If you live in Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, or Florida (really any of the fifty states, but these are the most critical), AND you don’t want to see Donald Trump elected for a second term, you must vote for Joe Biden in November. Yes Biden is a doddering old man who is experiencing rapid cognitive decline, and yes it is totally unacceptable that these are our choices, but disengaging does not solve the problem, it only makes it worse.
Believe me, I completely understand the inclination to just say to hell with it and check out, but we can’t do that. I have been as guilty of it as anyone but I now fully recognize it was a mistake. But it’s not too late to make it right. Voting is not only a right, it is a responsibility. If we, the people, want to rule, we must be vigilant and responsible.
Right now, our priority is damage control and harm reduction. I know, it has been that way for far too long, and that is extremely frustrating, but it is nonetheless the reality of the situation. We must vote for Biden this year, and then we MUST stay engaged so that we can work toward nominating the best possible candidate in 2028. We must stay informed and vote, diligently, in every state, local, and primary election.
It’s more than just damage control. Everything you said should be enough to get people to vote, but the sad reality is reducing it to that may not be enough. If you’re reading this and considering whether or not to vote, OP is 100% correct. You need to do it. Make no excuse, get it done. But try to feel good about it too. You’re not just voting for one person, you’re voting for an entire administration, and Biden has proven himself in that regard. Under a Biden administration you’re going to have competent people working at all levels of the federal government, which is a big deal. Biden’s administration has done a lot of good as well that is easy to gloss over in favor of focusing on his negative attributes:
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-opinion-biden-accomplishment-data/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/therecord/
You also need to be at the polls to vote for your down-ballot candidates. Do not underestimate the importance or closeness of those races.
No candidate is ever going to be perfect for you. Personally I wish we were finishing the 8th year of a Bernie Sanders presidency. But that doesn’t mean that because I didn’t get it perfectly the way I want it I’m going to take my ball and just go home. I hate the democrat strategy right now, but please don’t let yourself be told that Biden has been a bad president. He’s done some things you can be happy about and some things you can wish were different. If you want to see those differences, the best way you can do that is to be politically active and work for that change. Not participating means you forfeit that right.
Decisions are made by those who show up; it really just comes down to that.
And if the other side is better at getting people to show the fuck up…. You need to make an effort to do the same. Even if it is a far from ideal choice.
If the other side is better at showing the fuck up*
Ftfy we are the sides. Cavalry ain’t comin
Everything you said should be enough to get people to vote, but the sad reality is reducing it to that may not be enough.
I understand why it isn’t enough for a lot of people. I think the biggest reason people don’t vote is they don’t feel their vote matters all that much, and/or they see a certain futility in the whole thing. I understand why, in the face of that apparent futility, many people feel powerless and thus choose to disengage. But, yes, as you’ve said, disengagement does nothing and the only way to take back power is greater engagement. The powerful want us to feel powerless, they want us to be disengaged and they want us to be misinformed, thus we gain power by being informed and engaged, which will lead to us feeling empowered, which promotes even greater engagement.
Personally, I vote in every election. I’m a very well educated, very well informed voter. I know the issues, I know the candidates, I know their track record. Basically, you couldn’t find a more ideal voter. But, I only have one vote.
And so does every illiterate, uninformed, uninterested person who might stumble into a voting booth by accident.
The only thing I CAN do is show up, and hope an idiot with a different view stays home. And even if they vote as well, I’ll at least have the satisfaction of knowing I negated their vote.
I might not always get what I want, but I’ll damn sure show up just in case more of my guys do. Voting is a team effort and I’m doing my part.
I wonder if it would help him to frame his campaign more along those lines “you’re not just voting for me, you’re voting for my entire administration.”
Really needs to highlight the key players in his cabinet. Dudes like a master bench carpenter.
Any President who encourages a genocide is by definition a bad President I’m sorry to say. The ethnic cleansing campaign is already almost complete, all on his watch with his defending Israel and giving them weapons and cover in the UN and in public. Hell, he even lied about the reason on the debate (the one thing he lied about and Trump told the truth about lol). People should still feel free to vote for him, especially if you live in a swing state, but we shouldn’t minimize that millions of Gazans are currently refugees. I hope he fucking shapes up on this issue by November. I don’t want him to take all these votes for him as an endorsement of his pro genocide policies.
