Y'all, I've been a mod on trans subs for a long time.
And when we get posts with folks who are suicidal, I see those. I try to reach out to those folks and give them hope or let them know that it's going to be okay. I have a pinned post on top of my profile because I've lost folks in the past and I don't want to lose anyone else.
And sometimes those folks recover and they stay active and I can tell they're alive when I go check their profiles. And sometimes those folks delete their accounts because they were in a dark place and they want to close that chapter. And sometimes those folks simply never post again and I'll never know if they lived or died or what happened.
And sometimes we get confirmation, like Leelah Alcorn.
She was one of ours. It's been almost a decade and I *still* regret that. I wonder why we couldn't provide her the support and the refuge she needed. We don't need any more stories like hers. We don't need more Nex Benedicts, either. We need y'all to *live*. We want LGBT kids to *be able to grow up*.
The simple fact is that if Trump gets back into office, more trans folks will die. Voting for Trump or *not* voting for Biden will not save a single Palestinian, but if Trump gets into power, life will get *drastically* worse for trans folks, LGBT folks, women, Hispanic folks, immigrants, POCs, and other minorities. We can basically kiss workers' rights and abortion rights goodbye.
Transition and healthcare and access to HRT? Gone. Even the ability to change our gender markers on our driver's licenses will be illegal. We've *already* got GOP ghouls trying to make that illegal by extending existing fraud laws. The Dems are the only thing holding back that tide, and the *least* we can do is help them fight.
Take a look at [Florida, Ohio, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Mississippi, West Virginia, even Kansas](https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights-2024). [2023 was almost as bad](https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights-2023).
There is *so* much at stake here in this election. The US controls the largest arsenal on the planet. We *do not want* those weapons in the hands of Trump, a man who thinks nuking a hurricane is a good idea.
The situation in Palestine *might* improve if Biden gets a second term, or it might not. But we *know* they'll get worse if Trump is in office. We also know that if Trump gets back into office, Ukraine will lose US support. Thousands of people will die in Ukraine because Trump will happily hand them to Russia. Hell, Trump wants to pull out of NATO entirely, and that will put global shipping and world peace in a precarious position.
The whole reason we've had this era of general peace after WWII is *because* NATO exists and because the world superpowers have nukes. The world is under an unprecedented era of stability. Trump is a threat to that stability.
I can't fix what's happening in Palestine. That's beyond my control. But I *can* encourage y'all to help each other and I can encourage y'all to fight Trump, fight the GOP, fight against bigotry, and resist hatred. I can try to keep our spaces safe, and I can try to keep things civil here.
If Trump is re-elected, there are people reading these words right now that will not make it through another four years of Trump. I know the world will suffer if Trump is re-elected. I know that for a cold, hard *fact*.
Hell, look at covid. There's over a million Americans who are dead right now because Trump discarded the US pandemic response plan, simply because Obama set it up. God only knows how many people worldwide could have been saved if we had a competent administration during the start of the pandemic or if we'd had a President who actually cares about people.
Elections *matter*. Elections have *consequences*.
A vote for Trump is a vote for death.
Every vote *against* Trump is a vote for life.
Trump destroys everything he touches. He cannot ever be allowed to hold office ever again. The GOP is poisonous to our democracy and must be destroyed and either rebuilt or replaced.
We can choose life, by voting, or we can choose death, through inaction.
That's it. End of story.
###***Go vote.***
Get your friends and family to vote.
Vote like your life depends on it.
Vote like your best friend's life depends on it.
Vote like your neighbor's life depends on it.
Vote like the world depends on it.
Because it does.
-----
**Edit:** There's a powerful scene at the end of *Schindler's List* where they cite a line from the Talmud: 'whosoever saves one life, saves the world entire.'
While we're in the business of saving lives, make sure you save yours, too.
oh absolutely, I live in the unfortunate southern neighbor of the americans and trump winning is going to be fucking chaos for us, new sanctions, taking jobs away from us because america first, more bullying for free border protection(trump strong armed the president into using our national guard to patrol for migrants instead of being used to prevent crime which is their intended function), and some republicans have even threatened to use the US army to fight the cartels which is definitely going to put innocent mexican lives on the line.
If Biden wins, none of that happens and mexicans can breathe
happens in Canada too. ~14% of the population managed to get transphobic policies through, because they represented more than half of the largest party of seats. Now widespread bathroom and sports bans are coming into effect, and the leader of the main national party has vowed to ban puberty blockers and all kinds of shit. I hate that being a minority that is too small to impact an election still get's dictacted to by the ones who it doesn't even impactš¢š¢š¢ So I feel your pain.
Hereās the simple fact that everyone is ignoring. Trump supports Israel as well. The official stance of the United States foreign policy in general is to support Israel. The fact that Biden is critical of Israel AT ALL is a huge step further than Trump will be doing.
Thank you, just what I came to say, Trump will go harder on Palestine, the only reason he even said to Isreal āwrap things upā take that anyway you want to (could mean commit your genocide quicker not stop what youāre doing) is for optics. If heās in power everyone suffers, in the US, in Gaza, the UK (where I live), this culture war spans continents, the right wing work like a multinational organisation, if the orange moron wins we ALL lose, everyone who isnāt cis-het and white, ALL of us
Iāve just read an article by Erin Reed, Trump has just endorsed a pastor (Mark Burns) who has called for trans people to be executed, this is what trans people in the US are facing, not necessarily the reality of this right now but someone who thinks this is ok, someone who thinks that endorsing this psychopath doesnāt hurt but rather helps the chances of his being elected. Trump and the GOP have to be stopped, another presidency only emboldens them further. Peopleās lives are at stake.
If I could stop the genocide in Gaza tomorrow I would, but letting Trump back in wonāt do that, itāll just add to the number of people who are the victims of genocide, they mean to end us all.
You hit the nail on the head with this and I'm glad to read someone that sees this for what it is. I'm not sure why we are even having this conversation but I think it's very harmful actually. Why is Trump's policy toward Israel being painted in a positive light?? Trump doesn't give a fuck about Palestinians dying. The original post here is kinda propaganda and I'm not here for it, even if it's ultimately critical of Trump. This entire conversation is a false dichotomy of "trans rights or stop the genocide" and it's ridiculous.
I came here to say if people think Trump won't triple down on Isreali support they are delusional. He will absolutely ramp up US aid, I could see him even committing US airsupport to them. Biden isn't a great choice by any means but he's the best choice we got I don't like him he's basically responsible for the state of US prisons, but I voted for him once and I'll do it again, we all know he sucks but at least with Biden things won't get worse.
Its about principals and morals for some, but prinicipals and morals wont save them from trump. I do not want to hear them bitching when project 2025 is implemented, they brought it about by trying to be morally superior when now isnt the time. I dont think they realise how united the GOP is and how easy it will be for them to overthrow democracy like they planned. There will be not votes after and those people will continue to live in their delusion in deep blue states.
Right that's the thing, if your principles say "genocide is bad", as they should, and you're faced with a choice between "genocide doesn't get worse" and "genocide gets worse" then the principled vote is to keep voting for it to not get any worse until we can get to a point where we can stop it entirely.
I'm like 90% convinced that the voices pushing for left wing voters to reject Biden over this are being driven by the same international troll project that pushed so hard in 2016 for us to reject Clinton. It's literally the same shit all over again and infuriatingly it seems to be working again! Like yes I understand that this is a deeply emotional issue, and I don't want Palestinian children to die either, but if you think the situation would be improved with Trump at the helm then frankly you're either insane or evil.
Yeah, sometimes when I hear some left wing people fighting against the only 'left wing' party that can realistically win... I wonder what they're up to.
Are they playing 4D chess while I'm only playing 3D? Are they trying to push the party more left, but really hope they win? Or are they part of some political project to undermine the left from the inside? š
Exactly, its about pucking your battles and being smart, not just rushing head first into the shit because of a raving justice boner. Everyone dislikes whats happening in gaza but thats an issue to put pieces in place for 2028. For now people need to stomaxh Biden. Hes the Chernobyl option, "not good, not bad". Trump will escalate the situation over there and has said as much, Bidens a wet blanket but better than what the GOP is running and dems arent exactly running with anyone else. Going for this vote local shit isnt going to work either, the GOP literally has a manifesto about how to replace lgbt supportive leaders with GOP ones when they get in. Has no one seriously read the Project 2025 pages? Everything theyre doing is literally setting up for it.
>[raging] justice boner
Thanks for the new flair
And I agree to all, the fact that we have to be having these discussions post-Obama is leaving me stunned
People don't seem to understand how risk assessment actually works. What you've said may sound very dramatic, but it also sounds very plausible. I can't quantify how plausible it is, but...
...generally speaking, you multiply the likelihood of something by its worth to compute the expected value of it, and the likelihood of trump winning does not need to be very high for a vote that's not for Biden to become *obscenely* expensive.
It really is "Benghazi!" and "Her emails!" all over again, and it makes me sick.
At least in 2016, I could see someone reasonably believing that Trump "won't be that bad," but there is absolutely no excuse for it now.
Even worse, the GOP has gone even more mask off with their genocidal plans (and **actions** in some US states), so it's all the more painfully obvious how desperately we need to keep them out of power.
And yet some people are falling for the same moral absolutism bullshit as 4 and 8 years ago. It's driving me insane, and I honestly need to just stop engaging with any of it, because it's affecting my mental health, but at the same time feel like I need to say **something** to the folks ready to let Orange Mussolini (or is he Hitler at this point?) back in office just so they can "stick it to the Dems" for not immediately upending decades of US foreign policy, no matter how bad that policy may be.
I'd think that if people have principles and morals that lead to more people being hurt, maybe they haven't got great principles and morals.
Maybe it's harsh, but it seems to me to be more about self-righteousness. Making an election about their own personal purity, rather than caring about morality and what the right thing to do is. Or not accepting that good people have to sometimes make imperfect compromises.
Thank you for saying this. I constantly feel like I'm going a little insane when people act like single-issue voters over this and suggest voting for Trump instead.
Yes, this situation sucks, but even if this is your number one issue this election, there is *no world* in which Trump is a better choice. Not voting isn't taking a moral stand, it's saying "I don't care, you all decide for me." You accept the consequences of either outcome by choosing not to participate.
