themeatbridge

What the fuck are you talking about?

What the fuck are you talking about?

“Do you think healthcare should be free?” is not the same question as “Do you care enough about free healthcare to vote for a candidate who supports it?” Voters are largely uninformed, unengaged, and only rarely do more than show up to vote if they bother to do that.

It counted for a maximum of three votes in three races. Did you not vote for anyone else? Why didn’t you vote in most of the elections?

The only reason Biden stepped down when he did was that the DNC wanted to avoid a primary they knew Kamala wouldn’t win. They waited until she was the only viable candidate. It wasn’t delusion, it was strategy. It was terrible strategy, but I also think that’s part of the strategy. We didn’t “get” Biden to step down. We failed to get rid of him soon enough for it to matter.

The problem is that there aren’t enough voters who support free healthcare, abolition of ICE, and zero weapons for Israel. We need leadership to make the argument for those policies, and those leaders are simply lacking. There are more every day, and I will fight with everything I have to support them, but they are going to keep losing for a while. Our fight is long, and we plant the trees that will shade our decendents when we are long buried. And in the meantime, there will be an election, and you will make a choice. Choose something you can live with, because it will have an impact on the world. If you choose not to participate, you are still equally responsible for the outcome.

So you didn’t vote in a majority of the most recent elections? Because in 2024, PSL fielded three candidates, De la Cruz for President, Kevin Martinez for State Assembly in California, and Eduardo Vargas for City Council in Los Angeles. No congressional candidates, none in statewide elections, and De la Cruz wasn’t even on the ballot in enough states to secure an electoral college victory with a clean sweep. PSL has never once won an election in America. Even if you lived in Los Angeles and voted for all three candidates, you would have left most of your ballot blank.

If you’re saying you only vote for PSL candidates, you aren’t really participating in elections. I applaud your conviction, and I hope someone more engaged than you can help the PSL party do better.

I’m not just searching for them, I’m canvassing and donating to them, but there simply aren’t progressive options in every race in every district. And even some nominally progressive candidates will support genocide if it is politically expedient. Politics is the slow boring of hard boards, and one of those boards right now is global human rights, and we’re not even halfway through it. You get through with constant pressure and effort. You can’t always get what you want.

There are some on some ballots, but you cannot fill out a ballot anywhere in America without casting a vote for a person who supports genocide. You can choose not to vote, but that’s not participating in the process.

To someone who isn’t American, I can understand how alarming and unfathomable this might seem, but I am telling you the truth. What you see on TV and social media is not representative of what most Americans experience at the ballot box.

So you haven’t voted in a recent election? Or you just can’t remember their names?

There is not always a progressive candidate.

No, I remember, and I’m fighting to remove evil from the next ballot. But I also know I’m not going to be successful, and I’m not naive enough to think that I can fix everything by myself. You can be mad about the choices and still choose.

Who did you vote for in the last election? Do you honestly believe you never voted for a candidate that has supported genocide?

You’re telling me you’ve never voted for a candidate that supports the current Israeli genocide? Are you not an American?

I would have thought you were right, but we’re eyebrow deep in this shit. The human capacity for ignoring a problem in favor of remaining comfortable has shaken my faith in humanity. I hope you’re right.

Absolutely this is a critical point. If you want better candidates, create them. Forge them and support them. Attend townhalls and demand answers from candidates. That’s the time to shape the race. Once you enter the voting booth, it’s far too late to try to fix everything with one choice.

I like the quote from Gandhi, “Whatever you do in life will be insignificant but it is very important that you do it…” I think that applies to voting. One vote may be insignificant, or it may be everything. You won’t know, and you may never know for sure. But if you don’t vote, it is definitely nothing.

Politics is a spectrum, and theoretically there is a candidate even for you that would still support genocide and also be progressive enough to earn your vote.

Edit: Yes, downvote me, but tell me who you voted for in the most recent election at any level, and I’ll point to the genocide they supported.

Edit 2: Lot of people telling me progressive candidates are on every ballot, but nobody has yet to name a single candidate. One person mentioned a party that fielded three total candidates nationwide in all races in the 2024 election, one of whom was a Presidential candidate that could not mathematically win because she wasn’t on enough ballots. Most Americans were unable to find her name on their ballot, and the overwhelming majority of Americans did not have any PSL representation on their ballots at any level.

With our current voting system, you really don’t, and the third option is rarely a significant upgrade. Ironically, third party candidates have a better chance during midterms because of low voter turnout, especially in local elections. The focus on this particular midterm means it is even harder for downballot third party or independent candidates, because the rank and file are going to show up to the polls.

As a lifelong progressive who has voted in every election in the past 26 years, no there are not always actual progressives on the ballot. But your point that we should support them when there is one progressive, even when they cannot hope to win, is also fallacious. Sometimes they could win with our support, and sometimes they could not. Vote accordingly.

Not voting for any candidate because none of them are progressive enough perpetuates the same system. How are you helping by not voting for the lesser evil?

I mean, the DNC supports genocide. Trump is worse, which is really a testament to how phenomally bad he is for just about everyone on the planet. I want progressive democrats on the ballot, but I’m not holding my breath. I’m still going to vote, and I’m going to vote for the least bad option.