vote, please

Permanently Deleted

Here in Huntsville, AL, a Democrat recently won a representative position by a wide margin.

It's possible to turn a red city blue or keep a blue city in a red state. It just takes all people to show up to vote.

And here's the rub: Democrats far out number Republicans, so the more people that vote, the higher the percentage that Democrats can win by.

This is good. I like this actual explanation way more than the shitty bus metaphor.

You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: “Why didn’t you give the new city administration time to act?” The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

people need to remember that part of the reason the country keeps moving to the right is because there are large swaths of the population that like it that way. it's not just the elite feeding the right propaganda to the people - it's the people looking for more and more conservative candidates as they watch their 'christian nation' become secular and their white cis male dominated culture become more open.

we need to stop believing that most people are by nature good. there are plenty of little fascist dictators in every small town community that want to see people suffer.

the truth is that we need a great culling of the rotten apples in every aspect of society.

Frederick Douglas wasn't allowed to vote.

He worked hard for candidates who couldn't promise to abolish slavery, because Douglas knew that a tiny step forward was vastly better than doing nothing.

A lesser known hero was Dashiell Hammett. You might have heard of his books, 'The Thin Man' or 'The Maltese Falcon.' There have been dozens of movies based on his book, 'Red Harvest.' In 1941 he was richer and more famous than Stephen King is today.

Hammett supported Left causes with his money and his actions. When WW2 broke out he was a triple 4-F. Too old; a veteran of WW1; and he'd been gassed and had a medical discharge. Hammett knew all about America's Jim Crow laws, and the imprisonment of the Japanese Americans, and everything else. He volunteered, and fought hard, to get into the Army, because he hated Nazis that much.

Mention those guys when someone tells you that they can't vote for the Dems in 2024.

This is one of those things where I’m in agreement but I’m also fucking tired of hearing the “lesser of two evils” bullshit (in general). The country is going to continue to drag right because that’s what benefits the ruling class. That’s the reality. Both parties and both candidates are playing their roles in this continued push. Thinking we actually have a say in the end is the first mistake, like voting in federal elections in the US is some massive action. It’s the whole ratchet effect in politics. You can either vote for the far right candidate, or you can vote for the center right one. That’s it. Those are the choices. We can sit here and make these absolutely garbage people the focus of our entire discussion and move the needle nowhere, despite knowing exactly how this is going to play out, or we can make it moot and focus on organizing while not wasting time talking about filling a circle in on a piece of paper while patting ourselves on the back. In the scheme of things the working class can do, that is the bare minimum.

I don’t give a shit about any of these candidates. All I know is that one is committing genocide and the other is a boomer criminal that employs a bunch of family members and other sycophants, who would also commit the same genocide if given the chance. Because thats what the ruling class beast demands and nothing stops it. People make voting into a bigger thing than they do organizing and educating. Bide your time. Vote if you want or don’t. Scolding people is a waste of time and it’s divisive. It continues the divide that the ruling class wants because they know it’s one of the key factors that prevent the working class from uniting as one. We have the numbers. The fucking Ants movie tried to tell us.

The reality is that if we want real, actual change, it’s going to require us to get out of that comfort zone where we fill in a little circle with a pen and then act like we moved mountains. That right there is privileged lib shit. Your vote isn’t going to mean fuck all when we’ve witnessed the candidates change for years, while war and genocide continued under all of them; while the police state thrived under all of them; while trans and women’s reproductive rights were taken away or hindered under all of them.

These are the times when I wish Fred Hampton was still alive.

as if someone isn't going to end up in that seat regardless of what you do???

Lol. Lmao even.

Sure, if you really only have two shitty choices, by all means pick the one that's less shitty. That isn't what Democrats are proposing, though. They have 4 choices (or more) and are eliminating candidates based on "electability", not values.

Going back to OP's Discord group, what happens when a progressive runs for office? Do they support them? Or do they say "Sorry, you have no chance of winning here, so we're going to support the lesser fascist"?

I love how every discussion completely avoids the topic of people running against these far right fascists themselves. There's always a ludicrous number of scapegoat reasons why not from people of all backgrounds.

It's forgotten about all the time. Also, I'm in a state where you're not supposed to know what political affiliation your local representatives have. It's only for state government and higher that run partisan divides on the ballot.

It ensures that you're voting for someone who you'd potentially like and their actual issue stances rather than their political affiliation.

You'd be surprised how many common issues people bridge on despite them being on crazy ends of the Democrat/Republican spectrum.

Personally I think it's an easy plot to get more Republicans voted in at the local level, but in reality everyone can run. It's all practically a part time job or even a retirement job for most. And you often only need hundreds of votes. Meanwhile think how many times you've gotten up/down voted into oblivion here or on reddit. You'd be surprised how easy it is to run a local campaign with a free website and making sure to show up for candidate debates/round tables.

I'm done being lectured.

If moderates and liberals won't allow anyone to fight fascism head on then it's not just a possibility it's a guarantee. Fascism runs on misery and this country has plenty of it. Addressing unaffordable housing, healthcare and education would take the fight out of people. When people are busy living and enjoying their lives they don't have the time or energy to worry about what somebody else is doing.

And to establishment Democrats credit, they pay lip service to addressing these things but that's about it. They claim they can't do anything without the presidency, a majority, a super majority, a super majority without any defectors. There's always an excuse on why nothing is getting done. But losing isn't an option. So if the establishment Democrats want us to believe we can't accomplish anything through traditional means for decades then guess what, it's time to try something less traditional.

Enter the rail strike, a real opportunity for Democrats to show who's side they're really on. Here's a clear cut fight between workers and corporations. Time to bring these disagreements to a head and draw a line. What do they do? Under Joe Biden's direction 44 Democrat senators vote with 36 Republican senators to block the rail strike.

Liberals and moderates praise Biden for this. They praise Biden for siding against American workers. We are not on the same side.

If liberals and moderates truly believe Trump and MAGA are a threat, if they truly believe Democracy is worth protecting then it's time to compromise with leftists and progressives. If they won't do it now they never will. Which means the choice isn't between fascism and democracy. It's between fascism now or later.

I choose now. Let's get this over with.

Feels like there's some sort of a spiritual element at play too. One option might be better irl, but it isn't worth it if you think choosing either will get your soul damned (in a religious, social or self respect sense)

do you guys seriously think we don't vote? dude im forced to in my country, this is completely irrelevant.

you are not even listening, if you wanna do something go organize and stop wasting time and brainpower on that shitty theater for fucks sake.

your country is already fascist and already not a democracy. scribbling on ballots aint changing this.

"oh lets me choose the fascist that can be reasoned with!", "choose the genocidal racist with a blue hat instead of the red one!" you guys can't be that dumb, I refuse to believe it.

Left isn't an ism. Left isn't an ideology. Americans are fucking stupid. Read a book.

This is why voting isn’t an option. What’s needed is violence and force, these people can’t be reasoned with or expected to take the rational option.