I wish you weren’t being downvoted just because people disagree with you, but I do think there are a couple of things wrong with your statement. For one, there has been some sort of genocide level event happening somewhere in the world pretty much continuously for decades. How much, exactly, do you want the USA to be the World Police? Most of us would say we want to be less involved in foreign affairs, not more. Now, many people will say, “sure, Biden’s policy with regard to Israel isn’t great, but can you imagine how much worse Trump’s would be?” I’ve never liked that argument, because just because one candidate’s policies are worse doesn’t mean that we should capitulate to the other guy’s bad ideas. Surely we can find a way to do better, right? But, I think a lot of people will read your comment like you’re making the election a single-issue choice, and that doesn’t tend to read well.
For the life of me, I can’t understand why Biden is taking this stance. He surely knows it’s unpopular with a big chunk of his voters. So why then? I’m sure he isn’t acting alone, he is listening to foreign policy, national security, military advisors. Maybe he’s listening too much to the military industrial complex, and we have every right to be pissed about that. OTOH, we can acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist organization. We can also recognize that Netanyahu was democratically elected. What would you have Biden do, send teams in to forcibly remove him and install our own leader? Maybe we’d just like to stop sending Israel munitions. Seems like a pretty low bar, why don’t we do it? I have no idea. I hate it. I can’t sit here and pretend to be a foreign policy expert however. Maybe by sending the weapons, we keep a seat at the table over how they are used. Maybe without our bargaining chip, Netanyahu tells us to eat shit and carpet bombs the entire Palestinian state into glass. Maybe it really is just the American M/I complex making sure we keep that gravy train flowing. That’s the most depressing, most frustrating possibility, but I’d really like to think it is more nuanced than that.
I hope he fucking shapes up on this issue by November. I don’t want him to take all these votes for him as an endorsement of his pro genocide policies.
I agree with you on that, 100%. At the very least, we deserve an honest explanation.
Thanks, I dislike that, too. The difference between this genocide and others, is that the US is directly involved in this one. Palestinian children are being killed by our bombs, dropped by equipment based on our technology, from deals we’ve given them, and ordered by politicians we are supporting. If the US wasn’t involved, I wouldn’t care as much. But they are. Blinken runs interference for them, defending Israel at every opportunity. We block resolutions against them in the UN. The press uses loaded language with Hamas and the passive voice with Israel caused tragedies and massacres. We promise retribution against the ICC if they prosecute Netanyahu (if you ever need proof we’re the baddies, look at that. Threatening vengeance against international court when they are trying to punish a genocide). Biden has gone around Congress to give stuff to Israel multiple times. They avoid applying any pressure to Israel to let in aid, instead using the vastly inefficient and more expensive failure of a pier. He keeps saying it’s not a genocide despite a bunch of other countries saying it is. They block news of bad things Israel does and actively lie about it. People in his administration have left over these things. I agree with you that the US should be less involved and not be the World Police. But you seem to think this means I want us to go in. If we were not involved, that would be a VAST improvement over the status of quo, of being involved in purely bad ways. At least if we weren’t involved, I wouldn’t feel responsible as an American in a democracy to use my vote to affect change in some way, to do good, agonizing over whether to vote for a “Hitler” because his holocaust is abroad and he’s got better domestic policies. I hate the DNC for putting those of us with a conscience in this position.
Now, this doesn’t mean I think people should vote for Trump. Maybe I should’ve emphasized that more. He’s obviously worse. But he’s not causing this right now, Biden is. So he’s a bad President. I can acknowledge he’s better than Trump on this and all other issues, and still criticize him for that.
I agree some explanation would be nice at least.
doddering old man who is experiencing rapid cognitive decline
Only in the media. Also, according to the media, the orange 34 count felon is completely fine, A-okay, in fact.
Get a grip America. Biden’s policies are popular with Democrats AND RepublicansDidn’t watch the debate, huh? Its all true.
I did. But I also watched a number of his speeches before and after. He over prepared and tripped over his own feet. Reagan likely was in decline for over half his years but they celebrate him now.
Biden did horrible, but he seemed unnaturally prepped to me. I don’t care what the practiced Biden does, I’m more concerned with what he’s like over a cup of coffee or an ice cream cone.
Didn’t watch the debate, huh? Its all true.
Now do more than watch the debate. Listen to Biden speak on every other recent occasion. Would you like to be judged for your worst performance or your average?
There’s a reason why people were saying he was like this for years now. Funny how it was all confirmed the instant it wasn’t completely controlled n scripted.
