Americans of Lemmy, what is your approach to next year's election?

2020 was… truly unique. It was so hard to stay away from doom scrolling, and I (and many others) were pretty disillusioned by the sad fact that so much of our country legitimately supported the Orange Man. I didn’t get a wink of sleep the night of the election because I genuinely considered it to be a make or break decision for America.

My point is that looking back on it, in the end the only real difference I made was at the ballet box. This year I’m going for the Head-in-the-Sand approach. I’m done with the political memes. Done with the Twitter screenshots. It just riles me up and this year I’m gonna do my best to fight that.

angstylittlecatboy,

I’ll vote for a non-Zionist candidate in the primaries with no real expectation of them winning. But I will vote blue no matter who for national and state politics, and Working Families Party for local if any run.

Is “Genocide Joe” an accurate nickname? Yeah. But fuck that, it’s not like Trump will be any less zionist and third parties/independents don’t work in FPTP. I’m mixed race, I’m bisexual, I’m worried about worst case scenarios with a second Trump presidency (which is basically “what Trump is saying out loud” at this point,) and I am willing to vote in enlightened self-interest.

dangblingus,

Joe Biden is no more pro-Israel than any president before him. In fact, he’s publicly asked Netanyahu for humanitarian pauses so they can actually get Palestinian people out of the line of fire. Small gesture yes, but no one else has even mentioned Palestinian survival before.

OprahsedCreature,

“asked”

Yep, found your problem right there. It’s your argument, full of holes, it is.

You don’t ask a genocidal power that you’re supplying to stop commiting genocide. You tell them they’ll stop or best case scenario (for them) they’re on their own. Worst case scenario (for them), you stop them yourself.

pohart,

Definitely voting for someone who doesn’t support genocide for president. Down ballot I’ll likely vote 3rd party as well, but I haven’t decided for sure.

Captainvaqina,

Congrats on helping to ensure you’ll never again have the right to vote during traitor trump’s fascist dictatorship that you’ll be enabling.

Detectorist,

deleted_by_author

    •
    frauddogg,
    @frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml avatar

    One hand washes the other.

    pohart, (edited )

    If Trump is one vote from winning NY then he swept the board. There’s no way NY goes red in any election that has NY as the tipping point state.

    TheAlbatross,

    Hey I’m voting third party in a deep blue state also, you wanna be wicked condescending to me too? Take that energy to the phone banks, I bet the democrats never tried making a total ass of themselves before.

    TheEgoBot,

    Congrats on saying “genocide is an acceptable price” out loud

    phillaholic,

    You act like Republicans don’t have stronger ties to Israel and haven’t discriminated against Muslims. Either you’re naive or acting in bad faith.

    TheEgoBot,

    OR I simply refuse to endorse any singular candidate who has funded genocide. You can call me whatever you want for having convictions while your lesser evil funds a holocaust

    phillaholic,

    Naive. Got it.

    Unattended consequences of your actions. Learn it before it’s too late.

    Take care.

    TheEgoBot,

    So are you going to take responsibility for the 11,500 people dead (since October 7th) as the unintended consequences of your actions? You told everyone we needed to vote Biden to protect people in 2020, did he protect them? And I don’t want to hear anything about trans people and gay people because there are trans people and gay people in Palestine, or do they not count because they weren’t fortunate enough to be born here or born White? I’m naive but you sleep like a baby with your hands covered in blood.

    PowerCrazy,

    The largest benefactors of AIPAC and Israel in the house and senate are fucking democrats you dunce.

    rip_art_bell,
    @rip_art_bell@lemmy.world avatar

    Honestly there’s not that much one can do, but I will:

    • Hope Trump is thrown in prison
    • Vote straight ticket Democrat
    • Hope another Jan. 6 doesn’t occur
    • Try not to lose my shit when idiots say stuff like “both parties are equally bad”

    I live in a solid blue state, so my national-level votes don’t do much (though I’ll cast them anyway).

    In past years I’ve thrown a few hundred dollars at close senate and house races. In 2020 I volunteered for a phone/text bank sort of deal to make sure people were registered to vote.

    furrious09,

    Do people say both parties are equally bad? I’d agree that both parties are bad, but ‘equally’? Maybe a decade ago, but not anymore.

    tastysnacks,

    You’ll find republicans say that. Equally was more than a decade ago. They actually had a chance too. When the Tea Party started, it was actually grassroots. But then they got hijacked by people like the Coch brothers which twisted it to their desires.

