#there is not a third option. it is either trump OR biden | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

decolonize-the-left · 3 days

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If Americans shouldn't vote for Biden what should they do instead? Vote for trump? Vote third party? Not vote?

(I know most people would probably ask you this in bad faith but I'm just really distraught at the state of politics and keep hearing people say "don't say he's the only option and don't support him" but there's never alternatives given and I don't know what an effective alternative could even be)

I think a good place to start that a lot of people are comfortable with is probably volunteering and petitioning for 3rd parties to make sure they Do have ballot access next year. So that ppl Can vote for someone else next year.

And yes, vote 3rd party this election. Or don't vote at all.

Besides that? Learn some basic defense and join protests. Support encampments and do things leftists say like join a union and organize your own community whether it be your schoolmates, coworkers, or all your friends and their friends.

Y'all see the news right?

Censorship and propaganda are rampant right now, along with transphobia and racism and even Nazis are back. Tensions are high to say the least and everyone is worked up about the election and Israel.

Figure out what you wish someone else would do and then do it. Is that de-arresting protesters? Organizing a bail fund, fighting cops and throwing tear gas back at them when they make things violent?

There's a lot to fight against and even more to fight for. Find what's worth fighting for (to you) and actually start fighting for it. Don't let cops or your principal or boss or anyone else stop you.

I think one of the most important things we can do right now is remind the government and those that serve the government that they won't take our rights so easily. That if they want to silence us then we're gonna make sure it'll hurt more than it'll help. That we can and will fight back.

And that's why it's so vital that we show them we won't settle either. We won't vote for Biden.

We settled for Clinton and look where that got us.

Does it feel like voting for more and more conservative blue candidates actually helped prevent harm? Or does it feel like you were manipulated and lied to?

Gonna be real, it feels like the government is a manipulative abuser and we're all it's gaslit victims who don't want to believe things are that bad just cuz he killed someone else instead of us.

Which is like...it doesn't mean good things for us that our government could do that and we'd rationalize it, you know?

How we want to get out of this fucked up dynamic is up to us. We work, we pay taxes, we listen to the governments rule of law, and still our government won't codify rights, our trans friends are being abused by the government, or it's banning apps with censorship. And the whole time it's telling us to shut up and be grateful it isn't worse.

Abusers never ever tell you that it could be better too. And they don't want you to know that. Cuz then you leave. And if you leave then they can't manipulate and abuse you.

So yeah. They'll shit on us for doing Anything that doesn't result in us staying, for doing anything that results in us choosing our own well being instead of theirs.

But that's what we need to do.

And you need support before you do that. That's what organizing is. It's like calling the besties who hype you up to leave your shitty ex. Except it's a bunch of people agreeing to support each other when they choose to stand up for something. Organizing is making sure there are people watching back and making sure if one of you is harmed or arrested that there'll be someone there to help bail you out.

The more people you have to bail you out, the less you have to worry about being outnumbered, spoken over, or physically stopped with force.

So yeah. Do that.

Organize. I hope I stressed that enough. The people on our front lines need us to be there for them as much we need Them to keep fighting for us.

Also since I'm here: make sure you and your friends don't talk shit about protesters even when they get violent and break shit. It's not abuse when the victim finally hits back at their abuser, it's self defense.

#asked #answered #idk #kinda just want politicians to start dying tbh

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onesettleronebullet · 3 days

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What do you suggest Americans do instead of vote for Biden? Vote for trump? Vote third party? Not vote?

(I know most people would probably ask you this in bad faith but I’m just really distraught at the state of politics and keep hearing people say “don’t say he’s the only option and don’t support him” but I don’t know what alternative they have)

Withhold your vote and hunker down for four years. Do this by either voting 3rd party or spoiling your vote or not voting it doesn't matter just withhold your vote. And before you say "well what about Trump!!!" yeah what about him? He's not going to become dictator for life and he's not going to make oppressed peoples quality of life go down any more than what's already occurred under Biden. And if he does become dictator for life maybe it will galvanise Americans into actually doing something so...

#newpad.txt #ask away #anons

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captainjonnitkessler · 3 months

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You know I used to think "tumblr's absolute refusal to actually engage with the Trolley Problem in favor of insisting that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is just a short-sighted idiot is really fucking annoying, but I guess it's not actually doing any harm".

Anyway that was before we asked tumblr at large to decide between "guy aiding a genocide but making progress elsewhere" and "guy who would actively and enthusiastically participate in a genocide and would also make everything else much, much worse for everyone elsewhere" and the response was that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and that anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is a short-sighted idiot.

