mekka okereke 1d ago

There is a reasonable path back. Everything doesn't have to be all existential all the time.

👴🏻"If we even have elections!🤡"

We are having elections.

👴🏻"The GOP is going to try dirty tricks!🤡"

So? The GOP always tries dirty tricks. Always. There has never been a modern election where they didn't.

I won't lie to you and say that making the right choices at midterms and 2028 will completely undo all this damage. Because it won't.

You can never trust Dr. Jekyll again once you've met Mr. Hyde. Everyone knows that the US is always 4 years and some white grievance away from being right back here.

Show threadGlowing Cat of the Nuclear Wastelands1d ago
@mekkaokereke I really don't understand what's hard about this concept. Sure, elections aren't going to fix everything by themselves, but anything that claims to have a perfect catch all solution is usually bullshit anyway.

My logic is simple: as long as they're working to prevent me from voting, I know it's still effective enough to make it worth my time to keep doing as long as I can.

Yes, they're trying to fuck with the outcome. Yes, they're trying to take them away all together. But they haven't succeeded yet, so I'm going to keep on voting. While also doing what else I can to work on the problems from other fronts, because I understand elections are broken.

For something that upsets the fascists so much when we do it, it's actually a pretty low effort task to take a little time to review the candidates and measures, then vote for the least shitty option. Occasionally if I'm lucky, I'll even have a decent or good candidate to vote for!
Show threadDavid Penington1d ago
@deathkitten @mekkaokereke
Hungary won against Orban by high voter participation. The US needs high voter participation to defeat Trump.
I love Australia's "compulsory" voting. We had 90.7% turnout at our last federal election. The Australian Electoral Commission works hard to enable people to vote, unlike the US where they appear to work to make it hard to vote.
Our previous election, I was on the verge of getting postal voting papers sent to Birdsville, population 120 & 350 miles from the nearest meaningful population. My trip got cancelled & I ended up voting 150 miles from home, without any prior arrangement, with no difficulty at all, because I was back in my home state.
Show threadGlowing Cat of the Nuclear Wastelands
@DavidPenington
Yeah, higher voter turn out does help against the various voter suppression tactics, and we've seen it make a difference here before, but they're very aware of that and work very hard to stop people from voting. One of the largest set backs on that front was when the Supreme Court overturned a number of voter protections.

We face all sorts of messy things getting in the way of voting, and the worst of it targets minorities in our states held captive by GOP legislature (though the Dems certainly aren't innocent here either). There are voter ID laws implemented in states where they also close down DMV locations in the areas with the highest minority populations, to make it harder to get an ID in the first place. They do voter roll purges that try to claim they'd removing duplicate and inactive listings, but usually end up purging people who are disproportionately likely to vote left leaning. They change polling locations, they prevent vote by mail, they reduce early voting days, they don't provide time off to go to the polls... I could go on and on, but I hope that makes the point.

But you can also argue that our first past the post voting system, which forces us towards only two parties even though that's not legally enshrined in our laws and system, is also part of the problem here. GOP are fascists, and the Dems are right leaning centralists. That leaves those of us on the left feeling like we've got no representation in government, even when we try and vote strategically. It's really a test of wills to keep going back to the polls and voting for harm reduction when sometimes it feels like we're just delaying the inevitable.

It's really easy to look at all that and think what's the point. I get it, I really do. But as I said above, the thing that keeps me making the effort is that they are working so hard to prevent me from voting and to prevent my vote from counting when I do, so sheer spite against them keeps me doing it even if it seems so hopeless.

@mekkaokereke
Apr 13 at 10:22amWeb
Show threadDavid Penington1d ago

@deathkitten @mekkaokereke
Yes. Understood. Voting in the US is substantial effort. Hang in there.

We Australians were horrified when the UK voted down a referendum to switch to preferential/instant run off voting, partly due to a scare campaign that "the wrong person" sometimes wins.
Despite our preferential system, our Greens very rarely win a seat except in multi-member electorates, which is mostly upper houses including the national Senate, where they sometimes hold the balance of power. So our left also struggles to be heard, especially as our "Labor Party" has moved centrist & inactivist.
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