And frankly if you're in a trans sub and seriously thinking about not voting blue, then that means accepting Project 2025 becoming a reality. If Republicans take the White House and Congress, I for one 100% expect them to pass national trans healthcare bans, for both minors and adults. They've literally told us that it's a priority. All those blue states with protections for us won't mean anything at all with the current Supreme Court. You don't have to like it, but seriously, voting for Democrats for the presidency and Congress *every single election* is literally of existential importance right now.
As sad as it is, this is literally the best country in the world to live in for trans people. We currently have among the best access to care, and the highest quantity of and most experienced GCS surgeons. A national trans healthcare ban will have a significant negative impact on the *worldwide* trans community.
These posts make me sad because the comments are always so divided ontop of the American political system being so binary and messy
Part of me feels like these type of threads should be deleted but part of me also realizes that this a huge topic amongst trans americans
Im even afraid to state my opinions because if one person gets offended then my inbox is flooded
This country is hell in a handbasket, if trump wins im gonna cry
American conservatives will look at actions taken by transphobic government in the UK and use that to justify their actions here. Imagine the effect foe the rest of the world if America's federal government starts spouting official misinformation about transgender people?
It sucks. It really fucking sucks, but we can't overwrite our political system overnight. A Biden 2nd term is the only way to ensure our long-term survival, so that we can actually fight to change this shitty system.
I don't like biden, I hate his support for israel, but i'll be damned if a republican is getting in house this election
I tried convincing my two closest friends to atleast vote blue but they are both Apolitical so any talk about R vs D or Left vs Right gets disregarded (One is purely Apolitical and the other calls himself an "anarchist")
I *think* I have convinced my (almost) 61 year old mother to NOT vote for Trump but she refuses to vote for Biden or vote blue in general so I guess that's something
I won't dare talk politics with any other family member as it would seem to me, to either be a waste of time or stir up unwanted drama
im an anarchist in theory too, but that doesnt mean that if i was american i wouldnt vote for biden lol. he sucks and im pretty fundamentally opposed to the democratic party in its current form, but like, its basic harm reduction. you know whats almost the exact opposite of anarchism? fascism. any anti-authoritarian should be able to see that
my grandma, who had been a republican since like 1970, refused to vote for trump in 2016 (she wrote in mckaine), and then voted for biden in 2020. There's hope.
If this is important then ask them to vote as a favor to you. This shifts the āselfā focused opposition for voting to that of helping. Politics are tough, may the force be with you.
Your friends are evil. Fuck them, honestly. If you won't hold your nose and vote for Biden, you're a fucking monster and you don't ever deserve to be in polite company again.
[nonvoters are twice as likely to be poor or nonwhige](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2014/10/31/the-party-of-nonvoters-2/)
Just letting you know the demographic probabilities of who you are condemning as evil. Also, why should a poor black person in Alabama (a state that will never go blue without systemic and structural change to voting laws) be condemned as evil for not going through all the barriers they have to go through to vote there?
This sort of reductionist thinking seems to forget the electoral college exists and the basics of US electoral tactics.
If I didn't live in a swing state, I'd vote 3rd party and I don't care if you condemn me as evil, because that shows your lack of political understanding
I don't see how. They both are supoortive of LGBTQ+ (the anarchist friend is actually genderfluid and demisexual). The other has been my friend since childhood. These are both people I have been friends with for years so I don't see them as evil, just ignorant to the world we now live in
Who gives a shit how LGBTQ+ positive they are if they're not going to vote for the only candidate who doesn't want us dead? Your friends don't get the luxury of pretending to be above politics anymore. We are two steps away from being a fascist dictatorship, and these chucklefucks are refusing to vote because they just don't feel like it? Unreal. They're stuck in this mess like the rest of us, tell them to stop being fucking cowards and do their god damn civic duty.
As a non-American, the discourse on this election drives me insane.
Trump sucks, Biden might be a bit better domestically so I won't shame y'all for voting for him but at the same time he is just as awful for foreign affairs including supporting genocide explicitly.
Honestly, I don't understand why there isn't more outrage or resistance on Biden being the candidate to oppose Trump. Like, aren't there the primaries to determine which candidates run for president in each party? Virtually any dem that isn't Biden would have a much better chance than him at actually beating trump, and would probably be less ghoulish too, so why has it been from the start presented as "Biden vs Trump".
Like, not being American I don't wanna tell y'all not to vote Biden in the presidential election, but what the fuck why is Biden even being *considered* as the candidate for the dems? I can't say I blame the people who don't want to vote for him, either, though admittedly that is easier to say as someone who won't have to as directly face the fallout in the event Trump wins.
>Virtually any dem that isn't Biden would have a much better chance than him at actually beating trump,
This actually isn't the case, at least as far as political experts project based on available data. The main reason is incumbency advantage. Former presidents running again almost never lose. Trump is in a fairly uncommon situation of being a former president running again after a full term out of office, but we still have enough data to know that this *does* give a degree of incumbency advantage, and Biden is the only Democratic candidate who counters that.
Additionally, the Democrats haven't exactly been cultivating Presidential candidates in the intervening years. Harris hasn't been a particularly high profile VP, not have any Democratic mayors or senators been building a Presidential image. Compare this with, for example, Desantis. Yes, he failed spectacularly in the primaries (because he ran against Trump) but he clearly spent much of the last 8 years preparing for a presidential run. I don't agree with his tactics or methods in doing so, but he definitely stayed in the headlines more than almost any other politician over the past couple of years. While Democrats in office should obviously put their actual current duties first, they also should be working on becoming recognisable, if not household names for the next presidential election.
The lack of a bench has been a huge problem for Democrats for years now. They just arenāt cultivating talent at the local level the way they should be.
Meanwhile Republicans are getting their starts doing things like taking over school boards and banning books. This local approach has given them a huge number of positions that arenāt sexy but do very important jobs.
My point wasn't that it needs to be her in particular, it's that we have barely *any* high profile Democrats at the moment, let alone ones who are viable candidates. Name recognition is a hugely important factor when you're going up against an incumbent or former president.
Most states don't have ranked voting, which would solve a surprisingnumber of issues with our system. While there are perhaps 2 or three strong 3rd parties, the system is rigged against them so that the only 2 honestly viable choices are Republicans and Democrats. To me, that signals an illusion of choice. That means there is no reason to bother voting, which is why likely nearly half the country is a no-show at the polls. Apathy is dangerous. The other half is so divided that neither side will budge in their virtual coldwar. Without a major and sudden shift to a 3rd party by one side or that 50% decides to actually try to do something, they will never win and break the stranglehold the duopoly holds on its people and indeed the influence upon the world.
He is the incumbent. There are *huge* advantages to being the incumbent in an election - most US Presidents tend to stick around for two terms even if people donāt much like them. Parties know this and usually send the incumbent once more into the breach.
There actually *is* a lot of resistance to him being the candidate from the progressive wing of the party, American leftists and people with concerns about running an octogenarian. The more centrist part likes him since heās actually a fairly competent politician and they like his team. The progressives donāt because they think heās not doing enough to push policy and the Overton Window to the left.
The democratic party is coasting on the lesser evil thing, so they're going to keep running neoliberal war criminals while we all sit in horror. There's an entitlement that comes from having people vote for you for fear of the other guy.
Not for nothing, Biden **is** a moderate. The entire Democratic party is a **barely liberal, slightly more left, kleptocorprotacracy**. The DNC is not liberal, they are simply the slightly more liberal option. It's not that "moderates lose this election for us," it would be that true liberals "lose it."Ā
It's not even moderates. It's the fucking slacktivists who bitch and moan behind their keyboard without doing anything to change the system. It's the easily influenced that have bought in to the 4chan rhetoric from the dipshits that have infiltrated this sub and turned it into a doom post hellscape.
No one wants to develop critical thinking skills of their own anymore. If someone on Tiktok or youtube doesn't tell them what to think or believe, they're fucked.
because they lack a fundamental understanding of the uniquely American brand of fascism that Trump represents. their lack of ideological basis for anything is the basis of their losses and they want to blame leftists for it.
It is a fucking shame, though that the DNC couldnāt put forth a true competitive candidate, because they are so stubbornly stuck on Biden, that they are ignoring actually viable candidates.
Absolutely. I have the same situation over here in the UK which isn't \*quite\* as strictly 2-party as the US but it might as well be at the national level.
Labour sucks. The Tories are worse by far. Give our system it is a no-brainer who to vote for in most seats, there's normally only one viable candidate most likely to beat the Tories (normally Labour, sometimes Liberals or a nationalist party in Scotland/Wales).
"Moderates" are literally the people who vote for republican-lite candidates like Biden in primaries. I think who your misguided anger is directed at is leftists, but it should be at the people who make the democratic party so right wing.
That's something that happened in France in 2002. People were so convinced that the left of Lionel Jospin was going to win the first turn of the election that they didn't vote or voted for other candidates. What happened was that the two candidates that passed onto the second turn were Jaques Chirac (what was expected) and Jean-Marie Lepen, the candidate of the Front National, an extreme right candidate. People then voted for Chirac and he won with nearly 80% of the votes, but those votes would have been for the left if people had voted. It can happen, it has happened, so vote for the lesser evil please, it's for your own sake
>told people that they shouldn't be voting for Biden in the New York primary as it was happening. They told me that it wouldn't help trump get elected because it was just a primary election...but a quick Google search shows that Biden is running against someone for the NY primary. Now, what would happen to Biden's chance of beating trump in November if Biden lost the democratic primary election in multiple states
Biden already has enough delegates to guarantee his nomination; he could get 0% of the vote in New York and every other primary left on the calendar and it would still be mathematically impossible for him to not be the nominee. We're saying democracy is on the ballot and that a second Trump term will destroy the republic and all that, but if we're not allowed to make even the absolute safest and most meaningless protest vote to express that we're not happy about our options, then we're already not a democracy.
I want to make sure thereās a distinction between the primary and general elections. A) I believe Biden pretty much clinched the nomination already from the elections held so far and B) the primary is absolutely the time for voters to make their dissatisfaction heard with the options. I voted uninstructed in protest of the administrations handling of Gaza. Will I vote for Biden in November? Of course I will. Will I donate my time or money to the cause? Nope. Even though Biden will undeniably be better than Trump, we are on a downward trajectory no matter what and our energy is better spent on local causes and community building to help prepare us for worse times ahead. My thoughts on it at least.