#there is not a third option. it is either trump OR biden #and one of those will be much MUCH worse for palestine #i'm really really sorry that these are the options. i wish they weren't.#but WHAT third option are you trying to take here? what on earth is your proposed outcome #that will actually make things better for palestine?#because letting trump win the election is NOT going to help them #i'm sorry but you need to set aside your feelings and take the option that will lead to less harm to palestine in the long run #you talk such a big game about how people need to be willing to make sacrifices to help palestine #but you yourself aren't even willing to hold your nose and vote to stop things from getting worse?#or did you think 'sacrifice' only meant not getting mcdonalds for a few months?#us politics

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baronfulmen · 2 months

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It's only March and I am already losing patience with the "if you vote for Biden you're a bad person" bullshit

I am going to explain this one more time (lie, I will explain it like a hundred more times but probably more pissy each time)

The way the electoral college works, there is NO viable way for a third party candidate to win.

You could REPLACE one of the existing parties in theory, but more likely you would just change the party until you like it more.

This is done starting at the local level, which is also where third party candidates can actually win. Despite this most people totally ignore everything but the presidential election and then bitch about it.

You could fix our elections by working to eliminate gerrymandering and voter suppression and by fighting for ranked choice voting, but again that's not a thing that's going to happen all at once (or ever in an election year).

Biden is awful, duh. All US presidents have been awful. They have all committed war crimes and if hell were real there would be a special section just for US presidents. Yes even whichever one you think was okay, Carter or whoever.

Biden's administration has done a TON of good shit, alongside the bad. No I'm not saying the bad stuff was worth it, I'm just saying it is not all bad stuff which is important because Trump really is basically all bad shit. All of it. He's all the bad shit that comes with Biden AND so so so much more.

Not voting doesn't send a message, because voter turnout is already abysmal and so your protest non-vote is lost in a sea of apathetic non-votes and Republican generated lack of votes due to voter suppression.

Not voting doesn't somehow make you a more virtuous person, nor does voting for Biden make you a bad person even though he's a bad person. You have two options, Biden or Trump. That's it. Not voting is still making a choice, and that choice will STILL RESULT IN EITHER TRUMP OR BIDEN so you might as well be a fucking adult about it and acknowledge that one is less bad than the other.

There are some states that are so OVERWHELMINGLY certain to go to a particular candidate that it's harmless to vote third party, but I have frequently seen people on this site say that applies to them and then mention where they live and it's ABSOLUTELY not one of those places so I don't know what some of you are smoking. Florida, for christ's sake.

I get that a lot of you want to start the bloody revolution or whatever, but please understand that even if you're serious and actually plan on doing that there's no reason you can't ALSO vote.

This isn't that complicated. Grow up and vote for Biden, and be angry and bitter about it the whole time. Work towards change in ways that actually matter and have a chance of making a difference, instead of sitting back and smugly acting like doing nothing makes you a better person you fucking cowardly assholes.

#biden #trump #us politics #2024 presidential election #2024 presidential race #donald trump #joe biden #voting #us elections

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qweerhet · 3 months

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the thing about project 2025 and associated fear tactics on social media right now is that... project 2025 itself does not need trump to work.

like, it's very obviously built around a coalition base that supports trump, and the ideology that has arisen from that coalition--but like, 1) the heritage foundation literally cannot legally promote any presidential candidates, which means that 2) the plan they have outline & the structures they are building to support said plan can work with, well, literally any candidate who wants to participate in them.

this isn't a one-and-done "this election is the most important one of our lives, gotta vote blue and then we can move on!" thing, project 2025 is a massively funded endeavor that involves building infrastructure and will be relevant again, every presidential election the republicans are involved in, until either they carry it out, they get bored and try a different tack, or some secret third option where it gets derailed through whatever new batshit political upheaval of the year comes up. like, trump can get convicted of federal crimes and removed from every ballot in the country, and project 2025 would still be of concern.

personally i think it'd be ridiculous to say we have to actively support any democratic candidate, no matter who they are, no matter how conservative they are, no matter what horrific regressive policies they platform, because of project 2025. but like, that's essentially what you're saying if you argue that the voter base has to platform biden and actively support his run this election cycle on the basis of preventing 2025; it's not going to just go away after the year 2025. the nonprofits will still exist, the funding will still exist, the people will still exist, and the infrastructure will still exist.

(i will not be responding to derailments along the lines of "what are the other options, it would be worse if trump won," etc--i am not laying out a plan to simultaneously abolish project 2025 and end the palestinian genocide in this post. i am pointing out that this proposed plan does not work; project 2025 is not dependent on trump specifically, and it will not improve matters domestically nor overseas to write a blank "votes" check for the democrats in perpetuity so long as the ideology behind project 2025 persists and is materially relevant. you are free to posit other ways to address the issue, but "aggressively support any and all democratic candidates, regardless of what their policies actually are" is not a good solution. it will not address the problem.)

