cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12412218

Gretchen Whitmer responds to calls by some Democrats to vote ‘uncommitted’ in Michigan’s primary on Tuesday

Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan governor, pushed back on calls to not vote for Joe Biden over his handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict, saying on Sunday that could help Trump get re-elected.

“It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that any vote that’s not cast for Joe Biden supports a second Trump term,” she said on Sunday during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “A second Trump term would be devastating. Not just on fundamental rights, not just on our democracy here at home, but also when it comes to foreign policy. This was a man who promoted a Muslim ban.”

Whitmer, who is a co-chair of Biden’s 2024 campaign, also said she wasn’t sure what to expect when it came to the protest vote.

Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat who is the only Palestinian-American serving in Congress, urged Democrats last week to vote “uncommitted” in Michigan’s 27 February primary.

      •  pudcollar   ( @pudcollar@lemmy.ml ) 
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        8 months ago

        I’m voting for Trump exactly as much as I’m voting for Biden. Saying Biden’s lost my vote is like saying Trump’s lost my vote. They never had it. I don’t want a second Trump term or a second Biden term. I am making fun of this ridiculous black and white thinking, it’s like the old “if you don’t worship christ you worship satan” claptrap. It’s the same kind of people who think I’m a republican because I complain about liberals. Republicans are liberals too, and democrats are right-wingers too. I refuse the either/or dichotomy between two capitalist nationalist corporatist pro-war pro-poverty anti-healthcare parties. I refuse to buy into the hysteria that your preferred corporate prostitute is going to lose. I already know who’s going to lose the 2024 election. The working class.

        • Yeah, imma hard disagree. The Republicans aren’t Liberals. The Republicans have embraced fascism and are actively trying to overthrow American Democracy. They just overturned roe v wade, they keep making workplaces less safe, our environment worse, consumer protections worse, they fight to repress trans rights, gay rights, etc. etc. Both sides are VERIFIABLY not the same, and I don’t understand how you can feel they both are. Just because both sides are capitalist, doesn’t make both sides liberal.

          •  pudcollar   ( @pudcollar@lemmy.ml ) 
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            8 months ago

            Republicans are economic liberals. I’m saying they’re capitalists. I didn’t say both sides are the same. Both sides suck.

            American democracy has been overthrown, if it ever existed. Remember citizens united? Corporate monopoly media dictates public opinions, the best-funded candidates win elections and then enact the policy of their donors instead of serving their constituents. This is the nature of bourgeois elections in a capitalist society. The purpose of fascism is to merge corporate and state power to suppress the working class, something that both capitalist parties are hard at work doing, and very well-accomplished.

            For instance, both parties relentlessly raise the DoD budget because one of our countries’ biggest incomes is the arms trade. This provides a massive perverse incentive for the US to destabilize countries. Another example is how the DNC corporation will throw their own candidates under the bus if they try to challenge the private health insurance industry.

            In terms of some social issues, it may be slightly better in some ways if a democrat wins, or it may not as they managed to whiff on a few supreme court seats during and after the Obama admin. In terms of being a bombable civilian outside the US, it may very well be better if Trump wins, as he’s more of a non-interventionist.

            The real solution is the overthrowing of capitalism through revolution and the idea that social progress is being made through elections is a dangerous illusion. There are fundamental problems with the structure of the country, and the causes of those problems fund both parties. Liberals have a bad track record of averting emerging fascism, as was the case in Germany, and as is the case today with Biden funding Netanyahu’s genocide.

  • Meanwhile from The Freep: Whitmer, Tlaib represent Democratic divide on voting ‘uncommitted’ instead of Biden (via archive.is)…

    “At the end of the day, I am advocating that people cast an affirmative vote for Joe Biden because anything other than that makes it more likely we see a second Trump term and that’s bad for all the communities,” she said in an interview on NBC News Monday. She noted the pain felt among Arab American, Muslim and Jewish communities in Michigan in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel followed by deadly Israeli counterattacks that have killed more than 29,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

    And over at The News, broken clock Nolan Finley tells the correct time but, in true Finley style, for all the wrong reasons (via archive.is)…

    On the other side of the ballot, what’s left of the Republican Party has convinced itself it can make America great by reinstalling a buffoonish egomaniac who is only slightly younger and less incoherent than Biden. And they’ve rigged their primary system to assure a Trump victory.

    Republicans have no excuse for marching toward disaster. They have another choice on the ballot in former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. The Detroit News endorsed Haley because she is an energetic, forward-looking candidate with a hopeful chance of uniting Americans. Instead of welcoming Haley as their best bet for beating Biden in November, Republicans are treating her as a traitor.

    That Democrats and Republicans passed by so much available talent and disregarded the expressed objection of voters to another Biden-Trump match-up demonstrates the uselessness of our partisan system.