The surest way to make sure there won't be elections is to decide there aren't going to be elections and stop fighting for there to be elections. There is a line between recognizing the seriousness of the moment & drowning yourself & others in so much doom that action seems pointless. - ThreadSky

mostlybree.kitrocha.com • 15 days ago

The surest way to make sure there won't be elections is to decide there aren't going to be elections and stop fighting for there to be elections.

There is a line between recognizing the seriousness of the moment & drowning yourself & others in so much doom that action seems pointless.

Reposted from Angus Johnston

The "there's not gonna be elections" crowd is descending on me again.

Just quickly: This is an unhelpful reply to anyone, in any context. There will be elections, and millions of us will be out there fighting to make them free and fair.

If you won't be with us, sit down and shut the fuck up.

Comments

mandoqueer.itch.io•15 days ago

Broken record:
Authoritarian regimes have an interest to give themselves the veneer of democracy, which is why most of them hold elections even if they're shams.
and they only bother doing 100% sham elections when they've fully consolidated, which they have not yet.

mandoqueer.itch.io•15 days ago

I think I talk way too much about goddamn venezuelan but I do think it gives me some perspective on this shit not to doomer too much. keep thinking of the ways we're the same but also lots of ways we're different.

mandoqueer.itch.io•15 days ago

Trump isn't moving into the parliamentary election with the opposition in such total shambles that they don't even run, and he's not going to be popular either, and he hasn't centralized control over the mechanisms of electoral organization
y'all have advantages we didn't.

mostlybree.kitrocha.com•15 days ago

we really do have a lot of advantages still! I mean shit is bad, VERY bad for a lot of people, but this country is boiling mad and the media may be trying to downplay it but they won't be able to forever. Trump's doing too many wildly unpopular things too fast with too little support.

lizamazel.bsky.social•15 days ago

All that said, to the original point:

I don't think it's wrong to name that we are in increasingly weird and unprecedented (in the U.S., at least in our lifetimes) territory. This government is autocratic to the core, aggressive and kind of not existing in our consensual reality.

lizamazel.bsky.social•15 days ago

There has to be an area between "elections will be as free and fair as before"--first of all, they were already on a slide, not bc Starlink vote tampering or whatever but shit right in plain sight: voter roll purges, eliminating voting places strategically, Citizens United, yadda. oh, and Jan 6.

lizamazel.bsky.social•15 days ago

The U.S. is a federation, the states run elections. As such, at least SOME of the elections are going to go just fine; already have been.

Obviously these people have not given up on elections, or fuckface wouldn't be pouring zillions of dollars into the WI SC race.

lizamazel.bsky.social•15 days ago

and that said. Does anyone really think either Trump or his doughface in waiting Vance will go gently into that good night?

I sure don't. At least, not w/out events I can't begin to predict, except that unpredictable shit is gonna happen.

tl:dr all is not lost. And: we're not going back to normal.

lizamazel.bsky.social•15 days ago

At least, not any time real soon.

I think it would behoove more of us to take a long, granular look at what's going on, has gone on, in other countries. Yeh Nazis scare me too; they're far from the only autocracy model, as we know.

Someone said yesterday we're in a, what, "competitive autocracy?"

lizamazel.bsky.social•15 days ago

Whatever the phrase, it's a step down from "flawed democracy," which is where we already were, and not at "full autocracy," which would be Russia (for instance).

Other countries in that grey area rn: Hungary, India, I think Turkey just crossed over into autocracy by jailing an opponent.

lizamazel.bsky.social•15 days ago

ditto giving up entirely on the Democratic party, I want to say.

I want to make exceptions for people who have been consistently of a praxis outside of the electoral system and at least see people doing so as doing parallel work as part of a larger umbrella praxis, even if they won't be part of it.

isomorphism.net•15 days ago

lizamazel.bsky.social•15 days ago

people who are either so disgusted they've decided to go scorched earth on the Dems as a whole; or, conversely, are so blaming of those people for torpedoing what could reasonably seen as our last chance (November) they resist any pushback against any Dem in power at all.

Either way: do nothing.

lizamazel.bsky.social•15 days ago

I like "fight/wait, as opposed to lib/left" that people are starting to name. I see it playing out both within the Democratic party and outside of it.

mostlybree.kitrocha.com•15 days ago

I mean I don't really consider myself part of the democratic party in all honesty. the local democrats are who I'd look to to support, but the DNC doesn't give a shit about us in Alabama so MY goal is absolutely to channel my energy into support systems that make up for that.

lizamazel.bsky.social•15 days ago

yeh context matters.

I am hoping Ken Martin's (new DNC chair) stated intention to shake things up and focus on not just every state but every district is true. Even if it is, it'll take a minute to shift that fossilized paradigm.

ringwraith10.bsky.social•15 days ago

I have been actively keeping myself from putting my negative thoughts and experiences in writing for just this reason. I don't want to in any way discourage people from continuing to fight for democracy.

mostlybree.kitrocha.com•15 days ago

I'm at the point where if I see that most of someone's online action is just them saying some variation of "it won't matter because ___" any time something good happens, or "there's no point because ___" any time someone tries to issue a call to action?

I assume they're fighting for the other side.

mostlybree.kitrocha.com•15 days ago

And like... news flash. A lot of us have lived in states where there aren't open & free elections FOR A LONG TIME.

Sometimes in states where there were NEVER open & free elections for people who weren't white.

I need the white folks in blue states to put on their big kid pants & get going.

mattvadnais.bsky.social•15 days ago

I think it’s important to remember that doom is not an antidote to someone else’s indifference.

jffdougan.bsky.social•15 days ago

White dude in blue state: I promise I’m doing what I can.

ubiquisquish.bsky.social•15 days ago

It is a strangely hopeful thing to look up “White Terror” on Wikipedia and see all the countries that made it through. Like, Taiwan was a military dictatorship in my lifetime!
Things are definitely really bad, but literally any action is better than rolling over and giving up.

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