Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/04/02/our-revolution-3.html
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A little context—like what district they represent—would be helpful.
We all cheered when Roy Moore lost his seat to a right-wing Democrat, as well as the guy in Pennsylvania. Should we have wished ultra-leftists be nominated in their stead and lost?
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I’m going to vote third party, personally, but for the forseeable future my state will remain under the control of a Democratic machine whose gears mesh quite neatly with those of the smaller Republican machine.
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It’s as if they want nothing to change
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ok the article itself gives that info but not the context, just asserting that all seats are winnable by Democrats of any stripe. Some of them are not.
Their entry on Lisa Brown is telling; they list her accomplishments as a progressive, then complain that her rhetoric isn’t presently strident enough.
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Any politician who doesn’t have at least one vote with which you disagree is likely to be an ineffective do-nothing. That’s just the way politics in a representative democracy works. (Doesn’t anyone on the left read Saul Alinsky anymore?) Sure, if you disagree with the DCCC strategy then don’t give them money, but the same should be said for any group supporting slates. Just donate to individual candidates who impress you as individuals. And don’t fall into the trap of drawing global conclusions about politicians from isolated votes.
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That basically means you get the satisfaction of voting independent but the representative you actually will get will be one of the main party candidates, quite possibly not the one that would have been your second choice.
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Instead, support Our Revolution, the Great Slate and Brand New Congress.
Roger That!
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In my state, voting for a major party would be a completely meaningless and wasted vote. It will affect nothing. I may as well not bother going to the polls if I planned to vote for whatever corporate product placement is available from one of the majors.
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This is why we can’t have nice things. Along with this, trump’s approval ratings are climbing, all because folks are receiving $100 more per month due to the new tax plan. What they don’t realize is the safety net will be dismantled, along with our environmental protections and funding for our infrastructure among many other problems that need to be addressed here in the U.S… Amerikan citizens are willing to allow our national institutions to be dismantled for the price of a pizza at the end of the month, because many folks won’t even get $100, many will get $15/mo. or even less. All just to pay for their meager kickbacks and mega kickbacks for the ultra elite. I’m just beside myself anymore. Amerikans have to be the most supid, willfully ignorant and short sighted people in the history of the world. Frankly, we don’t deserve a democracy, or republic. What a fucked up mess.
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—PRIMARIES— In the majority of non-compettive districts that is where the choices are made. The general election is just anointing the winner.
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Good point! That’s the major reason I am registered Republican. The GOP is smaller here, so my vote counts a lot more, and you have to be registered in one of the two corporate parties to vote in the primaries here.
I voted against George W. Bush four times. Primaries matter.
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Yeah, I register as Republican, too. My state’s primaries are late enough that they seldom can influence the Presidential ballot, and in my locality, most Democratic candidates run unopposed. If I’m going to vote in a primary, it might as well be a contested one!
I contemplated casting a strategic vote for the least electable candidate in the Republican presidential primary the last time around, but chose the one who appeared to be least insane anyway. It didn’t make a difference. And Trump largely won the nomination (as opposed to the general election) on the vote of the Republican minority in the Blue states, so I’m glad I didn’t try to vote strategically.
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And the wind whispers “Kucinich”
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Until we have a viable multiparty system (if ever) symbolic Dem votes in contested elections are votes for Republicans. If you are fortunate enough to live in a deep blue district where it does not matter if you vote Dem or not, go ahead and vote Jill Stein or whomever. Those of us in tight areas cannot afford that. The VA house is still in Rep hands because of a tied vote that led to a drawing of lots for goodness sake. One more Dem vote and we could have a Dem house and maybe get some stuff done, but no. And that is my argument against purity tests. I don’t have to agree with every position of a candidate to realize that the Dem will be more likely to agree with most of mine than the Rep, and the Rep will make me puke a lot more.
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I have long-standing disagreements with @Medievalist over 3rd party votes(*), but voting 3rd party in elections when one traditional party has an overwhelming advantage is an excellent way to try to move the party in power in a direction you’d like.
(*) Especially when the 3rd party candidate is a ditzy Putin puppet
Unfortunately, even with Cadet Bonespurs ours is far from the worst government in the world today, let alone the worst that ever was.
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Well, let’s see, Greens are running 24 candidates for the House, a whopping 5% of seats, and no senate candidates. At state-level, the Greens are running 11 candidates over the whole country.
Meanwhile, the Libertarian party is actually running a fair number of candidates for Senate seats, 17 in total, which is approximately half of the openings. But in the House, they’re running 54 candidates, which works out to 12% of races.
AFAIK, the DSA is running 0 candidates in any races.
On the other hand, the Democratic party is running in 98% of House races, leaving a mere 6 uncontested. Is it at all surprising that a party that’s actually trying to complete over the whole country is going to have a higher degree of ideological diversity? I daresay if the Greens or Libertarians doubled the number of races they were competing in, they would have a corresponding ideological spread.
Troll harder, comrades.
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That might be because they are backing Democratic Party candidates who fit with their ideals
You too, comrade.
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We need candidates who win.
If more progressive candidates can win these places, let them prove it in the primaries.
Vote idealism in the primary, and pragmatism in the general.
Otherwise we get another round of Trump, and the people who enable him.
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Pfeh, the Jacobin. They only care about their purity rainbow ponies, not in making any progress. Heightening the contradictions doesn’t get leftists elected – it just lets Trump put more lunatics on the bench and into cabinet departments. The Jacobin’s purity boner won’t mean shit once Trump and Bolton start nuking North Korea, Iran, and Ohio.
I mean, the Jacobin’s got an article on their front page arguing that the SATs are progressive and great, because whutever, brown people were gonna flunk no matter what!
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