#uuuuuuuuuuuh i hope i got my point across lol

[spitblaze]

voting is important and if it didnt do anything republicans wouldnt be trying to take that right away yes yes right. but also remember that the two-party system has, on a federal level, been doing fuckall for its people as of late. people are angry and fed up and rightfully so, the people who they elected FOR that damage control have not been doing their job. tut-tutting at people who are mad that nothing they’ve been told to do inside the confines of legal action has been helping, assuming they haven’t already had their ability to vote been put through the wringer, doesn’t help anyone.

if you REALLY want to convince people that voting isn’t useless, remind people about the kind of progress you can get done at local levels, with local elected officials- communities building their own infrastructure, of all kinds, that capitalism or the federal government would never provide without serious arm-twisting, local overriding of unjust federal laws (remember, it was only a handful of states you could get gay married in before Obergefell!), local legalization and decriminalization of drugs and various criminal laws, local abolition of police, even!

If you can’t find yourself motivated to care about what’s happening on a federal level- hey, I get it. Instead of focusing on that, focus on issues on the state, county, city level- good changes start at smaller scales, and that’s the upshot to all of the ‘states rights’ activism the right has been pushing- it applies to progressive policy, too. If making federal elections an afterthought is what gets you to care about your local politics, do that. If you can’t stomach the thought of electing more shitlib ghouls to office, don’t! look into third parties and write-in candidates- both of which are getting a lot more popularity as of late, due to...you can guess why.

None of this is to say ‘voting is the only answer! uwu’, it’s not, it never has been. Does it help? Yeah, it does, and it can even have some pretty good outcomes. But just dropping your ballot in the machine is not, and will never be, a replacement for action, no matter how good the candidates you’re electing are. Remember- the American democratic system was specifically designed to keep vast, sweeping (new) changes from happening quickly, if you rely on politicians to do anything without even making your voice heard, you’re gonna be waiting a long time.

TL;DR- hey lol i know we’re all fed up with the ‘remember to vote’ stuff but if you focus on more local politics and direct action instead of the clownscape on the federal level it will almost definitely be less of a headache and FOR SURE definitely be more immediately helpful