#like I don't think any Democrat candidate (or any candidate at all) will be able to fix america's problems in the next 4 years

[cubbyhole-for-flea-bee]

Do NOT let this thing back in the hospital White House

VOTE IN NOVEMBER

[qqueenofhades]

I've seen a lot of doom today. Thank you for the bracing positivity!

Look man, idk if I would call it positivity. I'm fucking furious that the media and/or the billionaire class could have chosen at any time, ANY TIME, to carry out this coordinated ratfucking on Trump, and nope, they did it to Biden. Not coincidentally after he openly started espousing even more leftist/progressive tax and wealth policies. I'm also fairly certain that Putin (who is well used to playing the American elections ratfucking game) is involved here somehow, because he desperately wants Biden out and Trump back in. Two plus two, etc.

The elected Democrats who went along with this and/or who contributed to fucking Biden over also have a hell of a lot to answer for, and I hope we, the voters, let them fucking know. The only way this makes sense is if Biden is actively dying of Covid right now and/or if it's bad enough to permanently damage him. In that case, he might have had a modicum of actual say about this, rather than falling victim to the Anonymous Sources who stabbed him in the back every step of the way.

That said: Kamala is a genuinely good candidate. I am excited to have the chance to vote for her. This does turn the whole Referendum on Two Old White Men With Mental Issues narrative on its head. She might be able to reach some constituencies that Biden couldn't. I don't know for sure if all the Democratic/never-Trump GOP votes will translate, but I am so motherfucking tired of fascists thinking this will be a walk in the park. They asked for this, they fucking got it, people are really fucking mad (including me and like, everyone), and if all this maneuvering gets our first female AND Black president, the fascists are going to absolutely fucking lose it and cry for eons. And idk about you, but I want to see some sore loser fuckboys cry cry cry. I want revenge for 2016. I want Trump dead and fucking gone and yknow, Black women have played a huge role in his bad bad times so far. So it's only fair, I suppose, that Kamala gets the chance to finish the motherfucker off. I don't know if it's positivity, but that's what is fueling me right now. So yeah.

[fremedon]

I did my first phone bank of the season tonight, for my state's senate campaign.

I know we all hate the phone around here. But as a raging introvert with an audio processing disorder, I actually find phone banking hugely easier than almost any other phone interaction (and many in-person ones).

So I thought I'd write up a brief explainer of how it works.

The big thing to know about phone banking is this: It is largely not about persuading people to change their votes. It has three other, very simple, goals:

1.) Gather information to help the campaign determine where to concentrate its resources.

2.) Remind people that there is an election and get them thinking about and making an active plan to go and vote.

3.) Remind people of the candidate's name.

That's it. That's all you have to do. Two-thirds of the time they'll hang up on you and you won't even do that much. It's easy.

So. You sign up by going to the website of a candidate you'd like to support and looking for volunteer opportunities on their website. There will, somewhere, be a place to sign up to phone bank

You can phone bank from home these days; or you can do what I did tonight and go into a campaign office. If you go into the office, there will be campaign volunteers there who can answer questions for you and walk you through what to do, but you will also be within earshot of other people on the phone, so if background noise is a problem you might prefer to do it from home or bring noise-cancelling headphones.

They will send you a link to an autodialer, which you will call from your own phone or computer. The autodialer will work its way through a list of numbers. No one you are calling will be able to see your own phone number; they'll just see the number the autodialer is using.

The system will work its way through a list of numbers and only hand off to you when someone picks up. At this point, the screen will display the following:

1.) The name of the person you're trying to call;

2.) a set of buttons for how to record the initial response: Hung up, Answering Machine, Wrong Number, etc, and some version of You Are Actually Talking To the Right Person;

3.) an actual script for introducing yourself. You don't have to follow it exactly, but you can, and it will give you the points you need to try to hit--for introductions, that's usually going to be your first name, the campaign you're calling for, and that you are a volunteer.

If the call ends here--they hang up; they tell you you have the wrong number--you hit the button that best matches what happened, the call ends, and when you're ready you can tell the autodialer to send you the next call.

If the person is willing to talk, you click the button for that, and the screen will move on to the next page of the script--there will be some amount of information to give out--again, you don't need to read it all--one question to be sure to ask, and buttons to record their answer.

Most of the time, the question is going to be "Are you supporting this candidate," and your answers will be on a scale from Strong Yes to Strong No. For most of the campaign season, people answering either of those will be taken off the call list because they're not likely to change their mind; people who are undecided will keep getting calls. Right before the election, strategy will change from persuading the persuadables to getting out the vote, and then everyone who's already said they're supporting your candidate might get another round of calls to remind them to vote, and gather information about who has already voted and who the campaign should still be calling or sending canvassers to.

Sometimes there will be multiple questions; tonight, we asked three: Are you supporting the Democratic Senate candidate; Are you supporting the Democratic House candidate for whichever district we were calling; and--if they answered yes--Are you interested in volunteering.

