You both have valid and correct feelings on the matter, and that is the tragedy.
Cornel West earned your vote, Biden didn't. However, if Cornel earns enough votes, both liberals and leftists are going to have to look at the prospect of having to take our antifascism off screen.
You have the luxary of voting third party, but do queer people? Do people fighting for women's healthcare? Even people fighting for Palestinian liberation have to ensure Biden wins.
I think that is something Cornel West and his followers should at least be talking amongst themselves about.
I think if you are queer you should look at the US map and honestly ask yourself where is safest for you in a fully fascist government?
The i-5 corridor. Except a thrown ballot against liberals is going to put Dace Reichert into office in Washington.
If queer people lose Washington or Oregon as a safe haven where liberals are using the courts to ouah gay rights forward nationally, that's the fault solely of privileged leftists, in my book.
But you are also right, Biden didn't earn your vote. No liberal ever will. But sometimes, the only option is to let them have it. It sucks, I know. I am sorry, but the liberal coalition is the only safe path forward for the left movement at this moment.
If the republicans are who they say they are, and they get power over your jurisdiction, yeah, you likely will. Not in 2025, maybe not in 2028 even, but how long will it be?
Maybe the first time you are shoved into an alleyway by an "athletic club" and your head shoved against the concrete, only to find that the district attorney decides there isn't enough evidence to serve you justice, yeah, you will be planning your exit.
You will not be going Rambo, you will be finding safe haven.
Funny how libs rarely have to compromise their core values to vote for Dem candidates, while your party leadership aggressively prevents the left from gaining any purchase in the party organizational structure, but you have the gall to demand our votes while showing zero sensitivity for the left’s moral concerns about Dem projects like the ongoing extirpation of Palestinians in Gaza—not to mention the left’s very reasonable observation that concessionary voting for neolibs since Carter has created a ratcheting of American politics to the far right.
I don’t believe Trump will break America, because the Democratic Party clearly doesn’t. No party that believed that so much was on the line would prevent a competitive primary and support a VP candidate with the lowest approval rating in history, who has no constituency behind her, when the top of the ticket is 81 years old.
"We are who we pretend to be, so we should be careful who we pretend to be."
If the only real political input we have is used to support the leading liberal candidate, then it's reasonable to identify them as a 'Liberal Voter' regardless of who or what they claim to the contrary.
The only way in the US system to throw a protest vote without it being a spoiler vote is to vote for the 3rd party which siphons votes from the candidate you want the least.
So since you prefer Biden over Trump, you should be voting for the libertarian candidate instead of West.
Can you please just do 1 response to 1 statement? This comment chain is going to grow exponentially if I respond to each thing that could have really just been 1 message to prevent repeating.