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silvysartfulness · 4 months

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Just a week into the US election year of 2024, and I'm already seeing some Takes™ on my dash.

Please. No.

I know you hate your options, guys, but third party will not win. They simply won't, not in 2024, no matter how much you wish they would. Building that kind of voting power takes time, and with the current voting-suppression systems and gerrymandering in place, you're just not there yet.

And you know the people who are tempted to try it anyway are the people on the left and some lost-looking centrists. And you know that taking those votes away from the Democrats while the people on the right turn up to vote en-mass as they always do means that Trump will win.

I cannot overstate how much you can't let that happen. You can't.

You can feel betrayed and be frustrated with the Biden government all you like, but you can't hand that position of power back to Trump and the conservatives. People will suffer. People will die. Within your own country and globally.

If you seriously think Trump in power will mean less genocide and fascism in the world, I'm sorry, but you're straight up delusional.

Please think really hard about what narratives you're buying into, supporting and spreading this year. Not immune to propaganda etc. People who try to cloud your judgment by appealing to your anger and sense of helplessness, telling you not to vote, or vote third party may genuinely believe what say - or they're manipulating you into throwing your vote away. Either way, the end result is the same.

And frankly - the choice is yours, but if you intend to chase the third party pipedream right now and thereby allowing a fascist government to take over and dictate global politics for the next four years at least (provided their next insurrection isn't successful, leaving them in power indefinitely...)

Then kindly unfollow me. Right now.

I have zero patience for the leftist "perfect or nothing" mindset when the alternative is outright open and proud fascism. No fucking dithering. You have one job this year. You can either vote for the lesser evil like a fucking grownup and then work within the system for further change, or get right out of my face.

That's all.

#people voting 'third party' got a nationalist right-wing party in power in my country #they're suggesting banning mosques #they're talking about exiling pretty much anyone not born here #it's a shitshow #and with your ultra-religious conservatives #you'd better believe the right will come for the queer and neurodivergent people hard #this isn't a fucking game #you either do everything in your fucking power to keep fascists out of your government #or sit right down and never pretend to care about human rights again #this has been a fucking rant #may delete later #real world bullshit

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nokingsonlyfooles · 2 months

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“It’s my hope, Mr. President, that you listen to us, that you choose democracy over tyranny.” - Abdullah Hammoud, Dearborn Mayor and Voter

YES! I can't fuckin' believe the media accurately reported this as a protest and printed/publicized the words of the voters explaining why they did it. AND NOBODY HAD TO ATTEMPT SUICIDE! This is big and it could get even bigger! But it's a qualified bigness, because...

Walz, a major supporter of Biden’s reelection campaign, said Michigan’s “uncommitted” results were a healthy demonstration of democracy. “I think they feel passionate, as they should, about an issue we all care about,” Walz said, adding that he expected most protest voters would eventually return to Biden’s side in a likely November rematch with former President Donald Trump, who himself has struggled with college-educated voters and suburbanites in his ongoing Republican primary against former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. “I’m much more convinced there’s a chance bringing those folks home is much greater than bringing the ‘Never Trump’ folks back home,” Walz said.

Yeah. I know this song and dance. I've seen it happen in person, at protests, in reatime. They come out to "do voter outreach" and they're all smiles to start. "Yes! Please do continue to act upon your freedom of speech in a way I, an advocate for the status quo, find nonthreatening. Your feelings are valid, ha-ha! I expect nothing to change, and indeed I will act to change nothing, but good for you!" A few folks always believe the message has been received and quiet down, that's why they do it. But wait and see what happens to that smile when a few people start interrupting and yelling, "THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!"

At least this guy's willing to suggest Biden would pick up more votes by moving left than moving right, although I doubt he actually expects anything radical. A few more forgiven student loans or somewhat cheaper drugs aren't much of a problem, and that's leftist too! So we don't really have to worry about the ongoing genocide.

The thing is, if/when this picks up momentum and the DNC starts to think they might have to change something or lose, it will become something other than a positive demonstration of free speech. It'll be childish tantrum-throwing, pointless, uncivil, attention-whoring, astroturfed, counterproductive foreign interference, and whatever else sounds bad. If any of you out there in internet-land already feel threatened by it, you're probably saying that right now. (Go ahead and comment, you'll boost this with other people who think like you, and I might change some minds.)

And, if you are comfortable with it and want voters to do it instead of threatening to withhold votes from Biden in the general, check your privilege. Not every state offers this. Unless something changes real fast (at least, I THINK it hasn't changed, it's hard to do a search when "uncommitted" brings up SO MANY news articles about Michigan 😁), mine won't. I can't do this. I can't vote in a third party primary either. It'd be all blue or nothing. And neither of those things will get me any press, so I gotta keep talking. Maybe I'll motivate someone who can vote uncommitted! Or scare a politician! I still think I'm doing more good by staying alive, and I'm a bit distant from any property I might meaningfully damage (although I am open to suggestions that won't get me arrested and silenced), so this is the only thing I got that won't injure a human being.