You do not have to be able to answer every question or give a persuasive speech to phone bank for a political candidate. Very few people want to have a long conversation with you. If you do get someone who does, you have a script in front of you which contains talking points and often links to further information.

But the most persuasive thing you can do is the thing you have already done just by calling: you've let them know that someone near them, one of their neighbors, a real person with a name and a voice, cares so much about electing this person that they've volunteered their free time to make it happen.

You do need to be polite and positive at all times. That part is not really negotiable. No one that you're talking to is going to remember more than one talking point at most anyway--but they will remember that that nice person from the campaign was so polite and so cheerful. I am a salty gloomy bitch in RL, but my phone-sona brims over with love for my fellow fucking humans.

And you know, I really do feel some of that love, by the end of the night.

If you think this sounds like something you can do, I recommend giving it a try. It's an excellent way to channel your anxiety about the election into action, and it's not nearly as scary as it seems.

[itsallpoliticsstupid]

Throughout the election, I maintained to my boyfriend that I couldn't call who would win. Because it was just too close. I think that was always untrue, in my heart I always knew that Kamala didn't have a chance at becoming President.

I think there are a number of reasons for this. The car crash of a Presidential debate between Biden and Trump; the way she became the democratic candidate; her stance on the Israel/Gaza war, which turned away a lot of her more 'traditional' voters; the fact that, outside of abortion, there didn't seem to be any other real issue that she was running on - I mean I could literally go on and on. But it just felt everything was against her.

For me though, it boils down to 3 major issues:

The Economy

The fact Biden decided to run for a second term

'Democracy' (e.g. the way she became candidate)

And other Political Analysts will likely disagree with me, but I'm used to it.

The Economy

We look first at the economy. This is a huge motivating factor to why somebody would vote for a candidate. Under the democrats cost of living has increased, and people are struggling to maintain a good quality of life.

An average voter is going to ascribe that to the Government, and in this case the Democrats.

They're not going to know, or care, that the cost of living increase is a global issue caused by world events. Such as the War in Ukraine, War in the Middle East and Climate Change making large scale production more difficult due to the instability of the land.

So if the opposing Political Party are using that big issue to their advantage, claiming that they will help lower taxes for the normal working family, of course that's going to be an incentive to vote for them regardless of the other issues surrounding that candidate/party.

Biden's decision to stand

I think the moment Biden decided to go for a second term was the moment the democrats had no hope of winning the election.

It had become apparent quite late on in his presidency that he was struggling with his neurological health and it should have been advised much earlier that he shouldn't run for a second term.

Had he stepped away much earlier, they could have bought in a candidate who could run from the off. Somebody who would be able to put what they stood for across much earlier, and could really make an impact in an election.

Because really, who knows what Kamala stood for? Outside of the abortion rights, I can't tell you one thing. Yes, I wanted her to win, but that's because I do believe Trump will cause damage globally. But, I don't know what Kamala's policies were. Or what she really stood for. It felt like the democrats were more interested in damaging the Republican party's image than really showing what they were about.

In essence, negative campaigning. Which came to a head when she referred to him as a fascist.

And it just goes to show that negative campaigning doesn't work.

Democracy (How she became the candidate)

This leads me to the final point. How Kamala became candidate. In a parliamentary system, nobody would blink twice if you had a change of leader candidate half way through an election. Because you vote for the party, not the candidate.

I think changing the candidate half way through this election process made people feel a bit...off. And is probably why so many people said that threat to democracy was a core issue for them. Because, if it was mainly democrats answering the threat to democracy being a core issue, the election would have been a hell of a lot different.

Anyway, that's just my opinion and assessment.

It sucks right now but, as I said in my country after Brexit, you will get through, whether in the US or in another country. It will be a deeply uncertain, challenging time, but all you can do right now is have faith that things won't be as bad as we all believe.

Take care of yourselves in America. I may wait for the next 4 years to pass before reconsidering relocating over there for work.

[atwoodsfemalefantasy]

this is a message for women, whoever this may reach.

vote tomorrow. no matter what. vote. nothing is more important than this election, not for women.

Trump and Vance want to go further than taking away our reproductive rights. they want to track our pregnancies, force us to stay in abusive marriages, edge closer and closer to FORCED traditional (aka christian) marriages until we live in the Handmaids Tale as black women have before this.

if you are republican, that's okay. but if you value any of your human rights as a woman, you need to vote blue just this one time. you can be a republican, i will always respect that, but right now we all need to recognize that there is more at stake here than voting for your political al party. even if you're pro life, recognize that Trump has other policies that will be detrimental to women, and we need to vote for someone we do not love to be able to get back to democracy. Trump is a crisis. Trump is a threat to democracy. he quote literally cannot even follow the rules of this country, let alone enforce and protect them. he is a convicted rapist. he is a felon. he is an elderly, uber wealthy man who cares about nothing but the upper class white men of America. once he is defeated, we can go back to the conversation between political parties. republicans can go back to being republicans, but right now this is a crisis that is far larger than parties. this is about being an American. Trump is an anti-American as it gets, and believe it or not, as anti-religion as it gets. he sold his own, altered version of the Bible. he is a rapist. he is a pedophile. he and Vance believe it's okay to make up falsehoods to tell the American public. this country was built on flawed liberty, but Trump will take all liberty away. Trump is a crisis that is not a republican vs democrat issue. this is an America vs. threat to democracy issue. vote as an American. vote for America. Trump is NOT what America stands for. America, however flawed, is built on the promise of LIBERTY and JUSTICE for EVERYONE. liberty for everyone to practice whatever religion they choose, not just one religion being enforced everywhere. once the threat is passed, things can go back to normal. republicans can fight for republican candidates once more.

