Side by Side - SLRPNK

For context, Dick Cheney announced that he’ll be voting for Kamala Harris.

I can’t decide if I love Dick’s facial expression or Gimli 2’s more…

We need this for more republican endorsements please. At least the weirder ones.

And if republican voters make a difference, then a “Gondor calls for aid!” meme.

I think it's indicative of just how far right the "left" have gone. We have no real representation.
And here I thought all these right wingers just had a change of heart and became good people all of a sudden. /s
I think it more that the other option is just that insane. It’s not as much a left vs right thing. It’s a business as usual vs. Chaos election. Cheney being in favor of someone playing by the normal rules isn’t that surprising.

Cheney is an absolute ghoul, but I don’t doubt that the neocon stupidity he embraced during the Bush administration was at least partly out of a desire for America to remain ‘top dog’.

Trump is sitting here ready to quite literally sell our position to Russia and China.

It’s a WW2 moment. The Soviets and the Western Allies join hands, because even though each thinks the other is fucking terrible, there’s a more vile foe afoot.

Obligatory reminder that Dick Cheney literally does not have a heart or a pulse, as his heart was replaced by a continuous flow pump.

So… ghoul indeed.

Yeah, there’s the effect Cheney and his gang all having American supremacy as their goal, with them and their corporate fuck-buddies specifically on top of the heap. In their own particularly fucked kind of way, they did care about America or something.

Trump and his ilk… They believe in fucking NOTHING. I’m not even convinced their goal, at its core, is even self-enrichment. I’m pretty well convinced the whole movement is just extremely self-destructive mental illness metastasisized into a political party.

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I’m not even convinced their goal, at its core, is even self-enrichment.

I’m almost certain it’s not. There are so many easier ways to unjustly enrich yourself in this country.

I’m pretty well convinced the whole movement is just extremely self-destructive mental illness metastasisized into a political party.

I think you’re right. People sometimes underestimate the power of culture and popular delusions. They rarely make the fire on their own, but they are one fucking hell of an accelerant.

I doubt any two of Trump’s team members have the same goals. It’s like a clown car full of grifters, con men, psychopaths, power seekers and snake oil salesmen.
He ushered in PNAC which has morphed into Project 2025 afaict.

Trump is sitting here ready to quite literally sell our position to Russia and China

God, I wish I lived in the reality liberals have concocted for themselves.

You’re making Trump sound way cooler than he is. He’s a less savvy but more enthusiastic imperialist. Ending American (read white, anglo) supremacy does not inspire dread to anyone but weird xenophobes, financial exploiters of the global south, and weapons manufacturers.

I’m supposed to think one of the worst war criminals in human history endorsing your candidate is a good thing because their new guy is…checks notes…NOT PATRIOTIC ENOUGH? Is being the more competent pillager supposed to be an appeal?..while rent, food, and healthcare are unaffordable?

All this rhetoric does is inspires anyone who cares about anything above profit and bloodlust to not vote for your candidate. Meanwhile the people who like this xenophobic shit will vote for the more enthusiastic Republicans.

Unfortunately, “Business as usual” in our political climate, is a pretty conservative sentiment.

I get that you’re saying Cheney is just making a rational decision but it doesn’t contradict the Op’s point.

It’s a business as usual vs. Chaos election. Cheney being in favor of someone playing by the normal rules isn’t that surprising.

This doesn’t actually oppose their point that

I think it’s indicative of just how far right the “left” have gone. We have no real representation.

“Business as usual” is right wing, even to the Democratic party which is supposed to be left wing.

If you keep shifting right to pick up people like Cheney, eventually your policy will just be the same as Cheney and if anyone wants to go further right they have to go “just that insane” to seperate themselves as republicans are never going to shift left.

Harris will likely try to pass more left leaning goals, but she isn’t going to fundamentally change the rules or change priorities based on the last conversation she had with someone. It’s easier to be an opposition party than trying to control Trump.

Not related to that at all.

Cheney hates Trump because of his ties to Russia. For threatening to have the US leave NATO. January 6th. And above all the cardinal GOP sin of attacking fellow party members. Liz has repeatedly been the focus of Trump’s outbursts because she’s stood up to him. And to a ghoul like Cheney, attacking the in-group is a big no no. Especially his own daughter.

Being protective of your own daughter is hardly due to being a ghoul.

I mean, Dick Cheney is a ghoul, but not for this reason.

Plenty more Republicans are supporting Kamala Harris and they have good reason that don’t involve Russia. Furthermore, most true Republicans see the destruction of the conservative party by MAGA and want to defeat it to save the party.
MSN

So you think it’s a good thing that today’s Democrats are yesterday’s Republicans?