Tumblr, no matter how you actually intend to vote, if you're not up for living in a two-party system where both parties think they can do a little genocide and stay in power, you have ways of making yourself heard. There are options beyond falling in line behind the lesser evil. Don't let anyone tell you there aren't. And when you start hearing "stop!" or "you can't!" that means you have something they want. A cessation of hostilities! Well, now you might be in a position to negotiate terms! Don't give up!

Please, please, please don't give up. There is so much to be done.

#us news #us elections #michigan primary #protest votes #protest #democracy #democrats #democratic party #palestine #genocide #resist #nonviolent resistance #uncommitted

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caecilius-est-pater · 2 months

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“aiding in a genocide but making progress elsewhere” are you fucking insane? that is the most evil selfish despicable shit i have ever heard. you wouldn’t be reblogging shit like that if it was thousands of white kids being slaughtered. what is wrong with you fucking people??? absolutely disgusting how do you live with yourself

I usually don't dignify this stuff with a platform but I'm gonna make an exception because I'm hoping you or other people who feel the same way can help me out. I have a real, genuine, honest, not-a-gotcha question: what do you recommend I do instead?

I hate this as much as you do. I don't want Biden to be president, I don't want to vote for him, and I am not voting for him in the primary. I desperately want another option, I just don't realistically see one. Since it seems like you do, I'm serious, please tell me what it is.

Is there a revolutionary movement underway that you think will replace our current system of government before November? If so, let me know where I can find out more, I'd love nothing more than to replace our shitty system. Is there a third candidate with a shot of winning who is pro-Palestine that I somehow haven't heard about? Give me their name and they've got my vote. Hell, is Trump actually pro-Palestine and committed to ending the genocide? I might even vote for him.

But with the knowledge that I currently have (again, if I'm missing info, please tell me!) it seems pretty certain either Biden or Trump is going to win and we are going to be led by a genocide lover no matter what the American people do or what we believe. But I believe that Biden will kill and hurt less people, both abroad and domestically (I'm a queer trans brown non-Christian uterus-possessing child of a brown immigrant, trust me I am very invested in the domestic policy differences between Biden and Trump). That's where we're at: who's going to kill the fewest kids? I don't see a "kill no kids" option but if you do, please tell me what it is and I'll do that instead.

Frankly I think the November election is not the thing we should be worrying most about right now. We should be focusing on ending the genocide and supporting the people of Palestine - donating, contacting our reps, raising awareness, boycotting, protesting, etc. That's what I'm doing and where I'm putting most of my focus. Local and down ballot elections are also important.

How do I live with myself? Badly, as every American should. No matter how many calls I make, protests I attend, it will never be enough. But I sure sleep a hell of a lot better than I would if I was a "just don't vote" type (not saying that's what you are, it's just an opinion I see way too often) and gave up the one tiny bit of political power I have to try to make things a little less bad for at least a few people, so that I can selfishly feel better about myself for having the ideological high ground.

But I don't want to do that. Tell me what I can do not to have to. Tangible, actionable, realistic steps to take to prevent this. I would love to be wrong on this. I would love to change my mind and find a better way forward. Please.

#i tried not to sound condescending but im really serious: what info am i missing? what actions should i take that i havent?

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yugiohz · 1 month

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Do you think not voting for Biden is a good idea? Do you think a third party will really win? Do you think Trump will be a better option? I don’t like Biden either but I’m genuinely scared of the alternative

why are you asking a non-American tumblr user

#well I woudlnt vote #asks

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inkprincesse · 5 months

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Hey if you promote voter suppression in the US i’m blocking you. I know the lesser of two evils isn’t a choice anyone wants to make but I know three things for sure:

1. Trump will not help palestine either, he doesn’t give a fuck

2. A third party option literally cannot happen under our system

3. Things will get materially worse for a lot of people I love— especially trans people— if Republicans here get more power.

You should absolutely be vocal about Palestine and criticize Biden loudly for what he’s doing, but unfortunately when it comes time to vote, this horrible genocide not an issue we’re being allowed to have voting power over. Both options present the same issues, and not voting is just handing control of the country to ignorant white republicans. I literally cannot understand why anyone thinks there is an option here.

#politics #usa politics #voter suppression #trump #biden #don’t you dare tell me i don’t care #i am just being realistic #believe me i WISH ranked choice were the way #but i could legitimately lose my healthcare #i would die if that happened and that is not a joke

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evilelitest2 · 8 months

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Was Sander's Robbed in 2020?

