Americans of Lemmy, what is your approach to next year's election?
2020 was... truly unique. It was so hard to stay away from doom scrolling, and I (and many others) were pretty disillusioned by the sad fact that so much of our country legitimately supported the Orange Man. I didn't get a wink of sleep the night of the election because I genuinely considered it to be a make or break decision for America.
My point is that looking back on it, in the end the only real difference I made was at the ballet box. This year I'm going for the Head-in-the-Sand approach. I'm done with the political memes. Done with the Twitter screenshots. It just riles me up and this year I'm gonna do my best to fight that.
Unless he dies, I'm voting Biden. I don't like him, but, best option.
Truly hoping Cheeto chimp gets thrown in jail and disqualified.
I've tried to avoid news well before anyway.
If Trump is the Republican nominee I would vote for Biden even if he was dead.
Truueee
best take. Dems don't follow Biden religiously. He's just better than the godawful alternatives that are on the otherside.
I will stay informed on the issues, but unless the GOP does a 180 on about most of their platform I'm kinda forced to vote Dem (Stop denying climate change, stop trying to de-humanize LGBTQ, stop the culture war shit, come up with a real gun control plan, those would be a start). Hooray 2 party system.
I just turn off the news now, all sources are meant to keep us angry in an "us vs them" situation and never really talk about the real issues, so instead of it just flare up my anxiety and anger I'm just going to keep my headphones on and play games. Someone ping me if suddenly the GOP decides to be pro-humanity again and I need to reconsider my vote.
I hate that Iâve been forced into this same position, I always thought I was open-minded and didnât follow parties, but when the choice is a literal fascist trying to tear American democracy apart with the worst takes on every position and a generic semi-left-leaning politician trying to maintain the status quo⌠I guess Iâll just stick with generic status quo, thatâs pretty much the only rational choice for a sane individual. Even just sitting out the election isnât an ethical choice, thatâs surrendering to fascism.
If he were to die after the ballots are set but before the election, it effectively becomes a vote for his running mate. Still getting my vote over the dollar-store fuhrer.
It's not a question of policy. Republicans literally killed people last election trying to overthrow democracy.
Not that I even like democrats, but anyone who votes red after Jan 6th is fundamentally an enemy of democracy.
It can be easy to feel like a drop of water in a large ocean when it comes to national elections. But you should also vote in your county and state elections; you can probably make more of a difference there.
I'm not saying "don't vote in the national election", but just know that there are other elections to vote in, and thry are just as important as the nationals.
Yah I can vote for the red mayor who wants more cops or the blue mayor who wants more cops. Freedom rings!
Unless you're in a big big city, mayoral and council races can actually have a lot of diversity in terms of political outlooks. Never forget that a town elected a dog as mayor. Nobody that pure would ever make it to federal office.
There certainly are places like that. I'd vote for a dog over any of our candidates in the last local election. Or anyone running on banning the damn roadside signs. Alternatively, the candidates themselves have to pluck them out from along the highway on ramps and whatever other places they've been planted the night of the election and before the morning light.
Our local election was bupkis. The red one won because the blue one won last time and nothing changed and people are still unhappy. The mayoral race prior went about the same way, but the blue one won because the red one in the office did nothing differently and no one was happy.
One of them also wants to ban books.
Vermont, my former residence, has a republican governor that's been repeatedly reelected who the country at large considers a RINO. Non-federal level parties may differ significantly from their national stances.
It's actually the same in BC, Canada where I emigrated... the BC Liberals were partially anti-choice and deeply religious (so closer to the CPC than LPC), as such they recently rebranded to "BC Unity Party"... did they check that their new name didn't acronym to BCUP? No, they did not.
There's so many acronyms here my head is spinning
Voting straight Democrat. The republican party is the biggest threat to the US right now.
This is the argument every single election. Every time, for decades, and yet things get continually worse.
I'd argue the belief that voting for an establishment party is any kind of a long-term solution is the biggest threat. By all means do it if it'll help a little in the short term, but the ship's still sinking.
Short term is all anyone cares about, from government to corporations to individuals. Which is why I only give this country another 50 years, tops.
While I agree in my dislike for the current Republican Party, the attitude of blindly voting for your team because the other is evil is exactly what my (late) fox-addicted grandfather used to uphold. I loved the man, but I think we ought to do better and do the hard work of researching every candidate and choosing the best, be it democrat, republican, or independent.
Gave you and upvote to get you back off zero and agree with your general sentiment.
But - the elections since Trump took the ROC convention have all been different - we must get rid of all the R's we can no matter what at the local, state and national level as soon as possible now that the have proven to be an existential threat to democracy itself.
Iâm voting for the most progressive candidate possible in the primary, and then whoeverâs not the Republican in the general, and I fully intend to do that for the rest of my life.
The Republican Party has some plans theyâre putting together, and between that and the rhetoric that most major Republican politicians and candidates spout these days (very specifically including Trump), itâs abundantly clear theyâve more or less completely given up on democracy, and are planning on dismantling a significant proportion of the core institutions of our country and government, which will effectively usher in the American Empire (as in: a possibly theocratic, but definitely authoritarian and likely outright fascist dictatorship). To be clear: that would be a Very Bad Thing. You think Russia is troublesome now? Wait until Trump or someone similar starts treating them like an ally, emulating as much of Putinâs power structure as possible just because they think itâs cool and would make them look powerful, and potentially teaming up to do shitty things to the rest of the world because we have something like 95% of the nuclear weapons ever produced, and while Russian ones are in a questionable state, ours definitely work.
