I’m one of the unreasonable socialists that controls who gets elected president in every cycle. As you have probably noticed by now, I have decided not to allow Kamala to win the presidency. The reasons are mainly these:

  • I hate Dick Cheney. I think I hate him more than any other person on the planet. In times of depression, I have literally thought to myself that if I just stay alive for long enough, Dick Cheney will eventually die, and I will get to live on a planet that doesn’t have Dick Cheney on it. You liberals used to hate him too. You used to compare him to Darth Vader, apparently a character from movie series for children. But you seem to have forgotten and now you like him. I still find it extremely off-putting to associate with Dick Cheney, and I am still eagerly waiting for him to die.
  • I support Hezbollah. Contrary to what you probably think, Hezbollah is considered a legitimate sociopolitical organization by the vast majority of this planet’s population. The US and its closest allies have labeled it a terrorist organization. Here is the former president of Lebanon, a Christian and secular man who served in Lebanon’s official legitimate military (states are allow to have them 🤷🏻‍♂️), memorializing his friend Nasrallah on twitter. Hezbollah formed in response to Israel illegally occupying portions of southern Lebanon from the early 1980s to 2000. Ronald Reagan called it a holocaust against the Lebanese people. Israel continues to use white phosphorus, a war crime, on Southern Lebanon civilians. Hezbollah and Nasrallah fought against ISIS in Syria. Assassinating people like Nasrallah and blowing up people’s pagers is literally terrorism.
  • This explosive pager thing is probably more fucked up than you are thinking about. Are you sure you don’t have any electronics in your pocket right now that include components from Israel? Are you sure Netanyahu couldn’t blow you up right now? Or even just blow up from a software glitch? Do you want to live in that world? Every nation has a responsibility to its citizens to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel now.
  • I support Hamas. You are siding with the people running the concentration camps. You are siding with ethnic cleansers. Palestinians are literally living within designated fenced-in areas. They do not control who or what is allowed to move through the fence. Israel keeps them economically isolated. They are drinking toxic water and starving, and due to low life expectancy, the average Gazan is an unemployed teenager. When Palestinians resist this violently, they get bombed. When Palestinians resist this peacefully, they get shot. This happened in 2019 when they organized a peaceful protest and IDF shot at them, and you never knew or cared. Now they are getting bombed and polling shows that you know and you care and you want it to stop, but you still think a party that is committed to supplying the bombs should be running the world. So I don’t know how you expect Palestinians to behave.
  • In the last month, Trump, the Muslim ban guy, has been able to credibly position himself as a less Islamophobic candidate, but I guess you weren’t paying attention to that. Here is a NYT article that mentions that undecided voters were considering Trump because of the situation in Gaza (archive.is). I’m pretty skeptical that Trump is going to improve the situation but it is so bleak under the Biden administration that I wouldn’t be surprised if he did or at least didn’t make it worse.
  • I guess I need to say at this point that I am not antisemitic. I oppose Israel because it is a fascist apartheid state that is ethnically cleansing the region. Nothing more or less than that. I think it is antisemitic to believe all Jews support the actions of Israel. Israel and the US have become diplomatically isolated on this in the last year and I fear the future may be grim for the Israeli people if they stop receiving so much of the military support they use to commit this genocide, and they risk open war with Lebanon and Iran every day.
  • Argue about where to assign blame all you want, the working class is justifiable very stressed, including me, a guy that enjoys sifting through economic data, when they see the cost of food rising and they’re not getting raises to go with it. There were years of negative real wage growth. There were years of extremely high profit growth for the concentrated monopolies that dominate our economy. Everyone hates this, left right and center. The last president to raise the minimum wage was George W Bush. What the fuck? A democrat that doesn’t talk about raising the minimum wage by a lot and raising taxes on the rich is a guaranteed loser, especially in light of the last few years. Kamala’s platform included a very popular proposal to stop price gouging during economic crises. Why did she never talk about this?
  • The democratic party’s response to the deepening climate catastrophe continues to be beyond inadequate. The summers are now just continual forest fires and smoke from the forest fires is becoming a health problem for asthmatics. And the Biden administration is effectively continuing Trump’s trade war against China (we lost it by the way) by trying to block affordable Chinese EVs and solar panels.

It usually takes you 5 to 10 years to figure out that I’m right about everything but hopefully you can quickstart the process with this guide. I look forward to seeing you at the protests about this stuff when Trump continues doing what Biden was doing and what Kamala promised she was going to continue doing.

(Any other big things I should add?)

  • gwilikers
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    20 days ago

    In the last month, Trump, the Muslim ban guy, has been able to credibly position himself as a less Islamophobic candidate, but I guess you weren’t paying attention to that. Here is a NYT article that mentions that undecided voters were considering Trump because of the situation in Gaza (archive.is). I’m pretty skeptical that Trump is going to improve the situation but it is so bleak under the Biden administration that I wouldn’t be surprised if he did or at least didn’t make it worse.

    This is literally the only argument you’ve provided for how Trump could be better. And it’s not convincing.

    Other thant that, wouldn’t it make sense to vote based on platforms? Trans rights was a hot button issue and they could have gotten better protections under Harris. The new home owner bill could have helped middle-income people actually be able to get a home. Trump’s VP mentioned gutting ACA. Those are 3 reasons I voted for Harris.

    I haven’t seen any convincing arguments that Trump will diverge US foreign policy from the support of Palestinian genocide. Nothing you have said gives any indication that this would be the case. So I don’t see how not voting for Harris helps the issues you are concerned with.

    As such, I have to ask, what’s your goal here? Accelerationism?

    • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
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      20 days ago

      Nobody said Trump would be better, just that it’s unconscionable to vote for a party defending and enabling genocide. The goal is simply to not reward genocide with votes. The whole “lesser evil” shtick doesn’t work anymore, people see through it.

      • gwilikers
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        19 days ago

        Right, but is there a longer term goal? Like, I understand not voting for genocide and I respect the immediate goal of non-engagement in that sense. But are you hoping that non-engagement will force the Dems to alter their stance on issues like Israel in the long term?

    • adultswim_antifa [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      19 days ago

      If I won’t get what I want on a set of issues I care a lot about and consider the highest priority at the moment under Kamala or Trump, why would I vote for either of them?

      The only thing I honestly give Trump a point for is having the good instincts to make fun of Kamala for campaigning with Liz Cheney and touting the Dick Cheney endorsement.