Mastodawn

People minimizing Orbán’s defeat in #Hungary through voting, and claiming that the same can’t be done to Donald Trump: Remember that Orbán was in power for SIXTEEN YEARS, that is, 2.5× LONGER than Trump. He had more than twice the time Trump has had to intimidate, corrupt, and destroy Hungary’s systems of voting. And yet, voting unseated him.

PLEASE do not preemptively give up on voting. Voting still works in the US, and it is quite likely that our voting infrastructure will far outlive Trump and his destructive party.

Authoritarians rely on a perceived popular mandate to continue their abuse. Voting can decisively deny them that mandate. Do not give up prematurely.

VOTE. VOTE. VOTE.

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𐁂𐀑𐀐𐁐 2d ago

@drahardja I think most people's problem isn't that they think Trump won't leave office via an election, it's that the DNC doesn't have a democratic primary process and they are just going to run Gavin Newsom, who will win probably, and while better than Trump, we're looking at a marginally better rightwing president whether he or JD wins 2028, making it seem like voting doesn't matter -- the choice is oligarch-aligned rightwinger vs oligarch-aligned rightwinger at the end of the day as always.

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Mab_813

@Emerson61 @drahardja

Do you think TISZA has a democratic primary process??
TISZA gave party members the choice between three predetermined candidates in each district. (Just check their wikipedia site). The Democratic party in the USA is more democratic and open than that.

Also Newsom is to the left of Magyar (and I hate Newsom, he's awful).

And several leftist parties decided to not run at all in order to unify opposition votes in Hungary.

But some leftist US Americans would rather endlessly complain about Democrats' primary process without realizing how lucky you are because you actually do get to choose your candidates in primaries. That's not the standard everywhere!

Hungarian leftists were pragmatic instead of choosing perfection, that's how they got rid of Orbán.

#Hungary #USpol #Magyar #Newsom

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𐁂𐀑𐀐𐁐 1d ago

@Mab_813 @drahardja the DNC had a similar process before 1972. We had "pageant primaries" to see how popular various options for the party to pick were. In 2020, the DNC ordained Genocide Joe as their candidate after he came in 5th in every state before they came in HARD for him. Is that more democratic than a pageant primary? I would argue it is less, as if Humphrey had come in 5th in four states, the party wouldn't have run him. Unlike Genocide Joe.