What does that tell you about tomorrows Democrats?

We have to stop catering to and priding ourselves on how much Republicans like us, Republicans only like Republicans.

If the Democratic party gets to be too large of a tent, and the Republican party shrinks, eventually the Democratic party will fracture too, and we might get a real progressive party out of it.

and the Republican party shrinks,

Is it shrinking? The popular vote doesn’t suggest so.

2004: Bush 62M (W) Kerry 59M (L)

2008: McCain 60M (L) Obama 69M (W)

2012: Romney 60M (L) Obama 66M (W)

2016: Trump 63M (W). Hillary 68M (L)

2020: Trump 74M (L) Biden 81M (W)

eventually the Democratic party will fracture too, and we might get a real progressive party out of it.

When will this happen? How would this even be different than now? If the “Democratic party” turn into Republicans on the issues to get rid of the “Republican party”, you didn’t get rid of Republicans. You rebranded them and gave them victory on the policy front just to claim victory on the optics front

It seems much more likely that the Democratic parties policy of appeasement leads to normalization of right wing policies and we get full blown facsism first.

Except the democratic party isn’t a large tent. There are almost no leftists in power in it. And those voters that are leftists are rapidly leaving the party.

You can’t get a progressive party by becoming the white suburbanite party.

most true Republicans see the destruction of the conservative party by MAGA and want to defeat it to save the party.

Where were nearly all of them for the past 8 years? Oh yeah, supporting Trump and maga.

I’m glad they are going to help defeat him in 2024, but they can eat a bag of dicks after that. I’ll neither forgive nor forget the monster they invited into the nation (and I mean the entire maga crowd and mindset, not just Trump). It would be within the realm of scifi for me to vote for a Republican as so much a a local fileclerk at any point between now and when old age takes me.

How dare you?! Your criticism of the conservative lite party and unwillingness to compromise with the full blown fascists makes you the real fascist! (heavy /s)
I don't think it's so lite anymore.
Too right. I’d actually used “fascist lite” before changing it, but I figured give the libs a little break from the full on reality check lol
What a weird take. This is indicative of how awful Trump is.
I mean, it’s both. Republicans are driven away from Trump because he’s obviously a grifter to anyone with a room temperature IQ, but also leftists don’t have any other option but the center-right Democrats. If we had a healthy spread of parties (enabled by ranked choice voting and the abolition of the electoral college) there is no way you’d see the Cheneys voting in the same bloc with anyone even remotely left.
Bernie and AOC being given a speaker slot at the convention is a radical shift from where leftists were 8 years ago. The idea that the Democrats are moving right while we have declared socialists presenting front and center is a significant misunderstanding of the last 30+ years of political discourse in this country.

💯 and really, everyone here and even @[email protected] deserve a victory lap. Kicking, and screaming and against Thur own will, we’re making the Democratic party a party of the left as we pry it from the cold goulish fingers The Neocon/Neolib order.

Justice Democrats, Our Revolution, Sunset movement, Wolf pack, many others. We’ve moved the needle. But also, we’re super disorganized. Under Trump, we were good damned militant. Fucking lit af. Biden was a relief valve we all desperately needed but it also reduced the impetus the pressure to respond the stress. Leftist originating complexly collapsed under Biden.

It’s the wartime castilione vs peace time contradiction. Frankly I think the insurgent left is far more effective in the outside power scenario, but wowo we need to learn to not eat our own. I look at how often here, truly significant and honest posters are implied to be bots or paid shills or whatever. Look how fucking united leftist media was in 2020 and look how fractuous it is under peace time conditions. TYT members hate MR members. Everyone’s shitting on everyone and accusing them of being shills. I often think about what Micheal Brooks would think of the state of leftist media.

The reality is that leftists need to find a way to work together or more centrist elements will find wling partners on the right. Save this post and mark my words, they are counting on being able to frog March the DNC to the right. And the DNC leadership wants this. Look at that last night of the convention. It was basically a Republican micro convention.

Bernie and AOC are progressives, sure, but the Dems as a monolith are objectively not leftist in the slightest. They’re just more left than the Republicans. Even if they have moved left, they’re still center-right by any reasonable metric.

Call me when there’s evidence of Harris executing on policy recommended by those two (and others) not sprinting to the “center.”

nytimes.com/…/kamala-harris-convention-speech.htm…

thehill.com/…/4852729-harris-issues-center-shifte…

Until then it’s platitudes.

Why Kamala Harris’s Centrism Is Working

The vice president’s convention speech embodied her efforts to win over swing voters.

