If you live in Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, or Florida (really any of the fifty states, but these are the most critical), AND you don't want to see Donald Trump elected for a second term, you must vote for Joe Biden in November. Yes Biden is a doddering old man who is experiencing rapid cognitive decline, and yes it is totally unacceptable that these are our choices, but disengaging does not solve the problem, it only makes it worse.
Believe me, I completely understand the inclination to just say to hell with it and check out, but we can't do that. I have been as guilty of it as anyone but I now fully recognize it was a mistake. But it's not too late to make it right. Voting is not only a right, it is a responsibility. If we, the people, want to rule, we must be vigilant and responsible.
Right now, our priority is damage control and harm reduction. I know, it has been that way for far too long, and that is extremely frustrating, but it is nonetheless the reality of the situation. We must vote for Biden this year, and then we MUST stay engaged so that we can work toward nominating the best possible candidate in 2028. We must stay informed and vote, diligently, in every state, local, and primary election.
It’s more than just damage control. Everything you said should be enough to get people to vote, but the sad reality is reducing it to that may not be enough. If you’re reading this and considering whether or not to vote, OP is 100% correct. You need to do it. Make no excuse, get it done. But try to feel good about it too. You’re not just voting for one person, you’re voting for an entire administration, and Biden has proven himself in that regard. Under a Biden administration you’re going to have competent people working at all levels of the federal government, which is a big deal. Biden’s administration has done a lot of good as well that is easy to gloss over in favor of focusing on his negative attributes:
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-opinion-biden-accomplishment-data/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/therecord/
You also need to be at the polls to vote for your down-ballot candidates. Do not underestimate the importance or closeness of those races.
No candidate is ever going to be perfect for you. Personally I wish we were finishing the 8th year of a Bernie Sanders presidency. But that doesn’t mean that because I didn’t get it perfectly the way I want it I’m going to take my ball and just go home. I hate the democrat strategy right now, but please don’t let yourself be told that Biden has been a bad president. He’s done some things you can be happy about and some things you can wish were different. If you want to see those differences, the best way you can do that is to be politically active and work for that change. Not participating means you forfeit that right.
Everything you said should be enough to get people to vote, but the sad reality is reducing it to that may not be enough.
I understand why it isn't enough for a lot of people. I think the biggest reason people don't vote is they don't feel their vote matters all that much, and/or they see a certain futility in the whole thing. I understand why, in the face of that apparent futility, many people feel powerless and thus choose to disengage. But, yes, as you've said, disengagement does nothing and the only way to take back power is greater engagement. The powerful want us to feel powerless, they want us to be disengaged and they want us to be misinformed, thus we gain power by being informed and engaged, which will lead to us feeling empowered, which promotes even greater engagement.
Any President who encourages a genocide is by definition a bad President I'm sorry to say. The ethnic cleansing campaign is already almost complete, all on his watch with his defending Israel and giving them weapons and cover in the UN and in public. Hell, he even lied about the reason on the debate (the one thing he lied about and Trump told the truth about lol). People should still feel free to vote for him, especially if you live in a swing state, but we shouldn't minimize that millions of Gazans are currently refugees. I hope he fucking shapes up on this issue by November. I don't want him to take all these votes for him as an endorsement of his pro genocide policies.
doddering old man who is experiencing rapid cognitive decline
Only in the media. Also, according to the media, the orange 34 count felon is completely fine, A-okay, in fact.
Get a grip America. Biden's policies are popular with Democrats AND RepublicansIf you want to be more strategic, if you can convince right wingers to not vote that also can make a difference. Feed your red-hat uncle's ideas about how voting is rigged so he shouldn't bother. Tell your maga neighbor you'll drive him to the polls and then don't.
This is an existential crisis. Don't think the right wing won't do anything they can to win.
The problem is, the people who are swayed by this argument were already going to vote Blue no matter who.
To win the election, you need to convince voters who are still doubting between Trump and Biden. And they have definitely heard this argument before, so a different argument is needed.
Ohio used to be a swing state, too, right? Not sure of it still is or if it isn't, how that turned around. But maybe they should be in the list?
Important to talk to people we know, and make sure they actually vote.
