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Just a reminder (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 days ago by to c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16451158

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[–] 15 points 3 days ago* (2 children)

To give some more specific examples:

Liberal voters: We pay more for healthcare than anyone else! Can you use our money for Medicare for All?

Politicians:

Voters: Why have we been blockading Cuba since fucking 1962? Make it stop!!

Politicians:

Voters: Scientist are warning about climate change!! We need to take drastic measures!

Politicians:

Voters: ICE is killing people and racially profiling! It's a danger to us all and must be abolished!!

Politicians:

Voters: Stop killing brown people with our tax dollars! Pull support away from Israel!!

Politicians:

Leftists: I can no longer support the Democratic Party

Liberal voters:

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago* (1 child)

    Withholding your vote only puts gasoline on the fire. Voting for something is not support, it is selecting from available paths and they are not of equal harm. The most important elections to vote in are primaries where you get to choose who you'll be choosing.

    Please note that voting should always be done in conjunction with civil protest and mutual support networks.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    Withholding your vote only puts gasoline on the fire.

    Can you say this to a Palestinian-American or Latin American with a straight face? The Democratic Party is still complicit in genocide abroad and refuses to accept abolition of Trump's personal white supremacy army. Several Democrats are implicated in the Epstein Files and their colleagues are covering for them. If you don't think these are the appropriate lines in the sand to draw, then the line doesn't exist. The "lesser evil" rhetoric will justify anything.

    ...civil protest and mutual support networks

    I refuse to criticize anyone who is engaged in activism, and/or voting third party, rather than voting for the Democratic Party. We should all be joining leftists organizations, anti-capitalist reading groups, mutual aid groups, workers unions, tenants unions, self-defense groups, community gardens, and real grassroots communities built on trust. Such communities will form the foundation for future protests, boycotts, workers strikes, renters strikes, and, if necessary, civil disobedience. That is the only way the American people can regain control at this point.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

    Look at the data. Under Trump, Gaza got an embassy move, funding cuts to UNRWA, and open talk of annexation. Under Biden, it got bombs,but also pauses, pushback, and at least some rhetorical distance. That's not enough. It's nowhere near enough. But it's less. Same with Iran, Trump tore up the JCPOA and maxed sanctions; Biden at least kept diplomacy open. Same with SNAP, Trump gutted it; Biden restored some of it.

    I'm not asking you to recognize this scale as legitimate. I'm saying it's the scale that actually exists and the difference is real.

    The absence of your vote doesn't punish them, it hands the keys to the people who will do worse, faster, to the communities you're trying to protect. You want to build mutual aid and unions? So do I. But those need time and cover to grow. One administration gives you more of both than the other.

    Being morally pure does absolutely nothing for the people lives that get actively worse.

    While we do that we need to also work in primaries to get people into Congress that will apply pressure for change because if you look at any actual societal progress we've had it's been civil action in tandem with political pressure.

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