but women-republican women. this is bigger. do you want a President who rapes our sisters? do you want a President who would sleep with his own daughters if they weren't family? do you want a President who thinks he can grab you by the pussy just because he's famous? do you want a President who would make you stay with an abusive husband? think of your daughters. think of your sisters. who is he going to pardon? who is he going to protect? he will protect the rapists. the abusers. the monsters who wish to harm you and the women you love. maybe he'll ban abortion, and you'll like that, but then what? will you be happy when you can't get a divorce if your husband hits you? will you be happy when someone you love is raped, and the leader of your country supports that rape? will you be happy when the government has all your pregnancy records? will you?

and here's the thing, women. WE hold the power this election. OUR rights are at stake, and WE have the power to protect them. the polls right now are roughly tied for battleground states, but what those polls can't account for is the number of women each election that stay home. we will not stay home. if women turn out in record numbers, we will turn the tide in Harris' favor. so whatever you're doing tomorrow. vote. nothing is more important. don't let the anything make you too busy to not vote. we can make this

[hero-israel]

Hi, if you don't mind answering, I have a question regarding Israel. I figured any Jewish person in Israel or not probably knows better than I could guess after occasionally reading Tumblr for a couple of months. What do you think is right/wrong about the Israel government, what should it be like and what should it do now? I would be thankful if you could answer.

Some context, if it makes any difference why I'm asking: I'm Ukrainian, and I was surprised first time I saw people comparing Israel with russia. It felt wrong to me from the start, cause it made more sense to compare terrorists with terrorists instead. Western leftists seem ignorant and delusional to argue with them, but I also saw this opinion from some Ukrainians on twitter, so I got interested to learn a bit more to get proper arguments against this comparison. Then I learned that quite a lot of Jewish people here are against current actions of the Israel government in Gaza, which at first looked strange to me cause it's a very different situation from what we have in Ukraine. I figured that Jewish people are the best source to learn "what's wrong with Israel government" without being flooded by conspiracy theories. I support Israel, but I don't want to support things that most of you guys actually disagree with. And another thing, personally I don't see how it's possible to get rid of hamas without harming civilians in Gaza, but I saw here Jewish people arguing that both Palestinian and Israeli civilians shouldn't be harmed. That's why I asked a few people on Tumblr what they think Israel should do to get some opinions, though perhaps my question among attacks was seen as an attack too. So this time I add this long clarification, sorry about that 😅

Thank you for the insight - I particularly appreciate hearing what this sounds like from Ukrainians as they face their own crisis.

I support actions that protect Jewish lives and Jewish rights, everywhere in the world, including in Israel. I want governments moral enough and strong enough to do that, everywhere, including in Israel. Sadly, Israel is really fucking it up for the last year.

No one should be happy with what is happening in Gaza. It is an appalling humanitarian disaster, exactly as Hamas planned it would be. Once they were able to stage their attack, Israel had no choice but to invade; to have done anything other than invade would have sent a message to all their enemies that they would just lie back and take it, and that is a message they cannot afford to send.

The current Israeli government is one of the most ultra-right-wing, revolting, criminal, and incompetent out of any democratic nation in the world. Their stupidity made the Hamas attack possible. Benjamin Netanyahu has been PM forever and kept winning elections because despite his ugly, crooked personality, he was good at the job, good from economic and diplomatic perspectives, and avoided major change with the Palestinians. As he stayed in office longer and got more crooked with age, his scandals and campaign crimes piled up until it really looked like he could face prison for it. For a cruelly, tantalizingly brief period, the more forward-thinking elements of Israeli society were able to oust the far-right parties, but eventually that fell apart for the dumbest and most aggravating reason ever and Netanyahu was able to come back. This time he boosted up fringe ultra-right-wing candidates who were too extreme to function in a "real" government but who promised to help him change laws so he wouldn't go to jail. The actual process of changing those laws - transparently to end the investigations of the MULTIPLE indicted or convicted criminals in this government - tore Israeli society apart. People were warning for MONTHS that military readiness was plummeting. The Hamas attack plan had been known since around 2015 and an even more detailed version surfaced last year. They were all just too busy working to legalize crime and settle old scores than on watching the border where the genocidal fascist militia lives.

