I wonder if “voting for the lesser of two evils” is just another tool used by the establishment. I’ve heard that saying many times throughout my life and look where we are now. I’m tired of hearing it.
Even Obama ended up serving the 1%, aside from a few token social issues. We have to do way better if we are to ever put The People before the 1%.
Word: I’ve torn several friends and acquaintances of color a new one for not voting in the last election, repeatedly.
As POC, voting is an act of our ongoing defiance; a reminder that we will never go back to being chattel slaves, ever.
My ancestors fought, bled and died for the right to read, the right to vote, the right to at least some semblance of self determination; I feel like not doing those things disrespects their memory worse than any hate-filled bigot ever could.
All social progress in the history of the United States—ending chattel slavery, women’s suffrage, civil rights laws, LGBT protections, the creation of agencies like the EPA and so on—was accomplished under deeply flawed leaders. There’s never been any choice better than “the lesser evil.”
We have to push for the best candidates we can find in the primaries then vote for the best candidate on the ballot in the general election. Waiting for “perfect” is a losing proposition.
I vote in a state where many of the lefties move out of shortly after graduating college. Because my state is republican, i am priveledged that I can vote with my conscious and not negatively impact fellow citizens.
I guess this gives me an idealist perspective. But Im also tired of being let down by the system and its same old shit again and again until we try something different.
I think voting for the least evil option still makes sense no matter what state you live in. It certainly gets better results than not voting at all.
No one advocates for the non voters, but we all share the responsibility of where we are at. Im not going to look down at them when I could have been doing more myself.
Added- I do wonder what effect my non hillary/trump vote had, its probably not much greater than “none of the above”. But i want to believe my vote said to the Dems that they have lost me and I require x before I will come back. That to me is voting with pride. What is more likely is they don’t give a flying fart unless it affects their own financial wealth.
…so long as you recognise that voting is not the limit of your political responsibility.
So, sure; vote. It probably can’t hurt, even if you are voting for yet another lesser evil scumbag.
But then folks need to get to work. In the streets, in the meetings of their community-level organisations (DSA, BLM, Occupy ICE, whatever), in their day-to-day lives.
It isn’t as easy as pushing a button every two years or making an occasional donation. People need to put in the hours and get their hands dirty. The solution to the torrent of bullshit in the corporate media is to get out and talk to people.
It’s an artifact of the American political system, which throughout its history has only allowed for two major parties at a time: two parties, two degrees of evil. And yes, the establishment certainly uses the duopoly system to their advantage.
It doesn’t have to be that way, of course. Ranked or instant-runoff voting would increase the viability of third parties immensely, which is exactly why the GOP and Dems are so resistant to it. Instead we’re stuck with either trying to make one of them completely irrelevant to the challenges of the times (e.g. the Whigs) or voters with some affinity to one of the parties trying to transform it from within and without (e.g. the current progressive push to get the Dems away from defaulting to neoliberalism-lite policies).
A very tiny percentage in a few rustbelt states who chose to either not vote or a protest vote resulted in our current president. If you want to change the party, become active. Active in local politics, active in primary campaigns, maybe become a candidate yourself. But when November rolls around, remember which party wants to stifle women’s rights, marriage equality, LGBT rights, environmental laws, affordable healthcare and I could go on. And which party opposes that evil. And vote appropriately. Purity is for churches. Politics is a dirty business. And we need to deal with it.
Yeah, I don’t think Brown is a ‘neoliberal’. He’s very pragmatic, and a stickler for making sure that CA doesn’t go back into the budget crunch pain in the next downturn by keeping the rainy day fund from being raided for pet projects.
Except, perhaps, for his ‘high speed rail’ boondoggle.
Agreed. Voting is the bare minimum effort any concerned citizen should do, not the limit of their civic engagement.
While this has become a bit of a mess, there ought to be high speed rail between SF and LA, even if it ends up costing on a heroic level. OTOH, California can’t even manage to get BART to connect with SMART.
And sitting around tweeting one’s outrage, or even marching in protest, is not a substitute. You know how we know votes are important? If they weren’t, corporations wouldn’t donate so much money to campaigns.
The thing is, I know my vote won’t matter so “do the right thing” speeches are meaningless to me (in this scenario).
We need to find other ways of reaching people.
I love trains too, but Megabus is $5 and SleepBus is $115 and they are here now. Let’s use the heck out of existing public transport options and not just hope for some magic bullet train. Also, I’ll defend Cory here because the possibility of real change brings excitement brings higher turnout brings winning. Cheeto can’t be allowed to make inroads with minorities because of so-called “record low unemployment.” Drumpf is change incarnate with his inherent instability; you need change to beat change.
And that’s all there will be unless we start planning and building soon. I thought you wanted “real change”:
the possibility of real change brings excitement brings higher turnout brings winning
How do you know your vote doesn’t matter?
All voting results are aggregates, and safe states (red or blue) are only that because large numbers of people on one side reliably vote, and large numbers on the other won’t.
In a year when Republicans are lacking enthusiasm, and Democrats are roused into action, your vote matters more than usual, one way or another.
Maybe it’s cynicism after “sure thing” Clinton lost, but I just can’t see Cheeto’s Boys not holding sway again after November.
Sure, the Blue Wave seems to be coming - anecdotally, I’ve noticed things like a lot less people posting in favour of Trump on his posts on Twitter and on anti-Trump posts on Facebook (though that might be algorithms keeping me in an echo chamber). It really feels like a lot of the support he did have has given up (plus a lot of the bots have disappeared?). That said, I don’t think it was fervent support that won the Republicans the presidency - it was a quiet background swell of anti-Obamaism, that didn’t need to shout from the rafters that they felt left out, they’d just show up and vote for the guy who was clearly the anti-Obama. It wasn’t all stupid white men that voted him in, after all.
I really, really want to see him held to account (I still feel ripped off for the schadenfreude I missed out on when he didn’t lose), but I just don’t think the Dems are being compelling enough. And the shit thing is, they’re doing all the right things - I’m not sure anything is going to be compelling enough to stop the Trump Train.
(and yes, I’m specifically framing even the midterms as Trump vs. Dems, because at this point the GOP is a bunch of feckless sycophants, and the party really has become the Trump Party first, and the voice of right-leaning people second.)
But your vote does matter when it matters. Here in Virginia our house is in Republican hands because one representative election ended in a tie. One vote would have made all the difference in the world, but it was not there. And you can’t know ahead of time which election will be the one where your vote is the difference maker. To say “it just doesn’t matter” is straight up alternative facts and would make the trumpkins very happy to hear you say.
maybe not as well as you think? the math–and the fact it took a supreme court vote to hand the election to bush–do not support your premise.