    ArmoredThirteen,

    Well my choices are backslide slowly by voting dem, maybe buying enough time to get out of the country safely in the next few years, or risk being federally persecuted for being trans. So I’m going to dissociate through the whole thing and hopefully won’t be able to remember voting for fucking Biden. Outside the election I do what I can to support actual leftist movements but until any of them have a chance to win against the fascists on ballots I’m team ‘slightly better of two shitty choices’. I just want to be left alone to garden I hate all of this

    ArmoredThirteen,

    Come on out down voters, I’d love to hear you attempt to explain why I’m making a bad decision

    thecrotch,

    I downvoted you because of this comment. Does that help?

    ArmoredThirteen,

    I appreciate you thank you

    Adkml,

    Didn’t downvote you but the only difference I’ve seen and heard about as far as how things are going for minorities is when there’s a dem president libs tell minorities to stfu because they’re making them look bad.

    When there’s a republican president libs pretend to support blm, when there’s a dem president libs tell them they’re secretly republican russians.

    Try telling a lib the concentration camps on the border are still a problem and you’ll get a lecture about how it’s a way more compassionate concentration camp now.

    ArmoredThirteen,

    I ended up writing a way bigger response than I set out to, politics…

    So my minority view is only from being trans I don’t fall into other categories, I’m only talking from that view and obviously can’t speak for other groups. From my end of things Biden has undone a lot of the particularly wild stuff Trump did and is even throwing us the occasional scrap of protection. It isn’t great but I can’t say nothing has gotten better. I will say most of the stuff that has gone well is on pretty shaky ground and the next repub we get will gut all of it in a second.

    Yeah Biden and dems in general are just so bad. Liberals are frustrating and definitely think the scraps I’ve gotten have solved everything and I should stop complaining. I hate it, I wish we had another choice. But that just isn’t where we are at so between Trump or every dem I’ve seen I’m going for the dems. They only have my back so far as will poll well with libs but that’s better than Trump who is actively attacking me and empowering others to do the same.

    I don’t think this system can be fixed by voting for third party at this time. All that does is light a vote on fire that could have gone toward the less bad of two bad options. I do think it can be fixed or improved, slowly, by building a movement for a third party with enough traction to start getting into local offices. My hope is from there those people can push for local change that makes it easier to vote outside dem/repub which sets the scene for doing it on the big scale. That’s only possible given time and repubs are clear they’re done fucking around and we will not be given a chance for that under their rule.

    Adkml,

    Yea I’m in a small town so I’m aware how rabid and bloodthirsty the chuds are.

    I’m not voting for Biden but I also live in New York so I’m privellaged to have the option to do that meaningless protest.

    I thunk your spot on with thenlocala support, generally just vote for whoever the working families party candidate is even though 90% of the time it’s the same person as the dem candidate but it’s a good way to weed out the chuds that just run as dems because this is new york.

    frauddogg, (edited )
    @frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml avatar

    Because Biden’s shitty fucking policies got half my family locked up for trying to keep their seed fed on bids anywhere from five to thirty, typically on some mandatory-minimum bullshit; the other half can’t get jobs under his “booming economy”; and the fact that he’s cosigning a fucking genocide of one of the few peoples in the world to be as brutally colonized as the Black diaspora in Occupied America. You’re smoking meth if you think I’m going act like what you’re doing is worth uplifting or even cosigning.

    You already are supporting a fascist if you haven’t divested by now-- but I don’t expect you to get that.

    ArmoredThirteen,

    First off, I appreciate the response this is what I was hoping for instead of just downvotes.

    No I distinctly don’t think what I’m doing is worth uplifting I think it is a bad situation and I’m doing what I hope makes it worse more slowly than my other options. Biden is a piece of shit I know that, and I’m being affected by the “booming economy” too it’s a bunch of lies. My company is about to fire a huge chunk of people I might be in there, and even if I’m not I’ll have to watch as my friends lose their jobs.

    “keep their seed fed on bids anywhere from five to thirty, typically on some mandatory-minimum bullshit” I don’t know what this means could you explain?

    What are you doing this election? What can we do to get out of this situation? Why do you believe in your choice at the ballot? I’d rather not vote for Biden but I also believe until things are changed from local up, voting third party is the same as not voting in the sense that it puts the decision in other people’s hands, and I’m super not voting for Trump.

    TeenieBopper,

    Probably vote blue all the way down the line but I’m going to be shitting on the democratic party publicly and loudly for all the fucked and/or cowardly shit they do because not as bad != not bad.

    FrankTheHealer,

    Very fair and measured approach. I wish more Americans would adopt this strategy.