I don't know what the proper plan at this point is. After 3 months, I'm still very much emotionally stuck on "what you are supposed to do is PREVENT THIS, YOU IDIOTS, THAT IS YOUR JOB, AND NOT A HARD ONE." I don't think I will ever get past that, it was so obvious and I had been losing sleep all year fully expecting something like this to happen. Within the first few weeks after the attack, I saw a message from former PM Naftali Bennett about how it would be relatively quick and easy to flood all the Gaza tunnels with seawater and that would solve the problem; kill off Hamas troops, destroy their weapons, collapse their bases. Clearly they haven't done that yet. Does that mean it can't be done? If it can be done, then I lean towards thinking the current campaign should go on until it is done. If it can't be done, then I'd like to hear exactly what the goal of this incursion is and how long they expect it to last. Are they going to kill 30,000 people in the course of disarming and expelling Hamas? Or are they going to kill 30,000 people and Hamas will still be a recognizable threat anyway? If it's the latter, why kill all those people, why not stop now? When do they stop? Those are fair questions.

Basically all Jews "support Israel," insofar as they want it to keep existing as a Jewish state. Basically all Jews who support Israel also truly have no ill will toward Palestinians. They see Palestinians' problems as being less severe than the problems Jews have faced, historically and recently, and not worth the risks to Jews if an Israel did not exist. They believe in peace and want there to be a two-state solution, either because they really want a better life for Palestinians or because they want to stop feeling vaguely guilty about the occupation, or a mix of both.

I hope this was in any way helpful and regret that I couldn't be more precise about what the future plan should be.

[fairuzfan]

not to minimise what trump has done. he is… terrible in every which way. but… why is there a comparison between trump’s reign vs biden’s? biden is endorsing genocide openly and proudly and bypassing congress or whatever to send israel ammunition.

how is he still “the lesser evil?”

i think if people started comparing, you’d have to acknowledge that nothing trump’s done comes close to what biden is doing. especially not on a global scale. and that’s really just a pointless conversation to begin with. biden’s current political policies have led to the murder of 30,000+ people. i don’t think anyone should be comparing him to trump or forming hypotheticals when the reality is that biden is killing people. he doesn’t deserve a vote because he’s killing people. how can anyone live with themselves by endorsing a war criminal so blatantly?

i feel like this entire conversation kind of shows just how unaware americans are of their own politics and of the world outside of the US. how is this the conversation you’re having? how is this even a point to argue? especially with a palestinian who’s people and family and friends are being murdered with biden’s backing. why is nobody focusing on insisting for better candidates instead of the whole biden vs trump argument?

i mean trump did still do terrible things in yemen and syria, i dont think we should forget that but biden perpetuated a lot of that and didn't end it. but now we're looking at the darfur genocide, the continued sanctions on syria, palestinian genocide, armenian expulsion, and just so many other things. And that's just in swana and south eastern europe!

biden expanded the border wall, kept the concentration camps in the south, basically got rid of masking policy leading to the death of thousands, and just so much more. like what?! how is he "lesser" like honestly honestly, how is he lesser of an evil. he did this shit and feels no regret for any of it. so no i don't think anyone in the democratic party is a "lesser evil" i think they sat by while all this stuff happened and continue to sit by. so is it better that they're able to put on pretenses??

[deadpresidents]

I’m leaning towards Mark Kelly of Arizona, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as the most likely VP picks. Admittedly, Kelly and Shapiro are more likely as they are representatives of states that the Democrats need to win. But I would pay anything to see a Buttigieg v. Vance debate. Ultimately, my guess would be Kelly. He has an interesting/impactful biography. He seems to be well-liked and able to connect with people.

I think pretty much everyone on the short list for VP is a good pick. I'd be happy with Beshear, Kelly, Shapiro, Buttigieg, Polis, or my personal choice Admiral McRaven. I definitely think Senator Kelly checks all of the boxes but, again, my big worry there is giving up a Democratic Senate seat that is safe until at least 2029 in a state where it's difficult for Democrats to win. Every Senate seat is important to hold on to considering how close the past few Congresses have been. That's my only hesitation with Kelly.

The only potential candidates for VP that I've seen mentioned in a lot of places that I'm not high on are Governor Pritzker of Illinois and Governor Cooper of North Carolina. I think Cooper would be a good pick if Kamala was running for President of North Carolina, but I don't see how he translates nationally. I know Pritzker has been a pretty good Governor and is relatively popular in Illinois, but I'm always reluctant about billionaire candidates because I think they live in a vastly different world than the people they are elected to govern.

It shows you how deep the bench actually is in the Democratic Party when it comes to this generation of leaders who have been somewhat blocked by the older Democratic leaders who have dominated the party for the last 30+ years. We saw that logjam start breaking once Nancy Pelosi and the older House Democratic leadership like Steny Hoyer and Jim Clyburn stepped aside for Hakeem Jeffries and the current leaders of the Congressional Dems. And there are some rising superstars amongst the Democratic Governors and Lieutenant Governors throughout the nation. I think the Democratic ticket is going to be in pretty good shape with any of the names being mentioned most frequently as being on the shortlist for VP.

[lady-raziel]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[eddo-tensei]

I spent years trying to stop a nightmare from manifesting and in the end, I failed. (VENT)

This post contains a lot of emotional vomit, so apologies if this comes off an intense.

