Image Transcription:
A tweet from the George Takei Twitter account which states:
"A Democrat was in the White House when my family was sent to the internment camps in 1941. It was an egregious violation of our human and civil rights.
It would have been understandable if people like me said they’d never vote for a Democrat again, given what had been done to us.
But being a liberal, being a progressive, means being able to look past my own grievances and concerns and think of the greater good. It means working from within the Democratic party to make it better, even when it has betrayed its values.
I went on to campaign for Adlai Stevenson when I became an adult. I marched for civil rights and had the honor of meeting Dr. Martin Luther King. I fought for redress for my community and have spent my life ensuring that America understood that we could not betray our Constitution in such a way ever again.
Bill Clinton broke my heart when he signed DOMA into law. It was a slap in the face to the LGBTQ community. And I knew that we still had much work to do. But I voted for him again in 1996 despite my misgivings, because the alternative was far worse. And my obligation as a citizen was to help choose the best leader for it, not to check out by not voting out of anger or protest.
There is no leader who will make the decision you want her or him to make 100 percent of the time. Your vote is a tool of hope for a better world. Use it wisely, for it is precious. Use it for others, for they are in need of your support, too."
End Transcription.
The last paragraph I find particularly powerful and something more people really should take into account.
Hoo boy. Against my better judgment, I’ll wade into this pool.
-
If voting for either party gets you the same result, fascists wouldn’t be so focused on elections and trying so hard to take the vote away.
-
Withholding your vote doesn’t do anything. When has losing an election pushed either party left?
-
Voting doesn’t prevent you from engaging in other forms of direct action.
Both parties suck. People will needlessly suffer and die no matter who wins. But there are also people who will suffer and die under one party but not the other, and the same can’t be said the other way around. Our democracy is fundamentally flawed, but voting is a tool at our disposal, and we’re in no position to turn anything down.
Before Obama, I could still remain quiet when people said “voting for anyone is implicit approval,” or whatever - and for the most part, they’re right - voting is a pretty low level of change.
I voted for Obama because even if he is a bit of a tool, he’s black, and now a huge group of minority kids saw someone who looks like them in the white house. I voted for him not because of the “HOPE” on his signs but literally to give black kids hope. (And yeah, for the most part, it’s false hope, just like it is for white kids, welcome to the club.) He was a positive symbol and, if it’s a symbol who is also a centrist Democrat, that’s better then a centrist Democrat that isn’t a positive symbol. And a shit ton better than Mitt Romney or whoever the other guy was.
And then Trump happened, and any respect for the “don’t vote” viewpoint drained out. If you still think both parties are the same at this point, you might want to start asking yourself what else is going on with you - because “not great” is not identical to “fucking terrible”…
Biden isn’t doing what I want him to do - health care, income inequality, corruption in Congress, etc - but the infrastructure bill isn’t a bad thing. It’s actually a good thing, we need it. We need a lot more, but 1 > 0.
Also, to be blunt… we’ve seen this before. We know from recent history what happens when the DNC nominates the safe, centrist, establishment candidate, who fails to appeal to voters and loses to a Republican. That was 2016. Hillary Clinton lost to Trump. And who did the DNC rally behind right before Super Tuesday? That’s right… Joe Biden.
The amount of people in this thread who don’t understand how our voting system works is too damn high
You’re absolutely correct in your points
Especially the “against my better judgement” part, this comment section went to hell really quick
Withholding your vote doesn’t do anything.
Well, not anything good. But it’s mathematically equivalent to half a vote for the major party candidate you like least.
Personally I’d much rather have the candidate I like the least have a harder time winning
Ideally they’d even lose
Edit: Damn autocorrect changed my comment a lot with one simple wrong correction.
Permission to copy and paste this elsewhere for the future?
If you think it would help, sure thing!
It’s concise and matches how I feel about things, so hopefully it will help if/when I come across people talking about how not voting is actually the best choice
Thanks! I actually took time to make my comment shorter, so I’m glad I successfully got straight to the points. :)
-
“Democrats have always fucked me over but I keep voting for them because the alternative is actively more harmful”.
No, I don’t find it touching nor powerful. This is a celebration of the failure of the 2 party system.
When you roll out the feasible alternative let me know. Until then, I’ll be voting for the candidate whose rallies don’t break out in chants of “kill f*ggots, kill all transgenders”
When you figure out a means of political activity that doesn’t involve refining the capitalist regime as it stands, let me know. Until then, I won’t be voting for candidates who help slaughter innocent people around the world.
Ah, so you are never voting again.
So you won’t use your vote to help less people die?
Although I’m not advocating for any kind of violence, honestly it seems like this government has run its course and is now fundamentally broken without possibility of repair. I’m not sure how we can possibly recover from the 2010 Citizen’s United decision which cemented our elected positions being put up for sale to the highest bidder. The evidence indicates that Congressman voting behavior correlates directly with the interests of their funders and shows no correlation to the polled desires of their own constituents. It’s a common cycle for democracy to devolve like this to represent only its most powerful and influential citizens. When that happens eventually confidence in the democratic process collapses and people tend to support populist autocrats (most famously Julius Caesar) to “restore justice.” I would prefer a peaceful transition to a new constitution with better bribery protections baked in but I understand how unlikely that is. It’s sad that the best we can hope for is a managed decline but here we are.
That’s not what he said and you know it, shut up.
Ok
Winner takes it all it the biggest bullshit ever. Anything but popular vote is worth jack shit.
I mean straight popular vote is also winner take all just not skewed by weird slavery shit counting rules
Wrong. It’s “democrats advanced in fits and starts, sometimes stumbling and falling, but heading in the direction of the finish line. I keep voting for them because the other guys are trying to set off a dirty bomb on the race track.”
This upcoming election I’m voting for independent or 3rd party. Fuck blue or red.
ITT: most people deciding to let perfect be the enemy of good.
FFS people if you don’t like your candidates then maybe work to get different people on the ballot and actually vote during primaries. (I know you people complaining aren’t voting in primaries, because the voting rates are abysmally low.)
Change starts at the local level. Be the change you want to see and don’t get discouraged because you only vote every 2 or 4 years and don’t like the candidates you see.
So basically I’m voting democrat so our government doesnt start killing (more) vulnerable people. What a great system
Shoo, they’re breaking out the pablum early this time.
Rather than doing your duty to the democrats, why not recognize the weakness their propaganda indicates and use it to force them to take policy positions you want to get your support?
In a democracy, if there is no alternative we have to vote for the lesser of the evil. It’s better to keep things worse, than to make it more worse, if there is no alternative. If an alternative is there, then absolutely. We should all be encouraging an alternative system in a democracy. But if nothing’s is available, then this.
That’s the logical answer in the short term, but it also makes you a “safe” voter that the Democrats don’t have to care about in the long term.
Don’t promise them your support in advance. Be a “swing” voter and make it clear to the party that if they want your vote they’ll have to earn it.