians who were begging for all of us to do everything we could to avoid another Trump presidency.

You knew, and you did it anyway to feel better about yourself, in the same self-serving manner as conservatives always do.

So yeah, if you act like them, and speak like them, then you sit with them and accept the consequences that you'll have loved ones/community that will no longer want to fuck with you because you actively chose your feelings of moral superiority over their safety.

You are no ally.

[takerfoxx]

On the night of the election, I had an honest-to-God dream where I woke up and found out that Harris had shockingly come in from behind and won the election. I remember how relieved I was that the nightmare had been averted. That we did choose to not elect a senile fascist back into office. That most of my country weren't willing choosing evil over progress.

Then I woke up, literally and figuratively.

Obviously, this has been a heavy blow. Honestly, as someone who was raised as a conservative Christian, who was a huge fan of Linkin Park, Kanye West, JK Rowling, Joss Whedon, Neil Gaiman, and the Undertaker for years, and who felt like I could trust my friends and family to have my back, it's been like these last few years have been a relentless train of disappointment and disillusionment in everything and everyone I once believed in and looked up to, and who I would go to for escape when things were bad. I know you should never meet your heroes, but damn, could they just have been like salty jerks who were caught being mean to the waiter instead of fascists, abusers, bigots, and so on? Could the entire world view that I had been raised in and fervently believed for over half my life not have turned out to be so awful? And yeah, I'm including the friends and family part in that as well.

Obviously, since the election, there's been a lot of finger pointing. Did Harris run a bad campaign? Did she abandon the working class? Was it the Gaza issue? Was it the fault of moral abstainers or third-party voters?

And honestly, I get it. Given the sheer horror of what we're facing, I get being frustrated with people who don't help and/or vote against their own interests only to go all Shocked Pikachu face when the worst possible scenario occurs. But I've been doing some thinking, and I personally believe that even if all those groups came out in support of Harris, whether it be because they do support her or even just as a way to block Trump, she still would have lost. This is the first time in a long time that a Democratic nominee lost the popular vote, after all. I think Biden would have lost too, and he only won in 2020 because of the very unique circumstances caused by the pandemic.

I think we need to face the facts. America's been sliding into fascism for decades.

Reagan. The extremism that erupted after 9/11. Birtherism. Gamergate. The Manosphere. The far right has been busy, whether it be stacking the deck politically or pinpointing the fears and insecurities of every generation and tuning their messaging to draw people in. They tell them what they want to hear, that it's not their fault that they aren't getting what the American dream promised them, and it's all the fault of (insert minority group here). It's been targeted. It's been methodical. And it's been working.

Trump won. He's going to get away with everything. The far right won. This sucks. I wish I had some inspiring words about never giving up the fight, but I'm not that guy. And honestly, I'm starting to feel that spiteful part of me come out, the one that sort of hopes that everything does get much worse so that every braindead moron who voted against their best interests gets exactly what they got coming to them.

But I also know how dangerous that line of thinking of. So please, Do NOT listen to me. There are plenty of people still rallying the troops, still encouraging people to fight, people who are in far more danger than I am. I'll be fine. I'm just a tired and disappointed middle-aged white guy living in a boring California suburb. I'm safe. But there's a lot of people that aren't. And those are the voice that you need to be listening to.

As for me, I'm not giving up, I'm going to keep voting, going to keep supporting the causes I believe in, and going to keep helping how I can. But I'm also going to go away for a while. Not long, probably just a few weeks or so. But I'm going to disengage from social media for a bit to keep from doomscrolling and just focus on writing, because that's all I really know how to do. And when I do come back, I'll have a lot more stuff for you guys.

In the meantime, please be good to yourselves. Be good to those who are scared and hurting. The world needs you in it, now more than ever.

[ysabelmystic]

The focus on voting third party or abstaining from voting in a national election is so troublesome. We have abysmal voter turnout rates in general. We need to be voting more not less. Voting third party in a national election is throwing your vote away under the current system. It sucks and we can acknowledge it sucks without throwing our hands up in the air right at the edge of a cliff a bunch of motherfuckers are salivating to throw us off of. And they absolutely are, I also live in the south and the shit I hear at my job alone is chilling, and that is just the shit people feel comfortable saying around me on the clock, I know it is worse than that around sympathetic company.

Oh and palestinians? They don't give a flying fuck we are talking about 25-55 year olds who all go to the same church they grew up in, believe Isreal has to exist and be maintained in its current form in order for Jesus to come back and take them all to heaven, and still make "make it a parking lot" jokes about the middle east in general. And they will absolutely vote, they always vote and the older ones always vote in local elections. Of course always "R" with no regard to who the candidate is because they don't care. "I just vote how my husband tells me to vote" is also still a sentiment held by the women around me, and no they are not old.

