@benroyce The chance that any Democrat will vote for a left-leaning legislation than any GOP member. Therefore, voting for a Democrat, even if they aren't left-leaning, creates a more left-leaning legislature.

Voting in primaries is how you pick your candidate, once at the general, vote Democratic, regardless of issues you may have with that candidate. We can resolve those over time at the next election.

Vote, vote, vote, vote!

#Vote #Democratic #VoteBlue

@RegGuy

i'm trying to think of a sentiment that would disagree with you

and i see only the fucking #toxicidealism losers who are fine with rising #fascism: they only make excuses to do nothing

or the right wing trolls cosplaying left to work a helplessness #psyop on idiots who call themselves left, but aren't really

because their primary concern is their high holy sense of self-regard: to sit things out and judge from an ivory tower

while their world goes to hell

they don't care

#vote

@cascheranno @RegGuy

that model has been established:

#mamdani

corporate centrist dems fought him in the #primaries. people showed up anyways

then they positioned cuomo in the general. people showed up anyways

now we have mamdani

BECAUSE PEOPLE FUCKING VOTED

so the model?

fucking show up and #vote! get in real leftists! especially the #primaries

people whining that centrist dems suck doesn't mean shit. it's a red herring. it's a self-defeating whine

ignore centrists and replace them

@benroyce @RegGuy so much of this is GOTV.

Pointing to AOC or Mamdani or etc hides their campaign’s effort & the complex of processes they successfully ran. We can’t just agree ‘gotta vote’ - that neglects how hard it is get voters out. And how well they executed. Heck, fam in midtown Brooklyn got canvassed 3x this year, and couldn’t recall the last time anyone knocked on their door.

Pointing to Mamdani glosses by how easily media ownership and money can and does crush weaker campaigns. Cori Bush and Omar and Sanders and Dean’s scream and etc…

I grew up in a union town pre-Reagan. Blue county in a red state. And we had pro leaders, call trees, flyers, rallies, pot lucks, letter-writing, sign teams, etc. then calls day-of, aunties driving folks to polls, a known roster per precinct, and then a fun party after. These orgs were union. When unions got nuked by RightToWork and closures/offshoring, the area’s become reddish-purple. Hell, religious wedges mean even the ~15% in unions tend red. Fucking nightmarish.

@cascheranno @RegGuy

no

fuck this defeatist nonsense

the primary point of success or failure is people showing the fuck up

that is what mamdani and AOC succeeded in doing *without* centrist support

that is the lesson

meanwhile endlessly making demands before showing up is lunacy. it is exactly why the left loses

what are you asking for?

that all these forces suddenly align with leftist causes? you think that's going to happen?

no, we simply show the fuck up

stop making excuses not to

@cascheranno @RegGuy

look: say or don't say whatever the fuck you want

if you show up to vote, i have no problem with you. i'm your biggest fan

but put forth any rationale that says we can not effectively vote until certain exigent conditions are met is a flat rejection from me bruh

showing the fuck up is job number 1. everything else is fucking noise

that's it. that's all i'm saying

@ManyRoads @benroyce @cascheranno @RegGuy For the most part that's where the current regime here is, but the fact that the election cycle was already scheduled puts der Trumpenfuhrer in the position of having to either openly cancel an election or allow it to theoretically take place.

It is NOT realistic however to ask people to risk arrest to vote unless large and defensible groups can go to polling places together. In some places this could even require armed backup security to prevent ICE vans from leaving with prisoners.

The relative effect of one vote is not enough to justify a double-digit risk of being kidnapped by ICE and sent to a concentration camp.

Tens of millions will be banned from voting if the SAVE (the GOP) act passes, rendering the election a sham and any GOP "victory" null and void internationally and in the streets.

Voter ID alone is a 5% structural advantage to the GOP in the states that have it (all GOP states). Requiring married women to have passports or similar to vote will hugely multiply this, note that the normal time to get a passport is already March->Nov and they cannot (and will refuse to) handle that many expedited applications. Even Real ID drivers licenses won't be enough. That way the GOP gets out of the unpopularity of their abortion ban laws.

If the SAVE act passes and ICE agents are deployed to the polls, I would expect a double-digit margin for the GOP in every state no matter what independent polls show.

@LukefromDC @ManyRoads @cascheranno @RegGuy

all that being said, it's more reason to show up and vote

with group security as you cite

this idea they push these laws, and we obediently not vote as they intend us not to, is alien to me

if someone intends me harm, i'm not going to cooperate with them and give them what they want

anyone who doesn't vote out of concern for security: do they think they have security in the MAGA fascism their nonvote will help deliver?

@benroyce @ManyRoads @cascheranno @RegGuy

If someone is willing to take a double-digit risk of being sent to a concentration camp, there are other things that can be done for that level of risk.

Things like those warehouse fires that are deterring landlords from renting to ICE. Things like fighting on the battlefield in Minneapolis and helping inflict a military defeat on ICE.

Containing the risk to below that level with ICE at the polling places is possible, but it would require us to have enough security details to cover every polling place where ICE is present, and that these security details be able to blend in so as not to run off anti-Trump voters who are unaware of the campaign.

In general, I do not advocate unarmed civil disobedience style tactics in an open Fascist country that sends people to concentration camps. We are well past that point already.

@LukefromDC @ManyRoads @cascheranno @RegGuy

everything you just listed has as much or more risk to personal liberty and bodily harm as massing at a polling place and confronting ICE

nevermind that to actually change things we have to vote. everything you listed won't change things one bit. in fact, it could serve as a reichstag fire moment for the fascists to fake excuse clamping down harder

you're going to take risk now

or you're going to take greater risk later

those are our only choices

@benroyce @ManyRoads @cascheranno @RegGuy

Massing to vote will be no more dangerous than a protest. Solo voting for some may be as dangerous as showing up for one of ICE's "check-ins"

@LukefromDC @ManyRoads @cascheranno @RegGuy

and not voting means everything you worry about will be more of a certainty