This ridiculous "purity test" Democrats have to pass to get votes! Oh, so you didn't like Harris' policy on Palestine? I'll bet anything that it was better than trump's and that millions of Palentinians (as well as others in the Middle East and our own military) would be alive today if Harris had been in charge and told Bibi to fuck off; I'm also sure she wouldn't have given him genocidal free rein in the region. But oh, she leaned pro-Israel (I guess?) so toss out that entire vote for her, even though she was ready to implement policies and do what she could to make American lives better. Ace job, 𝑇𝑜𝑚 and everyone else who either felt that way or couldn't be bothered to vote for whatever reason. Jesus Christ, I live in ENGLAND and I still make sure I vote in my American elections!
I suppose my deep, dark secret had to come out some day, so.... I voted for John Anderson in 1980, but only because I couldn't bring myself to back either Carter or Reagan. But I'll never do it again, I promise! Cross my heart and hope to die...
I got my ballot Monday, filled it out yesterday and I'm dropping it off at a drop box today. Voting for Becerra was not what I really wanted but against Hilton, there is no choice. I have in the past, voted for third party candidates for president because the choices sucked. I'm in California, so like Tom Morello, it didn't matter. If we can't vote for who we really want, is it really democracy?
I suspect frequently the ‘both parties are the same’ thing is a lazy kind of see I am too sophisticated performative hipness. I’m way too cool for school… Or to vote… Or presumably to wash… Or to do any of the things we collectively have to do as a community to get along together and make it work together.
I’m not entirely unsympathetic to people who get cynical about systems that have become unresponsive, filled with the corrupt. That’s easy to do, but it’s basically saying swimming is tiring when the current is pulling me out to sea so fuck it gonna stop swimming and see if I can breathe water. Yeah that’s a good plan. That’ll show them.
So yes, I vote.
And no one I have ever voted for didn’t stand for the odd thing I didn’t, didn’t say the odd thing I disagreed with. That’s just how life is. Don’t make perfect the enemy of doing something. Your candidate is your instrument. It will always be a somewhat imperfect instrument from the point of view of virtually everyone using them, but still, job to do, work with what you can find.
Vote. Protest. Donate. Volunteer. Engage. Do things with other people. I’m basically an alien and inclined to want solitude and I manage to hold my nose and do these things because that’s just how the world is. Fucking hell the rest of you can.
good one, Stephen. the nihilist argument is also part of the classic "I don't have to vote bc I live in a blue state," which I used to hear often in New York City. or applied differently, "I don't have to vote bc I live in a red state so my vote doesn't matter." they were always so smug about it, insult to injury.
You're right - the smugness adds insult to injury. All the excuses given for not voting boil down "...my vote doesn't matter," as you put it. If our votes don't matter, why were so many citizens kept from voting for so many years? Why is the GOP trying to keep so many eligible citizens from voting now or making it harder for them to vote?
It’s counterproductive too, when you consider some of the people their efforts would affect hardest are rural voters in red states, the poor side of the GOP base.
Good article. At some point, everyone is going to realize that calling people names because we don't like their behavior (in this case, not voting, but there are many, many others) is just a down payment on the targets of our disdain not only continuing the behavior but actually doubling down on it. It's incredibly counterproductive if the goal is to actually make people *rethink and hopefully change* their behavior, not just let them know you disapprove of their choices.
This ridiculous "purity test" Democrats have to pass to get votes! Oh, so you didn't like Harris' policy on Palestine? I'll bet anything that it was better than trump's and that millions of Palentinians (as well as others in the Middle East and our own military) would be alive today if Harris had been in charge and told Bibi to fuck off; I'm also sure she wouldn't have given him genocidal free rein in the region. But oh, she leaned pro-Israel (I guess?) so toss out that entire vote for her, even though she was ready to implement policies and do what she could to make American lives better. Ace job, 𝑇𝑜𝑚 and everyone else who either felt that way or couldn't be bothered to vote for whatever reason. Jesus Christ, I live in ENGLAND and I still make sure I vote in my American elections!
I suppose my deep, dark secret had to come out some day, so.... I voted for John Anderson in 1980, but only because I couldn't bring myself to back either Carter or Reagan. But I'll never do it again, I promise! Cross my heart and hope to die...
Insightful
I got my ballot Monday, filled it out yesterday and I'm dropping it off at a drop box today. Voting for Becerra was not what I really wanted but against Hilton, there is no choice. I have in the past, voted for third party candidates for president because the choices sucked. I'm in California, so like Tom Morello, it didn't matter. If we can't vote for who we really want, is it really democracy?
I suspect frequently the ‘both parties are the same’ thing is a lazy kind of see I am too sophisticated performative hipness. I’m way too cool for school… Or to vote… Or presumably to wash… Or to do any of the things we collectively have to do as a community to get along together and make it work together.
I’m not entirely unsympathetic to people who get cynical about systems that have become unresponsive, filled with the corrupt. That’s easy to do, but it’s basically saying swimming is tiring when the current is pulling me out to sea so fuck it gonna stop swimming and see if I can breathe water. Yeah that’s a good plan. That’ll show them.
So yes, I vote.
And no one I have ever voted for didn’t stand for the odd thing I didn’t, didn’t say the odd thing I disagreed with. That’s just how life is. Don’t make perfect the enemy of doing something. Your candidate is your instrument. It will always be a somewhat imperfect instrument from the point of view of virtually everyone using them, but still, job to do, work with what you can find.
Vote. Protest. Donate. Volunteer. Engage. Do things with other people. I’m basically an alien and inclined to want solitude and I manage to hold my nose and do these things because that’s just how the world is. Fucking hell the rest of you can.
good one, Stephen. the nihilist argument is also part of the classic "I don't have to vote bc I live in a blue state," which I used to hear often in New York City. or applied differently, "I don't have to vote bc I live in a red state so my vote doesn't matter." they were always so smug about it, insult to injury.
You're right - the smugness adds insult to injury. All the excuses given for not voting boil down "...my vote doesn't matter," as you put it. If our votes don't matter, why were so many citizens kept from voting for so many years? Why is the GOP trying to keep so many eligible citizens from voting now or making it harder for them to vote?
It’s counterproductive too, when you consider some of the people their efforts would affect hardest are rural voters in red states, the poor side of the GOP base.
Good article. At some point, everyone is going to realize that calling people names because we don't like their behavior (in this case, not voting, but there are many, many others) is just a down payment on the targets of our disdain not only continuing the behavior but actually doubling down on it. It's incredibly counterproductive if the goal is to actually make people *rethink and hopefully change* their behavior, not just let them know you disapprove of their choices.