In commemoration of the upcoming Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV), President Joe Biden issued a statement praising trans people’s contributions to society and describing actions his administration has taken to counter transphobic bullying and extremism. Additionally, many members of Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also issued their own statements affirming that community health depends on supporting trans people too.
“Transgender Americans are part of the fabric of our Nation,” Biden wrote in his statement. “Whether serving their communities or in the military, raising families or running businesses, they help America thrive. They deserve, and are entitled to, the same rights and freedoms as every other American, including the most fundamental freedom to be their true selves.”
You know, usually when I read "both sides are the same", it's a blue conservative like you trying to make people critical of the Democratic party seem unreasonable.
Both sides are capitalist and conservative, but there are differences for sure. Dont you want more differences?
If you wanna really shut up those people bitchhing from the sidelines, the best way to do so is to put them in the game! Force them to show us how to do things since it's so easy and they have it figured out.
Switching away from first past the post voting allows people to vote for who represents them best while still counting their vote against those they dont want to win. Just search for videos on FPTP voting if you want an explanation on how and why the spoiler effect exists.
Electoral reform is possible in each individual state (for now), we dont need federal reform! Maine and Alaska have already passed electoral reform.
Republicans are moving to make alternative electoral systems illegal in their states. Republicans LOVE first past the post voting. Just sbsolutely adore it. Why would you want to use the same voting system republicans want?
So what’s the hold up blue states?
Consider starting a campaign to change how we vote in your own state! Force our representatives to compete with fresh outside ideas. We deserve the best representation, not excuses.
every time I argue that we should vote third party to move the Democratic party left, people tell me that instead we should focus on electoral/voting reform. And then someone suggests it and gets downvotes.
Voting 3rd part has the opposite effect. Republicans voted 3rd part in 92 to shift policy and lost the presidency for 8 years, and the appointment of 2 lifetime supreme court justices.
That's thanks to propaganda outlets. Fox news going absolutely bat shit insane over the last 15-20 years has done a lot of heavy lifting in that regard :(
Because you're supposed to follow the script of pretending that democrats are saving democracy and that you should vote blue even if poo. The reality is that democrats are only interested in saving the current power structure, we already don't have a democracy, both parties do in fact serve the rich first and foremost, and guaranteeing your vote no matter what will not cause the democrats to change their policies. These should be obvious to anyone paying any attention. I wonder if these people lived through the Bush Jr years where democrats were screaming about how bad he was (correctly so), but after he was out of office they continued many of his policies (corporate bailouts, his wars, maintained tax cuts for the rich, etc) and worked to rehabilitate that war criminal's image.
Yes, republicans are worse, but democrats use that to their advantage to never significantly improve things. It's the classic good cop, bad cop routine. They're still cops and they're both on the same team working against you.
I get why people are so freaked out about voting third party, especially when mass political actions like voting don't seem to handle nuance well. So advocating a simple slogan like "vote third party" might be irresponsible, but people seem almost irrationally afraid of third party voting in contexts where it should be entirely rational to vote third party.
For example, in a swing state it's clearly useful to vote for the Lesser Evil (in recent U.S. elections that would be the Democrats, of course). But in states where there is a supermajority and there is almost no chance the state will flip, for example California which will certainly go to the Democrats or Arkansas which will go Republican, voting third party becomes helpful because it might enable the third party to receive federal funding.
There are various objections I have considered to this strategy, the one I think that comes up immediately is that if you vote third party it takes a vote that might otherwise contribute to changing the status of a state as stronghold or swing state, basically those margins matter and you should always be pushing the margin even if not likely to make a difference (just on the slim chance it does make a difference).
In that instance I think it's just a matter of weighing the good: does the good from voting for the third party justify the slight risk of not being part of an unexpected shift in votes? This is clearly contextual, see recent upsets in Georgia (who went to Biden in 2020) and Pennsylvania (who went to Trump in 2016). I think the responsibility is on the voter to research their state demographics and those probabilities and make a decision. If you want to do less work, sure, just vote for the Lesser Evil.
What I don't understand is the kind of blind dogmatism that refuses to acknowledge that there even could be reasons to vote third party, and that doing so is wrong a priori.
I'm a trans person and I don't appreciate my identity being used to justify voting for someone who literally TODAY sent more weapons to Israel to bomb Palestinians with.
It's a 10 day old account, they are 100% a bad faith actor, and you know this because they don't acknowledge any of the ways to push for better treatment of Palestinian civilians. They are using them as a prop to tell people to not vote for Joe Biden (which is its own brand of fucked up privileged), even though Joe Biden is pretty famous for being bullied into better positions. Voting against fascists is, indeed, the right move, and Joe Biden might be a centrist liberal, but he isn't a fucking fascist.
You have to separate the defining traits of a fascist regime from the other traits which typically accompany them. Some of them aren't exclusive characteristics of a fascist regime, they're just traits of conservative regimes in general.