If Republicans win this next election - and especially if they are able to secure the presidency and both houses of Congress - I genuinely donât think things will recover without significant domestic political violence, which may ultimately result in a civil war. Iâm doing my best to prepare for some âGTFOâ contingencies that could be executed in the next few years, but itâs not an easy thing to do, and thereâs still a huge number of unknowns in a ton of dimensions.
If you think Iâm being hyperbolic, youâre not paying attention.
Oh hey look, it's the only rational voting strategy in a FPTP elective structure! Anyone who thinks different is just more evidence we need Civics back in our schools.
Is there a neutral review of project 2025 that you can point to? That site is ass and either points to a book you can buy or a thousand links to PDFs.
Please define âneutral reviewâ in this context.
The whole thing is unrepentantly and deeply biased, and itâs intentional.
I donât know if this matches your definition of âneutralâ, but it must be said that âneutralâ is not synonymous with âunbiasedâ.
Yes I meant unbiased, but I was unsure if even using that word would be taken the wrong way. I don't want to be taken as a centrist or anything like that, because I'm not even close.
I just want a flat clinical review of what it says versus what it actually means without clickbait sensationalism. It is plainly bad, that much is obvious. But what are the real-life, bureaucratic implications of its potential execution?
Thanks for the link, I'll definitely check it out.
Well I won't be voting for the fascist party.....
I'm going to complain about not having a primary option for president, vote for the left-most person I can in the primary, and then vote down-ballot (D) in November. There's nothing I need to research with respect to these modern conservatives. Most democrats aren't really much better in most ways, but at least I can look my marginalized friends and colleagues in the eye after the election.
Yeah pretty much this. Not much point to me following the political discourse and all that, all it'll do is just make me angry and depressed.
I like the Green Partyâs eco-socialism, but their anti-vaccine lunacy and inability to do anything electorally beyond run a presidential candidate every four years doesnât give me the warm fuzzies.
I like Cornel West, and I appreciate his long-standing commitment to left-wing and anti-racist values.
That said, I live in the real world, where Donald Trump is running as an open fascist promising to make America a dictatorship if elected, and Joe Biden is the only candidate running with a realistic chance of beating him.
So Iâll be voting for every Democrat I possibly can, while wishing they were better than they are, as always.
Joe Biden is also an open fascist who is proudly facitating a genocide and ethnic cleansing
You won't find an American president that doesn't support Israel, you were close with bernie.
I see a lot of people here frustrated with our two party system. I too am frustrated. Donate to FairVote to get ranked choice on the ballot in more states. Ranked choice voting allows voters to express actual preferences between more than two parties and it is a win no matter who you normally vote for. Many states have a ballot measure system that can be used to pass legislation without requiring the agreement of the state legislature. Several US states have implemented ranked choice voting already. http://fairvote.org
Preferential voting is a far superior system.
For those unfamiliar, here's an example:
If you like a minor party, say, the Green party, hate another minor party, say, Libertarian, more than you hate the Republicans and would settle for Democrats if you had to, then your vote would look like:
And if your (1) Green candidate didn't have enough votes to win outright, and no-one else did either, then your vote would go to the (2) democrat, who has all the (1) democrat and (2) democrat votes added together. If the democrat didn't have enough votes to win, then it would go to the Republican.
This is simplified, but should be enough to give the idea of how your vote always matters, and allows a better variety of ideas to flourish.
ALSO: post-election, say the democrats won, but only did because they got a lot of second round preferential votes from the Greens voters, that would help convince them that if they want to stay in power, they need to adopt more Green policies.
If parties get elected with no help and just because the other option is orange meltdown, it does little to encourage improvement. All they have to be is better than the other side (who lies all the time anyway, making "better" appear more subjective than objective).
How to help fix voting in the USA:
Even some of the best countries' voting methods are being constantly tweaked and improved. Nothing is perfect, but it's an embarrassment how far behind the USA is.
Vote DNC and hate it.
Oh, who told you the 2024 campaign slogan?
Iâve voted for both Democrats and Republicans in the past. Frankly, neither one of them deserves too much power.
If Trump is the nominee Iâm voting for the other candidate no matter who that is. There is no circumstance in which I would vote for Trump. The devil himself could be running against Trump and I would either vote for the devil or abstain. If he is the nominee then the election is essentially a fight for democracy.
Although I generally like Bidenâs administration, I am concerned about him and his age. If there was a normal candidate running against him I would consider voting for them, but itâs mostly a bunch of wackadoos on the Republican side.
Chris Christie and Nikki Haley were the only ones in the last Republican debate who had any common sense. Christieâs campaign isnât going anywhere because heâs anti-Trump. Haley is too conservative for my liking. Ramaswamy and DeSantis are garbage humans. The Republicans need a reboot because they really suck.
In other words, Iâm team blue - not because Iâm thrilled with them but because Iâm afraid of the alternative.
That sums it up. Iâm conservative, but the GOP is such a train wreck now I just canât support them.
Iâm on the same page. The republicans need some feedback that what theyâre doing isnât going to win elections. Unfortunately I think it will take losing several more elections to sink in.