Ok so lets walk to the past for a bit. Its 2020, the Democratic primary is getting heated. Biden keeps leading in all the polls, but after three primary elections, he has been coming off short. Moderates are panicking and it looks like Bernie Sanders might be able to get the nomination after all. He was counted out after the heart attack, and yet he kept on going.

So Sanders going in 2020 had two options for how to run his campaign. About 30% of the party loved him, about 20% of the party absolutely hated him, and 55% were mixed more ambivalent about him. He could either

Try to win over the parts of the party that aren't already supporting him, in particular the black community (Sanders does this a bit with the Latino democrats, his latino outreach very impressive and very underreported in the Democratic party

Try to hold unto your 25-30% of the party and hope rest of the vote is split between all the different moderates, so he can win with a plurality of the vote. due to the weirdness of the Democratic primary rules he can still win the nomination even without the majority, the winner only needs a plurality. if the moderate votes are split between Biden, Mayor Pete, Bloomberg, and Klobuchar, then Sanders could squeak in a victory with less than a third of the party.

Biden is the frontrunner, is polling ahead of everybody else, particular among the all important African-American segment of the democratic electorate. However he isn't beloved and there are a ton of Moderates running against him, and all of them are focused on attacking Biden in the hopes that they could take his place.

Sanders too option 2, which was risky. Winning with a plurality rather than a majority always leaves a lot of sore feelings, and had Sanders won the 2020 primary he would have to have dealt with the 70% of the electorate who didn't vote for him feeling sore, but maybe he could have handled it, we will never know. The advantage of his plan is that he just needed to hold unto his base, who already loved him. The danger is that if the moderates ever managed to rally around a single candidate, suddenly he is very outnumbered. Risky play but he did it. This is the same plan that trump use to win the Republican primary in 2016 (to be clear, that isn't a moral judgement on sanders, Trump isn't bad because he won with a plurality, he is bad because he is a fascist). There is one key difference though the Republican primary uses a winner takes all approach, so who ever wins the state gets all of the points, which allowed Trump to expand his lead. This is because Republicans don't believe in democracy.

Those are some great mittens

So far this plan has been working well for Sanders. The moderates have split the vote, Sanders won Nevada, New Hampshire and either won Iowa or it was so close that he basically won Iowa. Biden has yet to do well in any of the first three states.

But Then, South Carolina, the first state with a large black electorate. Biden secures a key endorsement from US Representative and Civil Rights activist Jim Clyburn. The results were a pretty stunning turnaround for Biden, who won 49% of the votes and got 39 of the delegates. Sanders came in second, with 20% of the vote and 15 of the delegates. Buttigieg, Warren, Steyer, and Klobuchar didn't get a high enough percentage of the vote to get any delegates.

Biden almost won more than the rest combined.

So lets take a moment to talk about the US primary system, because it is both illogical and needlessly complicated. Rather than have all the states vote at once like a normal fucking country, each individual state plus the territories plus DC hold there own primary, most of which are not in order. So for example, the great state of NY, fourth largest state in the country and the center of the global economy, has its primary at the literal end of the process. So yeah, I've never in my lifetime gotten to have any effect on a presidential primary, because the race is already over by the time it gets to NY. So who wins a primary is not necessarily the most popular person with the party, its who ever can stay in the race longest, its a marathon. A super popular candidate could still drop out if they aren't popular in the first few state. Maybe Elizabeth warren was super popular in New York and if she had been able to hold unto those state she would have won, but we will never know. this system sucks, and I hate it.

So the way the primary goes down is that you have 4 elections from individual states. Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina. Then you have something called Super Tuesday, where Virginia, North Carolina, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, California, Oklahoma, Texas, Minnesota, Colorado, Alabama, Arkansas, and Utah all go at once. So basically you go from 4 individual states to a fuck tone of state (including the two largest) all at once).

So another critical thing about the democratic party is demographics. While the republican party is a white Christianity identity party, the democratic party is a diverse coalition. The most important part of that is the African American vote, who have steadily become the deciding vote in the Democratic party since the 60s. About 90% of African American voters are democratic, and African Americans make up just over a quarter of the Democratic party. They are also by far the most organized and proactive voters, due to years of having to fight against voter suppression (especially in the South). The black electorate in the democratic party is one of the parties greatest advantages, and it also why the party has become steadily less racist every year (Obama really accelerated this process). To be clear this is a good thing, the Democratic party is better for it.

For a series of very complicated reasons I could get into another time, Sanders had never done particularly well with African American voters and Biden has. This isn't universal, the African American community is not a monolith and has a diversity of views but that is how the demographics played out generally in the primary. Most importantly, apart from Biden was the only candidate, moderate or progressive, who seemed to excite the African American voting bloc.

