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If anybody in the US, I pray that you vote blue in local/state elections. National, I really don't care, they can all be as equally as shitty. However, I am *barely *able to hold custody because I'm trans and in a Republican state. Yeah, America is starting to enter straight Nazi territory. But the Republicans are unapologetic fascists. I don't particularly care about federal elections, they are jokes. But I could not look my nephew in the eye and tell him I didn't vote dem to keep him in my home because "republicans are just as evil" while him and I literally have to live the consequences of the local Republicans weighing down on us every day. It's a minor fight I ultimately have no real weight in, but I'd still rather put all my weight forward for these kids.
Edit: Wanna say I'm not anti anti-electoralism. There were many ways on foreign policy that Trump was objectively better than Biden. On one hand, Trump's crazy brand of right wing isn't particularly special. However, within the rest of America it breeds more people who want to be like him. Normal America won't suffer too much under modern republicans, but we're seeing trans and queer people not just being discriminated against, but fully targeted within these far right states under Trump era republicans. I'm willing to put myself on the line for anything, I'm willing to put my entire next 10 years on pause to adopt a child who needed me this week. However, I also have an autistic (non-verbal, in life skills classes, the likelihood of him not depending on his parents is very low) 7 year old who can't have major shifts in his schedule for stability reasons. Maybe it is selfish, but I'm willing to read about stuff that will provide positive change to his life and stop reading after that, and just support him before there's anything whispering in my ear over it. I'll keep digging on other things for months, but if it's going to change the life of someone that I can't expect to understand the change, I'll just leave it there and support my little guy. I truly think 99.9 percent of parents would feel the same way.
I'll explain literally anything that I think they're able to handle in adult words. My foster son's mom just got arrested for meth and crossing state lines while out on bond. At BEST, she's gonna get a year of prison and 3+ years of probation. I explained that to my foster kiddo, just telling him that his Mom is going to be in prison/time out for a long but, but she'll have to take drug tests very often so she'll probably be sober for a while when she comes out. He understood that and started smiling and giggling because he knows he loves his mom when she's not on every drug she can get. I think these two stories properly sum up exactly why I value stability so much. I'd be more than willing to participate in a revolution or even a shitty revolt that went no where. But I would need to be 1000 percent sure that it would provide some stability to the children I care for, who have already seen so much instability within their lives. If it were just me, I would just lean into my beliefs 100 percent and eat the consequences. But as a parent? I'm willing to start trading quite a bit, more than I even should be able to trade, to guarantee his stability. Maybe my decisions are right, maybe they aren't. But that's up to my children decide when they grow up to be adults, not me.
This really comes down to individual people in local offices and regional politics in general. For instance every single local democrat in my area runs on a platform of being "tough on crime." They're also always talking about diverting public funds into subsidies for tech companies to lure silicon valley investors. They get away with it since it's a Democrat stronghold city and the courts are all democrats.
But democrats in deep republican areas tend to be better
Yeah, wanna make it clear that I'm not disrespecting people that have the logical choice of not voting. You're perfectly fine in not voting if it truly makes no tangible difference.
I just live in Missouri. For reference, our schools have started doing 4 day school weeks because of funding cuts, but also won't increase cigarette pack tax whatsoever, even if it means 5 days of school a week. Cheapest smokes in the nation at least! I live in an area where Republican brainworms have gone beyond brainworms, and have gone into destroying the people around them.
I live in an area where the difference between democrat and republican is funding schools or not funding schools (among many other issues, but that's the biggest domestic issue). I'm okay with people not voting for president, that's perfectly okay because both candidates are just as awful in different ways. But when the comparison is Claire McCaskill (averagely corrupt dem) vs Todd Aiken (guy who said that women's bodies had a biological reaction to stop r*** to counter abortion and DNA evidence), I do genuinely look down on people who don't participate in keeping their small area of home safe through the few means we're given. Even Missouri people picked McCaskill because they couldn't stand the idea of such a disgusting person being in office. In deep Republican areas, people should 100 percent be voting Dem. In some states, its literally the difference between trans parents being abusive for exposing their children to the "contagion" and being able to keep your children without being harassed. The difference between r*** victims being considered liars because they got pregnant from it, against being able to get some justice. A real example, the difference between paying MILLIONS of dollars to keep trans kids out of their schools vs just letting them use the bathrooms.
I don't hold any love for the Democrats. I just live in a situation where they often have a gun to my head, so I'd rather a Democrat be the head of the school board than the crazy ass Qanon Republican Evangelical. Even if they're awful, they're not going to be malicious. They're not going to consciously try to make my children's life worse.
Local and State elections are the only form of electoralism worth anything. But they're the little power some of us have in truly hopeless situations
100 percent agreed. Local politics will always be the more important elections you should vote for if you live in a bigger country. That's where the real changes to your living situations can be felt as opposed to the President. A lot of people overlook this and I would argue that they should show up on election day anyway so that they can vote downballot for any local elections and referendums.
The electoral process in my country is a little different, so I don't vote for the President but I do vote for the Communist party during legislative elections. Then I vote on referendums or the Communist party at the local level. We've gained some ground in the area which is always nice to see.
Mayors don't decide foreign policy, so it's really a different question