Spot on friend. Trumpers look at us and think we like Biden as much as they like Trump. Noooope. There were way better candidates. If anything the Dems are the party of the status quo and republicans are the party of "Fuck anyone who isn't rich, white, and male". I'd love an actual progressive party - I don't see anything that the democrats have done in the last 8 years that has actually been progressive.
Right now, the choices are between boring corporatists and 100% concentrated evil. It's not that hard a choice.
the boring corporatists are fully backing a genocide rn
not really seeing how that doesn't qualify as 100% concentrated evil
I think they're saying that the not-hard-choice is to abstain
Every single US president has backed Israel. Trump was the one that actually moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
"Every president has backed this genocidal state. Why try to stop the trend now?"
Backing genocide and not telling Israel to stop bombing, as even Republican presidents like Reagan have done, takes Biden from 'the lesser of two evils' to just evil. I won't support genocide.
I won't be shamed for not supporting genocide either. That's on the Democratic party and Biden.
Frankly I don't think there much boring about the genocide the corporatist is enabling.
If you avoid everyone who supports Israel in this fight you won't have anyone to vote for. I swear Israel is part of the national narrative on both sides and I don't understand why.
Volunteer and try to primary those old bastards out of office. The Squad is getting bigger every election.
Yea I'm aware that's why I'm writing in hunter Biden.
After voting for people who explicitly said they dont care about my support only to be blamed for their failures I'm putting my foot down and not voting for anybody enabling a genocide.
Don't worry I live in upstate new york so unless I literally wad up my ballot and throw it at Biden so hard he dies my vote will have literally zero effect on the presidential race and I'm aware this is a very privellaged position to have.
I'm also voting straight working families party in local elections which usually get about 80 votes and the working families party candidate is the same as the dems.
In 2016, I was an Independent. Straight down the middle. Would consider reasonable Democrats, Republicans, and 3rd party candidates.
In 2020, I was an Independent leaning Democratic. Would not consider Trump. Biden was locked in. Would hesitantly consider reasonable Republicans or Independents on a split ticket.
In 2024, I'm a Democrat. Will only consider Democrats up and down the ballot. No 3rd parties.
I dont think republicans have been reasonable on the whole at any point in my lifetime. Even Mccain was questionable and he was the best the republicans had.
Imo, there used to be a few reasonable individual Republican candidates here and there. But now they litmus test into these insane issues and they don't adapt when things change in society. They just dig in their heels and start mud-slinging. I'm not even bothering with them anymore.
Do you live somewhere where voting for Democrats even matters?
Its the US so.....no.
Blue no matter who. Nothing has changed about that.
I think leftists ranting about not voting for Biden in the general election at the moment are just blowing off steam, and when election day comes, everyone on the left will remember 2016 and vote blue.
I absolutely will not. Vote blue no matter who is why we have the situation we have. 2016 did not give us trump. Generations of shitty corporate politicians on both sides of the aisle gave us Donald Trump. Populists win because they're popular, and trump got popular by pointing out the factual information that the house, the Senate, and the oval office are filled with corporate skills and corrupt puppets. Sadly, it was the fascist who got popular pointing it out, but it doesn't make that part of what he says untrue.
I live in a red state where my vote for federal office does not count. So I will cast my pointless protest vote for the green party in the hopes that one day they'll get their 5%, and maybe something can change. Down ballot I'll hold my nose and vote for the Democrat in most offices, and if I ever move to a competitive state, I'll do the same for federal, because I'm being held hostage by the corporate shills, and I'd rather my family not die in concentration camps that are inevitably coming if/when the fascists fully take power.
But no. Fuck blue no matter who. Who. Fucking. Matters. If it didn't, we wouldn't be in this mess. Have some standards.
But what are we supposed to do? We can vote for Trump instead or no-one instead. How does that make anything better? We agree there needs to be change, but we still have no real option here.
Hilary Clinton in the 2016 election had supported Trump in the primaries because she thought noone would vote for that idiot. The Democrat Party apparatus will support worse than Trump in the future if they think it will help their chances of winning. You don't want to wait another 4 years for change đ¤ˇââď¸
Donât care. I donât want to hear their BS. Apathy is the enemy. Re-elect Biden, then go out and yell at him for whatever the hell you want. The alternative is never being able to vote again. Not hyperbole. Republicans are actively trying to change the rules to disregard your votes.
Vote against Republicans.
I'll vote for a non-Zionist candidate in the primaries with no real expectation of them winning. But I will vote blue no matter who for national and state politics, and Working Families Party for local if any run.
Is "Genocide Joe" an accurate nickname? Yeah. But fuck that, it's not like Trump will be any less zionist and third parties/independents don't work in FPTP. I'm mixed race, I'm bisexual, I'm worried about worst case scenarios with a second Trump presidency (which is basically "what Trump is saying out loud" at this point,) and I am willing to vote in enlightened self-interest.
Joe Biden is no more pro-Israel than any president before him. In fact, he's publicly asked Netanyahu for humanitarian pauses so they can actually get Palestinian people out of the line of fire. Small gesture yes, but no one else has even mentioned Palestinian survival before.