The reason why this matters is that Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada don't have very large black populations, Iowa and new Hampshire are lily white, and Nevada is less than 10% African American. Despite being more than a fourth of the party, the first three states are not representative of the African American vote (maybe we should have one nation wide election eh?)

So once biden won South Carolina, it became obvious that A) Biden's defeats in the first three states were not affecting his popularity in the larger states B) none of the other moderates had any real African American support. This is what leads to the supposed "betrayal"

The Day before Super Tuesday, Obama called up the remaining moderates, and convinced most of them to drop out and endorse Biden. They did so, and it basically shattered Sander's chance of winning. With most of the moderates unified, Biden won 10 states to Sander's 4, wracking up 726 delegates to sanders 505. Biden got 286065 votes to sanders 74,755. Not only was this a great victory for Biden, after super Tuesday all of the other moderates withdrew, allowing him to crush Sanders going forward. Biden had 2709 Delegates to Sanders 1,113, but more importantly Biden won 51% of the votes, with sanders getting 26%. Some Sanders fans have blamed Elizabeth Warren for not dropping out, but even if Warren had and every one of her votes had gone to standers (and there is a lot of evidence to suggest a third of her votes would have gone to Biden), that would only make Sanders at 33% to 51%.

To put this in raw numbers, Biden won 19 million votes. Sanders had just under 9.7 million. Biden won 10 million more votes than Sanders (Elizabeth warren got 2.8 million)

So I see a lot of leftist types claim that this was an example of democratic treachery, that the DNC party robbed sanders of his chance of winning, this was Nixon style Ratfuckery that destroyed Sander's populist campaign to put Biden, who nobody likes anyway, in charge. And as a progressive who didn't want Biden to win, I have to say it sucked...but that wasn't a cheat.

Biden won the popular vote, love him or hate him, he did win more than half of the democratic votes, that makes him the candidate, that is how democracy works, sometimes you lose. Some have claimed that Obama calling up the other moderates and getting them to drop out was a cheat but....how? The moderates knew they couldn't win after South Carolina, and they were ideologically closer to Biden, so they dropped out and endorsed the person they agreed with more. Most Sanders fans wanted Warren to drop out, so I knew you guys understand that importance of consolidating behind a winning candidate. Thats just good politics, the fact that Sanders didn't bother to try to court other candidates to drop out is actually a major weakness of him as a candidate. If the situation had been reversed, and the moderates were trying to win with only 30%, wouldn't you guys want the other progressives to drop out behind sanders

Because Sanders is a populist, and his rhetoric is so tied to the idea of "The people rising up against the elites" that idea that he lost demographically is sort of a trauma his more radical followers can't really deal with, so they retreat to conspiracy theories. Remember, a conspiracy theory is something people turn to to avoid facing a difficult truth. If you identify yourself as populist, and you lose demographically, you have to face some difficult questions. Maybe sanders was the wrong candidate? Maybe he made mistakes? Maybe his fanbase sabotaged his chance of winning, maybe his hardcore fans make a mistake in there understanding of the political situation. Maybe he didn't do anything wrong, it just wasn't the year for a progressive? Or maybe Sleepy Joe Biden actually was a more cunning political operator than they gave him credit for and they were duped.

Or most difficult of them all. Maybe most Americans just don't agree with Sander's position?

Those are hard questions, but you kinda of have to answer them if you want to be a progressive who accomplishes things. I might do later posts that address them if people are interested.

There is a segment of the left who are moving into purple

However, for those who can't face difficult choices, they retreat to conspiracy, and they claim that Sanders was robbed

Hey you know who hasn't been saying that Sanders was robbed by the DNC? Bernie Sanders, because he is an adult who understands how democracy works. He lost, he took it gracefully and then he endorsed and campaigned for the winner, cause sanders actually cares about the cause and not faux revolutionary nonsense.

(Fun fact, Biden and Sanders are friends Irl. Like no joke, those two get along personally)

I didn't vote for Biden in the primary and I was not happy when he won the Primary. However I never thought Biden was senile, or a fool, or a hack, I think that he is a very cunning politician who has a public persona that encourages people to underestimate him And become people can't stand the idea that they could lose to Biden, they retreat into fantasy. This is why MAGA denies the election, they can't face the reality that most of the country doesn't like them, and they can't admit that they lost to a man who doesn't fit there mental image of an impression leader

Yeah...that ends well.

#neglected historical fact #historical fact #ask evilelitest #bernie sanders #Elizabeth Warren #Joe Biden #jim clyburn #2020 primary #Democratic party #Conspiracy theories #Democracy #Donald Trump

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decolonize-the-left · 9 months

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I hate democrats with all my very heart but I can't in good faith advise to vote 3rd party in these hell years when they would see every trans person hang and be off hormones. When the transphobia is not at its height (Eg, like. a few years ago) I would 100% agree with you, but the stakes are too high. If the states falls to transphobia, even more countries will follow it. I think it's harmful to consider not voting D this upcoming election. Once they got off tihs current bend, I could get behind where you are coming from.

"this is helpful and not lacking critical analysis at all"

"if the states fall to transphobia"

Where have you been?

GA & VA are blue states this year btw. It's gotten worse since May and and April, too. The mid terms didn't save anyone.

Also if you, the person reading this, have considered voting 3rd party pls know it's not nearly as unpopular or as unlikely of a win as Democrats want you to think it is.

People would vote for a good 3rd party candidate, actually.

Dems convincing you its a long shot is absolutely a self-preserving psyop hoping to convince you otherwise. Its a half-assed theory that blatantly denies what we learned from 2016 and can still see in polls.

And that's 3rd party candidates stand a shot of they can get in the primaries for the general election. People want progressives. People were pissed and turned to voting for Trump when Sanders fell out- not Clinton.

They need and want another option and it's not a long shot or unlikely. They just need to make it to the primaries.

Enter Cornel West

Cornel West is not running as a Democrat and thus does not need to battle Biden for a spot on the general ballot in November of 2024....

✨ Which gives you and all your friends plenty of time to learn about him ✨

So here are some of his policies and also his campaign site

I'm a decolonial anarchist that hates the state and sees voting as nothing as upholding the state. I make no room for Democrats because Democrats lack the ambition to challenge anything about it.

But unless Cornel West drops out or ends up being some awful closeted abused... Im going to vote for him.

A lot of his politics and campaign goals align with my politics. I wouldn't feel like I was settling if I voted for him.

And a lot of this stuff isn't unreasonable or unrealistic either. Like I just made a post about how the NDAA budget proposal for 2024 is being increased with enough money to solve clean water, homelessness, and implement free college tuition for the whole USA. And Republicans are fighting for more.

And that's just the budget for two years, it'll probably be increased by another hundred billion in a couple years. Nobody blinks when the military budget is swelling like that.

But we should when we can be using that kind of money to solve real problems that real people are having and face and would change lives literally overnight. They just throw that money at the military where most of us never see it again.

But this stuff can be real.

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captainjonnitkessler · 2 months

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Me: In November, either Trump or Biden will win. There is no third outcome, so we should vote accordingly for the option that will mitigate the most harm.

The people in my notes: Oh, so you think direct action is bad? You think voting is literally the only thing we can do? You hate activism? You love Biden and endorse everything he does and think nobody should criticize him ever? You think voting will just magically solve all our problems? You think protesting is wrong? You love the status quo and think everything is fine?

#lot of people bringing a LOT of baggage to my notes #the reading comprehension on this website is a true indictment of humanity #us politics

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exemplarybehaviour · 5 months

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Yeah! Speak to power by encouraging people to uphold the very system which only allows the people a “choice” between two options nobody actually wants! And then criticize anyone who takes any step to get out of that system!

You’re so powerful!

....is this about this post about voting i reblogged over a week ago??? did you, what, go through the notes and send this to everyone?

Listen. Anon. The path to exit the two-party system of the United States political system is going to take a lot of work from a lot of people, over a lot of time, and it's going to require careful strategizing, massive effort across multiple tiers of leadership, as well as community support and advocacy. It will not be a quick process, and any progress will come with frustration and difficulty. It's not going to happen because some people refuse to vote or vote third-party next year. That idea is just juvenile and lazy. What will happen is that Trump's little circus will all turn out to vote, and you can either vote against him (and that's voting Biden), or you can twiddle your thumbs at home and let the current system run right over you, because by sacrificing or wasting your vote, you are letting it move forward.

I encourage you, anon, to get involved with meat space (and maybe even online-but-not-tumblr!) advocacy groups and organizations for what you want. I very strongly encourage you to vote locally, because the more local your government, the greater access you have to them as a rando citizen and the more they will affect you. I encourage you to call representatives and write letters. Fuck, I even encourage you to get out on the streets and protest (safely) for what you believe in. And all of these people and groups will also tell you to vote, because pushing your goals forward will be much easier under Biden than under Trump.