If you want to be more strategic, if you can convince right wingers to not vote that also can make a difference. Feed your red-hat uncle's ideas about how voting is rigged so he shouldn't bother. Tell your maga neighbor you'll drive him to the polls and then don't.
This is an existential crisis. Don't think the right wing won't do anything they can to win.
It would be nice if Biden or the Dems or really anyone had a plan to protect us or to somehow stop what we're seeing happen before our eyes, but it just seems that there's no end and the second a republican gets in power it's all over for us
I can't count the number of times I've heard people insist that Biden's DOJ is doing a great job, but also that all these Republican leaders are committing crimes with impunity.
But
the economyrich people's yacht money though!I so want nothing to do with this election, I feel so defeated and disgusted by all of it BUT I keep reminding myself that if I don’t vote then I essentially voted for whoever ends up winning. And that could easily be Trump. And in my view he’s not just an awful candidate, he’s an existential threat eat to democracy. So I will vote. But damn, literally almost anyone else could beat Trump, why this is our choice is so insane.
Hear hear
If it's that dire, why is it not more important than Biden's massive ego and power hunger that he doesn't care to step down even if it pretty much means Trump's gonna win?
You need to vote to make sure the electors just ignore you.
Get the plane tickets while they’re cheap.
you must vote for Joe Biden
The problem with the Handmaid's Tale was that people just didn't vote hard enough.
I've never read the Handmaid's Tale, I really don't know much about it. I don't know how analogous that story is to our current situation, if it is at all. But I do know that there is a real danger posed by Trump and the Republican party. Is the Democratic party completely harmless? Absolutely not, but I don't think they are as great a threat to democracy as the Republicans. We should vote for Biden as a harm reduction measure. Yes, just like in 2020. I know people get tired of hearing that, I know people are fed up with the constant hounding to vote for the lesser of two evils, but that is the situation we are in.
That being said, voting for Biden in this general election lIs iterally the bare minimum that we must do to defend democracy, and if that is all we do, no, it absolutely will not be enough. I think a lot of us, myself very much included, dropped the ball over the last four years and didn't do nearly enough to try and push for more meaningful changes. That has to change, and, again, I'm including myself in that. I need to do more, most of us do. We need to do everything we possibly can to ensure that by February 2029 we will have a better president in the White House, a better Congress, and a better supreme court, as well as better governors and better state legislatures in as many states as possible.
It's been like 15 years of me saying at first, parallels with Idiocracy, but the last 10 or so: "you know how the beginning of every dystopian end times film begins with the news montage about natural disasters, rising populism, income inequality, and whatnot? Have you read any headlines?"
Idiocracy is a better timeline, the president tried to put the smartest person in charge. Good luck getting that in our reality.
parallels with Idiocracy
Bro, life's been like that for some people, for forever.
A 145 IQ isn't that crazy, like 1 in 1200 people. About the same frequency as someone transitioning.
But an intellectual deficiency is defined as 30 points lower than frame of reference, which is normally 100.
For someone at 145, about 84% of humanity is at least 30 points lower. And in your day to day life, you're not gonna run into that other 16% often
So if one of them was the reference point, like Not Sure in Idiocracy, then this is already idiocracy.
"Ignorance is bliss" isn't just a saying, being intelligent fucking sucks.
It's worse than idiocracy, it's plutocracy.
All hail Hades, Lord of the Underworld
YES THIS! I've been saying over and over since 2016 - I read almost exclusively dystopic sci-fi and many books have a point where the reader thinks "run this is getting too bad it is the time to go". I'm thinking specifically when June has no money in her bank account (yes it's a tinge too late even then). So I've been trying to figure out when that point in our story will be and last year decided it is id Trump is elected again. We are a lost country and evil has won at that point.
Similar feelings when you read books set in 1930s Europe.
"I want to leave, but Grandmere would never survive such a long voyage."
Ukrainians I know
Run to where though
I'm sorry if this comes across as cynical to everyone but I'm worried about the ratchet effect. Even if we vote in Biden and he doesn't have a majority in both the House and Senate, no lasting changes to government can be made. Even if we get a slim majority in both chambers there's no telling if we're gonna have another Sinema, Manchin, or Fetterman go and betray the party during a critical vote. It feels like there are so many Democrats who are willing to get in bed with corporate and fascist interests and act as sleeper agents.