I wish we took the energy to be negative and act like we are going to take intense direct actions (news flash: no one will outside of a few we will sleepwalk our way into facism at this rate) and focus on increasing voter turnout and the other thing too is people need to focus on their local elections more and also if they feel empassioned get involved in the upcoming national election. Canvasing, signing people up to vote, driving people the polls on election day, also running for office. So many local elections have people running unopposed and people should look into that and what they stand for. Even schoolboards, city council, other county boards.

I think local elections have mostly passed but I just want people to remember they exist too. I want to plead to people that Trump isn't going to help Palestine and he has said so himself. His stated policy is a "blank check" approach to give Netanyahu anything he wants. He also recently stated he would "crush" pro palestine protestors if elected and deport any "foreign students" protesting.

👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻100000%

Thank you for writing this

[political-sideblog-dont-at-me]

As we get closer to election day, I'm going to need people to be normal about Palestinians complaining about Kamala Harris.

Don't reply to their posts with "But Trump would be worse!" (They also hate him, criticizing Harris is not an endorsement of Trump [And if they don't name a candidate they want you to vote for it's not an endorsement of anyone]. They're fully aware of how bad Trump is, the thing is that with the, you know, genocide going on they're already going through hell now under someone who's not Trump.)

Don't reply to their posts talking about how hard you hope their lives will be under Trump because they're a minority (I've seen people do this, seriously what is wrong with you? First that's not how you act when you want to convince people. Second many of them are already suffering under the Biden administration. Third, you're just being bigoted when you do that "You're a minority who doesn't agree with me so I hope [Terrible thing] happens to you if my politician doesn't win" is just showing that you don't care about minorities unless they agree with you. You're not "warning" them or whatever you think you're doing, you'rejust being a prick. And you're showing every other member of a minority group that your opinions are worth listening to.)

Don't call them a psyop for having a negative opinion of Harris (Yes there is election interference going on. But that's more "Elon Musk is putting targeted ads on Twitter telling different voting blocks completely opposite things about the same candidate" and not "This one person told me they don't want to vote for Kamala Harris because their [Friend/Family member] died from the Biden administration's actions". Instead of harassing them and telling them that Gaza is a single issue, just let them be.)

Lastly, if Harris loses on Tuesday, we are not blaming Palestinians, got it? Even if the number abstaining or voting 3rd party would have won her the election. Nobody should be forced to vote for an administration that is actively taking part in killing their families, and nobody should be criticized for choosing another option under those circumstances. The Biden administration could've already started an arms embargo on Israel, or even just sent them less money and fewer weapons, or stopped vetoing UN resolutions, or actually used that dock they built for humanitarian aid (Like they pretended they would) instead of sending in more military forces, etc.

They could've actually done something to make Palestinians genuinely want to vote for Harris, but instead the Biden administration has thrown itself full force behind the genocide. Has Harris said better things about Palestine than Trump has? Sure, but those are all words until something actually happens (Technically the Vice President doesn't have much political power, but she is in a position to put pressure on Biden and be more vocally supportive of any policies that would actually make Israel stop. And she hasn't).

Basically, just don't harrass the people who are currently direct victims of genocide. It's incredibly simple and easy, just don't reply to or report their posts.

(Side note: Yes there are articles about some Palestinians either supporting Harris or saying anyone is better than Trump. Try to remember that Palestinians have varying opinions and if you're responding to a Palestinian who's mad at Harris by saying "But this other Palestinian isn't so you shouldn't be!" you are indeed the bad guy. Additionally it seems like in Gaza the current general opinion is "This election doesn't affect us because neither candidate will stop the genocide." That's not an endorsement of Harris, that's telling you you still need to protest after the election. And if Harris does get elected and she continues Biden's policies then you will see me shift to advocating for 3rd party candidates instead of simply telling you to not harrass people over their voting decisions. If she actually helps Palestine I would be pleasantly surprisedbut as of now I don't expect her to do anythingbut uphold the status quo [Which is really bad])

[beforeastorm]

More regular than cicadas and groundhogs, I know the US presidential election is upon us because the armchair leftists have crawled out of whatever hole they've existed in for the past four years to decry the main party candidates and dazzle us with their fancy book learnings and big words while they whine about neoliberalism and our imperialist overlords. The only way to maintain their smug, moral superiority is to boast about how they are either abstaining or voting for [Generic Third Party Candidate #397] instead of sullying their soul by voting for Kamala Harris.