The New York Times

For sure, but also it might be an indication of how much we’re leaving on the table.

Would Cheney endorse a M4A candidate?

Would Cheney endorse an arms embargo on Israel candidate?

What’s the line? How much more could we be going for here?

AOC could be the democratic nominee and the Cheney family would likely still vote for the democrats. He’s not voting for Harris because he likes her policies. He voting for her because of this reason that he gave…

“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said in a statement. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.”

“As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris”

When the person you despise makes a great point. Guess I’ll vote 3rd party because things are only black and white.
Since when is there a “left” candidate in the US elections?
There’s a Green Party candidate every election.
Do they have the sligthest chance of winning?
You asked where the left candidates are. I told you.
Technically correct - the best kind of correct.avi 🙄
It’s more of a sign that one guy is such a batshit insane criminal that people would rather vote for pretty much anyone else.
It's because if you ever got a real leftist candidate into office you'd immediately turn on them when they refused to fill the reflecting pool with billionaire blood.
Maybe that’s what the corporate media says but AoC is popular in her district. What really happens is money from AIPAC comes in and unseats the leftist candidate during the primaries.

Maybe that’s what the corporate media says but AoC is popular in her district.

Don’t worry - as many on here will tell you, AoC is a corporate puppet and a sellout.

If there was a real leftist candidate you’d ally with the GOP to remove them. You might even kill them or throw them in prison.
More like the right has gone so far right that dickhead is a left leaning moderate lmao
Both us parties are right wing. So yes, the right (dems and GOP) have gone farther right.

What’s that proverb, “tell me who your friends are”?

That.

Trump’s friends are Peter Thiel and VV Putin.

No fucking shit.

Oh yeah, I forgot, some of you can only see the world in black and white red or blue… 🙄

News flash: a lesser evil is still fucking evil, and you’re never going to be free of either as long as you continue to play by the rules they’ve set out for you (in fact, you’ll only ever achieve the opposite - the continued shift to the right of the Overton window to its inevitable conclusion).

So, who are you voting for?

That’s the neat part, if you aren’t American you can agitate and tell people “don’t vote, voting for the lesser evil means you end up with slightly less evil and that’s bad, instead you should note vote or ignore mathematics existing and vote third party which is a fancy way of not voting” and then suffer no consequences.

Tell people not to vote and the party that wants to “hurt the right people” gets into power, doesn’t matter, those policies don’t touch foreign agitators.

I’ve been in the depths of the leftist circle jerk about this. You see if we all sat home on Election Day reading Marx, then the oligarchs who rule over us would see that no one is taking part in the charade anymore. Then those oligarchs who wield tremendous wealth and power would just give up, you know, the turnout too low. All those people refused to endorse the democratic farce any further and so clearly those with power would be so red faced with embarrassment they would voluntarily give up that power and abolish capitalism.

Those oligarchs certainly wouldn’t be delighted by the fact that the population is even cheaper and easier to control because people are sitting out. Nope, we will certainly show them by allowing them to dominate us with even more ease and at bargain prices, certainly that will end the system.

ignore mathematics existing and vote third party which is a fancy way of not voting

I live in a blue state. Using this logic, my vote for Harris is the same as not voting, because my state is going to go blue regardless. It’s mathematics.

The mathematics I’m speaking of is that first past the post voting mechanisms result in two dominant parties and third parties being non viable.

You might not like that FPTP results in this, but that’s how math works.

Formally it’s called Duverger’s Law so if you don’t like it take it up with him.

Duverger's law - Wikipedia

So, how does that show that voting for Stein is the same as not voting?

Duverger’s Law just explains how the system works. It doesn’t tell you who you should vote for.

You might not like that FPTP results in this, but that’s how math works.

Again, using the same logic, a vote for Harris in a blue state is the same as not voting.

“The math” says that it’s impossible for my state to be anything but blue.

That works until it doesn’t. Keeping your state out of play means Democrats can focus their limited resources on other states. Let it become a closer contest and Democrats may find themselves expending resources in areas that should be a slam dunk.

if you aren’t American you can agitate and tell people “don’t vote, voting for the lesser evil means you end up with slightly less evil and that’s bad, instead you should not vote or ignore mathematics existing and vote third party which is a fancy way of not voting” and then suffer no consequences.

The entire planet suffers the consequences when Trump undoes all climate action and destabilises the world.

Neither party takes positive climate action.

He’s not our friend.

We did not get into the boat with him. He got in the boat with us.

The rowboat, with you at the front working your cult following ass off, carrying Cheney where HE wants to go: