Lisa Lorenzin KR4LFE (she/her)11h ago
mekka okereke 

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.

Apr 12 at 10:47pmWeb
Show threadpiebob ✨1d ago
@mekkaokereke ugh it's so true
>> Everyone knows that the US is always 4 years and some white grievance away from being right back here.
Show threadicastico1d ago

@piebob @mekkaokereke

Back in the early 80s, while researching a paper for my Colonialism course, I read this point over and over again. From Afghanistan, to Africa, to the Americas, countries chose to deal with the consistent (openly exploitive) Soviets, rather than the uncertainties of US political whims, for example. “With the Soviets, you know what you’re getting - with the Americans, you risk them changing their mind half way through”.

Show threadklausfiend1d ago
@icastico @piebob @mekkaokereke This has been a truism of American foreign policy for at least my entire life, even growing up in an allied nation; American foreign policy is basically treated as a domestic issue, with obvious and predictable consequences.
Show threadLegit_Spaghetti1d ago

@mekkaokereke I'm somewhat less worried about our election integrity than I am about the people voting in those elections. Like, even if the predictions come true and the GOP loses big in the midterms and that momentum carries all the way to '28, that still leaves TENS OF MILLIONS of American voters who chose mass deportations, isolationism, and hate.

It's important to vote out the fascists. But we can't stop there. This country has a sickness that cannot be cured by voting only.

Show threadCaptain Superlative1d ago

@Legit_Spaghetti

Voting is necessary but not sufficient.

A lot of people conflate necessity and sufficiency (not saying you are). A lot of things are necessary but not sufficient. Oxygen is necessary for fire but not sufficient. Water is necessary for life but not sufficient. Voting is necessary for a pluralistic democracy but not sufficient.

For one thing, in the near term, the votes of these fascists have to be overcome.

@mekkaokereke

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 threadMorgan ⚧️1d ago
@deathkitten @mekkaokereke "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." Good point! I guess we can usually tell what's worth doing by figuring out what billionaires and fascists don't want us doing. If it was actually hopeless, they wouldn't give a shit, and would probably actually generally encourage us to vote our hearts out, to prevent actual resistance
Show threadBrian Gordon13h ago

@raphaelmorgan @deathkitten @mekkaokereke

If there was one thing I wish the doomers would get, it's this:

"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."

Putin doesn't care if Russians vote, because he'll win 108% of the vote with 101% voter turnout, every time. Republicans don't want to to vote because they can't win if you do.

#politics

Show threadKinene⭐🐻8h ago

@raphaelmorgan @deathkitten @mekkaokereke Grandpa always said to look at who is supporting a candidate or (in California) a ballot proposition. (When in doubt, "follow the money.")

If "Attila the Hun*" is supporting someone, one should not vote for that candidate, unless one really wants to be invaded by the Mongol Hordes.

*Insert techbro/billionaire name here.

Show threadPaul_IPv61d ago

@deathkitten @mekkaokereke

yeah.

doing nothing is guaranteed to not change anything.

i sometimes chaff at incremental change and progress but it's better than no progress.

voting isn't a magic fix but it's a vital piece of the whole solution.

Show threadProcess "Tedious" Parsnip1d ago

@deathkitten @mekkaokereke

100p. People died for my right to vote, until they actually shut elections down I will not be stopping.

In the words of Danja "Ah, you gonna have to remove me. Cause I ain't going nowhere."

(video id: link goes to the part of the official Gimme More video right before Danja says the above line)
https://youtu.be/elueA2rofoo?si=1Er6zyJXXgHFjkza&t=218

But fr, yes, don't hold your breath for politicians to fix it for us, do what you can now *and also* while we still have elections, vote.

Britney Spears - Gimme More (Official HD Video)

YouTube
Show threadDavid Penington17h 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 Wastelands17h ago
@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
Show threadDavid Penington17h 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.
.

Show threadLudwig Vielfrass1d ago
@mekkaokereke I loved what the French Foreign Minister said last year, paraphrased (and translated): "We cannot leave the security of Europe up to 50,000 voters in Michigan every four years."
Show threadEggs now in different baskets.23h ago

@lerxst @mekkaokereke Thanks for reminding me. I checked the quote:

“We cannot leave the security of Europe in the hands of voters in Wisconsin every four years,” French Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad said on LCI television last week. “Let’s get out of collective denial. Europeans must take their destiny into their own hands, regardless of who is elected U.S. president.”

https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-kamala-harris-jd-vance-tim-waltz-eu-nato-us-elections-weapons/

It doesn’t matter if Trump or Harris win. Europe has already lost.

U.S. interest in the continent has been in decline since the end of the Cold War.

POLITICO
Show threadCaptain Superlative1d ago

@mekkaokereke

Literally just posted this:

https://youtube.com/shorts/-KIy1DtYXqo

historic defeat for jd vance

YouTube
Show threadGoopadrew1d ago
@mekkaokereke "white grievance" really puts into perspective just how petty all the shit is, that people decided to elect in fascism over
Show threadBebadefabo1d ago
@mekkaokereke let's not discuss on going back. Back there was the broken mess that got us here. It's time to move forward.
Show threadMastodon Migration9h ago

@mekkaokereke

💯 Draw inspiration from the Hungarians. Here is what Hungary was doing the night before they overwhelmingly voted fascism out of their corrupt gerrymandered system

#Hungary #Democracy