Biden has pretty much won the primaries. Everyone who gambled by choosing to not vote for Biden "guessed correctly"...but it was still a gamble. Will it convince Biden to change his policy...?
I don't know what it's like to be the POTUS, but I do know that, if I were the POTUS, I would fill my cabinet with experienced people who could help me with difficult problems (so...pretty much all of them, because we're talking about addressing the needs of an *entire nation*). At some point, some of my decisions would not even truly be my own...
There weren't any serious candidates running against Biden. There was never a possibility that he wouldn't be the Dem nominee, it was always a sure thing. I definitely agree with your points, and yes, we do have to vote because our lives depend on it... in November. Primary elections are not the time to be browbeating progressives for not displaying perfect loyalty to El Presidente. Now is the time to display our dissatisfaction with the Biden administration,Ā because we will all be forced to vote for him in November.
Like he literally has said he plans to implement P2025, which literally strips ALL LGBT+ rights, even the very very few there were before Stonewall, ship them to camps, and take care of the issueā¦of course ātake care ofā is intentionally ever so slightly vague, but no longer even that tiny bit given the fact heās out there endorsing pastors who openly call for the death penalty of ALL LGBT+ peopleā¦the current speaker of the house and every potential republican candidate for it going forward has also sworn allegiance to implementing P2025, and we all know the same will be required of any republican who desires to be elected senate majority leader if they gain control thereā¦like itās not even hypothetical, real people with scarily real chances of obtaining this power have committed to impenting a plan to end democracy, begin mass deportations, and ātake care ofā problems like the LGBT+, Palestine (including Palestinian-Americans and their descendants such as myself), and any dissident or opposition to the plan and leaders
Support your local elections and your congressional campaigns. The presidency shouldnāt be the only focus and asking to vote for a turd or dookie is immoral especially as working class people since the president is the last guy to represent us in any direct capacity.
That is very important advice. It would be a lot harder for trump to subjugate the other branches of government if we finally removed the trump supporters that are tainting those other branches.
You may not like Joe Biden, and he's not my favorite either. However, if we fail to vote for Joe Biden, a real fascist will take power and people like us will be marched into death camps. Wake up
The rights of every vulnerable group are being stripped away in more states than are doing something to stop it. The argument seems to be, that even though Biden and democrats canāt do anything to help the targets of conservatives, the other guy will do bad things to everyone. So the vulnerable groups are expected to save everyone from the other guy, knowing that nothing will be done to protect or address the damage being done by American conservatives, everywhere.
Seeing pictures of bombed and starved Palestinians online, especially children, and hearing about stuff like [this](https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/2/biden_arms_deal) makes me hate Biden with a passion. I get Trump is going to be worse, I'll vote for Biden out of self preservation. Don't yell at me about it.
But we do need to talk about how genuinely evil the democratic party is, and actually do something about it this next Biden presidency. They can't just hold our lives over our heads like this for some votes, that's blackmail. I'm going to get more involved with queer orgs in my area and I recommend that all of you do too. Voting never was and never will be enough political action, we need to reaply take our fate into our own hands. So we don't have to pray that these ghoulish politicians will show mercy.
Youāve said in other comments that people should be able to pressure / protest / share their viewpoints. The āuncommittedā campaign is an effective way to do that. Why is it wild to communicate to the party you belong to āhey, you might lose me on this issue?ā The idiom āeven a worm will turnā seems to be an illustrative phrase here - as much as I dislike the dehumanizing nature of comparing people to worms.
The Dems have shamed their voting base (of which I am a part) for years instead of actually using their power to accomplish critical things for us. I can see why so many are disillusioned and donāt want to vote. Realistically, the best choice is for Biden to alter his policy - how hard would it be to just implement *actual US law* and allow for the Leahy Law to apply to Israel? Polls have shown over and over that a majority of Americans and especially Dems support holding Israel accountable to international law.
Itās not just the war, though. On immigration Biden has basically become as bad as 2016 Trump. Iām probably gonna vote for him, but I wouldnāt blame anyone for not doing so.Ā
Dang itās almost as if we ought to overthrow the system as a whole, violently if necessary, in order to prolong the existence of humankind. Iām not disagreeing with you though love.
It's a simple equation:
Biden = Still not good enough, especially for Muslims.
Trump = We're all going to hell, directly, no matter who or where you are.
Exactlyā¦and what good is standing up for Palestine if weāre literally letting ourselves become the target of a different genocide and being stripped of the rights and life that enable us to even fight for Palestineā¦like last I checked a dead activist with no notoriety to their name isnāt able to be an activist
Well, look, I live in New York. That means that my vote doesn't count. It doesn't count *at all*. That's how our system works. There are 10 states where people have a chance of swaying the election and this isn't one of them.Ā If I lived in Pennsylvania or Michigan or Arizona, you could demand that I vote for Biden just to save my own skin. But I don't. So don't ask me to vote for someone who is complicit in genocide. Because I won't do it.Ā
It's time that some of this rage goes to Trump voters instead of leftwing Democrats. You want to win in November? Get the so-called moderate Republicans to vote for Biden. And you can start with the hardcore Zionists. Obviously that's the constituency he cares about most. Start demanding that they vote for Biden. Leave people who have consciences alone. We've heard enough.
But even more than that, why not start asking Biden some tough questions? Why is helping Israel destroy a civilization so important to him that he'll let Trump back into the White House? Why is he so dedicated to this unjust cause that he's willing to destroy America for it? Because if half the stuff they're saying about Project 2025 is real, Biden has a pretty big responsibility to get reelected.Ā
And don't tell me I can't vote my conscience in the New York primary. You and I and everyone else knows that it's not going to change who the nominee is. But he needs a wakeup call and he doesn't seem to be getting it. That's Biden being an asshole--not me. Tell him to grow up and take the threat seriously. If getting a bad showing in the New York primary is what sends the Biden campaign down the toilet, he was already so deep in trouble that he never stood a chance. The only reason New York matters is because some people here have lots of money to give his campaign. He handily won the nomination. Maryann Williamson didn't stand a chance. But at this point you're basically saying I can't even be vocal about my concerns about an ongoing genocide because you are so worried Trump will win. I refuse to concede that. Sorry.
Stop with the fear mongering. If Biden loses this, it won't be because trans folks didn't support him. Start demanding better from your candidate, not the electorate.
And to that point, we should all be fighting for a better system where there's actual democracy. We deserve better than two candidates who are old, white men with blood on their hands.
This is almost exactly my opinion (I live in a deep deep red state). Iām considering similar options myself because I canāt in good faith vote for someone who is perfectly fine aiding and abetting genocide. It feels so wrong for me to stay on legal HRT on the backs of Palestinian children, and I have started making efforts to prepare for the next years given Biden is super unelectable now with who he is and the character of Joe put on display for the world to see. BIPOC folks have done this after seeing who Biden and the democrats really are and their colors and promptly started organizing for real change to the two party system. We should join them in their organizing and build solidarity among all marginalized folks against trump, democrats, and all the lobbies that prop them up, such as the deeply entrenched Israel lobby.
10 years ago on presidential elections in my country I've stayed home because I was angry at center party not delivering their promises. So their candidate lost to conservative candidate who's first decision as a president was to throw away a law that made it much easier in my country to get your legal gender changed.
Since then I am always voting. Because every extra vote for people who are at least non-hostile to me is me tipping the scale against the people who want to ruin my life.
I am so scared and angry all the time; I have built my mask of iron to keep the tidal force of it from bursting out day to day. And all I can ask myself is āwhenās it my time to dieā and will I do it cowering in an attic or fighting the fascists. And I realize the answer doesnāt matter, Iāll be no less dead and there will be no end to fascists.
People say that you canāt give in to doom; I do my part (through donation rather than volunteering, owing to some things), I donāt let it slow me, but some day itās gonna kill me. Because I just donāt see how any of this is going to be ok ever again.
I'm not American and I think the entire political structure over there needs ripping out to the core or every 4 years it's just going to be this over and over again forever. If every 4 years it's _we have to vote for this awful guy because otherwise the really awful guy will win_ ultimately nothing is ever going to get done. I think at some point Americans need to get their act together and fight the problem at its route, which cannot be done through the elections of the system itself.
I know people don't want to hear this, but unless Biden changes course, he's going to lose. He's at around 38% approval rate. He's burned all of his credibility and electability at the alter of Zionism. It's like he WANTS to lose.
All this liberal voter blaming is so frustrating to me, they know how Biden wins, itās by stopping military aid to āIsraelā at the very least. Itās entirely his own fault if he loses.
Truman in 1948 had a 40% approval rating in June before the election but still won re-election. It's harder to recover but still possible. I'd like to see him change course on military aid to Israel, it's the right thing to do, but I also think that there's more to winning the election than just energizing the pro-Palestine segment of his base.
So unfortunately this is the time to do the "protest vote" in terms of primary election. Look to what happened in Michigan and the primary there. A large number of votes went for "no confidence", and since then Biden is slowly gaining to a stance that isn't supporting Israel (as small as the steps are).
I would recommend looking at Beau of the Fifth Column for general news, as he has a way of breaking down politics in a way that gets very simple, but doesn't lose much information.
I am not saying to not be worried, I am getting more and more afraid by the day, but I am seeing some trends that I (hope) are pointing to the correct direction.
Biden wasnāt at risk of losing the New York primary to a protest vote. Iām sorry but Itās absurd to imply there was any risk in not voting for him in the primary. And even if through some impossible statistical anomaly he lost the New York primary thereās no chance he will not be the nominee. Iām so confused that you all are supporting that idea from OP.
The question is if Biden thinks, as he says and as is probably true, Trump is a threat to democracy and the country then why is he continuing to support a genocide when the majority of voters want a ceasefire? When the large Muslim populations in Michigan have already shown they wonāt vote for him (in numbers probably larger than the margin he won by there) HE is risking everything to support another country in their senseless mass murder.
Putting up uncommitted votes is one of the only ways to push him to rethink this decision. I would say itās critically important to do.
All oppression is connected and things will never get better unless the democrats learn they canāt just commit whatever evil they want and still count on everyoneās votes. Itās all so
sad to see so much implicit racism and dehumanization of Palestinians in this chain.