If you're wondering why I've been inactive on this blog and this fic for so long, it's because I've made the mistake of getting myself involved in politics. For those who are new, I am someone who's always been concerned over people's right to free expression, especially online. Doesn't matter if it's being threatened by Republicans or Democrats. I was doing all that I could to try and stop it. Unfortunately, it felt impossible to stop the government at large from slowly but surely stripping away these rights. The latest chance I had to try and protect these rights was through this year's election.

Simply put, I couldn't trust the GOP to uphold these rights no matter what the "free speech warriors" said. More likely, they would censor it if they felt like it. The only way I could see it is to try and get the Democratic candidate elected. It felt like we had a chance especially when the old one dropped out for a relatively younger candidate. We thought we were onto something here, but we weren't.

Not only did we lose, but we lost badly either because people got too confident like in 2016 or there were too many people who felt more like spiting us than making things better for everyone. No amount of reassurance, whether it came from my friends or my family, was able to calm me down about what could happen in the future. Not only did I have to deal with terminally online assclowns dehumanizing and mocking people like me for the next four years, but we could lose so many of the rights that a lot of us, even these terminally online folks, take for granted.

There are people out there who would rather allow tyrants to rule over them than to get along with people they don't agree with and that's incredibly depressing to me. Honestly, the only thing I could think of is how much people will end up regretting their decision as the years go on. I assumed that after it became clear that these people would try to cheat or even unleash a riot onto government grounds, nobody would be willing to let them have power again. I suppose I was wrong to believe in that.

Honestly, it's hard to find any hope in this. That said, I'm gonna try and find it anyways. It feels like all anyone could do at this point is give up, but I've learned that it's never our only option. We have to do what we can to try and make things better even if it seems impossible. Maybe down the line, some of these people will grow to regret their decisions and join us in our cause, but I'm not gonna hold my breath over it. All I know right now is that this is just utterly demoralizing and I'm not looking forward to what may happen in the future. People on the left mocking us for not being committed enough to their desires and people on the right mocking us for daring not to think like they do. I know it's ridiculous to invoke "Bothsidesbad", but I've never felt this way more than I have now.

Still, there's still tomorrow and tomorrow will be another day to go forward. We've been through four years of this before, eight if you want to be technical about it. We can hopefully get through four more.

[qqueenofhades]

I think the Aaron Sorkin fic people are writing about the convention to be extremely silly. It's going to be Biden. And if Biden's health takes a downturn and he feels the need to step down its going tk be Harris. This fantasy where we skip over her to whip up two random white guys(or like maaaybe Witmer) and somehow cruise to victory instead of fragmenting the party months before the election is simply not going to happen.

Look, I'm just saying, I got an email from the Biden campaign this morning where they seemed pretty darn happy with the actual (i.e. not-bloviating media) results of the debate: $38 million raised in 4 days ($30 million from individual small-dollar donors), 10K new volunteers in a week, 3x surge in campaign volunteers for battleground states, essentially no change or even a modest boost in the polls. So I think at this point, we can cautiously conclude the following things:

The debate looked bad for Biden, perhaps, but doesn't seem to have hurt him nearly as much the incredibly bad-faith BIDEN NEEDS TO STEP DOWN NOW takes being pumped out by the NYT and its other compatriots would suggest. Especially when these same media outlets have been gleefully sabotaging Biden at every turn for years already and whose fake-sanctimonious hand-wringing "for the good of the nation" pieces honestly should get them dropped into Superhell for Bad Journalists;

Biden went to Raleigh NC right after the debate and gave a fiery rally speech that was very well received. Now, I don't know why we didn't have that Biden at the debate, but it was the same night and there clearly was not any "cOgnItiVe dEcLinE" happening there (also Biden has a stutter and has for literally his entire life, and had a cold on debate night, so it was just an unfortunate confluence of factors)

There are very few actually undecided voters in this election (once again: HOW???) and those who tuned into the debate were largely already convinced of which candidate they were voting for and this didn't do much to change their minds. Just like, you know, pretty much every other debate in the history of presidential elections.

Ordinary voters, and not mainstream media outlets with BIDEN IZ BAD goggles clamped over their eyes, were able to see Trump's insane Gish gallops, lies, and full-blown dementia; this isn't going to get any better for him when he's already lost 20%-25% of GOP voters in every state primary and still is going to be sentenced in his criminal trial;

The D.C. political elite screaming about how Biden should step down (FOUR MONTHS BEFORE THE ELECTION) and leave the Democrats to start from scratch with some Star Chamber-selected candidate with no money and no incumbency record and no organization apparatus and a divided party are either fucking weapons grade morons or working secretly for Trump, because that IS in fact the best way to lose the election;

Such speculation seems to fall chiefly on Gavin Newsom, who (to his credit) has shut down any and all suggestion that he should try to step in and take the place of an incumbent who has won every state primary with 90% or more, because he's remotely sane and understands that this year is too important to fuck around with;

I've somehow never seen any suggestion that Biden should step aside for the duly elected (brown, female) Vice President, because everyone seems to think some Young Miraculous White Guy is coming and/or should step in;

All this while SCOTUS is clearly so confident of Trump getting back in that it's willing to grant him Absolute God King status pre- and post-emptively;

Yes, Biden needs to up his game before the next debate (though that's on Fox News iirc, blargh), but I think it's far enough post-debate that we can say it was bad but did not sink him, and if anything, reinforced the fact to many ordinary, non-brainwormed voters that Biden is old (which has been the number one chief theme of news coverage for four years and is no surprise to anyone) but is a decent and principled man doing a good job, while Trump is an absolute gibbering insane orange shitmonger fascist. I don't think he did himself any favors in that regard.