You accomplish basically nothing by harassing random people on tumblr. And you're so powerful staying on anon lmao

#very unfortunately we do have to survive the system until we have the tools/ability to build a new one #you don't let your house burn down while you and your family are inside it even if you hate your house and it's trying to kill you #i also accomplish nothing by replying to this #but hopefully this will be one of several posts about voting on someone's dash and that will encourage them

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soapskneebrace · 3 months

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i’m sorry if this isn’t the right place to ask but it’s my first year voting and idk who to talk to,, abt that voting thing you reblogged,, is it still worth voting even if i don’t vote for typical red or blue parties? the candidate i want to vote for runs for the green party which is literally almost unheard of in the us but with how strictly red vs. blue politics seem to be here i’m not sure if it’s even worth voting for the person i actually want to have my vote bc i know they won’t compete with the blue party. as much as i hate both the blue and red leading options i would much rather contribute to the blue party winning than the red, but i don’t actually want to vote for b***n. but i just don’t want to waste my vote on a party that can’t compete and contribute to t***p getting elected, like im not sure what to do. i know who i actually want to vote for but i feel like actually voting for them is a wasted vote and it’ll do more harm then good even though the other options aren’t great either

again i’m sorry if this is like a completely inappropriate question, feel free to just delete this, but this two-party-only thing is so fkn frustrating. i want to give my vote to the person i feel actually deserves it but most people i know don’t even realise that there are other political parties aside from red v blue so instead of creating a situation where people can vote for who they want it’s people have to vote for option A even though they suck because option B is SO MUCH WORSE and option C isn’t even viable because A needs as many votes to beat B as possible like …..what is the average person even supposed to do?? does this even count as democracy???

So I don't understand why you censored Biden or Trump, first of all, because they're not slurs. I find the asterisks infantilizing.

To put it to you simply, no, it is not worth voting third party. That is an emotional vote and I'm sorry, but your feelings do not matter. I don't care how bad you feel voting for Biden. You know your third party candidate is not going to win. I still blame every single blue voter who wrote in Bernie for Hillary's loss in 2016.

Splitting the blue vote means red win. That is just how it works in this country and you need to learn that now. You need to stop treating your vote like an endorsement of Biden's policy and start treating it like the only scrap of power you have in this fucking country, because other than voicing your complaints to your representatives, that really is it.

Oh, and speaking of Biden--the House rejected the $17.6bn aid bill to Israel after Biden threatened to veto it. I strongly recommend you start getting your political news somewhere other than Tumblr or TikTok. Constant public pressure on Biden and his administration is working. Do you think Trump would give a rat's ass about what the public wanted him to do? Do you think Republicans would for a second consider pulling back on a war they are desperate to escalate?

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm not saying it isn't a shitty situation. I AM saying that your favorite candidate is not going to win, and I'm even saying that your favorite candidate will put us at risk for a Trump victory. We have a two viable parties because that is the reality of our socioeconomic political system. Rs and Ds are the only choices available because they are the only parties with significant financial power. Investors back Rs and Ds because they know Rs and Ds will give them a return on their investment. Green party candidates, and any other third party candidates, will not win because they do not stand to benefit investors.

It's shitty. It's unfair. It's unethical and immoral. But it's the world we live in. It's the world YOU live in. You have to play the political game whether you like it or not.

So play it smart.

#answered

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thenookienostradamus · 1 month

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One thing I've been struggling to put into words about the young American liberals online calling for vote boycotts or third-party presidential votes is how much it invalidates other social justice work from the past few years.

If you were out there with the Black Lives Matter movement that surged during the pandemic, and now you're calling for people to vote against Biden or not to vote at all - and both strategies do nothing but hand votes to Republicans - then clearly you don't believe Black lives matter.

To be clear, I believe Palestinian lives are just as important and worth preserving as are the lives of Black Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, queer people...yes, all people. No person or state should decide which others are worthy of life. But you have to know that one option will be worse for people here and people abroad.

And as to those calling for revolution, two things:

1. You need to put your money where your mouth is. If you're just shouting online for others to "do something radical," then you are doing less than nothing.

2. People die in revolutions. A lot of them. Are you prepared to put your own life on the line as well as the lives of those who may not even have wanted to be involved in a revolution? You have to be prepared to die and to accept the deaths of people you would rather have lived. And don't say "well, they would die anyway." It may be true, but you can't tell me you yourself expect to be killed either way. You're too far removed from actual revolution to understand what you're asking. You and your loved ones may very well be gunned down by cops or soldiers, and die on the pavement choking on your own blood. Unless you are prepared to actively sacrifice yourself and your loved ones, shut your mouth.

Inaction is action. If by inaction you choose to throw people in this country (and countries like Ukraine, Brasil, Venezuela, etc.) under the bus in the name of a showy online protest, have the courage to stand up and say to them: "Your lives don't matter as much as my right to pretend I'm a revolutionary on social media."

If you stand by and let a Trump or other Republican presidency through because "one is just as bad as the other," then you need to have the courage to tell Palestine, Ukraine, and others you are sorry for their total annihilation/subjugation, and also to tell your Black, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, queer, immigrant, and incarcerated fellow countryfolk that you sacrificed their interests for your own privilege. Go ahead, do it. Say it. Take responsibility. Be the revolutionary you so desperately pretend you are and die alongside those you have condemned.

#american politics #entitlement #selfishness

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