this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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They suck, no doubt about it, but fascists suck way, way more. "Vote blue no matter who" is effectively what you have to do in a two-party system, but in reality not voting red is what's important. And yes, "Vote for the guys who are less bad" is a terrible message and contributes to the fascists winning. But voting is vital (even now, if only at a more local level), and not voting for fascists is extremely important.
Voting for whoever will cause the least harm to the country is the right thing to do. "I won't vote for the lesser evil!" does not accomplish this and actually goes in the opposite direction. But people are emotional and not practical beings overall, so the guys who are better at appealing to emotions win and we all suffer for it.
"no matter who" means "no accountability."
Fine, then say "vote against red." It's what I'm actually doing, anyway. The system is fucked, but when you allow fascists in power you have even less agency to do anything about it. You ALSO have to hold Democrats in power accountable when they're in office via calls to your Representatives, protesting, primarying, etc. If you choose to do nothing but vote, you are indeed giving them no accountability.
The important thing is that the centrists who run the party keep running the party forever.
You're trying to convince someone who voted for harris to vote for her long after the election is over. Continuing to carry water for her is pointless.
My representative is a republican who doesn't care what I think. My senators are both republicans who don't care what I think. My party is run by people who care only what republicans and netanyahu think.
Champions of the status quo don't have to protest, but they get to act like they got what they wanted by protesting instead of just enjoying things as they are. Perhaps you can afford the time off to protest, the time off to get arrested, and the medical bills from being beaten by police, or perhaps you have no need of protest as you have at least one party that represents you.
This thread is about what the party does whenever people try to primary their republican-adjacent ghouls. They're treating David Hogg like they would have treated dick cheney if they disagreed with him on anything.
Other routes are not available to me, and I already vote like you want.
Then you're not the type of person I'm referring to, who doesn't vote because Democrats aren't progressive enough, thereby allowing fascists into power and contributing to things becoming even worse. Complaining that Democrats suck is fine, because they do. Making things worse by allowing the greater evil to get into power is not.
democrats decided Progressives weren't worth listening to. Too insignificant. Now they want to blame Progressives for their loss. You can't have it both ways. Progressives can't simultaneously be too insignificant to listen to and still be a credible scapegoat for the results of running on genocide and cheney.
Democrats not representing so many of us leads to people becoming disillusioned and not voting. Having to choose a lesser evil instead of an actual good sucks. So Democrats are to blame for not representing their constituents, and voters are to blame for not voting for the least bad result out of practicality. The thing is, letting perfect be the enemy of less bad leads to more suffering. Just ask trans people how much they appreciate progressives who didn't vote for Harris.
Thing is, the party did this for three elections running. People don't like being railroaded, particularly with the contempt and condescension that centrists can't help but express.
Yep, they've been the lesser evil for a long time now. The effort should be in working towards making them less evil, not giving up and letting the greater evil which has no chance of ever becoming less evil take over. A bit late now, of course.
How many more decades of effort do you suppose it will take to slow them getting worse, let alone get them to the point where being less evil is something that they might consider?
I don't know, but I know that fascists being in power should be completely unacceptable.
Yes, it should.
In either party.
If they lie and say they want to do something that benefits us mere noncorporations, oh that has to be accomplished over the course of forever while we make incremental change. Look, we'll run on a tiny improvement then abandon it immediately upon election.
But if they want to block a progressive from office or sell weapons for genocide, that can be done immediately.
The party takes advantage of good people having no choice. No one likes being taken advantage of. It was never gonna work forever, and democrats fucked up. They're never gonna stop taking advantage, though. Incremental progress is a disgusting filthy lie from the quisling party. They move quick when they want to. They move quick when there's Palestinian children to murder.