....anyway. The point is, do not be fucking insane people, Biden is not going to step down and frankly shouldn't, don't read the NYT (as noted, they've openly admitted to sabotaging him for personal ego reasons so I don't know why the hell anyone would listen to what they have to say about him), this is still an eminently winnable election, and let's go get those motherfucking fascists. I want Trump in jail and all of SCOTUS and the MAGAGOP fucking crying over it because they fucking suck. Let's go.

[droughtofapathy]

For those of you in New York, don't think that just because we are a blue state it means you don't have to vote or that your vote does not matter. Maybe it will be a forgone conclusion that our electoral college votes go to the Democratic candidate, but voting is not, and never is, just about the presidential election. We are voting on all levels this and every year, and it is vital that you make informed and educated picks. Your local elections are majorly important. If you really want to enact systemic change, this is the most realistic and doable way to achieve that. It starts with small community-based change. Young people statistically has poorer voter turnout as compared to older demographics, and that is why your local councils and small-town mayors and hell even your school boards are able to run business as usual without the interests YOU want in mind. Because you let them.

The first ballot I ever cast when I turned 18 was not in a presidential election. It was to vote on my local school district's budget. It was in the school's gymnasium and despite it being open after school as kids left for the bus or practice or whatever, I was the only student there. This was a budget that directly impacted us, the students, and the people voting were all far older. I have voted in dozens of small elections and ballots where the margins can be as little as two votes.

It matters.

In New York, it is so damn easy to register to vote and to cast your ballot. I do not want to hear your excuse about how you can't register and vote because you don't drive, or you're disabled and can't stand in line day-of, or whatever your "well actually" comment is. If you are eligible to vote in this state, you can and must vote.

You can register online here

What do you need to register? Three things:

NYS driver license, permit, or non-driver ID card

ZIP Code currently on record with the DMV

Social security number

As a member of society, you have those things. If you work, you must have those things. If you want to rent an apartment, you must have those things. If you do anything at all, you have those things. If you don't have those things, then you are a very hyper-specific case and honestly, what are you doing on tumblr dot com when it seems like you might have bigger issues at hand?

But what about the actual voting?

Guess what? New York has some of the easiest voter methods in the damn country. Since 2020, requesting a mail-in ballot is easier than getting a sandwich at the deli.

Apply for a Mail-In Ballot Here

Any voter. You do not need to have a reason. You can just fill out the form. It takes five minutes. The ballot arrives at your residence, you fill it out, you mail it back. That's it. No waiting on lines if you aren't able-bodied, no risking contact with anyone else if you're immunocompromised, no taking time off work if you can't afford to.

For those of you not in New York, check your state guidelines here. In Ohio, for example, it's as easy as New York. You can vote by absentee ballot as long as your voter registration information is current. And as one of the most notorious swing states, it is crucial to vote blue in Ohio. Texas, on the other hand, doesn't actually seem to want to encourage voting, and you must meet certain criteria. But those who are disabled can and should request a mail-in ballot.

You can vote. Do it.

[finelinens1994]

i worked at a polling place on election day and, while it wasn't asked of me, every time i led someone to the booth i said "let me know if you have any questions or don't understand something" and quite a few people took me up on it. dozens of people (if not hundreds — it's all a blur) told me they don't speak english well and needed me to tell them how to cast their vote for the candidate they wanted. sometimes i had to sign paperwork so i could go inside with them because they needed me to literally direct them through the entire process, no thanks to the fact that my polling place didn't offer the ballots in any other languages despite having the capability. my coworkers spoke hindi and gujarati with probably hundreds of people and i spoke broken spanish with dozens. one older person asked for help with his ballot and i discovered that he didn't know how to read at all. i signed the paperwork and went into the booth with him and read the entire ballot aloud. i'm so grateful that these people felt comfortable asking for help, and i don't even want to think about how many people felt too embarrassed to do so.

all but one of the people who requested detailed assistance from me were voting for donald trump, and he was almost always the only candidate they knew. i had to explain to multiple people what the board of education is, and one young new voter didn't know how to interpret the design of a ballot at all. i always felt that poor education and the shame surrounding it were likely causes for a lot of issues in this country, but working a 16 hour shift at a polling place on election day really cemented that idea for me. our education system is abysmal, and we provide so few resources for adults to continue their education for free. and why would they want to anyway, when democrats are online right now calling them stupid? saying they only voted for donald trump because they're uneducated and dumb? wouldn't that make anyone want to dig their heels in, only growing more and more conservative and desperate for direction from a charismatic figure who actually acts like they might like you?