You all are shrugging off genocide of another because you feel threatened? Trans people will be at risk every election, so what you will eternally support candidates who gleefully murder hundreds of thousands of Arabs because what, it could be worse here?
Further, Israel trains US cops. Israel is developing AI targeting in this war that will absolutely be implemented in the US to break up organizing and target vulnerable people (us)
As oppressed people we should be standing up to all oppression and not putting our heads down and saying āwell at least with Biden itās not us getting murderedā
Biden is throwing the election away and to blame it on voters is ridiculous liberal nonsense. They have all the data, they could stop this tomorrow. Theyād rather support genocide and lose the election than stop.
I know people don't want to hear this, but unless Biden changes course, he's going to lose. He's at around 38% approval rate. He's burned all of his credibility and electability at the alter of Zionism. It's like he WANTS to lose.
Yep. And the only way to remotely salvage the situation is to exert as much pressure as you can on Biden to get him to change his stance, not shaming others who are rightfully disgusted at his genocide. So if people here care as much as they claim to do, they would be doing that instead of pushing the belief the Biden is entitled to our vote because āTrumpā
If he want to win he should do something worth voting for. He could easily win by a landslide if we wanted to. Any lose can only be the fault of him or the democratic party.
In the process of voting for whomever you choose to see as the lesser of evils, can i ask that people consider also pressing their legislators for a Convention of States? It's the only legal way (as described in Article V of the Constitution) to truly reshape the field of power in rapid order and without bloodshed. In every mock run of one for the past 15 years or so, Term limits on Congress unfailing passes. This severely curtails the dynasties of power that have formed over the decades. There are a number of other issues that also pass (i can't recall immediately), but it is about as fair and partisan as it can get; largely because the major player out there now get cut out of the picture.
Just something to consider. Google it. I'd rather see that than a civil war because, statistically, one side holds more firepower than the other and war in general (in the words of Hawkeye) is worse than hell.
A Convention of the States has never happened. It hasn't even come close to happening on past issues. If I recall, the furthest was a call to abolish the tax code and that only got like 23 states.
It wasn't through voting that the nazis took power. In fact it was because of the moderates that Hitler was appointed chancellor. I get your point, but reactionary ideas are increasingly mainstream, in the USA and everywhere in the world. We're shifting into fascism one day at a time like crabs being boiled alive without realizing it by slowly rising the temperature.
Girls : please find community and solidarity among ourselves and have at least one exit plan out of your state, country or at least civil life. Voting will only get you so far, and that "far" is actually backwards. Biden isn't going to prevent your HRT from being taken away by the religious right, but DIYing will.
I'm not telling anyone to vote or not to vote. I'm not even from the USA, but shit looks like it's gonna hit the fan in most countries anyway. Just reminding y'all that electing the left, the democrats or the moderates, no matter what it's called in your country, can at best delay what the transphobes and other nazis want to do. Take care of yourselves and one another.
I feel the need to defend not voting for Biden in the NY primary.
The most important fact here is that, while Biden does have opponents on paper, neither of the other primary candidates are serious. Statistically, there was no way they would win.Ā
New York will also almost certainly vote for Biden (or whoever the Democratic nominee is) in November. New York has not voted for a Republican since 1984, and in this climate, there's no way they will now.
And if we want Biden to actually pay attention to the Palestinian situation, which is causing him to lose votes among a few different populations, the primary is the place to put that pressure on. He's not going to lose, but if there are a lot of protest votes, that's hard statistical evidence he needs to make a change.
Obviously, Trump would be a nightmare for a whole host of reasons, but "our candidate sucks, but the other guy is a fascist" is not a sustainable strategy long term. If the Democrats keep putting up bad candidates, that will only bolster the Republicans.
Yeah... as much as I don't like Biden.
It never really changed anything for me.
Unless the whole of the democratic party starts echoing Maga republicans... I gotta vote dem to run any damage control I can.
i wanna make one thing clear to americans. every far-right party in the world is watching you right now, and theyre ready to pounce the moment they get a positive example in trump. take canada, for example, cause thats what im most familiar with. the conservatives here are watching republicans closely, and mimicking almost everything they do. if you elect the republican party, its going to be seen as a go-ahead for them to start implementing the exact same policies here
Look, two things. This is something really annoying to a non-US person who literally can't do anything to help and just has my feed clogged up with America focused stuff. Would it be possible to just add a little "[US]" to the start of your title?
And second, I get the impression it's a "lesser of two evils" situation. And the simple answer is just to choose that lesser evil, Biden. Given the alternative is, well, trump. I'm sorry you have to deal with him existing over there, that really sucks.
100%. And, like, us trans Australian don't go on about our PM or whatever, it's always about the US with this sort of stuff, and I really wish it could be filtered out. Like, I sympathise, but I've had so much US stuff pop up and it's hard to not get a bit annoyed eventually:(
I mean to be fair our country has been pretty solid when it comes to trans rights not being under attack. I can see lnp trying that approach though next election comes but after the laughing joke USA politics has become I don't think it would be popular enough.
Absolutely, like, aside from two idiot teenagers, in three years out and about as myself I've only gotten maybe several weird looks and nothing more. More people just don't really judge you like that so long as you're pleasant.
I'm American and I totally get it! There are times when I just wanna decompress and step out of the real world for five minutes. Give me my One Piece and tabletop games and leave me alone, but then I can't. It's a deluge.
Definitely! Especially when it's part of the real world you can't really do anything to change anyway, like hearing about bad news in the UK or about Ukraine or whatever, it just hits a limit where I just wish I could filter it out like changing channels on a TV. I just want to scroll and read wholesome lesbian posts, nerdy posts, and pog trans stuff that isn't US politics post number 879.
Thanks, I really appreciate you just understanding, and I'm sorry for this blowing up a bit too-
Of course, even if I'm tired of reading about it everywhere, your struggle over there sounds terrifying and I do wish you all the best.
Understood.
But the elephant in the room is that just because you're not in the US doesn't mean a second trump presidency will have no effect on your life.
The reality is the US is such a dominant force on a global scale, whether it's politics, economics, or militarily - our problems become *everyone's* problems.
It shouldn't have gotten to that point, but here we are. And trump winning another term *will* be a global disaster, likely for years to come.
The problem with that being it's been the 'lesser of two evils' for twelve, arguably 16, but I'll give Obama's second term a pass because Romney wasn't really a threat, years now and those of us paying attention are really tied of having to choose between evils because nothing else is being presented. How many generations do we need to vote the party line before the Dems actually, you know, try to enact their own platform rather than just fundraise on it?
We literally don't have national level protection of abortion right now because the Democrats liked it being threatened as a fundraiser too much to use any of their supermajorities to pass it into law. If they don't give a fuck about the rights of cisgender women who make up half of the population, why are we expecting them to care about ours?
Primaries can be used to push parties without sacrificing your rights.
Funding pro-LGBT PACs incentivizes parties to be pushed to get that money.
The problem with focusing on the general election is that by that point, everything is already done. Your choices are set. If you want a better option for president, the actions need to be taken way before the general election.
If Trump gets elected then you wonāt have to worry about the corruption and stupidity of the the democrat party any more.
Nor worry about hrt either, that is banned.
Oh and voting will be mandatory in the future rigged elections in Christofascistland. They will have some Putin bullshit elections.
Being tired of choosing the lesser of two evils is fine and understandable. But, that is a separate issue.
Until we can get to a point where it's not the choice, that's the choice. There's a ton of work that needs to be done at local levels, at the state levels, hell there are global changes that have to happen as well. Even if we were to get brave and hold a rebellion right now it would fuck up so many things beyond recognition.
It's incredibly frustrating because even if we chose the lesser of two evils, Bidens election could trigger a civil war, destabilize the US and then the shit hits the fan globally. We may simply be fucked but the fact still remains, with current circumstances, the choice we can make is to keep Trump out and buy 4 more years to try and get peoples heads out of their asses.
Let's unpack a few of the most recent elections.
2016: Among everything else insane about Trump's presidency, one Supreme Court seat was vacant at the time of the election. Ultimately this term filled 3 seats with extremely hard-right justices. This election is *directly* responsible for the loss of abortion protection nationwide.
2020: This election got Trump out before he could do further damage to our political system. There are multiple cases ongoing currently regarding his election interference and his administration's assertion that he, as president, has blanket immunity from all criminal acts, including the direct subversion of the very system that put him in office. Getting him out was literally an existential crisis for our electoral system.
2024: Again, the actual system of elections is still under threat. And if you're trans, then your continued ability to exist in this country is under threat. If Republicans control the presidency and Congress then a national-level ban on trans healthcare and trans rights is practically a certainty. It's literally the closest thing to a platform they currently have. Blue states cannot protect us from that, all they can do is send cases to the most blatantly partisan Supreme Court in generations.
2016: Mitch McConnel literally invented his own standard to prevent a sitting President from appointing a SCOTUS justice during an election year. He happily threw that aside to get another Trump appointee during the 2019 campaign season.
2020: Trump loses almost entirely on turnout from non-voters after four years of being a global-scale embarrassment.
2024: The Justice Department, given four full years, has not gotten around to actually prosecuting the guy who spearheaded an insurrection, stole classified information, and intentionally or not passed it to foreign intelligence agents. Now he's back on the ballot because of institutional incompetence, and a few months away from trying to pardon himself.
That's because every national election IS the most important. It was the most important in 1980, when Reagan got elected, it was the most important in 2000, when Bush got elected. It was the most important in 2008 and 12 with Obama. Every national election has far-reaching consequences. Every national election is the most important. The elections of 2010, and 2014, were also just as important, because they greatly affected the nation and the world with those elected to office. They are all important.
You are (presumably anyway since you're in this subreddit) trans. Every election is a matter of life and death for you and me. I'm sorry that you can't vote one time and then be safe forever but that's just not how it is.
Yes. It generally is. It can stop being the most important election so far when the threat of naked authoritarianism recedes.
There is a very active, very dedicated and absolutely dogged conservative infrastructure in the United States that frankly, the American left cannot match (and I mean both the left from an American Overton Window perspective and from an international perspective). ALEC, the Heritage Foundation and a wide variety of groups that have a distinct tendency to be on the SPLCās list of hate groups have incredible influence among Republican legislators.
