I will vote for Biden if he ends his support for genocide. That's it. That's all I need to vote for him. I just want that one thing, even after he let me down by breaking the rail strike and continuing brutal anti-immigration and doing nothing abiut over policing and expanding American oil and stopping peace negotiations in Ukraine.
I voted for Biden to stop fascism and now he's a genocide collaborator! Would Trump be worse? Maybe - it's unclear, because at least Democrats would oppose Trump. Trump saw the largest protest movement in American history, Trump inspires Democrats to actually ask for more, Trump will further isolate America (and Israel) geopolitically, it's hard to predict.
I'm not voting for him, I'm actually voting Democrat down ticket, but if he wins it's not the end of the world. It's an opportunity.
In the meantime? Withholding my vote is literally the only way I can exert pressure on Biden. I have a moral obligation to oppose genocide. I won't vote for it. If he's smart he'll reverse course on Israel to save his campaign and this will all be moot. Why is Biden helping Trump win?
You don't need to exert pressure on Biden. You need to help push the entire system back to the left. When Democrats in general are in government, it allows more room for further left candidates. Just like how electing Republicans made room for the Tea Party and the MAGA crazies. If the window had been more toward the left, they'd have been outside the Republican party.
I'm voting Democrat down ticket. I'm just not voting for genocide Joe.
That's the only way I can exert any pressure on him, and I don't have to wait a year for that pressure to manifest. If enough Democrats had the courage to stand up to Biden he'd be forced to change his policies. Instead, you are all choosing to be complicit in genocide.
Not voting is a valid choice, one that says you're okay with either candidate winning. And that is being complicit with genocide. If you're not okay with that, vote.
If you don't want to wait a year, you can call, write, protest, and donate to groups to do those things on your behalf. But to throw away your vote is incredibly short-sighted.
Yup. But in the choice of who to vote for president, there's the establishment candidate, or the "dictator for a day" candidate. Or there's not voting, which is saying "yes, either of those are okay". One of those things has the chance of making progress, and it should be obvious.
They know they're not going to lose on this issue, though, because anyone who seriously evaluates the election has come to the same conclusion that I already said: a Trump victory is the worst outcome. Again, you'll have to put pressure on the party through other means, just one of which is electing more leftist downballot candidates.
They know they’re not going to lose on this issue, though, because anyone who seriously evaluates the election has come to the same conclusion that I already said: a Trump victory is the worst outcome.
Okay, so my vote is irrelevant, got it. I've asked elsewhere and I'll ask it here: why are you crawling up my dick about it? If my presidential vote doesn't matter because "they're not going to lose on this issue" then I can comfortably just leave that spot blank.
Again, you’ll have to put pressure on the party through other means, just one of which is electing more leftist downballot candidates.
They may actually lose on this issue. Democrats rely pretty heavily on younger voters and a lot of the really young voters, Zoomers, are making this a do or die issue, even though both of our only two parties with any chance of winning will support the genocide regardless.
I don’t understand why people think the democrats losing to someone farther right would make them move left. Doesn’t it make more sense they’d move to the right since that’s what more voters wanted?
As a non American, seeing people claim that not voting doesn't help republicans is fucking hilarious. You'd think that after Trump winning in 2016 and stacking the supreme court, directly being the cause of abortion being outlawed in red states in the fucking 21st century (along with a host of other horrifying things), would make people actually fucking vote. But no here we are. Honestly I really hope you all get the government you want, but the longer I read politics posts on Lemmy the more I'm aghast at people who'd rather let it all burn down than aim for incremental positive change.
Apologies for any bad English, just putting my thoughts out there.
You’d think that after Trump winning in 2016 and stacking the supreme court, directly being the cause of abortion being outlawed in red states in the fucking 21st century (along with a host of other horrifying things), would make people actually fucking vote.
none of this has any bearing on whether voting for trump is the only way to help trump.
>Honestly I really hope you all get the government you want, but the longer I read politics posts on Lemmy the more I’m aghast at people who’d rather let it all burn down than aim for incremental positive change.
biden isn't incremental positive change. he's more of the same, and that's exactly what got us trump in the first place.
I wonder why republicans spend so much time trying to get people not to vote. Purging rolls, being against mail in voting, closing polling stations, etc. Seems dumb given that people not voting doesn’t help them.
Oh well. You probably know more about elections than them. Glad we have an expert in the house.
I think my meaning was quite clear. You are a fool if you think suppressing the vote doesn’t help republicans. They’ve bet everything knowing that people not voting is good for them.
So congrats, you are helping elect our new fascist overlords by not voting for the unpalatable, but not fascist, dude that is on offer. It sucks, but grow the fuck up. Trump winning is going to be a disaster for literally everyone, including Palestinians.
Great way to throw away a vote against fascism voting for candidates with literally zero chance of winning.
Look up why the Nazis came to power sometime. Part of it was that people refused to rally around a single countervailing force. Biden is the countervailing force that has a chance of winning. Trump is literally opening quoting Nazis at this point and people aren’t fucking alarmed. smh
As a sincere question, what do you think Trump is going to do that is better than what Biden is going to do when it comes to the genocide in Gaza?
Because regardless of who you vote for or who you want to win, it will either be Biden or Trump, unless one of them dies or becomes invalidated. So, how will Trump be better for the Palestinians than Biden will be?
With Biden, Democrats are mostly falling in line behind the genocide. It's a bipartisan genocide, with even Bernie being unwilling to support a ceasefire. With Trump, on the other hand, Democrats would reverse course and actually support a ceasefire to obstruct Trump.
-but that's all speculation. I don't know, for sure, that it would happen that way. What I do know is I won't vote for genocide, and I will withhold my vote unless Biden changes his policy on Israel. I won't vote for Trump, I'll even vote Dem down ticket, but I won't vote for genocide.
You, on the other hand, are literally voting for genocide if you support Biden. You just want to absolve yourself of that moral responsibility.
By not voting for Democrats one of two things will happen: Most likely they'll continue shifting right because that's what all those pro-corporate pieces of shit want to do anyway. Or the party will finally move to the left. I really don't care which way they go. But I'm done rewarding them for being obstructionists.
Funny that's how I see all the people who went into the 2020 primaries and decided to vote for Joe Biden. How fucking privileged do you have to be to lose the 2016 election and then think "I'm still gonna vote for a procorporate trash candidate even though other people I'm depending on to win the general have made it perfectly clear they're fed up with these procorporate trash candidates."
People who voted for Joe Biden in the primaries are pieces of shit who apparently need to be reminded again: they need our votes to win.
Well if trump wins, it's fascism and genocide and climate apocalypse. If Joe wins, it's genocide and climate apocalypse. Y'all need to fuckin rise up lol.
By “rise up,” what these kids mean is that they’ll stay home on Election Day and whine on the internet until they realize no one is listening. Then, they’ll cry their eyes out while asking “why!!!!” when Trump wins.
Just like they did in 2016. You won’t be able to blame them though, because it won’t ever be their fault. They’re infallible.
You just want to absolve yourself of that moral responsibility.
That's exactly what you are doing. You're focusing on this one issue, retreating yourself from the binary decision because neither options stands for what you (or I, or morality) would prefer. Completely ignoring that withdrawing from the choice plays into the hand of the infinitely worse candidate. So by not choosing, you do nothing to stop the situation in Gaza, but might actually make things a lot worse for people all over.
You can virtue signal that you did not compromise on your believes, while actually helping your country make a worse place.
We've raised lots of issues. The amounts of the stimulus checks, the way he fucked us over with the BBB, the way he negotiated down for student loan forgiveness, for fucking over the rail workers. The list goes on. Every time we mention something we get shut down. For someone who wants our votes so badly you have a really odd way of showing it.
Like I said, there are so many other issues that Biden has betrayed me on. This is just the red line. Here and no further.