it all makes me sad. i am so happy that i was able to help all of those people participate in an election, and i am so sad that some of the people i ally myself with on the left might not have wanted to help them at all. i am not a pacifist and i don't think we should all just get along or whatever, but i do think that the fact that a very visibly queer person was helping these republicans cast their votes and wasn't weird about it maaay have had a positive impact on these people. i don't know. some of them seemed uncomfortable with me. but i was nice anyway. i'm the furthest thing from an optimist so i don't think i'm being idealistic or anything, but there's a chance. right? don't you think small day-to-day interactions could be impactful for people like this too? i think maybe rather than this being an idealist view, it's more that i just need to feel this way so that i don't go completely insane from the nihilism. i need to believe, even just a little bit, that positive human connections can influence even the most hateful people to be kinder and more compassionate. even if it's only a little bit. i'm tired of often only seeing the worst from people no matter how kind i try to be, but i have to keep doing it or i'll lose my mind. working election day was a really enlightening and worthwhile experience and i feel like i gained so much from doing it, but my god am i just absolutely fucking exhausted emotionally as well. i think i just don't know how to really reckon with the political reality of this country sometimes. it feels surreal.

[didnt-hear-idsb-live-again]

Can I ask how Hilary was unlikeable (aside from being a woman , I guess, RIP)? This is a genuine question, I'm not a US citizen, but pretty much every criticism I heard about her was "The EMAILS" which from my understanding was just incompetence with technology that republicans overinflated in order to hate on her?

so, she had a very famous tweet that I think sums it up, which said: "how does student debt make you feel? tell us in 3 emojis or less" while she simultaneously she was pretty cagey on her stance of whether or not we should absolve all student loan debt. Just an incredibly out of touch overall vibe, while trying incredibly hard to present as "in touch" and failing miserably, because she didn't actually speak to people like she understood their struggles.

Post-Obama, we as a country were liberal enough to be able to dream bigger in terms of where we wanted our country headed. We could talk about things like a livable minimum wage, universal healthcare, etc, and none of these things felt THAT crazy. We even had a primary candidate running on the concept of universal basic income - which still felt pretty crazy, but we were far enough to the left where it could even be brought to the table. Which, at this point, is crazy to think about. Hillary really dug her heels into the sand in terms of not wanting to play with any of that. She called the idea of wanting universal healthcare "pie in the sky", she wasn't vocally pro-gay marriage until about 2010, which was REALLY insanely late for a lot of democrats, so people didn't trust her, she (iirc, it's been a while) didn't believe in a $15 minimum wage. It felt like her vibe was "things are decent enough under Obama. We will be making absolutely no progress," and this was effectively her campaign message, packaged under a feminist / "first woman president" bow, which felt extremely shallow to many. By the end of Obama's presidency, people on both sides of the aisle felt like he was not delivering on a lot of the things he promised and had growing frustrations about that. So Hillary just absolutely refusing to give in a lot of ways, and running as a bit of a centrist in the climate, was REALLY not it for a lot of people. A lot of people, me included, also REALLY did not like her stance on foreign policy: if 2016 was 2024, her stance on Palestine would've been the same, or worse, than Kamala's. She was just very very very pro American military defense, and it was at a time when people - again, on both sides of the aisle - were just 3000000% DONE with our troops being in the Middle East. She may not have spoken to be this pro-military on the campaign trail, but her positions and actions as Obama's Secretary of State really painted that picture.

Corporate involvement in politics was also a HUGE talking point in this election; a lot of people were seemingly just becoming aware of and frustrated with how politicians were bought and sold by corporations. Supposedly not being this way was a massive part of Trump's appeal - and she, conversely to him, had a LOT of corporate donors, and wasn't against the involvement of them in our elections.

This all became infinitely worse in juxtaposition to Bernie Sanders (a Vermont Senator who ran against her in the primaries), who was about a million miles to the left of her on every topic. Him and his policies laid out next to her just really painted the picture of how centrist she was, and it made her look almost Republican by comparison to a lot of young people. A lot of people blame this on Bernie and hold her loss against him for this reason, and, while that element did contribute and IS unfortunate, I don't think it says anything bad about him in a vacuum.

Hope this helps, tried to be relatively unbiased!

