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"What are you going to do vote for the facists?"
--stays home
"Wait..."
(In all seriousness, the two party system killed us. The first thing we should have could have fixed was ranked choice voting but they would never mandate that because it would break their hold. Also despite my joke above I did vote but I'm not going to get pissy with someone that didn't the problem is the party not the voter. Unless they voter actively voted red.)
Oh this again? Democratic Party: has our Neo liberalism, refusal to enact progressive policy, and backing of a genocide alienated progressive voters? Disenfranchised voter: damn it we told you a thousand times yes! Democratic Party: No it’s the voters who are wrong.
Hey, hey, marketing yourself as Fascism Lite: Low Sodium as opposed to Fascism Original Recipe has to work at some point, right?
Maybe Democrats could have tried doing literally anything that people wanted
"Wow you wanted the Democrats to do popular polices? You must be a Republican!"
¿Por Qué No Los Dos?
When it was the day of the general election and we were guaranteed to either get mainstream Democrat or Trump 2.0: The Revenge Tour, I could not morally justify any vote that didn’t minimize the chances of Trump winning.
But in the present day, and in the time leading up to the election, god damn the Democrats feel so worthless. Their party probably needs to be completely rebuilt even before the much much worse Republican party. You can’t have the Nice Conservative Party vs the Mean Conservative Party when the latter has gone off the deep end.
But also in the present day, it may already be too late. So keep on writing stern letters, insider trading, and raking in the fundraising while your desperate constituents still have some money and willingness to do something!
Yes thank you, this is the sane response. Sitting here in my neighbouring nation wondering if we'll be facing invasion in the next year or two, I have no sympathy for people who couldn't hold their nose and vote for harm reduction. I just can't understand why so many Americans are too blind to understand that you can have harm reduction, AND oppose the democrats.
Very true. I think we need to do our own version of the ratchet effect. In places that are solidly red we need to vote blue to lighten them up a bit. In places that are blue we need to start doing grass roots efforts to winning local offices and state reps that do represent our issues.
At this point I think it's all a little moot, I'll be genuinely surprised if the US ever has a proper democratic election again.
Yes, stop thinking and just follow the herd! That's surely the solution! \s
Thankfully I live in a state where my vote doesn't matter at all. jfc.
How many years can the libs keep this up?
How many years can the libs keep this up?
Until the collapse of society. (Three)
Their job is literally to get elected...
I'm still waiting for whatever the hell is supposed to happen after electoral politics has failed us, because it has.
I was told by people pushing for people to not bother voting in 2024 that voting was meaningless and that Trump would be no different than Harris. People told me that the solidarity of grassroots organization was the only way to see any real change, and that we had to reject the DNC at all costs. Well, we rejected it. What now?
PS: I don't even mean this sarcastically or to win internet points -- that are even more meaningless than on reddit -- on this site. I'm actually asking, what are we doing now that this happened?
If you're genuinely asking some basic actions for a broad and general audience looking for political engagement:
A lot of states have initiatives and referendums citizens can bring to a vote in elections. There may be a grassroots organization working on an issue you may align with. (Especially vote reform groups looking to introduce alternatives to how we elect our government.)
Following this: Don't be a stranger to your local government. At least learn who they are if you don't. Your state reps and senators, your federal rep and senators, your kids' school superintendent, the elected sheriff. Vote in the primaries, the odd years, the midterms, the big presidential tickets. And this isn't 'just vote' advice. I mean vote for politicians pushing policies you agree with, regardless of party or incumbency. Don't be afraid to third party in a primary (if you can).
Join community groups and socialize in meatspace. There may be community centers and libraries around you with things to engage with. As much as online spaces can help people feel connected or a shared or safe place, the politics and governance is maintained on the meatspace level of your neighbors. Your district is likely gerrymandered but it's worth finding out where you stand in the whole tapestry of American governance. (This one can be a huge hurdle, and I understand. Most of my community are military so progressives get like 200 votes per 10,000 pure military industrial zionism. I barely amount to this advice myself, FWIW.)
Join community groups and socialize in meatspace.
This is probably what I'm most interested in, but I find it to be a drag to even locate. I've gone to meetup groups and even helped organize a meetup group before but everything about them seemed pretty worthless. It could just be my particular circumstances or my particular location, but it seems like it's difficult to find any regular community group, and then any -- even sporadic -- activity outside of work mixers, happy hours, ticketed events, and concerts.
At one point I took a look around the area for mutual aid groups and found only one -- and this was mid-pandemic when they were getting a lot of attention and hype -- and it didn't even appear to be active anymore. I think the web link I got was dead or something.
My working theory of why this country is so far off the rails is multifaceted, but one big aspect is that meatspace is deader than myspace.
It certainly can be. And I share the sentiment as I have found it hard myself. I now have a family and kids so that takes up all my time but that in and of itself plugs me into a lot of interactions that I otherwise would have avoided.
So much of our society is built around childrearing though so I am pretty railroaded into following my own advice. But when I was younger I sought out events at local hobby shops: things like open D&D groups, card game tournaments, etc. I highly recommend it, if that's your thing at all (and your mileage may vary significantly.) But it doesn't always have to be direct political action to connect with members of your community.
This is a problem with decision hierarchies. Usual election - if both parties have policies I can't support, then I vote for 3rd party knowing it's a protest vote.
HOWEVER : if the consequences of the election mean that a dictator and malignantly evil person (and their cronies) may get into power then the FIRST consideration MUST be that he doesn't get into power. So you vote for the most likely way that the calamity can be stopped.
It's shit, believe me, I know, but them's the breaks. The problem has been that people have treated this as 'election as usual'. The fact that sane people are still arguing over this is concerning.
!!A malignantly evil dictator has overtaken your government and is overtaking your country. You need to work together with the other sane people in order to stop this calamity.!!
But... Eggs!