You will let Biden do anything he wants to you and beg for more, just to stop Trump. It's revolting.
If enough Democrats pressured Biden to endorse a ceasefire by withholding their votes, he would! He's a politician. That's what politicians do. This is our only leverage! This is all we can do to stop the genocide, and I really think Biden would reconsider if it looked bad enough.
I thank god I'm not this illiterate. What do you think Trump's policy is gonna be? He caters to Republicans who WANT funding to Israel. He pushed the Overton window. What do you think he's gonna do? Is he gonna weave them baskets and pick them flowers? 🤔
I think he's going to be obstructed by Democrats, who I am voting for down ticket. I think he's going to ruin Israel's relations with the rest of the world and turn it into a pariah state. I think he's going to overextend himself and fail. I think he's a fat old man and might just die lol
We slide farther to the right with each passing year regardless of which party wins. You all seem fine with the direction so we're just upping the timeline. If you want to go in a different direction tell Joe Biden to stop fucking over voters he's depending on. And tell anyone who voted for Biden in the 2020 primaries they're a fucking asshole.
Trump did say what he would have done, but given it’s Trump he’d probably not do what he said:
Trump criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, lauded Hezbollah militants as “very smart” and sought political gain from the attacks that killed 1,200 people by claiming that if the last election was not “rigged,” he’d be the American president and they’d never have happened.
Yup. Ending genocide is not on the ballot. Keeping American democracy on life support is on the ballot. And if we lose it because of this childish bullshit, abstainers in 2023 are to blame. You're as useless as the Dem voters we're already desperately trying to activate off the couch. Worst part is you're doing it on purpose. You're voting for Trump. It doesn't matter how you feel. This is a fact. We're hanging on by a thread and you're whining to your own comrades about your feelings and discomfort. Vote far left down ballot. Elect a democratic president. Otherwise fuck yourself, your words mean literally nothing when you're hauled off to camp from your family or put on the wall. Thanks for your opinions.
Vote for this one person to save democracy or go fuck yourself.
Sounds like a really healthy democracy you've got there. 🙄
Anyway, the reason we're in this position is because everyone who voted for Biden in the 2020 primaries is a complete asshole who intentionally fucked over progressive and leftist efforts. Now they're mad we won't show up for him in the general? Get fucked.
Nobody is saying that we have a healthy democracy. In fact, just the opposite: they are pointing out that we do not and that is why we are on such thin ice.
And yet, when it came time to select the Democrat nominee millions of people were like "I know we're on thin ice but I'm still going to vote for the procorporate trash candidate."
People who voted for Biden in the primaries are fucking assholes.
Bernie was buy-and-large the most popular candidate in 2016. Mainstream media all but refused to put him on air(He was bad for business, i.e. for millionaires/billionaire executives). The DNC completely fucked us when they still elected to put Hillary on the ballot; even with the GOP colluding with the FBI to investigate her, whether or not that was legitimate is irrelevant. The DNC fucked us. And yet... Like others have said, our democracy is currently so fragile that we have no real other choice other than to vote D straight down the ballot.
The only other possible option would be for a major of the country to write-in the same person in the primary election and then for that person to register as an official candidate and then run in the general election and win. The vast majority of states require a candidate to be registered for them to be a write-in. And good fucking luck convincing a majority of this country to agree on one person. Personally, if that were to happen I would proudly write-in Jon Stewart.
Biden hasn't been that bad. Not bad enough to risk never getting to vote again.
But the people who are telling me I have to vote for Biden regularly assure me democracy is functioning.
It's so ridiculous. I'll vote for him because I think it's currently the best option of two entire options in a very broken system, but we really need to do something to get rid of "vote blue no matter who" because it's goddamn ridiculous. It's like careening wildly from one side of the highway to the other while screaming "this is fine!"
I'm all for election reform. I think it's our only way out of this.
That's never going to happen because procorporate trash like Biden will never allow it and procorporate trash is who voters in the 2020 primaries keep selecting because they're actively fighting progressives and leftists. Then they turn around and want to act like we're on the same side in the general. It's pathetic.
