If you are a white leftist and you talk “both parties are the same they are both capitalist” you will loose most of your black audience. I think it ought to be obvious that this isn’t because blackfolks love Democrats (in most cases, there is always someone being simple in any group) —no. it’s because the difference between the parties is material and obvious and these are unstable times.

When I hear such talk I wonder if the speaker is working on voter suppression.

Voting brings me no joy — but I never miss an election out of a kind of stubborn spite. I’ve never heard anyone explain how having all the marginalized and left leaning people not vote would be more annoying to the Democrats and Republicans than if we all do vote— and for the Democrats especially in the primaries.

I also don’t think voting is real political engagement, but it’s kind of the bare minimum. Even if you do a write-in for every office.

@futurebird
So frustrating watching Americans and Poms talk like a two party duopoly is the only possible form of government. It doesn't have to be that way: if you had ranked choice voting (AKA, democracy) you could vote for minor parties first and the least objectionable major party second—without splitting the vote.

@stib That would be interesting. But it would also mean we’d inevitably have an openly fascist “america first” party — Then there would be the coalitions needed to get anything done. I used to think breaking up the two party system would help but I no longer really think it would be any better and in some ways it would be worse.

If we really did universal suffrage we could get pretty far. And make up the difference in local politics.

@futurebird @stib that’s a great observation about ranked choice, and one I’d never heard expressed before. RE: the two part system. It bears remembering that the extreme “evangelical” right very successfully accomplished their goal of taking over the GOP. No reason the Democratic Party couldn’t be evolved in a similar way by progressives.