Democrats. I'd rather vote green party but I'm not an idiot. Even if the green party won they would be able to get far less done than Biden has. Biden isn't amazing or good but he's not the actively trying to harm LGBTQIA and he's not trying to destroy democracy. Anyone who can equate Trump to Biden is completely bonkers.
Looks like napovointerco might pass before the election. If it does we might see a civil war.
Yeah I feel you, the green party has some good positions. But then they go ahead and nominate people like Jill Stein, who has some good but many horrible foreign policy ideas like ending NATO and allowing Russia to do whatever it wants to eastern European countries. In climate areas has relatively good positions, but then despite claiming to follow science she will constantly reject it when it comes to her own bizarre theories about vaccines, banning wifi from areas with children, or trying to ban gmos that have extensive evidence for safety until they meet some arbitrary threshold in her own head and scientists prove a negative, which is impossible. Not to mention what that would do to food prices and create widespread shortages and hunger and cause actual harm around the world if she got her way.
I'd love viable third parties, but they've been picking terrible candidates lately, so I don't really see the appeal atm. I think the path forward there is being active in primaries and pushing candidates forward in the main parties forward who support alternative voting systems like rank choice. Otherwise while we still have first past the post voting, any but the main two parties is never really going to be viable and will probably just end up being counterproductive to their own stated goals.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place. It sucks.
Iâm tired of the 2 party system. I donât think I really have a party or political ideology that aligns with Democrats or Republicans and third party candidates are all over the place. I want to start voting on issues and not just politicians.
I donât care what my politicianâs feelings are. They represent a constituency and the only things they should be speaking about and for are exactly what theyâre being asked for. Instead we have this political machine that takes every issues and gives it a red spin and a blue spin and then itâs force fed to the people.
Congress should not be creating our ideologies they should create the laws that structure the things the citizens want.
The Supreme Courr overturned Roe v Wade, put it on the ballet and let the people decide.
Gun control, put it on the ballet
Universal health care, put it on the ballet
Abandoning fossil fuels, put it on the ballet
Stop forcing your political and personal ideologies on us and start listing to the people. If we vote âYesâ on universal health care, the politicians must then go and figure out how to make it happen.
Let it truly be a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
i'm pretty sure the u.s. will collapse before it becomes a democracy, but it certainly is a nice dream
Preach!! That's how a democracy should operate!
Probably vote blue all the way down the line but I'm going to be shitting on the democratic party publicly and loudly for all the fucked and/or cowardly shit they do because not as bad != not bad.
I honestly think the worst kinds are the delusional people who try to make themselves believe they're "above it all" by voting Democrat for the president and then Republican for their representatives...
Ffs learn how government works in today's era... Maybe that was ok 50 years ago, but now it's just "you're on the other team, fuck your clean bill that's just saving puppies and children, I'm voting no so my supporters don't see me voting with Democrats!"
Everyone should vote for whomever represents them best despite whatever letter follows their name, and everyone should know all of their local and state options to be able to do so. Please do the same for your primaries if you at least want a slim possibility of having a decent option. Ranked choice voting would help a lot, but engagement at least helps a little. Hell, third parties got elected this year even.
People blindly straight party ticket voting after skipping the primaries simply because they just hate the other team is how all the shitty entrenched old guard like Pelosi, Manchin, and McConnel (extra especially McConnel, who even republicans hate) stay in power on both sides. And forgetting about the primaries is how we end up with such weak ass candidates as Trump and Biden. It's so good damn infuriating.
Same as usual. Vote for the least harmful candidates while advocating for actual grassroots improvements, because voting harder won't move America to the left, ever.
Definitely voting for someone who doesn't support genocide for president. Down ballot I'll likely vote 3rd party as well, but I haven't decided for sure.
Congrats on helping to ensure you'll never again have the right to vote during traitor trump's fascist dictatorship that you'll be enabling.
Hey I'm voting third party in a deep blue state also, you wanna be wicked condescending to me too? Take that energy to the phone banks, I bet the democrats never tried making a total ass of themselves before.
Honestly there's not that much one can do, but I will:
I live in a solid blue state, so my national-level votes don't do much (though I'll cast them anyway).
In past years I've thrown a few hundred dollars at close senate and house races. In 2020 I volunteered for a phone/text bank sort of deal to make sure people were registered to vote.
Do people say both parties are equally bad? Iâd agree that both parties are bad, but âequallyâ? Maybe a decade ago, but not anymore.
You'll find republicans say that. Equally was more than a decade ago. They actually had a chance too. When the Tea Party started, it was actually grassroots. But then they got hijacked by people like the Coch brothers which twisted it to their desires.
Well, I've had to remove multiple people that used to just be right leaning for outright fascist statements and ideas in the last few months as they've deteriorated into hate speech and ethnic cleansing....so while I grew up conservative...yeah, I can't support that shit.
Democrats are a mild improvement at best but at least they aren't constantly being approved of by the KKK and being touted by mass shooters.
I'd like a proper left-leaning candidate, but with America's history. They'll end up assassinated.
Your democrats are other countries conservatives, so you could make that choice without straying too far from your path.
Nah, I find being a humanitarian feels better and offers to help more people than conservatism.
You right, thiugh.
There is no electoral solution to the accelerating depravity of this evil and crumbling Empire
I emigrated. I'll vote by mail and hope for the best, but the two party system America has will inevitably produce horrible results.
Choosing between only two options is not freedom by any means.
