This is the same mindset that caused some People to stay at home & not vote in the 2024 election in protest... & Now they're upset why People they didn't vote for doing anything to stop this. 😕
“Voting is an atomized consumption decision that I make based upon whether the product on offer appeals to me enough to purchase with my ballot” will be the end of the left.
the American left is nothing politically, at best they point out the hypocrisies of liberal capitalism while living off the benefits of a well-run society.
Lenin actually won a war, they're just playing the court jester (and not voting fits... :|
Kinda tangential: I tried watching some hbomberguy and...found his sherlock video unpersuasive despite my hatred for moffat...like he just seemed to really hate overarching plotlines and tie ins compared to episodic
This is really funny when it was actually the right that melted down for a calendar year because a trans woman made an ad for their favorite swill beer
Which sucks because they put out some good content for a while, but I can’t really find a good counter example. They’ve certainly been some of the most obnoxiously anti-civic poasters as a whole
Streaming has been really bad for fandoms in general, but applying fandom culture to politics is what got us here (gamergate might as well have been MAGA 1.0)
This general apathy predates Breadtube, or even YouTube. South Park made an episode called Douche vs Turd in 2004 saying that Kerry and Bush were the same. And people bought it.
This argues for range voting. I wonder how it would work out in practice. (Kind of irrelevant since we have a five alarm fire in the federal government right now, but it's an interesting question.)
https://rangevoting.org has more comprehensive arguments. The website hasn't been updated in some time so see it for its theoretical parts (esp comparisons against IRV)
Considering how Contrapoints endorsed voting for the Democratic Party in both 2020 and 2024(and getting backlash for it on Twitter), blaming leftist voting/not voting practices on “BreadTube” seems like a stretch. Not quite a reach, but still not entirely fair.
Personally I lay the blame far more at the feet of 10,000 short form video wannabe influencers who realized that if they made TikToks about how we are poorer than during the Great Depression that the algorithm would boost them quite nicely.
Okay, I get that it was clumsy phrasing and you were more talking about the fans/community than the creators(which I will refrain from splitting hairs on, IE I think that’s still an open question how many people are fans of them that are annoying leftists versus people who vote normie democrat).
Look it's possible it goes back further but this is the first person I remember mainstreaming the idea that voting was the same as buying a product & you could just opt out of democracy if you weren't sufficiently catered to.
He meant well and did a ton of good prior to 2000. I voted for him in San Francisco and went to an overflow rally for him at the Oakland Arena. I probably wouldn’t have voted for him in a swing state, but fwiw, he got more votes than W in SF.
Bush and his daddy’s Supreme Court fucked us good.
Contrapoints made pro-voting videos and HBomberguy literally did campaign events with AOC. The only anti-voting "Breadtuber" is Shaun, and even he's kind of cutesy about it. What are you talking about?
Oh man he blocked me on twitter for asking him if he cared who won the election, and he blocked me on here after I said he was full of shit for claiming that the dems were to blame for trump and elon's actions.
This is interesting. I only recently discovered HBomberguy's videos (he did a great one on Transformers: The Movie) and they seem pretty great to me. How was he toxic outside his videos? Genuine question. I totally agree about Shaun. But I also don't know how to define Breadtube.
Apparently we had the option to do *something*, and from what I hear, it had the power to save us, if only we had trusted leftists, but if it didn't work then we were always doomed, and we should have listened to leftists.
I kept telling people talking about abstaining from voting that they were acting as if this was a movie where a magical third option would appear like a deus ex machina and reward them for their steadfast morals
Anyone who doesn’t abandon that line of thinking is, definitionally, electorally irrelevant. Politicians who ignore them or even treat them as punching bags will outperform politicians who do not because people who actually vote matter more than those who don’t for political advancement.
Bingo. It’s the neoliberal (derogatory) worldview applied to politics which totally fails because if I choose pizza over tacos I’m not forcing that choice on the country at gunpoint.