    Asafum,

    I honestly think the worst kinds are the delusional people who try to make themselves believe they’re “above it all” by voting Democrat for the president and then Republican for their representatives…

    Ffs learn how government works in today’s era… Maybe that was ok 50 years ago, but now it’s just “you’re on the other team, fuck your clean bill that’s just saving puppies and children, I’m voting no so my supporters don’t see me voting with Democrats!”

    Narauko,

    Everyone should vote for whomever represents them best despite whatever letter follows their name, and everyone should know all of their local and state options to be able to do so. Please do the same for your primaries if you at least want a slim possibility of having a decent option. Ranked choice voting would help a lot, but engagement at least helps a little. Hell, third parties got elected this year even.

    People blindly straight party ticket voting after skipping the primaries simply because they just hate the other team is how all the shitty entrenched old guard like Pelosi, Manchin, and McConnel (extra especially McConnel, who even republicans hate) stay in power on both sides. And forgetting about the primaries is how we end up with such weak ass candidates as Trump and Biden. It’s so good damn infuriating.

    MJBrune,

    Democrats. I’d rather vote green party but I’m not an idiot. Even if the green party won they would be able to get far less done than Biden has. Biden isn’t amazing or good but he’s not the actively trying to harm LGBTQIA and he’s not trying to destroy democracy. Anyone who can equate Trump to Biden is completely bonkers.

    Looks like napovointerco might pass before the election. If it does we might see a civil war.

    Ranvier, (edited )

    Yeah I feel you, the green party has some good positions. But then they go ahead and nominate people like Jill Stein, who has some good but many horrible foreign policy ideas like ending NATO and allowing Russia to do whatever it wants to eastern European countries. In climate areas has relatively good positions, but then despite claiming to follow science she will constantly reject it when it comes to her own bizarre theories about vaccines, banning wifi from areas with children, or trying to ban gmos that have extensive evidence for safety until they meet some arbitrary threshold in her own head and scientists prove a negative, which is impossible. Not to mention what that would do to food prices and create widespread shortages and hunger and cause actual harm around the world if she got her way.

    I’d love viable third parties, but they’ve been picking terrible candidates lately, so I don’t really see the appeal atm. I think the path forward there is being active in primaries and pushing candidates forward in the main parties forward who support alternative voting systems like rank choice. Otherwise while we still have first past the post voting, any but the main two parties is never really going to be viable and will probably just end up being counterproductive to their own stated goals.

    eksb,
    @eksb@programming.dev avatar

    It does not matter who I vote for for federal office. My state is never close to competitive and my house district is gerrymandered.

    If fascists win my districts for state office, it will not affect the balance of power in the state assemblies.

    So I told all of the Democrats running for state and local office that if there is not a primary for the presidential election, then I will not vote for any Democrats in the general elections in 2024, for any office. Maybe they can put pressure on the DNC.

    This is the only way I can potentially have any input.

    The only way this works is if Democrats would shift left if they started losing elections because people refused to vote for old white male conservative Democrats.

    But I fear they would actually shift right. The Democratic Party is not a big tent that holds both the neoliberal corporate shills and the progressives. It is a hostage situation where the neoliberal corporate shills demand our support, otherwise the fascists will kill us.

    physcx,

    I just want to say that your vote for the federal office does matter even if you live in a non-competitive state. Some states allocate a percentage of their electoral votes rather than all or nothing but even if yours does not, voting still adds a data point that says I support this person instead of that person. There have been several times where a candidate has won the presidency without winning the most votes but it was always very close to 50%. If everybody that had a preference voted and the outcome was 55% this guy / 45% the other guy and the other guy won... that could be a real driver for change to the electoral college system.

    eksb,
    @eksb@programming.dev avatar

    My state is winner take all.

    If my vote does not affect outcome put only expresses support, I am voting for somebody actually good (often from the Green Party).

    Even if it was 55/45, nothing would change. The Senate would be very close, if not in favor of the candidate who got 45%. The House would probably also be close, because the legislatures of the states that voted for the 45% candidate would still gerrymander. The only change could come from the states that voted for the 55%. If they gave all of their votes to whoever won the national popular vote, nothing would change. If they did proportional allocation, then it would get even worse.

    My vote does not matter.

    AnarchoSnowPlow,

    People who aren’t insane on social issues have been fleeing the GOP. This is, and will continue to pull Democrats right until some viable alternative emerges, if it ever does.

