• trafficnab@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      There’s primaries for federal elections every 2 years in the US, if you want to change the makeup of the party, vote for different candidates in them

        • trafficnab@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          I never did, that’s the least destructive way to let your displeasure be known, as long as you still vote for, and encourage others to vote for, the least bad candidates in the general elections (spoilers, the least bad candidates will pretty much universally be blue)

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            5 months ago

            All this that does is ensure this election’s Democrat is the same as last election’s Republican, they constantly move as far to the right as you let them because they know they can count on your vote no matter what. You are making things worse. Maybe you, specifically, didn’t speak out against uncommitted. The whole .world instance definitely did, though. We remember.

            • trafficnab@lemmy.ca
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              5 months ago

              All this that does is ensure this election’s Democrat is the same as last election’s Republican

              Even if this is true and we’re in a metaphorical political nosedive, that’s still harm reduction, it’s 4 more years to be politically active in a functioning democracy, vote in every primary and general you can from your local school board up to the presidential election, and hopefully pull up hard enough that we don’t actually smash into the ground

              If you think our democracy is already too far gone and completely unsalvageable, you shouldn’t be advocating for other people not to vote, you should instead be advocating for people to join/form a local militia and start training to defend it because clearly it’s already time to break out the 4th box

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                5 months ago

                If voting matters, if this is a democracy, then non-votes matter too.

                So which is it? Is this a functioning democracy, where refusing to vote unless certain demands are met can be used as leverage? Or is this a kleptocracy where you must vote for the fascism lite party if you don’t want the fascism delux party to win?

                • trafficnab@lemmy.ca
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                  5 months ago

                  Non-votes literally do not matter, mathematically it’s the same as if you had two votes and you gave one each to both candidates. Parties cannot appeal to you as a non-voter because they have no idea what you want, the only way they can is if you vote in primaries for your candidates of choice so they can see the sorts of things their constituents value. Only don’t vote if you truly don’t care whether we have “fascism or fascism-lite”, because if you would prefer one then not voting only helps the other win.

                  Again, general elections are about harm reduction, sometimes you have to be an adult, grit your teeth, and choose between two bad choices because one is clearly the better option. We’ll have to eliminate FPTP first if we want anything different.

                  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                    5 months ago

                    By refusing to vote unless my demands are met I can exert pressure on Democrats. You, by voting blue no matter who and no matter what, literally have no impact on Democrats. How else do you think we push them left?

                    Also, genocide isn’t harm reduction.

                    You’re an enabler. This genocide is on your head, blue no matter who’s have made it impossible to convince Biden to stop.