And to all those who thought they would punish Harris by not voting: she is wealthy and privileged. She is going to be perfectly fine in the private sector.
Not voting punishes you. It punishes your community. It doesn't punish candidates.
Newsflash not all power is constitutional. For instance, Harris had the power to campaign on a break with the Biden administration on Gaza or let a Palestinian give a pre-approved speech at the convention. All of which would move the lever much more than any individual's vote.
Like seriously, why are we empowering a party of do-nothings like they're the ones that are gonna stand on the bridge and and 'you shall not pass'. They had their chances to do this over and over again, they just are not that interested in the public good.
Biden had his term, and they decided committing genocide by proxy was more important than stopping fascism in their own nation. Don't fucking talk down to me about voting when this is the party you expect me to vote for.
They could At least be honest and say “I can’t vote for Kamala/ the Democrats because of their handling of Gaza. I understand this increases the chances of Trump winning, but I cannot compromise my principles.” They always refuse to concede the full consequences of their decision.
There may be a desire to vote for neither candidate sometimes, but there is also a duty to vote for the one who will do less harm (sometimes), not doing so is not only decadent it's delusional
Presidential elections aren't the forum to punish or reward candidates. They are to choose which of two people will have enormous control over your life and the lives of billions of others in the next four years.
Treating elections like a season of The Bachelor is a foolish and unserious
approach.
You may have thought after the election these people would shift their criticisms to the people currently in charge of US policy. Well, I regret to inform you, that's wrong.
Many of these people are going to do this again next cycle. It's irrelevant if they're dupes or saboteurs.
People think not voting signals "I don't like any of these candidates and demand better!" When really it signals "I'm ok with whatever you guys decide."
This is really the only debate I'm willing to have with leftists right now: will they or will they not participate in the national project. We need as many people on-side for the coming apocalypse. I don't care about the other shit, they could worship Mao for all I care.
Hold your nose and fight on the side of the liberals, or surrender on the side of what you believe is right. Those are the only choices left. Give it some thought before you choose surrender.
kinda like what your precious democrats are doing now?
hey, maybe another strongly worded letter from Schumer will do it, or not objecting to unanimous consent so you can go on another vacation. so inspiring!
So the party should have violated its own democratic nomination rules to give Sanders a majority of delegates, and because they didn't, your only choice is to abandon the party coalition forever and watch the world burn. I see how it is: you will go the way of the German Communists.
They pulled all the stops to block Bernie.
Instead of acting like gangsters and play this hostage game, maybe centrist democrats should register Republicans with Liz Cheney and moderate the gop
That might have been true in 1976, the last time non-primaries were the majority method of picking candidates. Not in 2016 when there were only 18 caucuses remaining.
I know y'all believe that backroom dealing wrecked your boy. But he lost because Democratic voters rejected him. Not party officials.
The Dems installed progressives in the FTC & Treasury, pursued progressive Keynesian economics (which was highly successful), cracked down on bank fees, lowered insulin costs, and the climate provisions in the infrastructure bill & IRA were basically a lite version of Green New Deal.
Like sure, for me and you we vote for the latter, but for the masses brainwashed by a capitalist transactional consumer culture? We'll never win if we don't meet them where they are at.
How's blaming the electorate working for you? Is it changing things? Is it earning you allies? Or is it really only to make you feel better about yourself?
How’s it working out for folks who didn’t vote for Harris cause they wanted less harm for Palestine? Did it accomplish their goal? Are Palestinians better under Trump?
Completely someone’s right to not vote or vote third party. It didn’t help the folks in need.
Their goal was to follow their eternal and ever present conscience, and in that I'd say they did fine. That is their right as a participant in this system, and the fact that the political party - so called because *politics is their ostensible reason for being* - cannot satisfy them is shameful.
