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?
Now that Epstein’s Orange friend won I am deeply disappointed in those that learned nothing from WW2 Germany. Congratulations to those that voted to stop this madness I have knots in my stomach knowing things have turned out the way they did. I cannot imagine how it must feel to be an American at the moment. If anyone needs someone to talk to I am here. <3 You do not have to suffer alone.
I cannot imagine how it must feel to be an American at the moment.
It is frankly a raft of emotions that changes by the hour, but none is positive.
As a Canadian I have to deal with this rise of authoritarian BS too. Whatever America does, Canadians try to emulate. I really hope we can look back at this event as a very shitty footnote in American politics that we all can have a nervous laugh at in 50 years.
I could be facing recency bias, but it certainly feels like ever since the rise of Trump, politicians have gotten a lot more bold when it comes to authoritarian/nazi like policy. We’re personally dealing with our provincial governments trying to push for privatized health care, the stripping of environmental protections, and much more.
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
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.
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.