A) The incumbent party always runs the sitting president if they are eligible for another term. That's not rigging, it's literally how it works.
B) Yes, the DNC rigs the primaries. Did you already forget when the DNC forced Hillary on us in 2016? Hell, if you're asking that question than you obviously already forgot 2016, so of course you don't even remember 2020.
C) For someone with such strong opinions, you don't seem to know much about the process. Seriously, is this your first time paying attention? Or is this your first time as an eligible voter?
Lol. Like all the bad loser pathetic whiney bitches who were big mad when we didn't show up for Hillary? Stop voting for procorporate trash in the primaries.
It's not my responsibility to propose a solution to prevent the end of democracy. It's the responsibility of everyone who voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 primaries why they're such pieces of shit.
So you really are just here to whine and make a point of detracting people from stopping Trump's victory. You really do suck. I felt bad for being a dick. But you're worthless and selfish.
No I'm not. That's the point. There were reasonable compromises to be made during the 2020 primaries. Those compromises were intentionally rejected by people who are now angry that I won't show up to vote. People who voted for Biden in the 2020 primaries are worthless and selfish.
"democracy is on life support".. yeah.. didn't say this was healthy. Thanks for demonstrating the problem with binary zero sum game thinking. You're not grounded in reality if you can't see we're on life support. You don't give a dying person meth and have them run a marathon. You hold on for dear life.
And fwiw wrt primaries... I voted against him. I voted against Hillary. I even voted against Pelosi for being too conservative. You're fighting your comrades and the movement and that's why you're in the wrong and you don't mean anything. Your politics and intellectualism mean nothing with the barrel of a gun between your eyes. Get your head out of your ass and vote against fascism. Or be a baby and have my friends and family killed in a few years. But I should get fucked. Thanks comrade. I'll think about this comment looking out the window of the train at my kid for the last time. I'll forever remember your vote, when I work to death in that mine, picturing my child screaming and crying the last time they see me.
You should've gotten your head out of your ass and voted for someone better in the 2020 primaries. You voted for Biden. I'm not responsible for how your garbage candidate performs in the general.
Also, I'm not voting for Trump! I'm even voting left down ballot, I'm just not voting for Biden specifically.
If Trump wins and Democrats control both chambers, what the hell can he even do? Bloviate? I guess maybe he'll do some executive orders that the 6-3 Court will uphold, but if Democrats aren't worthless cowards they'll just refuse to enforce his orders and it won't matter anyway.
Look at this closely people.This is the misinformation campaign for the election.
Both sides support this war, this stance that a republican would do anything different is laughable.
This is the rhetoric that will be blasted all around social media creating a bullshit narrative of a rational liberal "taking the high ground" and encouraging others to follow by voting blue for everyone but Joe Biden.
I've been seeing a lot of this lately and I agree, it definitely feels like an astroturf campaign.
Most single issue voters are focused on domestic issues such as abortion or the economy. And you would think that someone who cares so much about Israel would also be worried about other aspects of foreign policy such as Ukraine.
The whole premise is ridiculous. And I think it speaks to Biden's success as a president that this is the best campaign they can come up with.
Okay, then by that logic, why is Biden helping Trump get elected by playing into this strategy?
Like I said, Biden has betrayed me over and over, but like a beaten dog I will crawl back to him if he just does this one thing. That's all I'm asking for. It would be so easy for Biden to get my vote. It's entirely in his hands. Yet he won't do it. Why? Why is he determined to help Trump win?
The outcome will not change regardless of who is President because Congress is beholden to the defense industry and will always support selling weapons.
So no one is helping anyone win because the outcome is the same. If this is your true opinion, get your head out of your ass and see the big picture. Otherwise, fuck you for trying to spread facism.