I realized why so many leftists lie about the Dems record on transgender people - and that's so they can ignore how they could've voted against Trump's attempt to genocide/remove transpeople from society. "I can't vote for genocide" well you could've voted to stop one or two (Ukrainian genocide!).
tragically, a solid number of those people are themselves trans women and they will argue until the day is long that Dems are just as bad for trans people, perhaps even worse. a very weird subculture of tankie trans women.
We have a family friend who literally came out after Trump's elex because they knew it'd be the last time then could get documents in their name, because the Dem policies were likely getting overturned. They happen to be a transman. Trump literally ran on demonizing them!
You cannot be a low-trust socialist. It doesn't work. So it's so surreal to see them argue that the Dems don't care about trans people, when the people who make up the Dems, are at their core, are people who oppose discrimination, even if we don't understand being trans.
When they go nuts about language like "chestfeeding", "bonus hole", and "person with a uterus", that's language about trans MEN in particular. They want to elimate trans women from bathrooms and sports, and trans men from the language altogether.
Ah the genocide that was so real they had to change the ICC definition of genocide to shoehorn it in, after a complete ratfuck of a "case" by Russia thru its client state of South Africa, the country so poorly mismanaged it is running out of water rather than engaging with Israeli desalination tech
As if politicians and citizens were two complete disparate categories of people.
No, there are only "political service workers" that might satisfy me, and if they don't, I won't shop at this country any longer 😤
If more of these people had participated sooner, the choices they need to make wouldn't be as bad, but it would have made them uncomfortable then, and it's not like anyone could have clearly seen where this would end up, right?
I voted for your garbage candidate knowing the other was worse. But WHY should any of us to be compelled to approve one form of genocide over another.
This is a democracy. It should cater to us. And we should be finding methods to make that more possible. The 2 parties do not allow that.
Having spent 10 years working in politics, I have a lot of experience that I still use.
One of my big wins was a groundbreaking family leave bill and organizing 250 organizations to speak in its favor. This is a legacy/experience I still carry with me in my advocacy. Taught me a lot. Good and awful.
Now here's my next question. Are you just processing emotion here or are you legitimately whinging? Cause if it's the former yeah, I ain't need to come at you with that energy.
If it's the latter... your background says you should know better.
My background and accomplishment saw two of my democratic stalwart bosses disgrace themselves. One is incarcerated for some "grand theft auto" levels of corruption. The other undercut the work above from great to good by having the chamber of commerce rewrite the bill after it was slated to pass ez
I say this because we need *you* to lose faith in this party and demand more of them. They 100% have every ability to do more and do better for their constituents. But they are comically corrupt.
Until then my talents are focused on moving them and creating power elsewhere. They can come to us.
I still just mute those people on sight. They’re unreachable. If you can look at all of this and think “good thing I didn’t vote!” then you can fuck off and die.
This critical framing is why in addition to codifying the right to vote w/an actual constitutional amendment, we ought seriously consider going one step further toward compulsory voting as civic responsibility.
Because "it is a party's job to earn your vote" is the correct stance. We don't owe dems votes. If they don't respond to voters, they shouldn't get votes. I am too civic minded to not vote, but without something to vote FOR, it's no surprise that dems lose.
As an Australian Prime Minister said when attempting to reform the Labor Party in order to win government: Only the impotent are pure. If you want power, you need to be pragmatic.
“I don’t think either the defense or the prosecution align with my politics enough so I’m going to abstain from voting in this jury trial even though I know the defendant killed and ate that guy based on the physical evidence.”
well see they get around this by talking ad nauseum about the violence they will definitely sacrifice to commit if only the libs would start the revolution for them already - despite the fact that they also treat libs as the ultimate class traitors, so that expectation seems even stranger.
The easiest thing they could've done to stop the fascists was voting for Harris. They couldn't even do that so any notion that they will do anything is absolutely laughable
I think it's worth noting that you can abstain if you are actually willing to participate by making the sacrifices of being a radical activist instead and claim it wasn't decadence with honesty, but most aren't.