Well my choices are backslide slowly by voting dem, maybe buying enough time to get out of the country safely in the next few years, or risk being federally persecuted for being trans. So I'm going to dissociate through the whole thing and hopefully won't be able to remember voting for fucking Biden. Outside the election I do what I can to support actual leftist movements but until any of them have a chance to win against the fascists on ballots I'm team 'slightly better of two shitty choices'. I just want to be left alone to garden I hate all of this
Voting by mail as usual.
Trying to avoid customers that can't shut up about how wonderful trump is.
"I think he's the antichrist but he's doing a good job"
You know, bat shit insane things republicans say.
It does not matter who I vote for for federal office. My state is never close to competitive and my house district is gerrymandered.
If fascists win my districts for state office, it will not affect the balance of power in the state assemblies.
So I told all of the Democrats running for state and local office that if there is not a primary for the presidential election, then I will not vote for any Democrats in the general elections in 2024, for any office. Maybe they can put pressure on the DNC.
This is the only way I can potentially have any input.
The only way this works is if Democrats would shift left if they started losing elections because people refused to vote for old white male conservative Democrats.
But I fear they would actually shift right. The Democratic Party is not a big tent that holds both the neoliberal corporate shills and the progressives. It is a hostage situation where the neoliberal corporate shills demand our support, otherwise the fascists will kill us.
I just want to say that your vote for the federal office does matter even if you live in a non-competitive state. Some states allocate a percentage of their electoral votes rather than all or nothing but even if yours does not, voting still adds a data point that says I support this person instead of that person. There have been several times where a candidate has won the presidency without winning the most votes but it was always very close to 50%. If everybody that had a preference voted and the outcome was 55% this guy / 45% the other guy and the other guy won... that could be a real driver for change to the electoral college system.
My state is winner take all.
If my vote does not affect outcome put only expresses support, I am voting for somebody actually good (often from the Green Party).
Even if it was 55/45, nothing would change. The Senate would be very close, if not in favor of the candidate who got 45%. The House would probably also be close, because the legislatures of the states that voted for the 45% candidate would still gerrymander. The only change could come from the states that voted for the 55%. If they gave all of their votes to whoever won the national popular vote, nothing would change. If they did proportional allocation, then it would get even worse.
My vote does not matter.
People who aren't insane on social issues have been fleeing the GOP. This is, and will continue to pull Democrats right until some viable alternative emerges, if it ever does.
Definitely not voting for either of the parties that killed Roe v Wade or any of the parties that support the zionist genocide of Palestine. That leaves...PSL again I guess
Pumpkin spice latte?
Fred Flinstone about to flip his shit
I'm checked out of voting, I live in Texas. Nothing but card-carrying neo-nazis in this shithole. Shame too, because I'd love to live in Austin if I could afford to.
Maybe I'll just vote PSL or something.
Hello fellow Texan. I also plan on "throwing my vote away" for PSL. If they are even on the ballot, that is.
Also, I recommend North Austin if you are looking for something less expensive. Depending on how close to the metro rail you are, life might be more car-dependant. But you'll still be close to more like-minded individuals, and will have a clearer path towards moving more in town if you want.
I remember 2016 going to bed with Hillary in a strong lead and waking up to a conman in office.
Well she did win the popular by several million but it's not like anyone actually cared what the people wanted.
The miles and miles of empty dirt's vote was way more important for some reason.
I was in a brewpub in Greensboro that night. They sold a lot of beer that night.
Live in upstate new york so unless I throw my ballot at Biden so hard he dies my vote will have exactly zero effect on federal elections.
So voting for people who think public education is a positive and not communism in local elections where the differential is 12 votes and writing in Hunter Biden for president because it's funny.
hard liquor probably
I'll research the voting habits of the candidates and vote for whoever has proven they can vote for what they believe in and not just party lines. So, probably no one.
For president, there's no way I'm voting for the orange convict if he's the candidate, which he probably will be because people that vote republican are morons. Unfortunately, based on where I live, my vote won't matter. I'll vote anyway.
I donât want someone that âvotes their convictions 100%â any more than I want a party hardliner. Thatâs just a different kid of zealot. I want people that lead with their convictions and then vote contextually with a willingness to change, grow, and adapt.
Right, but pretending there's any nuance in a 2 party system where one side is right of center and the other side is full blown proto-fascist is naive. There's no version of history where the Republicans are all of a sudden creating an ecosystem where they support working class policy.
Oh right, the person i described would never be a republican. Likely not a democrat either, but infinitely more likely to be.
Thinking Green party this year or whoever isn't trying to fuck us over
Tell liberals they have to vote for Stein because it's her turn.
A vote for green is a vote for the popular party in your district.
Or, and hear me out on this, it's a vote for the green party.
Cry most likely. Voting doesn't seem very effective and it's less so when the choices are conservative extremist or conservative light.
Don't vote for a perfect choice; vote for the best choice, and keep doing it. You're not going to get 'perfect' right now, but excising actual cancer will improve the long-term health of the beast and enable even better choices in a few iterations.
The bourgeois elections are the least important part of politics
If I dont vote Biden, it's a vote for Trump. If I dont vote Trump it's a vote for Biden. cancels out.