You got downvoted, but it’s very clear that the Adderall shortage hit the nominees hard.
The problem is, the people who are swayed by this argument were already going to vote Blue no matter who.
To win the election, you need to convince voters who are still doubting between Trump and Biden. And they have definitely heard this argument before, so a different argument is needed.
No, the point of the argument is to convince the people who are not planning to vote at all to show up.
The last presidential election had ~60% turnout. That’s one of the highest turnouts EVER. People sitting at home are indeed the problem.
While voter apathy is a big problem, it is likely that voter suppression targeted at the tie breaking areas has more of an effect on the overall outcomes. Suppression includes duscouraging engagement, leading to apathy.
Like I have voted in every election that I could, but my electoral college votes always went to the person I voted against. Even locally the vast, vast majority of my votes were for the losing party. It is really hard to not be apathetic, and for me voting is a breeze.
Agreed. And to your point, competitive states without voter suppression like Wisconsin and Michigan had turnout of around 75%, while Texas (which is most known for suppressing voters) only achieved 60% turnout.
Texas is mostly a cultural issue. The left in this state are a bunch of defeatist do-nothings who think Texas will always be red. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve talked to a like minded person, asked them about voting, only for them to give some half-hearted excuse why they didn’t/won’t.
With the way early voting works here, suppression is hard to pull off. For 2 weeks you can show up at any polling place to vote, even the ones in the rich white neighborhoods. The last time I voted, it took all of 10 minutes. There’s no doubt some fuckery with voter registration, but you have plenty of opportunity to check your status online ahead of the election.
I have read a lot of reports on how Texas doesn’t provide polling places in poorer, minority neighbourhoods, forcing them to travel far to vote.
And I have also heard reports of people who had to stand in line for hours to vote in Texas. Again, in poorer, minority neighbourhoods.
Are you saying those reports are not true?
The debate fallout has made the fence-sitters’ decision for them.
Dems need a parachute candidate pronto. Kamala would win, too.
If you want to be more strategic, if you can convince right wingers to not vote that also can make a difference. Feed your red-hat uncle’s ideas about how voting is rigged so he shouldn’t bother. Tell your maga neighbor you’ll drive him to the polls and then don’t.
This is an existential crisis. Don’t think the right wing won’t do anything they can to win.
This is such a great strategy, also mention how tRump passed the Unconstitutional bump stock ban and doesnt give a damn about the 2nd amendment.
Or convince them to vote RFK. My dad would normally vote Trump, but he’s an anti-vaccine nutter, so I’m trying to convince him to vote RFK instead.
Ohio used to be a swing state, too, right? Not sure of it still is or if it isn’t, how that turned around. But maybe they should be in the list?
We went for Obama twice and trump twice. It’s complicated. We’re mostly just extremely gerrymandered and divided. Columbus is extremely liberal, rural Ohio is frequently terrifyingly conservative
We did do the right thing in most of the special elections these last twelve months, though
Hell yeah we did. We often do the right thing when faced with a direct democratic clear choice.
Important to talk to people we know, and make sure they actually vote.
If you want to be more strategic, if you can convince right wingers to not vote that also can make a difference. Feed your red-hat uncle’s ideas about how voting is rigged so he shouldn’t bother. Tell your maga neighbor you’ll drive him to the polls and then don’t.
This is an existential crisis. Don’t think the right wing won’t do anything they can to win.
But
the economyrich people’s yacht money though!It would be nice if Biden or the Dems or really anyone had a plan to protect us or to somehow stop what we’re seeing happen before our eyes, but it just seems that there’s no end and the second a republican gets in power it’s all over for us
I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard people insist that Biden’s DOJ is doing a great job, but also that all these Republican leaders are committing crimes with impunity.
Hear hear
You need to vote to make sure the electors just ignore you.
Get the plane tickets while they’re cheap.
you must vote for Joe Biden
The problem with the Handmaid’s Tale was that people just didn’t vote hard enough.
I’ve never read the Handmaid’s Tale, I really don’t know much about it. I don’t know how analogous that story is to our current situation, if it is at all. But I do know that there is a real danger posed by Trump and the Republican party. Is the Democratic party completely harmless? Absolutely not, but I don’t think they are as great a threat to democracy as the Republicans. We should vote for Biden as a harm reduction measure. Yes, just like in 2020. I know people get tired of hearing that, I know people are fed up with the constant hounding to vote for the lesser of two evils, but that is the situation we are in.