Funny but we elected an activist to the house and then the DNC came and encouraged Republicans to vote in the dem primary because AIPAC said to get rid of her. But wahhhh it was the leftists fault.
Pure deflection of responsibilities. Person claims they care about genocide and goes and enables more genocide by inaction and blaming other people for that inaction.
A lot of Palestine supporters are not beating the allegations that they support Palestine as a way to make Jew-hatred and supporting beating/killing Jews more righteous.
There's an very toxic trend in the pro-Palestine movement towards antisemitism, and I don't blame people who are anti-Palestine.
If there’s one complaint I’ve had about a section of the Dem base, it’s that they’ve made voting into some cathartic experience when it’s just not. Voting is just something you do in civic society and something you MUST do when people are running on actively harming the community you support.
A recurring thing I see is people trying to expand the idea that someone's vote is secret and personal (true) to claim that it's undemocratic to criticize someone for what they *say* they voted for (false) or even to criticize them for advocating for voting a particular way (comically false)
a majority of Palestinians wanted Kamala for President and a majority of Israelis wanted Trump for President but some people will die on the hill that they were the exact same and that anyone who said it was good to vote for Kamala was perpetuating genocide
It’s not a false binary in a pure first past the post system - there really are only two choices.
That this “but Biden wasn’t pure enough” energy didn’t come out in the form of demanding a primary and only became an issue in the general is frustrating… or suspicious.
There are still way too many lefties out there who think politics is about their feelings and couldn’t possibly besmirch their Snow White soul with a little dead-eyed pragmatism and coalition work. Nobody’s coming to give you a gold star for your performance and now there’s even MORE dead kids.bravo
Deciding that between two candidates, you will chose the third option, the privilege that you know will protect you from the consequences of your inaction, is in fact “decadent”
I mean, I agree, but that's just the political reality that the Democratic Party has been refusing to acknowledge since 2016. You can't make people vote for you, you have to meet them where they are. That's not a moral or qualitative argument, it's just an objective fact.
I think someone can make a purely descriptive argument like that, but it often gets used as a motte (where the bailey is actively pushing the idea that normatively, one shouldn't vote for Democrats until they do X)
There's arguments about what Democrats should do and there's arguments about what citizens should do. Whatever one may think on the first question (reasonable minds may differ), on the second question there is a correct answer which is "vote for the Democrat".
In point of fact, participating in the process of voting and elections is NOT a citizen's duty. We don't have mandatory voting in this country. Political parties have to do the heavy lifting of getting people to vote for them. Alienating huge swathes of the electorate is just bad campaigning.
Considering about 36% of the eligible voting population didn't even vote at all in the 2024 election, I'm skeptical that Dems would lose more people than they'd gain by significantly changing their stated platforms and policies.
Regardless, I'm not a Dem campaign strategist and it's not my job to figure out how to expand their tent while keeping their core constituents. But it's not rocket scientist to say "screaming at voters for not voting for you is counterproductive" it's just common sense.
OK, the people who do win elections are probably better at that job than the people who never, ever do. And of course candidates flatter voters, not "scream at them". Doesn't mean the rest of us have to pretend.
So, one of the things that has been slowly happening since 1964, is that the Rs are consolidating around white Guns, God, and no Gays, and the Ds have to sorta be everyone else. A good example of this is Prop 8, which passed, in CA, and the Black community was immediately blamed by white gays.
I understand and acknowledge that the Dems have a challenge in trying to expand their tent to appeal to a more diverse pool of interests. What irks me is that the party leaders seem to not even acknowledge that this is necessary. They double down on blaming the electorate itself.
FWIW, that guy was one of the House Dems out on the street yelling in front of federal buildings in DC about getting DOGE the fuck outta there, the very first day Dems did that, so I personally wouldn't write him off yet
I'm not interested in arguing with anybody who thinks the voters have been letting Dems down, rather than the other way around. That's just an absurd idea on its face that's not worthy of commentary.