    SovietyWoomy,

    Definitely not voting for either of the parties that killed Roe v Wade or any of the parties that support the zionist genocide of Palestine. That leaves…PSL again I guess

    Pulptastic,

    Pumpkin spice latte?

    jack,

    PSL is the Party for Socialism and Liberation

    WashedAnus,
    @WashedAnus@hexbear.net avatar

    Fred Flinstone about to flip his shit

    Cowbee,

    Same as usual. Vote for the least harmful candidates while advocating for actual grassroots improvements, because voting harder won’t move America to the left, ever.

    ME5SENGER_24,

    Stuck between a rock and a hard place. It sucks.

    I’m tired of the 2 party system. I don’t think I really have a party or political ideology that aligns with Democrats or Republicans and third party candidates are all over the place. I want to start voting on issues and not just politicians.

    I don’t care what my politician’s feelings are. They represent a constituency and the only things they should be speaking about and for are exactly what they’re being asked for. Instead we have this political machine that takes every issues and gives it a red spin and a blue spin and then it’s force fed to the people.

    Congress should not be creating our ideologies they should create the laws that structure the things the citizens want.

    The Supreme Courr overturned Roe v Wade, put it on the ballet and let the people decide.

    Gun control, put it on the ballet

    Universal health care, put it on the ballet

    Abandoning fossil fuels, put it on the ballet

    Stop forcing your political and personal ideologies on us and start listing to the people. If we vote “Yes” on universal health care, the politicians must then go and figure out how to make it happen.

    Let it truly be a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

    Sir_Kevin,
    @Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    Preach!! That’s how a democracy should operate!

    Kuori,
    @Kuori@hexbear.net avatar

    i’m pretty sure the u.s. will collapse before it becomes a democracy, but it certainly is a nice dream

    AOCapitulator, (edited )
    @AOCapitulator@hexbear.net avatar

    There is no electoral solution to the accelerating depravity of this evil and crumbling Empire

    pineapplelover,

    Thinking Green party this year or whoever isn’t trying to fuck us over

    dangblingus,

    A vote for green is a vote for the popular party in your district.

    OprahsedCreature,

    Or, and hear me out on this, it’s a vote for the green party.

    Adkml,

    Tell liberals they have to vote for Stein because it’s her turn.

    PowerCrazy,

    Not voting for the capitalists. It’s the least I can do.

    LunarVoyager,

    deleted_by_author

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    StorageB,

    There will be more than just two parties on the presidential ballot.

    GarfieldYaoi,
    @GarfieldYaoi@hexbear.net avatar

    I’m checked out of voting, I live in Texas. Nothing but card-carrying neo-nazis in this shithole. Shame too, because I’d love to live in Austin if I could afford to.

    Maybe I’ll just vote PSL or something.

    UltraGreen,

    Hello fellow Texan. I also plan on “throwing my vote away” for PSL. If they are even on the ballot, that is.

    Also, I recommend North Austin if you are looking for something less expensive. Depending on how close to the metro rail you are, life might be more car-dependant. But you’ll still be close to more like-minded individuals, and will have a clearer path towards moving more in town if you want.

    xmunk,

    I emigrated. I’ll vote by mail and hope for the best, but the two party system America has will inevitably produce horrible results.

    themurphy,

    Choosing between only two options is not freedom by any means.

    galloog1,

    It’s why we have primaries. People’s inability to understand the importance of primaries simultaneously means they don’t vote in them and hate the results. (On average)

    Hexadecimalkink,

    Didn’t the democrat party say they wouldn’t allow primary debates this election, because Biden was the clear winner?

    galloog1,

    Yeah, I think that’s dumb but debates aren’t inherently required for elections.

    themurphy,

    They are not required, but it doesn’t sound like a free democracy, if there’s no debate.

    galloog1,

    Are any of these debates really debates?

    mjhelto,

    The primaries are just a smoke screen. You want to get rid of all the shitty parts of the US voting system? Get rid of the Electoral College. Get rid of the First-Past-the-Post voting system we have been shackled to and all the issues disappear.

    CGP Gray did a great series of videos in YouTube like a decade ago about our voting system, alternatives, and how many issues are created from just the Electoral College alone. Unfortunately, those elected stand to lose the most if the process changed so it never will.

    galloog1,

    CGP Grey didn’t cover primaries.

    Lamb,

    As someone who doesn’t live in a country where I hold citizenship, I think voting when you’re not affected as people who live there are is unfair to them. As is people living there being unable to vote unless they got citizenship which may be very difficult depending on the country.

    xmunk,

    There are bigger problems in America, if everything was working I might not vote… as it is you can rest assured my vote is essentially meaningless due to the electoral college.

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