That being said, voting for Biden in this general election lIs iterally the bare minimum that we must do to defend democracy, and if that is all we do, no, it absolutely will not be enough. I think a lot of us, myself very much included, dropped the ball over the last four years and didn’t do nearly enough to try and push for more meaningful changes. That has to change, and, again, I’m including myself in that. I need to do more, most of us do. We need to do everything we possibly can to ensure that by February 2029 we will have a better president in the White House, a better Congress, and a better supreme court, as well as better governors and better state legislatures in as many states as possible.
It’s been like 15 years of me saying at first, parallels with Idiocracy, but the last 10 or so: “you know how the beginning of every dystopian end times film begins with the news montage about natural disasters, rising populism, income inequality, and whatnot? Have you read any headlines?”
Idiocracy is a better timeline, the president tried to put the smartest person in charge. Good luck getting that in our reality.
parallels with Idiocracy
Bro, life’s been like that for some people, for forever.
A 145 IQ isn’t that crazy, like 1 in 1200 people. About the same frequency as someone transitioning.
But an intellectual deficiency is defined as 30 points lower than frame of reference, which is normally 100.
For someone at 145, about 84% of humanity is at least 30 points lower. And in your day to day life, you’re not gonna run into that other 16% often
So if one of them was the reference point, like Not Sure in Idiocracy, then this is already idiocracy.
“Ignorance is bliss” isn’t just a saying, being intelligent fucking sucks.
It’s worse than idiocracy, it’s plutocracy.
YES THIS! I’ve been saying over and over since 2016 - I read almost exclusively dystopic sci-fi and many books have a point where the reader thinks “run this is getting too bad it is the time to go”. I’m thinking specifically when June has no money in her bank account (yes it’s a tinge too late even then). So I’ve been trying to figure out when that point in our story will be and last year decided it is id Trump is elected again. We are a lost country and evil has won at that point.
Similar feelings when you read books set in 1930s Europe.
“I want to leave, but Grandmere would never survive such a long voyage.”
Ukrainians I know
I’ve been using the term “pre-dystopia” to describe life right now.
Ooh what about pretopia and it can go either way? Regardless I hear you.
An armageddon half full kinda guy, I see. I like that.
I’m going to start using this.
You guys should go to the streets in millions! (Or share snappy memes, whatever feels more comfortable)
Just make sure that, in taking to the streets, nobody mistakes you for a Hamas or an Antifa
Yeah, don’t be mistaken for antifa. Be antifa!
based
Aren’t antifa recognized as a terrorist organisation? Not that terrorists are always bad, but it is suspicious.
Anti fascism is a loose category of autonomous political movements who are united only by purpose: to oppose fascist actors within their community. Anti fascist activists can be literally anybody doing anything so long as it’s to further the goal of suppressing fascism
Best I can do is upvote the memes.
That’s the crux of social media. Connects like-minded people yet neuters their effectiveness because they think engagement does something in the real world.
Memes are nice, but this would not bring the change
In the best of cases, it can bring like-minded people together digitally who encourage each other to make connections and organize in the real world.
One of the part of Project 2025 is using the military to crush protests, and it will have dire consequences to the whole world. I’m pretty sure the American christofascists will have a much better time exporting their censorship to other countries than China and Russia does, especially if they can just kick out (or jail, or even assassinate) any content provider not doing their dirty job to all regions.
However, some parts of the military are very progressive (they could just betray Trump, side with the people, etc.), and one could make memes about how one can make Molotov cocktails, how to illegally modify your regular AR-15 into a fully-automatic rifle, or how to turn a high pressure washer into a flamethrower.
America is already exporting it’s faschism. In my country (which is now the most hated country in the world) all the right wing strategy is fuled by American billionaires. But here we flight them in the street, our protests are the equivalent of 10 million Americans protesting each day for more than a year
Britain?
Israel
If you live in one of the 18 states that allow everyone to mail in their ballot, sign up for mail in ballots. I get mine a month before it has to be postmarked, giving me plenty of time to choose who I’m voting for.
https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/table-18-states-with-all-mail-elections
If you live in one of the 32 other states, go visit your state legislature and get mail in voting on the ballot.
100% this. And it’s not even remotely arguable.