Disrespectfully, shut the hell up.

First, I am well aware of the fact that we live in the bad timeline. However, one of our prospective imperialist overlords is significantly less sucky than the other, so if we're living in the hellscape regardless, I'm gonna make it a little less bad.

Second, you can't show up three months before a presidential election and just expect there to be more than two options. Organize, do the work. Get off your armchairs and get your hands dirty! Even if lightning strikes and you get your unicorn candidate into the presidency, what the hell are they going to be able to accomplish when state legislatures, both houses of congress, and the judiciary are still filled with democrats and republicans? You build movements from the ground up. An absurd number of local elections are uncontested every year. Make it a contest.

Genuinely - if you want something actionable you can do that doesn't involve creating an entire social movement? RANKED CHOICE VOTING. Most states have organizations dedicated to it. Join it, go canvass, write your representatives. As long as we have first past the post elections, it's almost always going to come down to a two party race. Change the dynamic. (I also would love MMP but I don't know that the USA is ready for it.) Third, as Jason Brennan put it "Voting is more than just an expression of personal preferences...Voting is actually a decision about how other people should live. When we're voting we are imposing costs upon one another. We're not just deciding for ourselves." Sitting out an election, or voting for someone who isn't going to win just to score leftist purity points - well, ultimately it's your choice. But it's an inherently selfish choice that I am totally judging you for, when there are communities you claim to care about that are in danger of harm.

[honeysider]

https://www.tumblr.com/honeysider/739803375060811776/youre-pathetic-in-every-respect?source=share I'm actually interested in what you think the answer is. I'm not saying this to antagonize or bait you, I really want to know. As someone who has seen third parties fail and fail again when trying to breach into bipartisan leadership (don't get me wrong, I don't like either party) it's hard to see how leaving things to the masses (who will most likely vote for Trump) or up to a third party that probably won't win; I'm quite literally at a loss of what to do.

Here's how I see things, personally. You can't fix things in one or even two elections, and you certainly can't fix things by voting for the same party over and over again. This might get rambly.

Like, I wont even get into the viability of elections as a means of engineering political change because I'm assuming you dgaf about that (not a dig, most people consider all the other political stuff like on-the-ground work to be too much for them). I'll explain it in a way that made sense to me when I decided to not waste my time voting in presidential elections.

I do not believe in The Democratic Party or Biden's specific policies as vehicles to advance either my self interest or the interests of others in the country. The lesser of two evils argument doesn't even cut it anymore. Biden is enforcing Trump's old immigration policies even going so far as to continue building the goddamn wall. He doesn't support universal healthcare. He crumbles against any kind of pressure that isn't only rhetoric, basically threw up his hands and gave up when student loan forgiveness was attacked by the courts, and supports the genocide against Palestinians financially. He is mostly indistinguishable from a Republican, save for the theocratic aspects.

Why would I vote for someone I don't believe in?I might go vote for Cornel West because simply put I believe in more of his policies than Biden's, if I vote at all.

And that's the main thing that bothers me about the vote blue no matter who philosophy. You're never supposed to vote for who you believe in. In the primaries you are expected to unite around the Most Likely Candidate To Win The Election, not the candidate who you agree with. I remember when people screamed at Bernie voters because they were voting for the democratic socialist, not any of the mainstream moderate front runners and he started winning states. Pundits and analysts and party activists had a meltdown until the Democrats managed to wrangle everything around Biden.

So point 1, I will only vote for people I believe in. If the Republicans win as a result of enough people doing the same thing, the Democrats should have pushed a better candidate.

And that leads to point 2, Blue No Matter Who doesn't perpetuate a regrettable-but-tolerable lesser of two evils situation. It enables democrats to be as evil as their opponents, just no further than their opponents. The Democratic Party Platform used to include Universal Healthcare, and now it's literally been erased from the platform. Democrats have had three terms between Bush and now and we have only now pulled out of Afghanistan, and we still have troops in Iraq? What? Guantanamo Bay is still active? "Enhanced interrogation" is still being used? The Patriot act is renewed every time it comes up without a yell or a peep? Power is being increasingly centralized in the executive branch? All the big controversies from my childhood are still mostly unsolved today due mostly to Democratic inaction and ineptitude with a dash of Republican malevolence.

My only tool is abstaining from the process. The only thing Democrats believe in are election victories. If you just give them votes no matter who they run they won't care about seriously pursuing real beneficial policy. Let them lose elections until they get the picture.