Voting 3rd party is like voting for 3 people it seems, I'll take advantage of that
Same. I voted 3rd party last presidential election cycle and it was cool because according to partisans (and their "support my team or you love Satan",) this means I also got to vote for Hillary and Trump at the same time! Separate people assured me of this several times, so it must be true. Isn't democracy great?
In all seriousness, I'd like to see a moderate party run a candidate. "
No Labels" Forward (the party that's totally-not-a-party, founded by Andrew Yang) seems promising.You mean the forward party? "No Labels" is something different.
Edit: No Labels do market themselves as "moderate" though. But from what I've seen, it's more of a "corporations' dystopian version of bipartisanship" moderate rather than "roughly middle-ground views of average Americans" moderate.
shit, you're right. I had the two confused.
Not Trump
get drunk
That too.
Not voting. Both parties suckle only at corporate teats. My domicile is in the reddest state so my vote doesnât matter & it costs like $10â15 to mail in my ballot from abroad making it really not worth my time or money.
They said vaccines for all Americans during COVID then someone had to come in & asterisk that that doesnât include Americans abroad. You pay taxes but no services like Medicare are offered abroad & youâre one of the last on the list of priorities so feeling disillusioned is the normal.
I think avoiding political memes & etc is probably a good idea.
If it's Trump on the ballet. Whoever else is better. Keep Hitler Jr out of office.
I have become a little active in my county party. Trying to learn the Democratic way of doing things (first impressions: no one is in charge). Hoping to be able to use my database and reporting skills to help improve the ground game for 2024.
Further develop contingincy plan to GTFO of dodge if the country is insane enough to elect the cheeto man again.
Literally where can one go?
Countries don't just let you live there unless you're an awesome doctor or engineer etc. Anyone worth accepting already knows that.
All the other Americans who think they will just move to Canada are in for one hell of a surprise eventually. They'd probably try to do more to fix things here in the US if they understood that.
I can get Canadian citizenship and my wife can get Irish citizenship. Hope it doesn't come to that, but the crazy people here scare me, and they're going to pull some wild shit no matter the outcome...
A reelection of Trump will prompt seriously considering an exit strategy away from the US.
Passport processing times arenât too bad right now, but will likely get worse as the election is closer.
I'm not party affiliated, but I will vote for the Democratic Party candidate. It wouldn't make any difference in my state, but I do it anyway. My state doesn't swing, so I will probably send some money to Democratic candidates in closest out-of-state Senate races (I don't waste money on sure winners or losers).
It's a hold-my-nose thing, since I'm really only about 50% in agreement with them. I tend to swing farther left on certain issues and near-libertarian-right on others. My primary concern at this point is averting a slide further into fascism. I've spent quite a bit of time in formerly-fascist countries and it's a messy thing to untangle. The scars last for generations.
I'm gonna become the gosh dang joker yall
I'll just vote for whoever gets the coveted Hexbear endorsement.
So Owlbear
Glory to Owlbear đĽ¸
Ignore all media, vote for whoever the democratic candidate is.
I realized that all the election media just makes me angry, and I already know who Iâm NOT voting for, so thereâs really only one choice anyways.
Vote for the least worst option. Cry because I live in a red state and it won't make any difference.
That's what Georgians thought in 2020. They voted anyway.
And then Georgia flipped blue.
Arizona here. Very likely voting straight Democrat. Weâre a swing state that feels like itâs swinging further Democrat at time goes on. At least at ground level, it feels like things are changing for the better. Phoenix doesnât look and feel like the land of the Karens and boomers as much as even 4 years ago.
they all moved to Scottsdale
Vote for whatever communist third party is available as far as the federal level goes.
Point and laugh
If Trump gets elected again somehow then... I don't know what we can do to fix the country. I can't put into words my feelings about that situation, but I worry it will cause me to no longer believe our country can be saved.
Not voting for the capitalists. It's the least I can do.
I'm gonna make sure my loved ones are armed and have ammo.
To vote in it.
Not in a state where my vote counts so it doesn't matter much. My political plans are trying to avoid getting thrown in jail per the popular bipartisan SB 686 for being too outspoken about opposing the genocide of Palestinians.
Since the 2010 Citizens United decision when the supreme court legalized bribery, the best I've been able to hope for is a managed and slow as possible decline into a feudal-like state with a heritable and defined noble and peasant class. Hopefully nuclear war will prevent the worst possible consequences of climate change so I can have a little hope while I'm being vaporized.
Being from an "every vote counts" country with compulsory voting, this seems like such an alien response to me.
The US would benefit from being a compulsory voting country. Thereâs a couple of ways of conducting polls - two of them are âlikely votersâ and âeligible voters.â The LV model can vary from poll to poll but usually has some criterion like âvoted in the last election.â
The LV polls are usually to the right of the EV polls, and the conventional wisdom is that the greater the turnout, the better the democrats do. Republicans on the other hand are generally trying to make it harder to vote.
So compulsory voting with vote by mail would pull things a bit to the left, at least for a few years.
Does your country use First Past The Post elections? Because that's how we do things in North America, and all it does is boil all of politics down to 2 parties.
I don't even have a clue what it means. Sounds like a horse race or a running race, except yank elections never have any politicians fit enough to swim in a race, let alone run in it.
No, we all vote (unless we are rich enough to pay the non-voting fine, many well-off people choose not to vote and pay the fine) and the votes are all counted. I assume you mean they only count USian votes until one team has "enough"? Seems very corrupt, but it doesn't mean your vote isn't important.