[windandwater]

political ramblings from a recovering news junkie (I had to stop following this stuff, it was giving me health problems)

anecdotally it seems like a lot of people are/were sick of trump and don't want him back, and they just needed a new candidate to actually be excited about.

everyone's takeaway from 2016 was that America just hates women too much to elect one over a racist white man but I said from the beginning that the problem was Hilary herself, whom everyone had too many reasons to hate. imo mostly imagined reasons especially compared to the egregiousness of her opponent. but democrats really underestimated how much people in red states still carry a grudge against her, leftover from the 90s.

but due to America's still-real hatred of women,and racism, I've been wondering whether Kamala really can win against this jackass and I keep thinking about something my boss (another politics wonk, NOVA grown and has worked in journalism and interned in the white house) says, which is that America hates losers, and trump has proved himself a loser--and a criminal, in the actual courts, which the right can try to spin as politically motivated but I think to anyone not following every move it just looks bad. same thing as what happened with the emails investigation with Hilary--people just assume that if there's smoke there's fire. and I don't think most people's mouths are wrapped around the fox news hose of information tight enough to be able to justify every bad thing that happens to republicans to themselves. so I think people have been waiting for an energetic challenger to trump for a long time and they're jumping on this moment. all over the country, not just in what we think of liberal outposts. and I think most Americans are capable of seeing a candidate and not a scary person who doesn't look like them, especially since she's so charismatic and genuinely fun.

I also think we need to reckon with the effects of gerrymandering and really do something to combat it if we get any kind of administration and congressional change because the majority of Americans are not represented at all. you see that in the polling but I've also seen it firsthand when leaving my little liberal city and talking to people in supposedly blood red states. we agree with each other on a lot of things and if we went back to the old way of compromising on bills and issues and stopped this crap of one party being up the ass of corporations and the death cult of the evangelical right, we'd see a lot of real progress. but since that's not really an option, steamrollering over them over and over until the party is destroyed and a new one emerges is the only option for the future here, I think. and to do that we gotta have representative districts. because I think it will happen naturally if Americans are represented.

all of the above applies to voting rights as well.

I like Kamala Harris even though she's not the candidate I would pick. but I also don't think necessarily the progressive base of the party should pick the presidential candidate, in this race we clearly need someone who can pull the party together and build coalitions and it looks like that's her. it's been really interesting to see the country agree with me when normally I don't think I'm on the same page as moderates in this country. maybe the center of the country is finally moving left? or maybe the far right radicalism/fascism has finally hit its breaking point?

I feel the way I did in 2016; absolutely terrified of the election. but it's mixed with the way I felt in 2008; that maybe there's light in the world.

[kuromi-hoemie]

here's my scattered, ranty, kind of shitty take on “vote blue no matter who”: i have been painfully aware of how fucked up our country is since Trayvon Martin was killed and the country just came together and said it was fine and deserved even.

We were the same age, he was a month older than me and they justified that boy's death through the media for doing mundane shit any of my friends would've been doing too.

And i have seen year after year, death after death, this country let's people get murdered by police or people who want to play police and they get away with it almost every time.

Most of white America doesn't give a single fuck about this issue because it doesn't affect them, they would prefer if we didn't have to see or talk about it at all because talking about race (or anything outside the “norm” for white people) at all is uncomfortable.

Now as shitty as he was, the silver lining I saw in Trump is that white people were no longer able to escape how evil this country can be. Like hey!! When the state sees YOU as undesirable TOO it really has a way of bringing people together - in resistance, solidarity, support etc. Trump was a trash ass president, but as A Country we were FINALLY having some real, honest open discussions about the way this shit works and what better options could look like - even tried implementing some changes so we're less reliant on cops in some places. Ironically, it's when leadership is at its worst that we choose to move forward collectively.

But then in the run-up to the presidential election all the vote blue no matter who liberals, the back to brunch liberals, all of them hounded anybody with even the slightest skepticism or dislike of our candidates and even now make it impossible to have any critical conversation without coming in like “do u want trump/ron/[whatever republican that applies] to win?? we HAVE to vote it's our ONLY choice the world is going to END”

THIS IS HOW IT IS LITERALLY EVERY ELECTION, IF THE STAKES ARE REGULARLY THIS HIGH SOMETHING IS FUNDAMENTALLY BROKEN HERE.

Vote blue no matter who and back to brunch liberals have fucking brain worms and are the most useless helpless political group. I remember them saying we HAVE to get Joe Biden in then pull him to the left, just this one time bro just this one vote bro I promise. All of the solidarity we've had and all the support we've shown won't instantly vanish the second we're safe we promise we won't leave you behind again just one more vote bro-

maybe go to hell?? maybe we should fucking LOSE and have fear and suffering inflicted on us to make that solidarity an actual, real persistent thing that transcends presidencies. My shitty take is sometimes it IS helpful to have horrific leadership so the privileged class can see how it feels to be ANYONE ELSE for a change. And you would hope they fucking learn something but all the back to brunch liberals are hijacking posts speaking frankly about israel's ongoing genocide and the US's complicity in it, and making the conversation about having to vote for Biden or whatever Democrat anyways.

We don't even have elections coming up right now!! Read the fucking room!! Biden is greenlighting genocide and so are a bunch of other politicians on both sides of the aisle, but back to brunch liberals can't be bothered with ANYTHING. Any sort of valid criticism at all is shut down with "well, choices suck but you HAVE to vote” actually in my heart I think you have to suffer until we get some better fucking choices and you actually help advocate for them, instead of being this useless recurring presence that only shows up to shut down conversation instead of wanting to actually fix anything.