There’s a difference between what-if and straight-up make-believe. Yeah, post-9/11 America might’ve gone better if Ralph fucking Nader was in charge, but it was never gonna happen. The plausible outcomes at the time were Bush and Gore, and Bush was the worst plausible option by a fucking mile.
The election in 1932 was between two people, and Germans picked the lesser asshole. Not a hard call: the bigger asshole was quite literally Hitler. Obviously it didn’t work, because the right answer would’ve been to shoot Hitler several years prior. We can’t even say for certain that Thalmann winning would’ve stopped him from seizing power, since he’d already fucking tried, and had a private militia ready to slit throats.
If you mean to point out elections by themselves are not sufficient to prevent fascism, well no shit.
It’s still worse when fascists win elections. Stopping that is kinda fucking important, even if it’s not enough.
If you mean to point out elections by themselves are not sufficient to prevent fascism, well no shit.
This would be my intention, some people genuinely do not recognize this but I’m glad you do. I understand that thälmann being elected is incredibly wishful thinking and was likely impossible but it was meant to express that other options were available but ignored. I also get that Americans are not nearly class conscious enough to “dismantle the electoral system”, that is also pure fantasy at this time. I’m just expressing frustration
With 10% of the vote?
There’s a difference between what-if and straight-up make-believe. Yeah, post-9/11 America might’ve gone better if Ralph fucking Nader was in charge, but it was never gonna happen. The plausible outcomes at the time were Bush and Gore, and Bush was the worst plausible option by a fucking mile.
The election in 1932 was between two people, and Germans picked the lesser asshole. Not a hard call: the bigger asshole was quite literally Hitler. Obviously it didn’t work, because the right answer would’ve been to shoot Hitler several years prior. We can’t even say for certain that Thalmann winning would’ve stopped him from seizing power, since he’d already fucking tried, and had a private militia ready to slit throats.
If you mean to point out elections by themselves are not sufficient to prevent fascism, well no shit.
It’s still worse when fascists win elections. Stopping that is kinda fucking important, even if it’s not enough.
This would be my intention, some people genuinely do not recognize this but I’m glad you do. I understand that thälmann being elected is incredibly wishful thinking and was likely impossible but it was meant to express that other options were available but ignored. I also get that Americans are not nearly class conscious enough to “dismantle the electoral system”, that is also pure fantasy at this time. I’m just expressing frustration
Some Americans are in fact trying to dismantle the electoral system.
Namely: the fascists.
That’s why voting to keep them out is so goddamn important. Voting won’t guarantee we’ll be okay, but not-voting will guarantee we get fucked.