I’m sorry if this comes across as cynical to everyone but I’m worried about the ratchet effect. Even if we vote in Biden and he doesn’t have a majority in both the House and Senate, no lasting changes to government can be made. Even if we get a slim majority in both chambers there’s no telling if we’re gonna have another Sinema, Manchin, or Fetterman go and betray the party during a critical vote. It feels like there are so many Democrats who are willing to get in bed with corporate and fascist interests and act as sleeper agents.
How are we supposed to prevent them from sabotaging important government reforms? Republicans seem to have all the time in the world to implement their strategies while Democratic voters struggle every election cycle just to keep things from getting worse. Yes I get we need to act more locally but I’m personally located in a deep blue part of the country so my impact is negligible. Other than donating to candidates that I hope won’t betray our interests, I see little in regards to what can be done on my end.
The handmaiden’s tale is basically “what if white people were treated the way Black and Indigenous people have been treated in amerikkka since 1492” so uhhh…
That applys to most dystopian fiction generally.
Or women until a few years ago?
Under his eye!
May the lord open
Fear mongering post, and the top comment tells you who to vote for. Textbook.
- post no. 10^23 that compares USA to a dystopia or a dictatorship
As a non-westerner americans seem really out of touch—at least on the internet. I certainly agree that you need to have political awareness and make decisions that will benefit your country, but this constant stream of tweets and posts that act like living in USA is like living in an active warzone that will get usurped the next day by a dictator is insanely annoying—which is accentuated by the fact that many places on the internet, at least those that I use, are dominated by americans.
This is a post is a follow up to SCOTUS ruling that the president has the same powers as a dictator.
I was unaware of that fact, thanks.
insanely annoying—which is accentuated by the fact that many places on the internet, at least those that I use, are dominated by americans.
The internet was invented by Americans and United Kingdom for its own use and it’s allies. If you don’t like it, go the way of China, North Korea or Russia and invent your own fucking internet and fuck off in your own echo chamber.
I am certainly not trying to offend americans or any other group of people. Pointing out the country of origin of widely used inventions seems like vain patriotism. Do the Chinese tell you to stop using paper currency because you were dissatisfied with it, or complained about it at some time?
No, but I’m not complaining about how Chinese people use paper currency and that it is made worse because so many Chinese people use paper currency. I’m sure if I did that, they would.
I don’t know how you got the sense that I was complaining about “so many americans using the internet”. Just because I don’t like a set of posts made by a small group of people doesn’t mean that I have a disdain for the entirety of their countrymen who use the internet. Well, then again, I guess I should be on the North Korean network if I have a distate for certain things on the internet…
Voting blue no matter their moral standing didn’t end up with a better future? Dang who could have seen this coming?
Voting blue no matter their moral standing didn’t end up with a better future?
Actually it did. You just were in a position to not notice.
Not really lol. We’re choosing between two genocidal old men and poor/working class are struggling harder than ever. Everyone doesn’t live in the same America well off liberals do. The only are people chilling right now is the rich/donor class. Plus if Biden loses this could be the end lol.
QED
This is the better future?
This is the better future?
Are you clothed and eat enough? Do live in a place that is basically comfortable? Do you never really fear for your safety? Do you have freedom of expression and choices and opportunities in the world?
On average, yes, it is better than the past, especially for people in North America and Europe. I could list all the reasons why, for me personally… like the fact that I’m not beaten or killed for my gender identity and that I can marry my partner who can have a successful career despite their race. But I suggest as an exercise you consider how your life would be in, say, 1924. If you can’t come up with anything, huge congrats on your privilege.
It’s easy to forget what it could be like and when we are relatively comfortable and complacent to get into the mindset of complaining that we only have a 55" TV and can’t afford to buy a house. It’s easy to forget that others don’t even have that level of comfort and that but for lucky circumstance we could be that “other”.
So we’re talking big picture across history and the entire species, and not within the scope of meaningful political power of the eminent global hegemon.
But the question is about a better future. Going back in time for context ignores that. There have definitely been pathways to better futures that were missed, but that appears to be disagreeable.
like the fact that I’m not beaten or killed for my gender identity
…yet. The fact that dems are backing an ethnic cleansing SHOULD clue people in that they’ll be working their way down the list soon but this “well MY life doesn’t suck complete ass yet so its BLUE NO MATTER THE CRIMES” attitude of rewarding them for continually sprinting further right keeps people from considering the reality of that.