"Earning" has become transactional, so unless a candidate is giving that voter something, he will just not vote, as was the case for some in this past election.
Disgusting to see the dum dum left attempt to worm their way out of accountability. You don't get to loudly proclaim for months that you won't vote for the sole candidate capable of stopping the fascist and encouraging others to do the same then point fingers elsewhere when that candidate loses
They spent an entire year bitterly vowing we'd rue the day we didn't take them seriously enough and then, after turning out to be the exact kingmakers they promised they'd be, not one of them will take responsibility for the outcome of the election.
I've dragged swing voters for thinking like peasants choosing a king and not citizens with obligations to others. Lefty's who explain that they don't actually have any duty to protect my community from deportation are still more contemptable.
Lmao the poem is from the 70s, the audience would have understood this to be evoking a like prestige miniseries like Roots (though I think that one was a little later)
The poem is from the sixties and this would have been over four nights probably once per week with a single sponsor and then a long ad break after each episode.
We had the same trolley problem presented three times in a row, and failed it twice.
Controlled destruction we partake in vs catastrophic destruction that we passively allow, and this time the catastrophic destruction is potentially irreversible.
The left was scolded for opposing the genocide in Gaza, on the grounds that the other candidate was much worse. This is both true and highly demoralizing, especially when you see the Dem candidate actively pursuing the votes of moderate Republicans instead.
And the left WAS wrong. It is now far worse in Gaza. The virtue signaling that made those on the left feel so morally superior is leading to more people dying. Good job.
I can only speak for myself, but I knew all along Trump was worse than Harris on basically every issue. (I'm trans, this is existential for me) The problem was that I felt like a hostage, with the ransom demanded being thousands and thousands of dead Gazans.
The Dems knew that they *could have* worked to be appealing to their most likely supporters, and instead blamed left voters for their own moral conflicts while chasing the scant handful of "NeverTrump" moderate conservatives.
It really shouldn't be controversial that genocide is a red line for many
It pretty much is. It's simultaneously the party's fault for not getting the votes (IMO largely because they were uninspiring) but also the rational and moral obligation of the voter to vote for them despite that failure
If I don't like the policies of a party, but I am morally obligate to vote for them as the "lesser evil," what power/leverage do I have to effect any changes to make the party better?
None, and that's the whole idea. They blame you when you don't vote for them, and shout you down when you try to change their policies after you fight the gag reflex long enough to vote for them.
It's the "customer" model of politics, and it's HORRIBLE.
Parties aren't product-producing organizations, they're coalitions of like-minded citizens. Government isn't something external to the electorate, it is the expressed will of the people.
and the will of the people was very clearly NO GENOCIDE.
And guess what? They lost.
Might be time to stop saying "haha, you gotta vote for genocide" and more "Oh, actually maybe I should protect abortion and other human rights" like they wanted.
But if anything, they didn't lose, because the winner is not only fine with what Israel were doing, but actively supports cleansing the entire region down to the last person
the United States is the most powerful instrument of violence to exist in human history. as a citizen of the United States, you are unavoidably, if partially, welding that instrument. failure to direct it to the least immoral end possible is a moral failing.
The advertised method of influencing that outcome (voting) is ineffective. The effective range of methodology to change starts with "good trouble" and ends with Luigi.
It is compromised by undemocratic institutions our 2 parties have refused to address like the Supreme Court, electoral college etc
In the same way that fire extinguishers are ineffective at putting out fires if you don’t spray them on the flames. The problem is that it’s collective action, and we’ve raised generations to see political radicalism as neoliberal exercises in self-fulfillment.
I'm sorry. There is nothing radical about neoliberalism. It is the prevailing governing philosophy that led us to this moment. It is the hegemony. What are you talking about?
Political radicalism is understood in a neoliberal context where it’s another cute consumption decision like wearing a Hot Topic shirt, it’s about what it says about the generic you, rather than being about how society should allocate resources.
