HeavenlyPossumSo if someone wanted to vote for “a society in which snipers are not deployed against student protests,” which candidate should they vote for?
Display Name@HeavenlyPossum if it is the ONLY metric , sure, non. There are other metrics, too, though.
Yeah, I could also ask who to vote for to oppose genocide in Gaza
@HeavenlyPossum start by not expecting everything from a single election/vote. First pick the party that you can persuade better candidates into. Then work to get even better people in who not only be against a genocide but actively do better in other issues. There are progressives in Democratic party but none (according to the voting record in Congress) in Republican party. So here is your direction. One party still has hope and the other none. But if you want all or nothing and right now, sure. But it is too obvious a rhetorical question then.
“The freedom to exercise basic constitutional rights without state violence” is not “all or nothing,” it’s the absolute bare minimum.
@HeavenlyPossum so not voting gets you closer to it how?
As you noted, voting plays no role in whether Americans live in a society with basic freedoms or not. They’re unrelated.
What do we usually call a state in which you can’t exercise basic freedoms and you can’t vote for a government that will respect your basic freedoms?
@HeavenlyPossum I didn't say that. I said vote for lower level people and populate the party. Start with getting more progressives in then if they are not enough work on getting others that you think are best into positions of power. One vote in one election will keep the boat afloat. Then you work on the direction thing. You can't do that while sinking. Fight establishment Dems even harder than R's and you'll have a better representation. That's the whole logic of it.
The whole logic of it is to hope that a government that doesn’t respect your basic rights will allow you to peacefully and democratically change the nature of that state through a series of elections over an indeterminate period of time?
@HeavenlyPossum then YOU run for office. This nihilistic rant is going nowhere. This government isn't deciding who is the nominee at the local level. Start there, support groups that work to bring decent people to places of power. It will shift. There are more progressives in the Congress than ever before. And there will be more. I'll support them until I'm represented better there. Eventually we'll pass that threshold and those people will be in the minority. If you think you can (or you're entitled to) fix hundreds of years of injustice, inequality and corruption with one vote in one election this conversation is futile. Nobody is going to give you that "government that respects your basic rights" to stamp on the ballot. You make them.
I assure you that I am anything but a nihilist