Some people out there seem to be confused, but I always vote in every local and every national election for every office and every ballot initiative since I was 18 years old. Some of my greatest civil rights heroes have fought and died so that we can all vote and I honor their memory in the ballot box every single time.
To some of us, especially those of us like myself who have been scheduling secretaries for US senators, it often seems like a morally reprehensible choice between compromised corporate Democrats and fascist-minded Republicans. Where I live in California, I have the luxury of voting my conscience for president for third-party candidates that better align with my ideas of justice and equality.
But in any and every contested race, as my mom Mary Morello always said, we have to fight the fascist every which way we can, recognizing that even if there’s but an inch of difference between two candidates, there are a lot of vulnerable people who could be greatly harmed in that inch. So vote your ass off, but don’t just exercise your right to vote. Exercise your right to fight for, organize for, struggle for, and manifest the kind of world you’d like to really see without compromise and without apologies before, during, and after election day. And let’s stop the fascists every which way we can. Power the people.
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Is it the platform that makes the difference for you?
I live in a contested state and voted for the democratic socialist candidate in the primary but I will, of course, vote for the mainstream dem in the general.
As a counterpoint, my uncle lives in a blue state and voted for a third party candidate in that last presidential election. My mom has basically gone no-contact with him over it. I think she’s just about equally as angry that I didn’t vote for the mainstream candidate in the primary but gives me a bit of a pass because I’m her son?
I think you make a good point about Tom having a platform that I hadn’t considered before. Did he use his platform to encourage people not to vote for her?
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Maybe don’t call them assholes for that.
I am not from tge US but it’s so frustrating, we really shouldn’t support this infighting. Anyone still supporting Israel IS disgusting, people are rightfully pissed of about this.
I still believe that there is no way forward other than voting Dem but the infighting and namecalling and belitteling of each other is infuriating.
This really just feels like another devide method of the ruling class.
If you want to beat the Rep you need more solidarity in the left wing and this starts by communicating like adults.
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If Dem candidates support zionist racism they will lose.
Dont harp on the voters as if they are the problem here. Harris could have won that election by not taking aipac money, but she chose the money. She chose to shout down student protestors. She also chose to parade around stages with Liz cheney talking about prayer and her glock. She made a lot of odd choices, and then she lost every single swing state and every demographic of the dem voting base declined.
The reality here is that many Dem voters will just not vote for crimes against humanity, even if you euphamistically call it “strategic” voting. They do not care what you say, and you cant finger wag your way to convincing them to pull the lever for a genocider. I’m afraid thats the reality we live in, so maybe you should concentrate on pressuring Dem candidates to not lose a third of their base to idiocy.
I can’t believe that this era of extreme Trump bullshit, war on Iran, Trump supporting Israel 100, we still have people acting as if being aligned with Israel is the reason to not vote for a Democrat, despite them being far better on three dozen other issues.
Well here he is applying nuance. He can vote that way thanks to the realities of California. He is trusting the audience to understand that nuance of that stance.
It’s a tricky one, since on the one hand he may be overestimating the electorate, but on the other folks inclined to listen to him may internalize the nuance and not get alienated by assumptions that he is selling out. I’m leaning towards the latter since he at least is calling people to vote instead of some blindly anti electoral take, which is fairly prominent in the online discourse.
I’ll be honest, most of the people I see critiquing elections or candidates like Kamala have nuance to their views. Which makes sense, because it takes reflection and thought to break with the normal for most people.
On the other hand, I see tons of binary “any criticism is anti-electoralism and literally fascist” takes online that totally lack nuance. Which also makes sense, because when confronted with a break in normality, most people tend to react emotionally, not logically.
I dont see that at all. Every kamala hater ive seen have nothing but genocide on their minds.
Lol just a couple posts down from yours
https://lemmy.world/comment/26225449
Sure, that’s a hard line for many people who vote with their conscious, and probably most protest voters agonized over the decision, knowing that in our system it could help Trump (although, as it turns out, even if every single third party vote went to Kamala, it still would not have been enough for her to win — protest voters are a tiny demographic).
That’s still more nuanced than “Blue no matter who” or “nothing but genocide on their minds.” (As if genocide isn’t a huge fucking thing that should break every politician who supports it, but that’s a separate argument.)
Yes and no? There’s a lot of chuds who listen to RATM and somehow don’t get their message; but they’re not necessarily listening to Tom Morello, and very likely may not even know his name (or Zack, or Tim, or Brad). The people who listen to RATM and know who Tom Morello is, are far more likely to understand the nuance here.
I was downvoted to hell for saying this on the original post.
It is a privilege to be able to “vote with your conscience” when you’re life isn’t literally hanging in the balance of that vote.
Whether we like it or not, we are a two party system at the moment and voting third party in a presidential election is a wasted vote. I don’t care what anyone else says.
As cool as Tom is he still has the privilege of voting as white man, which is a very different experience compared to the rest of us.
Toms not white.
he literally talks about not being white in the first post
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Honestly, maybe you need some time away. Your post is pretty vitriolic for someone who didn’t even address you specifically or say anything in a disparaging way.
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If you understood how things worked, I would expect your worldview to be somewhat less disappointing when it comes to delivering tangible results. Yet, here we are, 4 decades later, and we still don’t even have a basic right to medical care.
In that society and country, it’s the only approach that can be taken.
It’ll take a while to win that war through the vote if it can be. There’s only one way to win it…progressively change one party from within and with the vote and there’s only one party that could be achieved with.
There is no other peaceful solution, other than a national shutdown large and long enough to bring production to a halt and force the Houses to act.
That’s it. Those two. No others.