I don’t like Biden either, but anyone with half a brain knows there are two choices in the 2020 election. If we had a sane voting system, voting third party might be worth it, but as it stands, no one but you knows your favorite candidate exists and unless you want to become their campaign manager that will still be true in November. Even if you did, and even if you convinced two thirds of the people who would otherwise have voted for Biden to vote for your chosen candidate instead, Trump would still win because half the country voted for him and your guy only got a third. If you vote third party you might as well stay home.

Not voting isn’t going to stop the genocide in Gaza. The US will continue to funnel them arms no matter which candidate wins this November. Trump practically campaigns on how much he hates the Jews and he’s publicly told Israel to “finish up their war”. He’ll also make life a living hell for anyone who isn’t a straight cisgender male back here at home.

A vote for a candidate is not an endorsement of them or their policies, it’s a statement that you like their policies more than the other guy’s, and “sticking it to liberals” and “refusing to support genocide” (that’s not what voting for Biden is doing, by the way – a vote for either candidate is a vote for genocide and a vote for neither is an endorsement of both) is not more important than keeping the furthest right politician America has ever seen out of office.

How incredibly privileged do you have to be to see an entire national election as what will happen in the Middle East and ignore Trump’s campaign promises to wipe transgender Americans off the map, and further, to not realize that the same thing will happen in the Middle East regardless of which candidate wins?

I hate Biden as much as every other leftist here. But I’ll still vote for him because Trump is worse. If there’s a single bone in your body that cares about the lives of your trans friends you will too.

  • megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    13·
    9 months ago

    Why is the onus on the left? How come it’s never on moderates for being such poor coalition partners that knee cap their proposals at every opportunity?

    • DingoBilly@lemmy.world
      13·
      9 months ago

      Why is the onus on the left to vote left to promote left values? Because that’s how voting works?

      I’m not sure how to answer that question. Reword it as “Why is the onus on the right to elect a right-wing candidate?” maybe to see.

      • megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        7·
        9 months ago

        Right now, voting for the current set of candidates will not support the values of the left, it will promote the values of the moderate middle. if the moderate middle wants to prevent another term of trump, they need to give real commitments to policy agendas that will convince disaffected voters to show up. Threatening them with another term of trump clearly is not working, telling them that they should be grateful for what they already got clearly is not working.

        If the Democratic Party wants disaffected voters to show up, then the democrat establishment needs to work to earn those votes. If they do not then trump will win, and it will be as much their fault as the people who didn’t vote.

        • DingoBilly@lemmy.world
          8·
          9 months ago

          Sure. But it’s a two way street. Climate change is important but you don’t realistically solve it by stopping everything coal powered tomorrow. You have to gradually introduce it.

          I don’t know if it’s a younger generation thing, but they’re not patient and demand change now when it’s just not realistic. Change is glacially slow. Voting in something that’s not ideal is better than voting in something completely opposite.

          The more you allow that left or moderate side to win, the more the axis changes towards it, which is still a win if you’re left/moderate as it moves it away from the right. It’s this last bit some people don’t understand.

          • maynarkh@feddit.nl
            5·
            9 months ago

            I don’t know how to tell you, but dude, your country (and many others) is literally on fire every year. Even if we did something very drastic, like keep up the COVID lockdowns, Florida is going to be flooded. The United States will lose towns, villages, cities, territory it will never recover. The country will be full of climate refugees. It is like a war where you can’t shoot back. I don’t know how else to put it.

            How long have you been trying to reform healthcare? And it’s still not getting better, is it? Only maybe “glacially”. Trump’s regressive changes weren’t glacial. He undid half a century of alliances and trust in years. Sure, vote Biden, but voting Biden is not a complete solution, it’s not even a band aid. It’s just the saner half of the US trying to hide from the next bullet.

            So no, glacial change - “slowly but surely” - won’t cut it. We need radical change, right now, and maybe we will end up with something liveable in 25 years.

            • braxy29@lemmy.world
              3·
              9 months ago

              throughout reading this thread, what echoes in my mind over and over is this - “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” and honestly, right now i’m defining “good” as “not-fascism,” “not-Trump,” “not the man who will burn it all down as quickly as possible.”

              yes, i’m hiding from the next bullet. i’m hiding myself, my family, my friends, my co-workers and clients. my choices are the man with the loaded gun who has TOLD us what to expect, and any other possible alternative.

              for now, i happen to think this is GOOD ENOUGH, and those who would sacrifice that on principle have not really imagined what is very likely to happen next. i’m sorry i can’t save the people of Gaza, but i can try to save those i know and love.

          • megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            4·
            9 months ago

            Change is slow, and you will get none if politicians do not make concrete commitments. And we don’t get any concrete commitments from them unless they think they need them to win.

            Voting is not enough, and only voting does not free one from complicity. Especially if the side one votes for loses because they refused to make commitments that convinced voters to show up for them. Right now, the democrats are not making commitments that are getting voters out. And condescending to other voters because you think they are naïve does not get voters out ether, if anything, it might push them away.

            If we want to prevent trump we need to get the Democratic Party to make commitments that will get voters to show up. Not tell people they are dumb for demanding more from their government than “not being trump”.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        4·
        9 months ago

        Biden isn’t left, that’s why they are asking why thr DNC feels entitled to Leftist votes while refusing to concede.

    • Pan_Ziemniak@midwest.social
      12·
      9 months ago

      The onus is on us all to keep democracy alive.

      It is on us to take all available paths towards alleviating the situation. Voting is the easiest and least u can do. Past that, theres mutual aid and direct action. Take as many paths as u can, but any and all leftward movement must be embraced.

      The “moderates” u mention are the future right wing of the country. The gop is on a sinking ship. Their base is dying (of old age and at twice the rate due to covid), and the youth lean increasingly left. Our time is upon us, but right now trump represents an existential threat to life as we know it. He is a hostile foreign agent and those paths open to us will suddenly close under him.

      • juicy@lemmy.today
        3·
        9 months ago

        Why are you in here cosplaying as a leftist when you support the genocide?

        https://midwest.social/comment/8554707:

        “Support genocide” in this case means not abandoning a 70 year ally when our other allies are already worried we are fickle and support or dont support them based on whos in charge every 4 years.

        • Pan_Ziemniak@midwest.social
          4·
          9 months ago

          Lol. Someone doesnt understand geopolitics.

          We have an open trade agreement with israel. They want to buy, we say how much. I never said i supported it, but if ur curious ive been railing against the apartheid state for 15 years now simce back before i was a leftist. Doesnt change that there is no candidate thatd be capable of ending that policy on a whim.

    • Hobbes@lemmy.world
      11·
      9 months ago

      It is on both the moderates and the left? Because neither group is enough on its own to win?

      You keep asking this question and I find it very hard to believe you don’t already know the answer.