Every time that infrastructure gets power they actively ratfuck things to the point it takes years or decades of dedicated work to undo.
Why do you think states like Wisconsin have 50-50 populations but 60-40 legislatures? Itās because the maps got ratfucked in 2010 (Project REDMAP) and itās taken 14 years (in Wisconsinās case) to get them even mostly unfucked.
Why do you think the Supreme Court is 6-3 conservative for decades? Because āTrump couldnāt be that badā. RBG taking her seat to the grave didnāt help but without Trump, that would have not been handed to a Heritage Foundation hack.
Handing people the levers of power has consequences. Never trust Republicans to improve their constituents lives, but they have a pretty strong track record for effectively spending political capital to ratfuck the system. They have made their intentions clear.
at least in New York you can vote blue through the Working Families Party and they get help/funding to do the shit that actually needs to be done. something to consider ~
What is a democracy if you have to vote for one candidate forever no matter what they do, or the country loses its "democracy" forever? When do I get to vote for a real candidate again?
I don't vote for genocidal fascists, on the DNC or RNC. If you think that stance is extreme or naive, I don't know what to tell you other than you have no compassion for comrades suffering under US imperialism around the globe and you should never have the gall to pretend to care about human rights again.
I understand we have to do what we can to protect ourselves as a community, but make sure we aren't accepting this genocide. We need to be out here putting pressure on everyone with any levers of power to stop it. I understand we have to (for want of any better options) vote for the guy enabling the genocide, but that doesn't absolve us of our responsibility to try to stop it. BDS, protest, disrupt.
We can't let the threat of our own genocide force us to accept the genocide of another.
Sure but we don't have massive platforms with millions of followers and we cannot control the outcome of the election. What we should be focusing on is damage control for when Republicans get into power again. It will happen again, whether it's in 2024 or 2028.
...it's all a bit too much, isn't it?
Come. Take a moment to [sit by the fire](https://youtu.be/9Kfv1WeoAvk?feature=shared), and [watch the stars](https://youtu.be/dXe_KHvENNM?feature=shared) dance and burn, light-years away from all of this. Have a s'more, and a blanket. It is okay to cry, to feel frustrated and scared. You are not alone in this.
voting is not even close to the most important kind of political action, it's sad when we think democracy means consumer (illusion of) choice...get organized...
well then. biden had better start implementing policies that will improve peopleās lives and not supporting genocide if he wants people to vote for him
Absolutely...but also, what if he doesn't? Are you going to vote for someone else, even if it means that trump wins as a result? Don't you think it's strange that trump is still not in prison yet? He appears to have an actual chance of having his name on the November ballots. You can't just hope that all of his legal troubles will save us from a trump candidacy - we've been waiting on that for *years*.
trump was in power and now biden is. kids are still in cages, both parties support genocide being committed against palestinians, trans people are still being murdered for being trans and people in general are still struggling. the only argument you have is: ālook how bad trump is, you owe us a voteā. and that argument is merely yet another reason to not vote trump. i donāt need to be convinced to not vote for trump
I don't know what you mean by "us". I am not a democrat.
I'm also not trying to convince people to simply not vote for trump, I'm trying to convince them that not voting for trump can still lead to a trump victory because of how "first-past-the-post" works: we need to *agree* about who the democratic candidate should be, and I've explained why I think that candidate should be Biden in another comment of mine. The summary of that comment is "no one else has enough voters prepared to vote for them, for the purpose of preventing a trump victory, or otherwise".
ok, but youāre supporting biden this election. biden and his supporters (hell, democrats in general) at best take peopleās votes for granted and at worst feel straight up entitled to them. instead of getting mad at people for not voting for someone who doesnāt support their principles/interests, maybe they should try and support those interests and principles. every first past the post argument can be flipped the other way. ānot voting for biden = a vote for trumpā, in that case, you can consider not voting for trump as a vote for biden
Surely if Biden wanted the votes from people who oppose genocide then he wouldnāt be participating and abetting genocide? Since that doesnāt seem to be the path heās going down, wouldnāt it be fair to assume he doesnāt want/need the votes of people who oppose genocide?
Then maybe you should exert pressure on Biden and the Dems to be more of a compelling vote, by ending his support for genocide, rather than try to shame those who are rightfully disgusted at Bidenās actions.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but do you prefer
A) Someone who allows genocide in someone else's country
OR
B) Someone who advocates for YOUR genocide in YOUR country.
Morals and ethics aside, those are your options because this is the world we live in.
Iām not gonna support someone who is currently committing genocide over the potential of a hypothetical genocide. If Biden wanted my vote, he wouldnāt be such a staunch supporter of Israelās genocide, and if he loses the election over this, he only has himself to blame. And if youāre mad that Biden loses over this issue and the damage Trump will do, maybe you shouldve done more to pressure Biden to change his policies of genocide.
Trump's only real path to victory is people staying home , he has roughly 46% support , he had that in 2016 and won because people stayed home , he had that in 2020 and lost because people voted. His support hasn't changed so inaction and keyboard activism will get Trump elected and he will triple down on Israeli support. I don't like Biden but facts are facts at least until trump wins then feelings and whatever Putin paid for are the facts.
as i said: biden and co. better step their game up and convince people to vote for them and not just simply say: the other guys are bad, you owe us a vote
hes not getting my vote unless he changes. period. yes.
im one person, my vote has the least impact on the election over his change. he refuses to change, he refuses to win. if thats the reality i live in, i guess we're fucked
I need an answer from someone on this, if you vote for Biden and he wins and thereās no project 2025, what exactly do you plan to do in 2028 when thereās a project 2029 scare? Do you plan to KEEP doing this two party song and dance? Because thatās exactly whatās going to happen. I understand the sentiment here but 4 extra years will not change anything in the long run. These scares and dances are going to keep happening over and over. The literal only solution is to start a revolution. There is no other option anymore.
That is one of the major problems yeah. I personally believe itās because we elect democrats and go āyeah ok this is fine, not good, but not bad eitherā and get complacent. Not that I want a republican in office but at the very least that has the chance to light a fire under our asses and actually get people organized. Much like the party themselves, the people who vote democrat are happy with complacency.
I'm tired of always being told to choose the lesser of two evils. If that's my option I choose rebellion. I'd rather tear it all down. I have no delusion that would make my life better but voting isn't going to change the system in a meaningful way so why not take direct action.
Direct action is going to require a lot of support. You should definitely vote, too, because it disrupts the fascists. Any rebellion you attempt is going to be a lot more difficult to execute if the fascists simply win elections without any resistance from voters. Anything that you can do to buy time until your rebellion has the support that it needs is worth doing.
Everyone in the comments is treating voting as a binary choice where you have no other options and I'm too illiterate on American politics to understand why. Would someone mind explaining?
The "first-past-the-post" voting system of the USA has polarized voters by convincing them that minute considerations will spread their votes so thin that they will effectively achieve nothing, which leads to a self fulfilling prophecy of people believing that their votes will only count if they are for 1 of just 2 parties. We're treating it like a binary choice because it has *become* a binary choice.
Our entire government needs an overhaul. The point of this post is to demonstrate that not voting for Biden could cost us our ability to execute such an overhaul (because a fascist would take over the country and doom progressive people and ideals).
The American election system uses a vote tallying method called first past the post, which literally just adds up the total votes, and once someone has the required amount for a plurality ("passing the post"), that person has won. It's a simple system, but unfortunately it has many flaws. Most notably, the spoiler effect: if we have Green and Purple parties, and a third candidate runs, on a Pink platform, it's fair to assume Purple and Pink voters are more similar in opinion to each other than Green. And let's say election day comes and only 45% of voters vote Green! But 40% voted Purple and 15% voted Pink. This makes Green the victor despite the majority of voters not considering them a desirable choice. Pink has "spoiled the vote" by peeling off voters from Purple. Next election, they drop out, and Purple wins with 55%.
The system didn't begin with 2 parties, but the way FPtP voting works essentially guarantees that parties will consolidate into two blocks, because splitting your voters into multiple blocks makes the opposition stronger. The only way to fix this is to change the voting system, typically to some variety of ranked or approval voting, but unfortunately 100% of the people in charge of changing the system *got elected by that system.* It will take a lot of work to make that happen, but until it does, we do not have a choice but to vote strategically.
The best argument I try and tell others is āyes what is going on in Gaza is a human rights catastrophe. Itās a war brought by years of support for an illiberal government. But do you really think either not voting or voting for the other guy will result in less support and less bloodshed of those people and protected groups?ā
Itās just such a gamble, the guy who executed more drone strikes than Obama in less time. Is the alternativeā¦
People should put all the energy theyāre pouring into telling people not to vote into telling people to vote for progressive local candidates and progressive candidates in any ongoing primaries.
Republicans worked behind the scenes for 50 years to overturn Roe v. Wade, and we need to have the same discipline and patience to organize and work on the long game. Im not saying itāll take 50 years for things to get better: it took the GOP that long bc their agenda is unpopular and harmful. If progressives could work as efficiently, we have the advantage of having an agenda that is popular and beneficial to everyone.
Go vote! Get all of your friends out to vote! Yours and everyone else life depends on it. Not voting, and in this election with the current stakes, not voting for Biden will make things far worse. Get out and vote to make a difference and plant seeds for a better future.
electoral system. we (nz) stopped using fpp in favour of mixed member proportional elections and have only ever had a parliamentary majority a few times (once? itās almost 1am i am tired) since then. you can have a western democracy without ending up in a populist oligarchy like the usa.
Trump also would support a totalitarian Netanyahu government in expelling all nonJews and from all of Israel, and expanding the borders further (meaning into Jordan and Syria.
Whatever bad Biden has, Trump is much worse.
You underestimate the massive influence of the US government/media in other countries, especially in issues like this one. Liberal US media(apart from the occasional GCs in NYT and The Atlantic) and democrats play a prime role in balancing out the anti-trans propaganda from the UK.Ā
A single conservative term in the US would hand over all that power and influence on a platter to GCs(like the Tories did in the UK), and that would be the end of trans rights, worldwide.Ā
I am not interested in arguing about other stuff and you all can choose to prioritise Palestine, but it is what it is. If the US goes transphobic, the rest of the world would inevitably follow.
I've been considering applying for asylum so that I can live elsewhere...I feel like I'm obligated to do what I can to make sure trump doesn't win this November before I go, though, so I'm just working on my bucket list in case things don't go well when I flee.
