ID: photo of Martin Luther King Jr. waving at the crowd during the March on Washington, on it is his quote: "He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."
this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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There is nothing "strategic" about unconditionally voting for the Democratic party.
There is, to those whose strategy is to give themselves a pat on the back for doing the barest of bare minimum and successfully maintaining the status quo, rather than doing anything actually useful to oppose fascism (or the capitalism that will always decay in to it), or in the words of MLK himself those "more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice" - it gives them a dopamine hit and an ego boost so potent they seem able to ride on the smell of their own farts for 4 years at a time while doing fuck all else to change society for the better (for anyone but themselves, that is) because they've already "done their part", and is seemingly all they need to convince themsleves they're the brave hero-saviours of humanity, rather than the enablers of fascism they actually are.
It's precisely why the second cult exists - to provide an illusion of choice (E: and of impact), and make "the left" (I can't even type that without cracking up, but part of the cult is being convinced they are "the left") feel like they're fighting the establishment, when in reality, they're holding it up just as much as the other cult is, some might argue, even more, because they'll turn on those actually opposing fascism long before they'll dare be rude to fascists.
There absolutely is, whether privileged non-voters and anti-electoralists perceive it or not. Enabling fascists to take over literally is making life worse for everyone. Voting for non-fascists and putting in work outside of the general election to try to push the party left is how strategic voting works, or would work if those claiming to care about ending genocide and improving the human condition were actually serious about doing anything but circle-jerking about how morally superior they are for enabling expansion of the genocide in Palestine and the one against LGBTQ+ people in the US that's now kicking off.
You don't even want them!!! You're using an idealized version of them, that does not exist to convince me that anything else is "enabling fascism". They're capitalists!! They don't give a fuck about you if you do not serve their bottom line. Your unconditional vote only serves to legitimize them and prevent any other parties from gaining legitimacy, you cannot singlehandedly win them the election if they are not doing the work to earn the people's vote!!!
You have the privilege of not recognizing that. You belong to a class that still serves their capital interests of nominally appearing progressive but acting fucking incompetent and feckless when they are in a position to do anything to materially improve the lives of the vast majority of americans, somehow convincing the public that our "democracy" is anything other than a sham. You have the privilege of the identity politics, that they drive between us like a wedge and only pretend to care about, that they actively damage by divorcing them from their real material basis, that distract from very real issues which the establishment parties don't even bother pretending to give you a choice on anymore, being your single fucking issue.
The Democrats will not be pushed left, they fucking despise the left and take every opportunity they get to destroy and delegitimize leftist movements. Look at any of their actions this election!! Actually listen to them when they talk!! When the Republicans attack them for being too left, for defending trans people, for defending immigrants, look at how they crumble and fall back instead of defending their positions. Look at how they let the Republicans look like anti-war candidates. It would be so easy to disprove any republican talking point, if the Democrats actually believed in anything other than putting on a show for their donors. They let the Republicans define what the acceptable positions are, and you let them get away with it because of imaginary "moderate" voters that this election should have proved do not exist without a single person defending left wing positions nationally and driving the less engaged voters away from the right.
Who is defending the homeless, the imprisoned, the food insecure, the migrants, the minimum wage workers, the invisible victims of natural disasters, the people at the fucking mercy of the healthcare industry???? Our planet?!?! Not to mention the people our tax dollars are murdering on the other side of the planet!! I could go on!!!! You let your party turn their backs on them for fucking identity politics, because you are privileged enough to avoid coming to terms with the fact we've already lost any sense of electoral democracy on the issues that actually stand to improve the human condition!!! You only care about what personally affects and is visible to you.
The Democrats are not a tool for the left, they are not a weapon against the right, they are the left wing of the very capitalist establishment that got us here in the first place and they are nothing but an obstacle to clear on the way to forming a legitimate populist left wing movement in this country.