And look. I know its hard and its scary to imagine Trump in the white house again. But Biden's doing like 99% of his policy anyways, so really all you're voting for now is a facade of political professionalism, not for what you actually believe.

So don't vote, withhold it until Democrats get a clue and get more involved or at least more knowledgeable about state and local politics.

If you want to hear about the Revolution and stuff there are better people to talk to than me tho lol

[cherienymphe]

I completely understand. I think I'm reaching a point where I prioritize self-preservation. Like, as long as I don't get pregnant in the coming years, I will hopefully not be too heavily affected by his policies and I'm kind of pushing myself to only care about this. Because the reality is that if you felt comfortable enough to say that you would vote third party or not vote because you think both candidates are equally bad, then I'm going to have to assume that you think you will not suffer under his presidency so why should I care? You didn't think it was important enough for you to vote or vote for Kamala, so why should I think you're important? I have always wholeheartedly believed in community before the individual because I wasn't raised in the US, but I'm starting to understand that Americans truly don't care to think of others.

Ngl the way this was worded threw me off a bit but I understand now and I agree! I like to consider myself an empathetic person and while I know not everyone cares for people in general like I do, I'm really starting to understand my mom's pov. She's always been about self preservation and I never quite understood it before and still don't to the degree that she does but I unfortunately get it.

If you can vote third party or abstain from voting yeah I think it is safe for people to assume that you just aren't worried about living under a Trump presidency like other people are. They likely do not feel the same fear and apprehension and worry that other people do who so badly did not want him in office

[doubleddenden]

Yeah no, this was absolutely rigged. The shithead party that cried and screamed and shat and vomited and pissed and COMMITTED TERRORISM BY STORMING THE CAPITAL ON JANUARY 6TH absolutely cheated like they always try to do.

The Nevada signatures

People in places like NC suspiciously being unregistered to vote

The call to end voting in places like Georgia before mail in ballots could be counted

The fire bombing of ballot boxes in a couple of states like Oregon

And Muskrat and Twitter. Election gambling promotion via ads by claiming the orange bastard had a higher chance to win- that's just one of the MANY ways Muskrat is suspected of election interference.

Give it a few days and they'll say there was foreign interference like with Russia in 2016. There are too many places with too many agendas to be met by having an ego maniac sociopath dumbass in office.

Oh I'm not saying nobody voted for him- no, I live in MS, I'm well aware of cult minded, ignorant people voting that simply choose not to believe or delve deeper into the orange man's own words regarding Project 2025 and making it so his "beautiful Christians never have to vote again," or fools who still believe inflation is caused by democrats. My vote is probably the closest you can get to worthless- a match in an ocean.

That stupid fucker that couldn't aim for shit (and I'm still suspicious of for a number of reasons) definitely did not help by painting the reds as heroes with victim complexes. God that stupid photo had to have been planned.

And lastly, if there's anyone else to blame besides racist misogynists or the severely ignorant, I'll point my middle finger at third party voters, people who abstained, or the absolute morons that actually voted FOR HIM thinking it would somehow help Gaza despite him saying he wanted to help get its destruction over with (and Ukraine too, if i remember correctly, because he loves Putin). Congratulations on your morality, bros. If you can't save everyone, you may as well speed run killing millions more than the other option, right? Despite the clear warnings that 3rd parties do not win anymore, despite the clear messages that this was about keeping the LESSER of 2 evils from winning, despite the very real threat of Project 2025 taking away any future right to vote and hand over our rights to neo nazi christo fascist dictators, you get to feel warm and cozy as you sip your pumpkin spice lattes and read fics with your cat while some of us lost progress to getting affordable healthcare or more children needlessly die. Because your morals are more important than lives, obviously, because you're the main character, obviously, because bots on Twitter or chat gpt or the tumblr user with a Hazbin Hotel pfp told you we deserved to lose our rights- and you believed them because you don't like critically thinking, obviously. Thank you guys specifically for making it even harder for women to receive needed abortions, thank you guys specifically for allowing the monster that fired the pandemic response team back in office after covid killed millions, thank you guys specifically for undoing any progress made in the last 4 years and healing from him the last time. Thank you, for signing the death warrants of innocents, because you can't comprehend the fact that EVERY POLITICIAN IS EVIL and that your job is to vote for the LESSER evil that has an actual chance of winning, because we don't get to toss out the options available for a new set because any time we get close to any sort of progress it gets REVERSED. I hope you're happy with the outcome, you stupid pieces of shit, and I can only hope that it's you instead of an innocent child that gets hurt because of your actions or inaction to vote.

God I hate this fucking shithole country. Why couldn't I be at least Canadian?