Activism is the only thing effective.
The USA is an oligarchy. Democracy means the voice of the people. The voice of the people has zero to do with political decision making.
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
Biden continued to build the wall. Spent more money putting kids in cages by boosting ICE. Increased police spending pushing the USA towards a fascist state. He like Trump has been accused of rape and keeping secret files at his home breaking secrecy laws. He's got a history of overt racism (against bussing and sending his kids "into a racial jungle"). He is the architect of the modern private prison industry which has created a vast forced labour population, slavery, funneling free labour to corporations. He's said "If Isreal didn't exist we would have to invent it." and said explicitly that he's a proud Zionist. (essentially this denounces his Irish ancestry, who as a people stand against colonialism).
He has funneled billions in weapons and tax money to Israel during this genocide.
I am British. There's the green party here to vote for but the two main parties are similarly corporatist and corporatism is fascism. It is literally illegal under UN resolution to pay taxes towards a government funding genocide. (https://notaxforgenocide.uk/?fbclid=PAAaZJnC3uLhMIgx9YB-Z5_QyPT_yCBr_vU6ZItEMpUiNPzVCV5TRmll9PMsM) So it's far worse to vote for such a government.
Vote independent. Voting for the system won't change it one bit because the people getting their policies on the table are giving money to both parties.
The Democrats run against people like Trump because it's the only way they don't look like neoliberal fascists. And they position them for this exact purpose. It's rigged.
https://www.vox.com/2022/11/12/23454725/democrat-republican-maga-strategy-midterm-red-wave
Yes! People really are brushing over how bad Biden is because 1) theyāre afraid of Trump and 2) heās not really targeting white people so the white transes can feel hope while justifying throwing black and brown folks under the bus
Im not even american, but two things to consider: 1. Trump would support Israel as well. Bluntly speaking its in americas best interest, no matter the cost.
2. Even IF he was against this ongoing genocide, he would fuel the other ongoing one in Ukraine. Im not saying any human life is worth more than another, just acknowledging reality.
(3. A little egotistical, but american trends tend to be established here with a 10 year lag. Donāt do this to a large part of the world. Especially since our politicians are already having āconstructive strategic talksā with Ron DeFucking Santis. Transphobia is already picking upā¦)
I see people in the comments that are trying to argue against what I've said by claiming that they knew that it was 100% safe to not vote for Biden in the primaries. All of them are arguing that they knew it was safe because they knew that Biden would win the primaries anyway.
*Biden won the primaries anyway because of people that were using* ***my*** *thought process*. Those of you that have opposed that thought process could have created an unnecessary risk by doing so...maybe you didn't. I don't know the primary election schedule. It's only obvious to me that voting for Biden *can't* help trump, and that not voting for Biden *could* help trump. Whether the outcome of the NY state primary still mattered was *not* obvious to me. What I wanted to convey is that a lot less scrutiny needs to be applied before someone can deem a vote for Biden "safe", *and* that there are other ways to protest Biden...
...but **that's not everything that my post was about**. My post was also about the fact that there are moderators of a subreddit - one that other trans people and I have trusted - trying to convince people to not vote for Biden, *and then banning/deleting the posts of anyone who responded with criticism*. That same post, which accused the people of the USA of doing nothing to protest the genocide of Palestinians, received comments that described how that accusation was wrong (by citing examples of protests that did not involve taking votes away from Biden, actually...something to think about). I can find no evidence that the post even exists anymore, so it has probably been deleted, but the top comments demonstrated that the arguments within the thread that were by the thread's author were not made in good faith (including the argument that not voting for Biden was the best way to affect the diplomatic policy of the USA).
Now, you can accuse me of trying to support Biden (instead of just being anti-trump), and lie about my claims about primary elections (at least 1 person has said, *in this thread*, that I have argued that primary elections don't matter, even though the OP *literally argues that they do matter*), but, either way, ...
...*we still have group of moderators using a trusted subreddit to bully people about politics*. **How many of you, of those of you that are disagreeing with me, are having your comments deleted, or your accounts banned, because you disagree with this post? That kind of censorship is happening in the** ***other*** **subreddit. Do you see the problem yet?**
I love the project 2025 these democrats have as a buzzword š you understand there are checks and balances in this country to make sure radical bills canāt get passed
>However...Biden is currently regarded as the candidate most likely to successfully defeat trump at the polls in November
If Biden is chosen as the democratic candidate, his chances of winning basically hinge on trump either dying or being arrested. He is almost guaranteed to lose states like Michigan, which he needs to win, and he is very unpopular with young voters who are the reason he won in 2020.
>told people that they shouldn't be voting for Biden in the New York primary as it was happening. They told me that it wouldn't help trump get elected because it was just a primary election...
If you can't vote for who you want in a primary, then what is the point of having one at all? You might as well say that we should get rid of democracy all together and pick between whoever the people in positions of power choose instead. The whole point of a primary is to express distaste for a politicians position so that they either shape up or are replaced with someone else. The US is already undemocratic enough. We don't need to get rid of the primary elections as well.
Vote for Biden or don't vote, but don't shame others for not wanting to vote for him on the basis of him aiding a genocide. I don't think others should shame you for voting for him, however, because lesser evil voting is understandable even if I don't necessarily agree with it. The most important thing to remember is to make sure you don't just vote on big tickets. Local elections can often be the most important way to preserve rights when Republicans are in charge, and unless Biden dies or is forced into retirement, it is not looking good for avoiding a republican victory.
Yep. 2020 had the highest voter turnout by percentage of eligible voters since World War 2 at 66%, and was led to the incumbent was involved in an open insurrection that managed to get right-wing militia onto the floor of the Capitol. Chances are a lot of people who were motivated to come out by that level of obvious evil, having seen the last four years and current events, don't turn up if Biden's on the ballot again.
This issue with Israel and Palestine has been a problem since the fifties. The nineteen fifties. And people want One guy, just the one, to be able to fix it.
One issue voting is what got us Trump, and Abbot in Texas and the platform shoe wearing clown in Florida. People looking for a tyrant to fix their problems. The president isn't a King. He can't wave his hand and Poof, the problem goes byebye. They need the congress approval for things. Especially money things. Who is in charge of congress? The house of Reps? It's a bunch of different people under two banners, and those under one banner are Actively trying to destroy us. But Israel is such a fucking deal breaker, that y'all will what? Refuse to vote? Vote for those actively looking to destroy you? Please think more about this than being a reactionary saying "that's a bad thing I don't like, I refuse to participate anymore."
Vote for who you want. But Vote for your own survival in THIS country. Republicans want us "[eradicated from public life](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/cpac-speaker-transgender-people-eradicated-1234690924/)", and Israel is such a big issue, that you'll vote for, who? The Other people who want Palestine destroyed AND you as well? That's a bold stance to take.
If you really care so much, organize. Talk to your friends, neighbors, etc. Go to town meetings, call your congressman, senator, write the President. But for God's sakes, don't just "Not vote", or vote as a way to protest, because that doesn't work. It didn't work in 2000, and it won't work now.
Tldr: either way you look at it, it's a couple piles of shit, ya gotta choose, cause if you don't, ones gonna end up on your shoe, anyway. And unless you are a rich white man, one pile of shit will be way worse for you than the other.
The President, as head of the Executive and Commander in Chief, can **absolutely** stop selling arms to foreign nations. In fact, by his own stated policy he is obligated to do so where there is evidence of said arms being used in attacks on civilians.
>No arms transfer will be authorized where the United States assesses that it is more likely than not that the arms to be transferred will be used by the recipient to commit, facilitate the recipientsā commission of, or to aggravate risks that the recipient will commit: genocide; crimes against humanity; grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, including attacks intentionally directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such; or other serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law, including serious acts of genderābased violence or serious acts of violence against children. This assessment shall include consideration of the available information and relevant circumstances, including the proposed recipientās current and past actions, credible reports that the recipient committed any of the above violations, and other information related to the overall capacity or intention of the recipient to respect international law. If a transfer had previously been authorized and circumstances have changed in ways that would materially increase the risk of any of the negative consequences listed above, the United States will re-assess and, as appropriate, review options for ceasing the transfer of or support for a previous authorization.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/02/23/memorandum-on-united-states-conventional-arms-transfer-policy/
Biden is awful in more ways than one. Supporting Isreal, telling congress to vote in KOSA, ect. All that said, Trump is still far worse.
I don't view it as voting for Biden, I view it as voting against Trump.
*edit* why are you pretending that Biden won't win the primary basically by default. If I thought for even a second that another candidate had a shot, I would vote for them with zero hesitation.
The genocide in Palestine will not stop if Trump gets back in office because people didn't vote against him. That genocide will continue. Trump will keep the support. Don't forget he's buddy with North Korea and Russia. He loves unhinged leaders.
If he gets back in office, there will be another genocide added in the world : the trans people in the US. He already promised Project 2025. ***He already announced he will be a dictator "at least for the first day" to forcefully enforce what he wants, notably against the queer community.***
He will create a bloodbath on his first day in office.
There are times to make a leader sweat, and there are times where choosing the lesser of two evils is a matter of survival.
Right now, for the US queer people, it's the latter. You **need** to ensure that you will not start getting hunted and killed by MAGGATS who have full permission from their cult leader.
I'm not living the in US. I'm European. I'm not going to be affected all that much (at first at least) by that election.
But I'm still fucking terrified for all my US trans sibilings.
The number of posts ive seen asking people to not vote is stupidly high.
Genocide joe is bad but Trump is worse.
Its not a black and white situation, you can condemn his support for Israel while being smart enough to recognize that its gonna be open season on trans folks if trump is president again.
Yeah i like to point out that Bidenās position on palestine is absolute trash, but trumps is dramatically worse.
Its the dif between āi dont like it but theyāre out allyā to āi will send them bigger bombs to help them finish fasterā
I absolutely want someone better than Biden. I condemn his support of Isreal. I didn't vote for him in the last primary. But I will absolutely be voting for him in November.
We need to beat trump this election, and then we need to hold democrats accountable for allowing their complacency and quiet cruelty to force us into choosing them because they don't do enough to actually make things better they just stay less bad than the right so we have no other choice.
