Not voting for them sends a message, but it’s the wrong message - and that message is that the populace prefers the GOP

Hard disagree on that. That's assuming the intentions of the people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_are_either_with_us,_or_against_us

If you're argument is that we need to be doing what's right and pushing for progress, then why is that cast as something ONLY the "blue" can do? I don't know how old you are to see how many times the "blue" has absolutely failed at their job, failed the people, but for no other reason than they're in the right party, they keep getting voted in. But I've seen several "blue" presidents do anywhere from fuckall to the bare minimum in terms of progress/change.

There are other options to vote for that don't just include the GOP as you seem to suggest. The US isn't supposed to be just a 2 party system. It's supposed to be dynamic; these parties are supposed to die off when they no longer represent the people. If you want progress and change, but keep doing the same thing that doesn't seem to be all that progressive.... are you making any progress?

This this this this this.

I keep saying this refrain. The time to reform the party is after elections, until the primary (NOW). The time to vote for the party is during the election period. Sure, state your grievances anytime or all the time to get your politicians to listen. But handing the win to chaos to state your case gives the way to fascism.

Hard disagree. If we continue the narrative that the US is a 2 party system, actively rejecting and backing other parties in fear "the bad guy will win" (a sentiment and view shared with the Dem/Rep parties), then we've entered a endless loop that only as we've seen over the decades, is a race to the bottom. We elected Biden because we didn't want Trump and largely for no other reason. That's not a good reason. And Biden even commented that he was perhaps too old (his words).

And it's a fallacy, shared by the Dem/Rep, to fear-monger the "If you don't vote for MY party, then it's voting for the other party (the bad guys)". This was a false narrative that was spread this election and several before it, to prevent anyone else from opposing the status quo. A vote for 'not my party' is not a 'vote for the other party'. If I can't vote how I want (speaking broadly here for everyone), then my vote doesn't matter. And if my vote doesn't matter, then I'm not being represented. And if you're going to argue that, I'd like to point to the huge number of eligible voters who consistently don't vote. If we cast non-votes as a vote of no confidence, we'd see a big change in things. But doing that means Dem/Rep would lose the seesaw swings in power they have come to enjoy.

So no, you shouldn't just throw your vote blindly behind any side. Especially because the internet thinks you should (and again, that goes for Dem/Rep alike).

I dunno. I think a lot of regular people felt really strongly that it was critical that the Republicans not gain control of everything in this last election, and given how things are going at the moment, it's really hard to argue that was wrong. Which is not to say that the folks criticizing the Democrats were wrong either! The Democrats' feckless centrism and undermining of leftist candidates has been galling for years. The difficult truth is that the system has been so broken that really good people following genuine motivations were arguing on both sides of the leftist/Democrat divide. I was trying to cling to the hope that if we jollied the current system along, we could get reforms like ranked choice voting and the national vote interstate compact in place that would help shift the underlying incentives in the system away from the two-party system, but it's probably really been irreparable for years now.

Of course bullying people was never going to be an effective tactic, and I never endorsed that. But that's just regular tribalism and anger at the nonconformist. That's just regular dumb human stuff.

Probably