And you are acting in bad faith. You set up a straw man argument so you can bash people for whatever their choice is. If you really meant to have actual discussion, you would. Instead you spout right-wing bullshit about “Biden bad boohoo”
You say he is the genocidal one, while he is actively being pushed to change his ways and taking responsibility while correcting the behavior. Slowly but surely. As opposed to the other side, which literally just wants to drop a nuke on the situation.
When people call you a bad-faith actor, it’s because you’re acting in bad faith.
He literally sent more weapons to Israel yesterday. You're dumb as hell if you think he's going to push back against the mainstream Democratic opinion that is in support of Israel. Only way to convince Democrats to change is to stop voting for them.
I'm sure you've heard all the arguments, if you are curious about my thoughts you can dig through my comment history or do some googling and guess at what they could be.
Please list the descriptors that show Joe Biden is a fascist, because I'm looking at Umberto Eco's and I see... maybe 1, if you reach a bit: "appeal to the middle class"
he's funding a genocide, is the leader of a country that has one of the proportionally largest prison populations in the world that are used as slaves, the U.S. is a police state who spies on its own citizens and regularly just bombs/assassinates activist movements. Any president not acting to dismantle that is fascist.
shocking that you're just learning this now, but the United States are the bad guys
That's not really a good answer though. Those are policies put in place long before Biden became president, but not only that, you haven't proposed an alternative. Your current solution is "Don't vote for Biden" but the outcome is that you either get Biden, a continuation of the status quo at worst, or you get Trump, a continuation of the status quo AT BEST. You can pretend you live in a world where you get a third party candidate, but you don't.
Which leaves you in an unfortinate bind, since that makes you a fascist by your own definition. You are trying to push a solution that would make the situation at best the same, and at worst, much, much worse. As you said:
Any president not acting to dismantle that is fascist
I assume you would never take an action that would support a fascist. So, how can you argue that in a First-Past-The-Post voting system (and one that defaults to state legislatures if no majority is made), voting for a third party is a viable solution?
I think you can't if you are against fascism. You can post links to antifascist movements, organizations, or steps to take, but the American election system is too fucked to argue against the two big parties unless you are ever the optimist, but I don't think you are if you argue both parties are fascist.
If the Dems lose elections or nearly lose elections because 10% of voters choose a leftist third party, the party will move left to capture those voters. If we keep voting them in as-is, they will have no incentive to change. I am an optimist, actually, because I believe in the capacity for change. The results from the primary elections prove to me that this strategy is viable.
You're forgetting that Democrats losing means Republicans winning. And when Republicans win elections, it pushes the entire country to the right. It happened with Reagan, the Tea Party, and Trump.
This approach only spirals us further into far right extremism.
You're forgetting that biden spent almost his entire career in the senate. He's part of the political machine that put those policies into place. Things are only getting worse, which is how assholes like trump rise to start with. If things were going great, then a candidate like trump wouldn't have found a foothold.
Because that's not fascism. Fascism is hypernationalism and tacit acceptance of political violence to support your goals. Everything you've mentioned is usually there with fascist regimes, but it isn't what makes the regime fascist.
There are many definitions of fascism, but, the United States absolutely fits the definition you just gave.
Not every country has their flags flying constantly. Not every country has a pledge of allegiance to a flag in their schools. And the United States has bombed, imprisoned, and assassinated domestic political threats.
Hmm. I do agree, the pledge of allegiance is really weird and fascistic. And you do have a point on the violence.
I suppose I typically see the violence as needing to be more pervasive, like how Trump supporters send death threats to judges and political opponents and the whole Jan 6 thing. But throughout our history, we have had violent intimidation of oppositional political figures.
I think I wouldn't call the US fascist because it isn't significantly pervasive, but I completely see your point, and I don't begrudge you identifying it as fascist. I certainly see why you think that and I can't disagree beyond semantics.
I’m a trans person and condemn anyone who won’t vote to stop a fascist dictator that wants me dead from obtaining the nuclear codes
i've been trying to find someone who's life had been impacted by biden's support of don't-ask-don't-tell; defense-of-marriage-act; executive-order-10450; ice; straight-marriage-only-in-2006 to ask if they still support him; but it seems that only the young who are ignorant of his past; those who "avoid politics"; and those that were never affected universally support him.
if you're not one of these three groups; i'd like to hear your thoughts on why he switched to pro-lgbt: do you think it's because it was more politically advantageous of him? did he hate lgbt in the past because it acceptable and, if so, if it were still acceptable would he continue to hate lgbt?
i ask because my life has been thoroughly fucked by each one of these policies and it took A LOT of effort to rebuild my life so it's obvious that i wouldn't support him; but i'm wondering if there's anyone else out there whose life has also been thoroughly fucked by these policies, but still support him somehow.
I'm only voting for him because the other option and inaction are death sentences. I don't like the guy at all and would vote for someone else given the option.
That said, for all his centrist tendencies he does seem to occasionally cave in to pressure. It just takes time.