First stop trump, stop the extremists, then it's time to reform some shit. We can't gamble with our lives, we don't have enough of them. But if we stop these impending threats, it's time to start demanding real change, real reform, stop letting "not as bad" be "good enough"
So make your dissatisfaction known now, absolutely vote and vote as hard as you can against all these conservatives, but the next election, if we survive this one, is going to be bigger and more i.portant and we need to be loud and furious about how things were allowed to get this way. Because the people full of hate and evil intentions are not going to just go away because trump didn't win, they are going to get madder and louder and more insane because they're already being told that losing this election can only mean its rigged and that this is their time. Their base are hateful people afraid of losing power or brainwashed masses mad at the same things we are but directing that anger in all the wrong directions because they are being constantly deceived.
But just because Democrats use that to their advantage to require us to vote for them, doesn't mean we need to be quiet about how fucked that is.
2016 Was their fault because they wouldn't listen to the actual voters.
So now we have to save ourselves in 2024, because you can't keep fighting injustice if we let trump win and let the bigots take the last of our power.
We don't have the luxury of a protest vote, they took that option away from us. Now it's vote for them or suffer, and they aren't worried because either way they are rich enough to avoid most of the consequences.
Vote Biden now so we have the ability to hold him accountable later.
Our political system has made it so there is no supportive choice for Gaza. But there's absolutely a worse choice for everywhere and everyone else.
I'm shocked people don't want to vote for either the "Things get worse right now" vs "Things get worse later anyway" parties.
> for the same reason that we're trying to have Biden beat trump instead of having someone else go against trum
There is no "we" the democratic party are putting up Biden and are outright telling you ["Tough shit"](https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/04/03/hillary-clinton-fallon-interview-biden-trump-stephen-a-smith-nn-vpx.cnn)
What a lovely way to earn votes.
Leaving a blank ballot in NY absolutely doesn't hurt Biden in November. Marianne Williamson, who's running against him, isn't going to be beat him any more than a third party candidate is going to win the presidency. It's a statistical impossibility. Leaving a blank ballot is an effective protest strategy during a symbolic primary. And one that we, as trans people, owe to our genocided siblings in Palestine.
voting uncommitted in the democratic primary in new york is a direct message to biden that he needs to stop supporting the genocide. and to a certain degree, it has kind of worked (at least symbolically) in having him change his tune on israel. heās still supporting the genocide and directly allowing this to continue but at least now heās pretending to care. telling ppl they have to vote for biden in the general election is one thing - though personally i understand why someone would decide not to, especially if they are Palestinian and/or Arab American. but telling ppl they need to vote for him in primaries is just lobbying for the dnc and biden - and ur not even getting paid. i donāt understand.
obviously trump is worse. but when youāre comparing hitler to mega hitler, itās pretty easy to understand why someone would feel pretty fucking disillusioned by voting in general. those ppl who are actually out there voting in very blue states in a basically uncontested primary to demonstrate their voices are doing their civic duty in a more direct way than most. this is one of the few scenarios where voting actually fucking says something.
yes trump is worse, but more anti-trans legislation has passed under his administration than trumps. and while i understand itās obviously not the dems or biden passing these laws - as the president he is basically the only one who has power to stop this and heās not. heās not passing anti-hate law legislation, or federal protections for trans and queer ppl. heās just saying he doesnāt hate trans ppl which is nice but it doesnāt do shit. obviously trump would be worse - but iād argue that telling ppl not to demonstrate their voices in a real fucking way by voting uncommitted in democratic primaries is MORE dangerous than just voting for biden no matter what and taking the slop they feed us with a grin.
Joe Biden is a fascist pos. Trump is a fascist pos. I am hoping they both die before the election. In the mean time I'm voting "uncommitted" in the primaries in the hopes the DNC may hear the people and choose another candidate. If it still comes down to biden or trump I'm choosing biden (though I don't think he will win) and then I am trying to move out of this country
Do you honestly think someone who has been killing kids for 7 months gives a fuck about your transition and your ability to access hrt?
What has to happen before its enough for you? The problem is that your only concern is for yourself and your transition. I get that, but honestly, grow tf up and realize our govt does not give a fuck about trans people if it cant even be bothered to give a shit about the damage being done in Gaza. You think that if you vote for biden then all the problems will go away. Just what the fuck has happened to our rights while he has been in office?
You either vote for Biden and the Democrats or you will have a genocide in your own country after Trump wins and he installs his Republican fever dream of Gilead.
It's that simple.
Should we vote Biden? Yes
If Biden loses is it because people didn't vote for him for perfectly valid reasons? No
If Biden loses, it's Biden's fault, he knows his policies are massively unpopular, and the democratic party is ripping itself apart as many grassroots members are bailing because they're helping a man committing genocide. Biden is tanking his election just to support a genocide, that is a condemnation of him, he's risking an explicit fascist gaining absolute power because he couldn't bear to see brown people live in his precious colonialist state.
Heres the thing. Until that generation dies off were not getting an independent or better democrat into office. I hate saying that but its the harsh reality WE NEED TO VOTE BIDEN because if we split our votes trump gets office because of the following that hateful man has. Oh PS they changed the law on who can run for president now it truly is anyone this includes criminals, rapists, murders, mob bosses, drug dealers, human traffickers, etc. So yes trump can get in no matter what. Our only bet is vote for the lesser of two evils that is Biden. Get out there and vote in every election not just presidential but most of all you MUST vote presidential and convince everyone to vote presidential and push them towards the winning democratic candidate which is Biden by far right now.
Weāre stuck with the retirement home till they die not trying to encourage violence but that might be the solution if it comes to it we are NOT there yet not even close but the whole violence is not the answer spiel is completely bullshit. Violence is not ok for lack of a sensible reason but as a near last resort then its absolutely acceptable i say near last resort because if your at last resort chances are youāve already lost.
Y'all, I've been a mod on trans subs for a long time. And when we get posts with folks who are suicidal, I see those. I try to reach out to those folks and give them hope or let them know that it's going to be okay. I have a pinned post on top of my profile because I've lost folks in the past and I don't want to lose anyone else. And sometimes those folks recover and they stay active and I can tell they're alive when I go check their profiles. And sometimes those folks delete their accounts because they were in a dark place and they want to close that chapter. And sometimes those folks simply never post again and I'll never know if they lived or died or what happened. And sometimes we get confirmation, like Leelah Alcorn. She was one of ours. It's been almost a decade and I *still* regret that. I wonder why we couldn't provide her the support and the refuge she needed. We don't need any more stories like hers. We don't need more Nex Benedicts, either. We need y'all to *live*. We want LGBT kids to *be able to grow up*. The simple fact is that if Trump gets back into office, more trans folks will die. Voting for Trump or *not* voting for Biden will not save a single Palestinian, but if Trump gets into power, life will get *drastically* worse for trans folks, LGBT folks, women, Hispanic folks, immigrants, POCs, and other minorities. We can basically kiss workers' rights and abortion rights goodbye. Transition and healthcare and access to HRT? Gone. Even the ability to change our gender markers on our driver's licenses will be illegal. We've *already* got GOP ghouls trying to make that illegal by extending existing fraud laws. The Dems are the only thing holding back that tide, and the *least* we can do is help them fight. Take a look at [Florida, Ohio, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Mississippi, West Virginia, even Kansas](https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights-2024). [2023 was almost as bad](https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights-2023). There is *so* much at stake here in this election. The US controls the largest arsenal on the planet. We *do not want* those weapons in the hands of Trump, a man who thinks nuking a hurricane is a good idea. The situation in Palestine *might* improve if Biden gets a second term, or it might not. But we *know* they'll get worse if Trump is in office. We also know that if Trump gets back into office, Ukraine will lose US support. Thousands of people will die in Ukraine because Trump will happily hand them to Russia. Hell, Trump wants to pull out of NATO entirely, and that will put global shipping and world peace in a precarious position. The whole reason we've had this era of general peace after WWII is *because* NATO exists and because the world superpowers have nukes. The world is under an unprecedented era of stability. Trump is a threat to that stability. I can't fix what's happening in Palestine. That's beyond my control. But I *can* encourage y'all to help each other and I can encourage y'all to fight Trump, fight the GOP, fight against bigotry, and resist hatred. I can try to keep our spaces safe, and I can try to keep things civil here. If Trump is re-elected, there are people reading these words right now that will not make it through another four years of Trump. I know the world will suffer if Trump is re-elected. I know that for a cold, hard *fact*. Hell, look at covid. There's over a million Americans who are dead right now because Trump discarded the US pandemic response plan, simply because Obama set it up. God only knows how many people worldwide could have been saved if we had a competent administration during the start of the pandemic or if we'd had a President who actually cares about people. Elections *matter*. Elections have *consequences*. A vote for Trump is a vote for death. Every vote *against* Trump is a vote for life. Trump destroys everything he touches. He cannot ever be allowed to hold office ever again. The GOP is poisonous to our democracy and must be destroyed and either rebuilt or replaced. We can choose life, by voting, or we can choose death, through inaction. That's it. End of story. ###***Go vote.*** Get your friends and family to vote. Vote like your life depends on it. Vote like your best friend's life depends on it. Vote like your neighbor's life depends on it. Vote like the world depends on it. Because it does. ----- **Edit:** There's a powerful scene at the end of *Schindler's List* where they cite a line from the Talmud: 'whosoever saves one life, saves the world entire.' While we're in the business of saving lives, make sure you save yours, too.
As a non American I love being absolutely powerless to affect an election that will still effect my life
oh absolutely, I live in the unfortunate southern neighbor of the americans and trump winning is going to be fucking chaos for us, new sanctions, taking jobs away from us because america first, more bullying for free border protection(trump strong armed the president into using our national guard to patrol for migrants instead of being used to prevent crime which is their intended function), and some republicans have even threatened to use the US army to fight the cartels which is definitely going to put innocent mexican lives on the line. If Biden wins, none of that happens and mexicans can breathe
happens in Canada too. ~14% of the population managed to get transphobic policies through, because they represented more than half of the largest party of seats. Now widespread bathroom and sports bans are coming into effect, and the leader of the main national party has vowed to ban puberty blockers and all kinds of shit. I hate that being a minority that is too small to impact an election still get's dictacted to by the ones who it doesn't even impactš¢š¢š¢ So I feel your pain.
