I was trying to think about why today has significance, and then it hit. History may not repeat, but it rhymes.
Today, U.S. voters determine the future direction of the entire world. We shouldn’t have this power, but that is irrelevant. Do we explore the world of authoritarianism, with major powers all falling under despots, or do we stand alone?
There is no way to overstate the stakes here. This is not hyperbole; this is simply the truth.
There’s only one thing you can do. This election is not about you (though you count); it is about what we leave to posterity. An unlivable world? Permanent oligarchy? For those with kids or those who want them, do you want them to grow up with clean air and water?
And do not do this third-party shit. We got Bush instead of Gore because of 700 votes for Nader in Florida. Harris isn’t perfect, but don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. A vote for Stein is a vote for Trump unless you’re in a ranked-choice locale.
Yes, we have a broken system, but now is not the time to lament it by further fucking things up. We can eventually have that conversation as a nation, but in the '90s, when I lived in Germany, it was still considered gauche to be proud to be German. Is that the 50 years you want going forward here?
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Not to take away from the importance of voting Harris today (or hopefully, prior to today), but this:
We can eventually have that conversation as a nation, but in the '90s, when I lived in Germany, it was still considered gauche to be proud to be German. Is that the 50 years you want going forward here?
feels out of touch. It’s already gauche in most progressive circles to be proud to be American (What are you proud of? The settler-colonialism? The Imperialism? The choice to back genocide? The still-haven’t-abolished-slavery-ism?). Lots of us know that this supposed “eventual” conversation will never actually come. We’re never going to get the country to move to RCV or abolish the electoral college, if we forever stick to the parties who directly benefit from the status quo.
Vote Harris today if you can, people, because it’s too late for anything else this cycle, but we have to stop this spiraling descent rightwards by adhering to a party that would rather lose Leftists than “Centrists”. As people who care about social justice and progressive politics, we should be abhorred that our platform is palatable enough to Dick The-Fucking-War-Criminal Cheney to get his endorsement.
For every person claiming that we’ll eventually totally have the conversation about the party platform, there’s another Centrist Democrat who is saying, “No, actually, the party doesn’t need to move leftwards… It’s always been a lesser of 2 evils choice… Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good by drawing hard lines like not supporting genocide…”.
Republicans unshackled themselves from their Centrist arm of “respectable” anti-social-justice goons to fully embrace their white supremacism in the open, and those goons have now taken up residence in the Democratic Party in response.
If we’re just fundamentally unwilling to consider unshackling ourselves from them, we’re never going to stop the rightward-shift happening now. We didn’t move Leftwards in the 60s because our politicians led us there, people protested and rioted and made people uncomfortable until they acquiesced and got off their asses. And unless Citizen’s United gets overturned, that route isn’t going to work within the Democratic Party, because the police are now powerful enough to keep protesters from actually making politicians feel uncomfortable enough to choose their constituents over their corporate donors.
At the risk of not be(e)ing kind, unless you can give me a timeframe for when “eventually” is, you are part of the problem, providing cover and excuses for our rightward shift as a country.
We got Bush instead of Gore because of 700 votes for Nader in Florida.
No, Gore likely had more votes (if they had performed a statewide recount). We had Bush (and Cheney the now-Democrat) because SCOTUS stepped in to stop the recounts, and the Democratic Party chose to “keep the peace” instead of fighting it. Just like they will every time.
A vote for Stein is not a vote for Trump if you live in any solid blue or red state.
How is Bush the counterexample reason to vote for Harris while she is actively campaigning with Dick Cheney?
We can eventually have that conversation as a nation
That’s a good way to describe the last 50 years of American politics…
Cheney, for as much of a tool as he may be, at least hasn’t shown himself to be fully engulfed in the maga cult and recognizes that allowing Trump into power is a legitimate threat to the entire system. It’s less of an endorsement of Harris and more a rejection of Trump.
I’m glad you asked actually, because I’ve been seeing a trend for the last few years and I think it explains the shift that people have been pointing out in the Democratic party. The way in which many Democrats felt railroaded into Hillary in 2016, I think the same is happening to the Republican party, albeit more unknowingly. There is a not insignificant amount of Republicans who have been disenfranchised from voting red because that’s just what you do. It all comes down to the Republican party being split by the MAGA cult, with those Republican voters wanting to return back to the status quo of red vs. blue. Of course what they don’t realize is that the culture war that the conservatives have been imposing is what created this whole situation in the first place.
Anyway, this is where Dick Cheney comes in. Yes, a representative of that culture war that brought us here, but not a MAGA cultist. An endorsement from one of the most recognized Republicans is an attempt to move back towards the classical conservatism, away from the clamoring fervor that the Trump presidency put the country in. Remember that the stock market is important to these voters (and his donors), and Trump had everything set up in his favor and still squandered it. Corporate America does not want a repeat of this and despite polling and the media playing everything up, I personally don’t think the MAGA voters will have enough voting power.
That is to say, if the Green Party is meant to siphon votes from Democrats, The Classical Republican Dick Cheney is meant to appeal to the votes from Moderate Republicans and maybe convince some Republican voters who would have voted red “because that’s what you do”, to instead vote for Kamala.
This isn’t to say his endorsement of her isn’t damning and that the leaders of the Democratic haven’t been shifting away from the left. Just positing that like many of us, there’s a portion of Republicans out there who are just as tired. There are still far, far too many who seem like a lost cause, but it’s easy to forget that just because they’re Republican’s does not mean they are MAGA, so hopefully we see the results of that this election.
Additionally, Trump was the figurehead. I realistically do not see someone being able to replace him, and I do not entirely see Trump supporters moving on from him to some other political figure. The are so many people who vote for him because he was a reality TV businessman, because of his personality, quite literally a parasocial relationship with the president. Even if Trump endorsed someone else, I would be somewhat surprised if it were effective. At the very least, it will need lots of pushing from FOX Entertainment News.
Voting is one (important) part of what you need to do if you’re an American.
Do what you can outside of elections as well, like writing to your representatives, getting involved in local politics (it matters!), and attending protests/marches.
And pushing for a better system to break out of this mess. !rcv@ponder.cat
A vote for Stein is a vote for Trump unless you’re in a ranked-choice locale.
unless your in NC and voting for josh stein, who’s actually pretty great.
Let’s see this madness ended today. My daughter’s will not be handmaidens, my young son will not grow up learning hate. As a child I was told our generation will fix the problems of the past and that assignment is long past it’s due date.
Well, if those in power were willing to step aside for a new generation, we might have been able to do something. We were told we could do anything … except apparently participate in government at the federal level until they’re dead and AARP is coming for us. At which point, we’re the out-of-touch old people.
Well at least I got a sticker out of the deal
I’ve honestly just been trying to keep my head up and hope for the best. I talk to the people in my life, encourage them to vote, share my political opinions where I can, but I’m ready for this election cycle to end already. I’m sick of worrying if I’m going to have to flee the country some time in the next year to avoid ending up in some sort of camp or just lose access to medications and legal protections. I’m ready to have a solid Democrat that I’m maybe mildly annoyed with for the next 4-8 years and try to drag them further to the left rather than this danger mode existential horror shit.
I feel like enough Americans are in the same boat or similar boats that we’ve got this, but it sure is tense waiting to find out.
Covfefe, treason and plot
