I will probably vote for Biden begrudgingly because materially I know I basically have no other option but I’m gonna removed and moan about it because morally it hurts. It feels wrong to give someone like that my political support.
Yeah, I feel this, absolutely. I was registered as third party for the first few elections I voted in because of this depressing reality. I still remember wild applause from the audience when Ron Paul started talking about stuff that made sense, that was like this surprising alien voodoo-man talk from the perspective of the depressing robots he was running against. But I also don’t want Trump to make things 10 times worse.
I desperately want to be principled and not vote for him because I know that voting for him only encourages both parties to move further right as there is no real political motive to move left unless they are losing votes
The thing is, there are a ton of ways to influence politics other than just voting or not voting. The whole thing of not voting to “send a message” to try to influence them to move further left, or waiting until somehow some better candidates emerge by magic, just doesn’t make sense to me. I’m not trying to be some rah-rah after school special about it, but vote in the primaries, talk to congresspeople, give money, run for some small local office yourself, basically anything other than just waiting at home and posting on the internet until it gets better on its own, sounds like a better idea.
The miners who fought and died for basic rights would laugh in your or my face at how easy it is now. It’s definitely not completely fair or easy, no, the system is rigged. But compared with a lot of places where people made real progress, it’s less rigged here and now, if that makes you feel better.
If running for dogcatcher is easy to dismiss because it won’t really make a difference… well, sitting at home and not voting to send a message will make less of a difference than running for dogcatcher will. Up to you.
And like I said I’m not at all trying to discount the vital necessity of also organizing outside the system. Only voting seems like a road to more neoliberal misery regardless of whether Trump gets to end the whole experiment this year or not.
but I’m terrified of what might happen if Trump wins. Which is unfortunately exactly what our political and economic elites want.
I don’t think they planned on Trump. I think they created the conditions that led to him, but they desperately want him gone because of what he might turn loose.
Yeah, I feel this, absolutely. I was registered as third party for the first few elections I voted in because of this depressing reality. I still remember wild applause from the audience when Ron Paul started talking about stuff that made sense, that was like this surprising alien voodoo-man talk from the perspective of the depressing robots he was running against. But I also don’t want Trump to make things 10 times worse.
The thing is, there are a ton of ways to influence politics other than just voting or not voting. The whole thing of not voting to “send a message” to try to influence them to move further left, or waiting until somehow some better candidates emerge by magic, just doesn’t make sense to me. I’m not trying to be some rah-rah after school special about it, but vote in the primaries, talk to congresspeople, give money, run for some small local office yourself, basically anything other than just waiting at home and posting on the internet until it gets better on its own, sounds like a better idea.
The miners who fought and died for basic rights would laugh in your or my face at how easy it is now. It’s definitely not completely fair or easy, no, the system is rigged. But compared with a lot of places where people made real progress, it’s less rigged here and now, if that makes you feel better.
If running for dogcatcher is easy to dismiss because it won’t really make a difference… well, sitting at home and not voting to send a message will make less of a difference than running for dogcatcher will. Up to you.
And like I said I’m not at all trying to discount the vital necessity of also organizing outside the system. Only voting seems like a road to more neoliberal misery regardless of whether Trump gets to end the whole experiment this year or not.
I don’t think they planned on Trump. I think they created the conditions that led to him, but they desperately want him gone because of what he might turn loose.