North America has a lot of countries in it, you don't seem to realise that?
Let this be a warning to you, then. We are part of the same species and we have the same vulnerabilities in our socially constructed systems give or take. Without constant vigilance this could happen to your country. Do not trust anyone who has power over you. Ever.
Writing in Xi Jinping (no, not that one, a different one)
Not voting and enjoying a beer
A lot of trolling about voting green party, not voting, not voting Biden. Any of these positions is pro Trump, and that's the simple truth.
So admit that at least, you WANT a dictatorship.
Eh I understand the long term apathy and eventual giving up.
They cant keep winning votes by just not being republicans. They will always not be republicans and eventually people are going to want more out of them.
I don't understand accepting tyranny. The two party system kind of sucks and we can work on it, but once you accept the tyranny of an authoritarian, you're fucked. Oh boohoo Biden is old and centrist, the option is a dumpster fire that is infinitely worse.
When will tyranny happen? Trump was president before and everyone thought that he was going to take over as tyrant but he never did because he's too lazy for that. Biden has been involved in murdering civilians overseas for like 40 years and trump hasn't. Trump is the lesser of two evils
I do want a dictatorship...of the proletariat
Oh you'll get what you deserve then
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I've been dreading it since 2020. I might turn my phone off the entire year.
I wish I could let everyone who's going to text me know that I've already made a decision and they don't need to waste their time or mine.
I think it was Lewis Black who said, "I don't know if you've noticed, but the two party system in this country is a bowl of shit looking at itself in the mirror."
I vote for who earns my vote. I refuse the forced choice of two terrible options.
That's how democracy is supposed to work. You're supposed to stand by your principles and vote for whoever thinks represents you best. Voting for the lesser of evils a divide and conquer tactic by the duopoly
It's gonna be a shit show. Two shit choices again blowing hot air every which way with billion dollar advertising campaigns.
The area I live in is wildly deeply democrat so my vote is irrelevant anyway, so I'm just voting third party. And until then I'm gonna try to avoid the whole mess.
Fucking democrat all the way. Primaries I'll vote for the less corporate candidates. The republican party is fascists and traitors.
I live in DC, so my vote doesn't really matter. So I'll be leaving the president spot blank, and just voting for the most left non-incumbents I can on city council, ed board, etc etc.
The 2020 election got me off of facebook and most other social media. Not quite sure how Iâll approach Lemmy going into 2024, seems ok for now and not the dumpster fire that facebook was during 2016 and 2020. If it gets too bad I might block national news & political communities and see if that helps. I already know that Trump/GOP represents fascism in America, so I donât really need more news to confirm that point or help me make up my mind going into the election.
I'm not voting for Genocide Joe unless the US forces Israel to end its genocide of Palestinians.
Since 3rd party votes and not voting have exactly the same effect, which method do you plan to accomplish literally nothing with?
Iâd love to take that stance, but I donât want fascists in power here who are promising political persecution and dismantling democracy, and also support the genocide of Palestinians. Project 2025 is terrifying.
Yeah, democracy has been really good to us so far
Whichever is the lesser of the evils. It seems that's been the majority of our choices lately.
To be clear I'm all for the people: whoever will create the least amount of suffering, and retain the greatest amount of human rights. It feels like we've stopped making progress and the best we can do for now is cling desperately to what we still have
So... not republican. Obviously.
Apparently Americans forgot about the years 2016-2020. Trump is polling favorably and if an election was held today, he'd probably win.
I'm not saying this to encourage complacency -- too much is at risk. Everyone needs to go out and vote.
But on the other hand: look at how those polls are conducted. The vast majority are cold calls, and what are the demographics of "people who answer calls from unknown numbers in an era of rampant phone scams" these days?
I stopped responding to polls this year because I don't trust conservatives not to conduct fake polls to find all the libruls.
I literally don't feel 100% safe to respond to polls texted to my phone. Historical fucking times these are.
What a shitty place this country is becoming where a POS criminal like trump polls well.
Hope my liver can outlive either Biden or Trump depending on who gets elected.
Fighting like hell right now to get viable candidates for local offices in my area, because the deadline to announce your candidacy is less than 30 days away for us, and many offices go uncontested. I might not pay too much attention to news on the national level, but I'll definitely be spending the next year working to campaign and canvass for local candidates, register people to vote, and helping people get to the polls.
My state has open elections. In the primary, I'm voting for the least bad republican candidate. In the general, I'm voting democratic, which unfortunately probably means Biden but at least not trump.
Waiting for the impromptu Cornel West vs Jill Stein debate ig
Things will get inevitably worse. Voting might slow that decline slightly if we're lucky.
The only hope for any kind of improvement, to reach a slightly tolerable world, is mass action outside of voting, and that just doesn't seem to be happening. So it's hard to care too much.
So far it's shit.
I really believe individuals are looking at the issues wrong. Choose a side because of this choose a side because of that. Why aren't we rephrasing it as - stay away from that side, he doesn't know who the current President is. Stay away from that side who believes people are "vermin" Stay away from that side, it's a bunch of old dudes that dodged the draft to do drugs.
People should start choosing elected officials that will help us, not tear another individual down.