I guarantee you i have affected more positive change for huge swatches of people in my political career than you. It's posted in your break room, maybe.
I don't care what neoliberals think of me. I want them to see what they've created in the world around them. And change their bankrupt philosophy.
Biden increased govt regulations & direct involvement in the economy, raised taxes on the rich, instituted trade protections, supported labor, & aggressively pursued antitrust actions.
Join us in good trouble. Join a union. A flexible 3rd party that can (at least) move political thought. Mass Boycotts. Occupations. Shutdowns.
It's that or Trump. The democrats are Trump, too. They brought us here. 50 years of mild objections and collaborations to horror.
I did. The way y'all wanted. The harm is worse.
They wrest power from us by subverting democracy. It is not working as advertised. Im not going to fault people for their reasonable beliefs.
We must subvert back. Influence other ways. And hold our own "allies" accountable for acting like enemies
Every single time this comes up you folks assure us that *you* did the thing the shitlibs all told you to do. Every time. But your idea of how democracy *should* work is that if you vote, your choice governs the outcome. Sorry.
And now? We're 1 for 3 on that. And moreover the first time he won we did democracy and got a majority. We get majorities all the time that can not move us in the direction of justice and peace.
Someone said (might actually have been Theophite):
The US is a terrifying machine that destroys much of what is in its path. It's not clear how much control you have over it. Willingly ceding the controls to the psycho next to you because you fear complicity still isn't heroic, it's cowardly.
Comments
This is a participatory process.
Lenin actually won a war, they're just playing the court jester (and not voting fits... :|
Honestly, you summed it up pretty succinctly.
Leftism as consumerism comes directly downstream from Leftism as Fandom which is directly downstream from Leftism as Content Production/Consumption.
https://bsky.app/profile/arcane.videogame.town/post/3liprgvfcds2v
It's also famous twitter accounts and politics streamers like Hasan Piker that contributed just as much to the apathy and disinformation.
https://bsky.app/profile/mike10010100.bsky.social/post/3lipl4oxml22l
Number of times a popular vote loser became president in the entire 20th century: 0
Number of times a popular vote loser became president in the only one quarter over 21st century: 2
Arguably 3 if you note that the GOP would have tossed Trump aside after 2016 as they do all losers.
but there was ross perot not long before
the left never has. they just step on rake after rake after rake.
he did seem to hurt bush more than clinton (IIRC, I was young)
I'm suggesting BreadTube shifted it into overdrive.
Bush and his daddy’s Supreme Court fucked us good.
I was like, what other option do we have!?
(yes, I repost it whenever he’s mentioned, because people should not forget it)
https://bsky.app/profile/ubernostrum.bsky.social/post/3l72v3c5qze2s
I should not be surprised by this connection, and yet
A vote, like a skeet, is an opportunity to be heard not an award to be earned.
Refusing to vote doesn't punish candidates, it punishes yourself.
And to all those who thought they would punish Harris by not voting: she is wealthy and privileged. She is going to be perfectly fine in the private sector.
Not voting punishes you. It punishes your community. It doesn't punish candidates.
Voting Is Not Atomistic Consumerism
Treating elections like a season of The Bachelor is a foolish and unserious
approach.
Many of these people are going to do this again next cycle. It's irrelevant if they're dupes or saboteurs.
https://bsky.app/profile/penfoldsfiv.bsky.social/post/3lil4wpnehs2v
kinda like what your precious democrats are doing now?
hey, maybe another strongly worded letter from Schumer will do it, or not objecting to unanimous consent so you can go on another vacation. so inspiring!
Instead of acting like gangsters and play this hostage game, maybe centrist democrats should register Republicans with Liz Cheney and moderate the gop
I know y'all believe that backroom dealing wrecked your boy. But he lost because Democratic voters rejected him. Not party officials.