Unfortunately, you're going to be voting for "not the other option" for the rest of your life since democrats will see that this is the perfect strategy they can use to never have to actually change the status quo.
i don't know about you; but i've been voting for the "lesser evil" for 40 years now and there's never been anything other than voting for the "lesser evil" each time.
i've started to believe that our circumstances are engineered so that we will only continue to get the "lesser evil" guaranteeing that we will eventually get the greater evil anyways and biden doesn't have another 25 years to cave in to pressure.
oh cool I'm sure The Israel Times is a great resource. Of course Israel is using them lawfully. Nevermind all the actual reports coming out of Palestine of hospitals being bombed.
Like the privileged Palestinians getting genocided by your centrist idol biden? This is the same biden who said that we need the republican party, by the way. Interesting that someone saying such flowery words about trans people is so strong in his belief that we need a party that is intent on erasing them. You're complaining about "both sides"ism, but biden is "both sides" the candidate.
Seriously, you know it's a blessing because even as the tide has started to turn and more politicians are speaking out against it...well, now it's too late so they're still terrible and all the same.
People being distracted from the President going online and saying "Trans Rights" by the purely immaterial spectacle of a 9/11's worth of new dead Palestinians.
You know what's really disgusting? Dismissing genocide. You can't stand on a platform of morality when you ignore great evils in favor of flowery words. If you don't want your precious candidate to be bashed for supporting genocide, here's a brilliant idea: stop supporting genocide.
Once side does some weak tea pandering in a Facebook post while the other disenfranchises 10,000 newly registered voters to rig a Constitutional Amendment vote.
The solution, as always, is to vote harder. And if we catch you showing disappoint while on your way to the election booth, we reserve the right to blame you for our clown car of corporate flak losers falling flat in the latest round of gerrymandered and voter caged elections.
Creating a national day of visibility == pandering on Facebook. It's an official act and statement by the president of the United States that acknowledges and shines a light on the struggle of what is currently one of our most oppressed and murdered social groups.
These people really just can't let someone say "hey maybe Joe Biden is obviously the better option to vote for." It just really can't be left alone without someone making a comment like the one I'm replying to right now. I see it in every thread
These people really just can’t let someone say “hey maybe Joe Biden is obviously the better option to vote for.” It just really can’t be left alone without someone making a comment like the one I’m replying to right now. I see it in every thread
that's because you're either missing or dismissing the context of biden's 2-faced behavior. he was one of the worst anti-lgbt polictians we've ever had in the modern era and it's only recently that he's switched sides once it became clear that screwing over lgbt wasn't popular anymore just to get votes.
Wait, you mean he has evolved over time on the issue you'd like him to evolve on? Fuck him completely?
I said it in another comment, I agree Biden could do better on this topic. I also agree there are other candidates I'd rather vote for than Biden. But if we're talking about Biden vs Trump, both sides are not the same, and it's dangerous to several different communities to suggest so.
Wait, you mean he has evolved over time on the issue you’d like him to evolve on? Fuck him completely?
biden didn't evolve; he switched once he realized that it was no longer popular to hate lgbt so he could get more votes
I said it in another comment, I agree Biden could do better on this topic. I also agree there are other candidates I’d rather vote for than Biden. But if we’re talking about Biden vs Trump, both sides are not the same, and it’s dangerous to several different communities to suggest so.
you're the only one saying that both sides are the same; not me.
I won't make claims to know why his stance has changed, I'll leave the assumptions to you. All I know is him recognizing the trans day of visibility is an objectively positive outcome, and it wouldn't happen under Trump.
You seem to be confused, as this whole time my point has been that both sides are not the same. I'm glad you agree with me on that.
the reason(s) why he's switched speaks to to heart of whether he's actually pro lgbtq and how much different, if at all, he is than trump on this issue.
biden anti-lgbtq body of work is literally decades long where other contemporary politicians were and are still not and it makes sense to question his genuineness since he's very much in need of votes in this election and only changed his tune when it benefited him politically.
i like it when straight people overcompensate to try to make up for all thoroughly fucked up things they did to lgbt in the past; problem is biden did SO MUCH fucked up things to so many lgbt that he could keep keep trying to overcompensate for the rest of his life and still not even budge the karma scale.
still, though, it's nice to see the effort and it would carry a lot more weight if he didn't benefit from trying to do so during election season.
problem is biden did SO MUCH fucked up things to so many lgbt that he could keep keep trying to overcompensate for the rest of his life and still not even budge the karma scale.
it takes less than 30 seconds on google to find biden’s record, so i'm hoping you're not a sealioning.
tldr: biden is a 2-faced politician that goes with whatever is popular atm. this meant that he was anti-lgbt when it was okay and is now suddenly pro-lgbt since that it’ll get him votes nowadays.
Bad actors usually work for the government and if there's anything the government is pressuring you to do is not voting for parties that aren't part of the government (red or blue). If there's anyone privileged here i would point my finger at americans, people getting bombed in gaza or in the middle east don't even get to decide if they can live the day or not. Let's not play the politicians game anyway, turning people against each others is one of their oldest trick in the book. If there's anyone actually privileged in this world it's them
They are not the same but they are almost the same. Identical on most important issues such as genocide, police power, prisons, wealth inequality,etc.
They just pick controversial topics that they know will divide people, so they can make us vote for them so the other side won't win, while both couldn't care less about anything but money in their pockets.