We have a generation of geniuses that haven't figured out how to fix private insurance yet we can develop AI that can scan images for any abnormalities with a higher success rate than doctors.
We can design and model infrastructure to be more efficient yet we'll keep those plans in the attic and let them go to waste.
Greed will win, and I don't know how to communicate that I can solve all of these problems without demonstrating I too am greedy, but my currency is human progression, and a few extra bucks to get us there.
Oh boi I gotta watch which bourgeoise gets elected again. The Redfash or the Bluefash.
The only reason he lost is because people were loud, reading, reposting and following. People who probably wouldn't vote did because of the doom scrolling post being shared and talked about. Personally, I will continue to do it because this guy is running on revenge.
"Vote early, and often."
The same way I always do. Ignore as much of it as I can until I get my ballot.
Research people/issues as I fill out the ballot.
Check the results the next day to see how the results shake out. Repeat for the next election.
My approach is the same as it's been since 1996: FUCK THE REPUBLICANS.
I don't need to follow the news. I don't need to pay attention to dumbfuck liberals or self-styled progressives online. I know the score, and I know what to do. "Vote blue no matter who?" Fuck you, you self-righteous, terminally online shitfountain; I've been doing that since I turned 18.
Why? Because GOP = KKK, and has been since the fucking Nixon administration. The Republicans are terminally infested with fundies, fascists, and white supremacists, and has been since Lee Atwater came up with the Southern Strategy.
Unfortunately, this means voting Democrat or for myself as a write-in (when the only candidate for a given office is a Republican). Why do I call this unfortunate? The Democrats are a neoliberal party. They might allow progressives to run in primaries, but its corporate-friendly neoliberals who make it to the general election. That means having to vote for capital-friendly stooges like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. Unfortunately, voting third-party or not voting at all helps Republicans more than it harms Democrats, so I've got to hold my nose and vote for neoliberals to keep neo-Nazis from winning elections.
However, I'm not holding out much hope for Dems in 2024. All Biden had going for him in 2020 was that he isn't Trump. That's not going to cut it in 2024. Not after four years of everything going up but our wages.
Frankly, I'd rather just kill 'em all and let the carrion-eaters sort 'em out. Fuck democracy; we barely even have a republic. What we have is an empire governed by an oligarchy that has generally managed to swap out figurehead emperors every 4-8 years without a lot of bloodshed.
Super fucked both ways
You can have a choice, where one outcome is significantly better than the other. It's that simple.
One fash
Two fash
Red fash
Blue fash
Hold my nose and pick the minimum harm candidates.
I will vote for Democrats for every position and hope like hell it all works out.
I'm personally going to vote pekka haavisto and be done with it.
Me too. Although I will not cry if Stubb takes the presidency. Will not vote for him, but it will not be the end of the world either.
I am voting for cornel west. I don't give a fuck about stealing votes from biden. cornel west is who I like so I am voting for him.
I hear you. West is inspirational, and Biden is far too old and not exciting in the least. I donât like Biden one bit. But unfortunately even if a vote for West is not necessarily a vote for Trump, itâs still a vote against Biden, which makes it more likely that Trump will win. Almost none of us get to vote for a person we actually like, so Iâm genuinely begging you to reconsider and vote for someone who has a chance of winning. Unfortunately unless something radical happens in the next few months, thatâs only Biden and Trump. If youâre trying to send a message with your vote for West, I donât think the people that matter will hear it. I wish things were different, but unfortunately this election is between a boring old institutional politician and a racist, fascist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, insurrectionist rapist.
I miss the days of the boring old institutional republicans. Third party wasnât such a big deal when it was Obama and McCain.
I just need to go viral on some platform as 'the people's choice' president who will put most major national decisions that aren't classified up to polls on said social media platform. It's the perfect solution to rake in those who don't want to vote for 80 something geriatrics. I have about a year to implant myself into the world of politics.
I also considered legally changing my name to 'No Vote' for a bit.
I am still hoping (sure it won't happen) but the GOP pick someone else so Trump runs as a independent.
Turn on, tune in, drop out.
Find the best candidates running by doing exhaustive research, then, if they meet a minimum standard, vote for them. If no candidate in a given race meets the minimum, abstain on that race. I'll vote in the Democratic Party primary even though I'm not a Democrat just because that's the de facto election for most offices here in Chicago.
I know in advance that most of the candidates I support in the primary won't be in the general and most of the candidates I vote for in the general won't win, and most of the candidates who I most want to keep out of office (because they're corrupt) are running unopposed (because they're corrupt). I know this but I'm still going to vote anyway, and encourage everyone else to vote as well, because that's the only hope we have for improvement.
Same as every election the last decade. (Before I got married I never voted in the primary out of principle, but my spouse convinced me that was silly.)
The last time I was actually idealistic about an election was 2004. 2004 showed me the harsh realities of contemporary politics all too clearly.
Thinking about buying a gun and starting training so I'm not behind when the shit inevitably hits the fan.
/s ... Mostly
I like Ike.
Don't vote, and whoever tries to shame me can go climb a tree
Jimmy Dore is moderating a presidental debate, I will watch that. Some info here, freeandequal.org
Same as usual. Vote for the individuals that seem like they are the best person for whatever position I am voting on at that point in time.
Historically, I havenât cared about what party they were affiliated with, however I suspect itâs going to be a good long while before I vote for a Republican again.