It's right there in your own screenshot
He should not be the nominee if the majority of people voting oppose him
Dem leaders won't make Bernie the nominee if the majority opposes him
And you're acting like they're rigging the system against him as a result
How’s it working out for folks who didn’t vote for Harris cause they wanted less harm for Palestine? Did it accomplish their goal? Are Palestinians better under Trump?
Completely someone’s right to not vote or vote third party. It didn’t help the folks in need.
https://bsky.app/profile/theneumann64.bsky.social/post/3livaxixr4c26
There's multiple sides on this issue and most are terrible
I'm not absolving Biden of his complicity but I also recognize Republicans as a huge threat
No, there are only "political service workers" that might satisfy me, and if they don't, I won't shop at this country any longer 😤
This is a democracy. It should cater to us. And we should be finding methods to make that more possible. The 2 parties do not allow that.
What actions are you taking to take over and reform the party? How many of your electeds are in your phone right now?
One of my big wins was a groundbreaking family leave bill and organizing 250 organizations to speak in its favor. This is a legacy/experience I still carry with me in my advocacy. Taught me a lot. Good and awful.
Now here's my next question. Are you just processing emotion here or are you legitimately whinging? Cause if it's the former yeah, I ain't need to come at you with that energy.
If it's the latter... your background says you should know better.
Until then my talents are focused on moving them and creating power elsewhere. They can come to us.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/restoring-voting-rights-act
There's an very toxic trend in the pro-Palestine movement towards antisemitism, and I don't blame people who are anti-Palestine.
In its purest sense it's about allocating power and the authority to commit state violence
Say you had two candidates
1 was a pedophile who diddled 10 kids a year and the other diddled 100 kids a year
Which would you vote for?
There’s an Al Jazeera article on the topic, and most of the responses were ‘I prefer Kamala’ or ‘trump will be worse but they’re both bad’.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/gazans-think-us-election-outcome-unlikely-to-change-regional-situation/3385252
The article you cited also has less interviews than the al-jazeera one. I feel bad for the people in yours but it's a smaller sample size
That this “but Biden wasn’t pure enough” energy didn’t come out in the form of demanding a primary and only became an issue in the general is frustrating… or suspicious.
"In point of fact, participating in the process of voting and elections is NOT a citizen's duty."
Controlled destruction we partake in vs catastrophic destruction that we passively allow, and this time the catastrophic destruction is potentially irreversible.
I worked up the will to vote Harris. But I really can't fault people for feeling checked out of politics when this is what they're told.
It really shouldn't be controversial that genocide is a red line for many
Letting Hamas kill the Jews, Defunding the Police, and sending all the landlords and billionaires to the guillotine are not popular stances here.
Parties aren't product-producing organizations, they're coalitions of like-minded citizens. Government isn't something external to the electorate, it is the expressed will of the people.
And guess what? They lost.
Might be time to stop saying "haha, you gotta vote for genocide" and more "Oh, actually maybe I should protect abortion and other human rights" like they wanted.
So maybe someone should try this 'government that's the will of the people' thing.
You're ridiculous.
It is compromised by undemocratic institutions our 2 parties have refused to address like the Supreme Court, electoral college etc
Also stop calling everything you dislike neoliberal
I don't care what neoliberals think of me. I want them to see what they've created in the world around them. And change their bankrupt philosophy.
Quite literally the opposite of neoliberalism.
It's that or Trump. The democrats are Trump, too. They brought us here. 50 years of mild objections and collaborations to horror.
They wrest power from us by subverting democracy. It is not working as advertised. Im not going to fault people for their reasonable beliefs.
We must subvert back. Influence other ways. And hold our own "allies" accountable for acting like enemies
Further, your understanding of where real power lies and how to exert influence for real change is about as sophisticated as a Banksy painting.
The US is a terrifying machine that destroys much of what is in its path. It's not clear how much control you have over it. Willingly ceding the controls to the psycho next to you because you fear complicity still isn't heroic, it's cowardly.