I still think you're wrong, I think Biden can be forced to endorse a ceasefire because politicians actually do care about elections. Right now the Biden team believes that Democrats are loyal to the core and can be counted to vote blue no matter who, there's zero incentive to endorse a ceasefire. Why bother? He can do anything he wants to you and you'll still vote for him. They've basically said as much.
And do you realize what that does? That's not a "single issue". Biden broke the railroad strike. Biden approved the Willow oil and gas pipeline project. Biden has fought to keep Trump's COVID border policies, despite basically giving up entirely on controlling the spread of the virus otherwise. Biden allowed Manchin to stonewall almost everything when there was a huge Democratic majority.
By voting blue no matter who, you have enabled Biden to completely ignore the demands of his own base. You're enabling genocide.
The outcome will not change regardless of who is President because Congress is beholden to the defense industry and will always support selling weapons.
Sounds like Democracy is already broken then. Remind me what I'm supposed to be defending here?
A fascist regime today is better than one tomorrow. You people have no idea how to change trajectory here you just tell us to keep kicking the can as the country slides to the right. It's pathetic.
You can construct whatever ethics puzzles you want to absolve yourself of guilt, but you are literally voting for genocide. I'm not.
This is our only leverage, and if enough of us made it clear to Biden that he will lose then he would change his policies. This is the only power we have and we have a moral obligation to use it. Instead of cowardly voting for genocide, force Biden to the left like y'all promised.
I can't imagine being this dense, wow. Trump would be so obviously worse but you pretend to care about Biden instead. It's all so fake, nobody is going to give you virtue points when democracy dies.
They're fascist trolls trying to push leftists away from viable candidates. I see queermunist and go_go_gadget all over the place and they're always spouting this same shit. I guarantee if Bernie or some other progressive candidate began to seriously pick up steam they'd immediately pivot and make up some shit like "Warcrime Stein" or "Brutality Bernie".
This is such a bizarre argument to make in the context of supposedly saving Democracy. Being morally obligated to vote for one person I despise isn't Democratic. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Ending genocide isn't on the ballot this year, Trump is. Your choices are between probably more genocide if you don't vote for Biden and possibly less genocide if you do vote for Biden. It's really that simple.
Well, we made it pretty clear we were fed up with procorporate trash candidates in 2016. But then a bunch of pieces of shit decided they were voting for Biden in the 2020 primaries. We gave him a chance and he fucking blew it. Fuck Joe Biden and fuck everyone who voted for him in the primaries.
The few people on the Internet that read this or feel like you. Grow up. You're not changing anything. You're electing Trump. I've heard this bullshit for over 20 years and it's been a slippery fucking slope.
They really do come across as naive children, the people who espouse this kind of belief. Demonstrating a lack of awareness of how complicated global politics are while also demonstrating a lack of awareness of how, in some ways, simple American politics are. They remind me of myself as a high schooler, all full of righteous indignation and hope for change without understanding how things work.
There will only be two choices for president, no matter how much we may want it to be otherwise or pretend that it could be otherwise. That will remain the case until we can get rid of first past the post and no amount of protesting is going to change that. If you truly want a third party candidate, your focus should be on getting rid of first pass the post. Until then, we only have two options.
Yes, that does mean our democracy is broken. No, that doesn't mean it's unsalvageable. And as I said above, a broken democracy is better than a fascist regime.
That's the absolute worst part bc at that age I'd say shit like "well maybe they have to sacrifice their kids for there to even be a fucking future!" and thinking that's reasonable. Getting older, and enough dystopian media about hard choices, I've learned to ask "why" a lot more and remember.. What are we fighting for in the first place if we lose ourselves along the way? But yeah... You couldn't change my mind then, even if I couldn't see a Nazi on my doorstep like this. Very scary to be naive.
No matter how much people vote against Biden, that won't end the genocide. Regardless of the fact that Trump would carry it out probably more enthusiastically, neither of them have the power to stop Netanyahu. And Netanyahu doesn't give a shit what Americans citizens think. He has the military might to subjugate the Palestinians with or without the US and he has made it clear that that's what he intends to do.