How are we supposed to prevent them from sabotaging important government reforms? Republicans seem to have all the time in the world to implement their strategies while Democratic voters struggle every election cycle just to keep things from getting worse. Yes I get we need to act more locally but I'm personally located in a deep blue part of the country so my impact is negligible. Other than donating to candidates that I hope won't betray our interests, I see little in regards to what can be done on my end.
I'm not voting for Biden to get major changes. I'm voting for him to make sure I can keep voting in the future.
Voting for Biden gives me 4 more years to get the fuck out.
Problem is this already was not enough in 2020 and since. Despite all the evidence of Trumps presidency and then fucking January 6, Dems decided to just get back to business as usual and just ignore the fundamental problems in American society that became apparent with Trump.
And Biden is not in shape to deal with any of this, while the DNC seems hellbent on pretending there is no serious problem.
We need a different younger candidate and voting will not be enough. We need local action, in the communities, local governance, protests..
Even if we get a slim majority in both chambers there’s no telling if we’re gonna have another Sinema, Manchin, or Fetterman go and betray the party during a critical vote.
That's why we need more than a slim majority. Seems pretty obvious.
I'm in a red state in one of the reddest counties. I cant manage anything here, pretty sure I'll get shot if I try
The one thing to remember is that, while the chances are never zero, people are standing up against Fascism in red states, and they aren't getting shot for doing it. Joining them makes us all stronger.
You decide what falls in or out of your comfort levels, but be wary of inventing excuses for inaction. If you think you are at risk of being murdered by your community, fight like hell because it may become legal soon enough.
If you fight for what's right today, you'll probably survive, but if fascism takes over millions won't, and you still might be one of the victims.
"Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing." - John Stuart Mill, 1867
If you live in one of the 18 states that allow everyone to mail in their ballot, sign up for mail in ballots. I get mine a month before it has to be postmarked, giving me plenty of time to choose who I'm voting for.
https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/table-18-states-with-all-mail-elections
If you live in one of the 32 other states, go visit your state legislature and get mail in voting on the ballot.
You guys should go to the streets in millions! (Or share snappy memes, whatever feels more comfortable)
One of the part of Project 2025 is using the military to crush protests, and it will have dire consequences to the whole world. I'm pretty sure the American christofascists will have a much better time exporting their censorship to other countries than China and Russia does, especially if they can just kick out (or jail, or even assassinate) any content provider not doing their dirty job to all regions.
However, some parts of the military are very progressive (they could just betray Trump, side with the people, etc.), and one could make memes about how one can make Molotov cocktails, how to illegally modify your regular AR-15 into a fully-automatic rifle, or how to turn a high pressure washer into a flamethrower.
America is already exporting it's faschism. In my country (which is now the most hated country in the world) all the right wing strategy is fuled by American billionaires. But here we flight them in the street, our protests are the equivalent of 10 million Americans protesting each day for more than a year
Best I can do is upvote the memes.
That's the crux of social media. Connects like-minded people yet neuters their effectiveness because they think engagement does something in the real world.
100% this. And it’s not even remotely arguable.
I haven't seen Handmaidens tale. Please relate the story to Star wars or Harry Potter, maybe even the hunger games, and then I'll understand better.
Remember how in Harry Potter Voldemort returns at the end of year 4, but instead of dealing with it, Fudge and his crownies decide to claim Dumbledore and Harry are lying or delusional? And then they proceed to attack them, while ignoring the things happening like people disappearing and stuff, that are attributed to Voldemort by Dumbledore? For like an entire year until Fudge literally sees Voldemort in the ministry?
We are in this period.
Never seen it either but it feels like we are months away from order 66
Under his eye!
May the lord open
The handmaiden’s tale is basically “what if white people were treated the way Black and Indigenous people have been treated in amerikkka since 1492” so uhhh…
That applys to most dystopian fiction generally.
Or women until a few years ago?
Fear mongering post, and the top comment tells you who to vote for. Textbook.
Voting blue no matter their moral standing didn't end up with a better future? Dang who could have seen this coming?
Voting blue no matter their moral standing didn’t end up with a better future?
Actually it did. You just were in a position to not notice.
I'll acknowledge you're right and that I still don't like the outcome.
The failure was in the primaries, not in voting for the only remotely sane party in a two party system.
