Image Transcription:
A tweet from the George Takei Twitter account which states:
"A Democrat was in the White House when my family was sent to the internment camps in 1941. It was an egregious violation of our human and civil rights.
It would have been understandable if people like me said they’d never vote for a Democrat again, given what had been done to us.
But being a liberal, being a progressive, means being able to look past my own grievances and concerns and think of the greater good. It means working from within the Democratic party to make it better, even when it has betrayed its values.
I went on to campaign for Adlai Stevenson when I became an adult. I marched for civil rights and had the honor of meeting Dr. Martin Luther King. I fought for redress for my community and have spent my life ensuring that America understood that we could not betray our Constitution in such a way ever again.
Bill Clinton broke my heart when he signed DOMA into law. It was a slap in the face to the LGBTQ community. And I knew that we still had much work to do. But I voted for him again in 1996 despite my misgivings, because the alternative was far worse. And my obligation as a citizen was to help choose the best leader for it, not to check out by not voting out of anger or protest.
There is no leader who will make the decision you want her or him to make 100 percent of the time. Your vote is a tool of hope for a better world. Use it wisely, for it is precious. Use it for others, for they are in need of your support, too."
End Transcription.
The last paragraph I find particularly powerful and something more people really should take into account.
Voting out of anger or protest is what got Obama elected twice, Trump and Biden once…so far.
Saying democrats or voting got black people rights is a slap in the face of those who literally fought for them.
It played a role. Because the Democrats and President Johnson were in charge during the Civil Rights movement, we got the Civil Rights Act. Because the Republicans and President Trump were in charge during the BLM movement, we got jackshit (on a federal level). This stuff matters.
The parties didn’t have unanimous ideological consensus within them back then, that’s really only been a thing during the last 30 years.
Great illustration of this from Biden during a campaign event in 2019:
At a New York City fundraiser Tuesday night, Biden told donors he has reached across the aisle throughout his career. “I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland,” Biden said, according to a pool report. "He never called me ‘boy’; he always called me ‘son.’ "
“Well, guess what? At least there was some civility,” … “We got things done. We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today, you look at the other side and you’re the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don’t talk to each other anymore.”
Those “across the aisle” politicians he pointed to there were James O. Eastland and Georgia Sen. Herman Talmadge, both racist segregationist Democrats.
I fully agree that politics have changed, I’m just arguing that having a sympathetic President and Congress in office makes it significantly easier to get legislation passed by protest.
Oh if we are just going to pull things out of our ass in the hopes it makes things true I’m a multimillionaire and my wife and I are set for life! See, my statement has just as much truth as your little made up victim complex statement.
There is no more tolerance on the left than there is on the right.
Hahahaha you centrists are so fucking stupid
“Not trying to incite anything.”
says only incorrect, inflammatory things
profit??? (from being a paid actor to incite discord, because I don’t want to believe an unpaid idiot is posting such horrendously idiotic takes unprompted)
My father beat me when I was a kid, he ran for child services president and I voted for him. I heard that the other guy beat his kids more, so I really had a moral duty to vote for my dad. You guys, it’s really important to vote for the guy who beats his kids less.
Actually it doesn’t matter how much he beat you when the other guy molested and raped woman.
My local mayor wants to increase funding for the public transit, but he didn’t say ACAB, so I’m not gonna vote for him even if the other other guy is gonna slash the public transit funding by half 😤😤
You make a good point.
The person you responded to also makes a good point.
There’s no one-size-fits-all (all voters or all elections) solution on this one.
All we can ultimately do is encourage our fellow voters to open their minds, learn all they can about the issues and candidates, and make the best use they feel they can with their right to vote.
Shaming someone for not voting for your candidate is a great way to repel them from your camp long term. Respecting their decision, even if you disagree with it, sets a much better example of the sort of level-headedness you’d likely want people to associate with your causes.
Does shaming people for saying slurs repel them from your camp long term?
Is it acceptable to respect someone’s decision to say r*ard because it sets a better example of the kind of level-headedness the anti-slurs camp wants people to associate them with?
Like it or not, shame, not fitting in with the group, is a motivating force.
How? It is exactly what it sounds like when people say to vote for the “lesser evil”, especially in this post.
If there was absolutely no chance for some one other than the two child beaters getting elected, then it would make sense. But that’s not the case for the US presidency.