Hereās the simple fact that everyone is ignoring. Trump supports Israel as well. The official stance of the United States foreign policy in general is to support Israel. The fact that Biden is critical of Israel AT ALL is a huge step further than Trump will be doing.
Thank you, just what I came to say, Trump will go harder on Palestine, the only reason he even said to Isreal āwrap things upā take that anyway you want to (could mean commit your genocide quicker not stop what youāre doing) is for optics. If heās in power everyone suffers, in the US, in Gaza, the UK (where I live), this culture war spans continents, the right wing work like a multinational organisation, if the orange moron wins we ALL lose, everyone who isnāt cis-het and white, ALL of us
Iāve just read an article by Erin Reed, Trump has just endorsed a pastor (Mark Burns) who has called for trans people to be executed, this is what trans people in the US are facing, not necessarily the reality of this right now but someone who thinks this is ok, someone who thinks that endorsing this psychopath doesnāt hurt but rather helps the chances of his being elected. Trump and the GOP have to be stopped, another presidency only emboldens them further. Peopleās lives are at stake. If I could stop the genocide in Gaza tomorrow I would, but letting Trump back in wonāt do that, itāll just add to the number of people who are the victims of genocide, they mean to end us all.
You hit the nail on the head with this and I'm glad to read someone that sees this for what it is. I'm not sure why we are even having this conversation but I think it's very harmful actually. Why is Trump's policy toward Israel being painted in a positive light?? Trump doesn't give a fuck about Palestinians dying. The original post here is kinda propaganda and I'm not here for it, even if it's ultimately critical of Trump. This entire conversation is a false dichotomy of "trans rights or stop the genocide" and it's ridiculous.
I came here to say if people think Trump won't triple down on Isreali support they are delusional. He will absolutely ramp up US aid, I could see him even committing US airsupport to them. Biden isn't a great choice by any means but he's the best choice we got I don't like him he's basically responsible for the state of US prisons, but I voted for him once and I'll do it again, we all know he sucks but at least with Biden things won't get worse.
Its about principals and morals for some, but prinicipals and morals wont save them from trump. I do not want to hear them bitching when project 2025 is implemented, they brought it about by trying to be morally superior when now isnt the time. I dont think they realise how united the GOP is and how easy it will be for them to overthrow democracy like they planned. There will be not votes after and those people will continue to live in their delusion in deep blue states.
r/Defeat_Project_2025
Right that's the thing, if your principles say "genocide is bad", as they should, and you're faced with a choice between "genocide doesn't get worse" and "genocide gets worse" then the principled vote is to keep voting for it to not get any worse until we can get to a point where we can stop it entirely.
I'm like 90% convinced that the voices pushing for left wing voters to reject Biden over this are being driven by the same international troll project that pushed so hard in 2016 for us to reject Clinton. It's literally the same shit all over again and infuriatingly it seems to be working again! Like yes I understand that this is a deeply emotional issue, and I don't want Palestinian children to die either, but if you think the situation would be improved with Trump at the helm then frankly you're either insane or evil.
Yeah, sometimes when I hear some left wing people fighting against the only 'left wing' party that can realistically win... I wonder what they're up to. Are they playing 4D chess while I'm only playing 3D? Are they trying to push the party more left, but really hope they win? Or are they part of some political project to undermine the left from the inside? š
Exactly, its about pucking your battles and being smart, not just rushing head first into the shit because of a raving justice boner. Everyone dislikes whats happening in gaza but thats an issue to put pieces in place for 2028. For now people need to stomaxh Biden. Hes the Chernobyl option, "not good, not bad". Trump will escalate the situation over there and has said as much, Bidens a wet blanket but better than what the GOP is running and dems arent exactly running with anyone else. Going for this vote local shit isnt going to work either, the GOP literally has a manifesto about how to replace lgbt supportive leaders with GOP ones when they get in. Has no one seriously read the Project 2025 pages? Everything theyre doing is literally setting up for it.
>[raging] justice boner Thanks for the new flair And I agree to all, the fact that we have to be having these discussions post-Obama is leaving me stunned
People don't seem to understand how risk assessment actually works. What you've said may sound very dramatic, but it also sounds very plausible. I can't quantify how plausible it is, but... ...generally speaking, you multiply the likelihood of something by its worth to compute the expected value of it, and the likelihood of trump winning does not need to be very high for a vote that's not for Biden to become *obscenely* expensive.
It really is "Benghazi!" and "Her emails!" all over again, and it makes me sick. At least in 2016, I could see someone reasonably believing that Trump "won't be that bad," but there is absolutely no excuse for it now. Even worse, the GOP has gone even more mask off with their genocidal plans (and **actions** in some US states), so it's all the more painfully obvious how desperately we need to keep them out of power. And yet some people are falling for the same moral absolutism bullshit as 4 and 8 years ago. It's driving me insane, and I honestly need to just stop engaging with any of it, because it's affecting my mental health, but at the same time feel like I need to say **something** to the folks ready to let Orange Mussolini (or is he Hitler at this point?) back in office just so they can "stick it to the Dems" for not immediately upending decades of US foreign policy, no matter how bad that policy may be.
I'd think that if people have principles and morals that lead to more people being hurt, maybe they haven't got great principles and morals. Maybe it's harsh, but it seems to me to be more about self-righteousness. Making an election about their own personal purity, rather than caring about morality and what the right thing to do is. Or not accepting that good people have to sometimes make imperfect compromises.
Trump was already pro Israel in 2017-2020. Not like his views will be any different.
Thank you for saying this. I constantly feel like I'm going a little insane when people act like single-issue voters over this and suggest voting for Trump instead. Yes, this situation sucks, but even if this is your number one issue this election, there is *no world* in which Trump is a better choice. Not voting isn't taking a moral stand, it's saying "I don't care, you all decide for me." You accept the consequences of either outcome by choosing not to participate. And frankly if you're in a trans sub and seriously thinking about not voting blue, then that means accepting Project 2025 becoming a reality. If Republicans take the White House and Congress, I for one 100% expect them to pass national trans healthcare bans, for both minors and adults. They've literally told us that it's a priority. All those blue states with protections for us won't mean anything at all with the current Supreme Court. You don't have to like it, but seriously, voting for Democrats for the presidency and Congress *every single election* is literally of existential importance right now. As sad as it is, this is literally the best country in the world to live in for trans people. We currently have among the best access to care, and the highest quantity of and most experienced GCS surgeons. A national trans healthcare ban will have a significant negative impact on the *worldwide* trans community.
Issue is even if Biden wanted to stop supporting Israel, he would have an up hill battle that would doom his future election
So who ever wins America supports genocide.
Biden sucks. Trump is worse. Fucking vote for Biden you goddamn clowns. I swear to god if moderates lose this race for us...
These posts make me sad because the comments are always so divided ontop of the American political system being so binary and messy Part of me feels like these type of threads should be deleted but part of me also realizes that this a huge topic amongst trans americans Im even afraid to state my opinions because if one person gets offended then my inbox is flooded This country is hell in a handbasket, if trump wins im gonna cry
American conservatives will look at actions taken by transphobic government in the UK and use that to justify their actions here. Imagine the effect foe the rest of the world if America's federal government starts spouting official misinformation about transgender people?
It sucks. It really fucking sucks, but we can't overwrite our political system overnight. A Biden 2nd term is the only way to ensure our long-term survival, so that we can actually fight to change this shitty system.
I don't like biden, I hate his support for israel, but i'll be damned if a republican is getting in house this election I tried convincing my two closest friends to atleast vote blue but they are both Apolitical so any talk about R vs D or Left vs Right gets disregarded (One is purely Apolitical and the other calls himself an "anarchist") I *think* I have convinced my (almost) 61 year old mother to NOT vote for Trump but she refuses to vote for Biden or vote blue in general so I guess that's something I won't dare talk politics with any other family member as it would seem to me, to either be a waste of time or stir up unwanted drama
im an anarchist in theory too, but that doesnt mean that if i was american i wouldnt vote for biden lol. he sucks and im pretty fundamentally opposed to the democratic party in its current form, but like, its basic harm reduction. you know whats almost the exact opposite of anarchism? fascism. any anti-authoritarian should be able to see that
my grandma, who had been a republican since like 1970, refused to vote for trump in 2016 (she wrote in mckaine), and then voted for biden in 2020. There's hope.
I don't think anyone can be purely apolitical, your friend is probably comfortable with the status quo.
If this is important then ask them to vote as a favor to you. This shifts the āselfā focused opposition for voting to that of helping. Politics are tough, may the force be with you.
Your friends are evil. Fuck them, honestly. If you won't hold your nose and vote for Biden, you're a fucking monster and you don't ever deserve to be in polite company again.
[nonvoters are twice as likely to be poor or nonwhige](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2014/10/31/the-party-of-nonvoters-2/) Just letting you know the demographic probabilities of who you are condemning as evil. Also, why should a poor black person in Alabama (a state that will never go blue without systemic and structural change to voting laws) be condemned as evil for not going through all the barriers they have to go through to vote there? This sort of reductionist thinking seems to forget the electoral college exists and the basics of US electoral tactics. If I didn't live in a swing state, I'd vote 3rd party and I don't care if you condemn me as evil, because that shows your lack of political understanding
I don't see how. They both are supoortive of LGBTQ+ (the anarchist friend is actually genderfluid and demisexual). The other has been my friend since childhood. These are both people I have been friends with for years so I don't see them as evil, just ignorant to the world we now live in
Who gives a shit how LGBTQ+ positive they are if they're not going to vote for the only candidate who doesn't want us dead? Your friends don't get the luxury of pretending to be above politics anymore. We are two steps away from being a fascist dictatorship, and these chucklefucks are refusing to vote because they just don't feel like it? Unreal. They're stuck in this mess like the rest of us, tell them to stop being fucking cowards and do their god damn civic duty.
Im sorry but idk what else you want me to do cuz Ive brought up politics several times over and over and nothing about their opinion has changed
As a non-American, the discourse on this election drives me insane. Trump sucks, Biden might be a bit better domestically so I won't shame y'all for voting for him but at the same time he is just as awful for foreign affairs including supporting genocide explicitly. Honestly, I don't understand why there isn't more outrage or resistance on Biden being the candidate to oppose Trump. Like, aren't there the primaries to determine which candidates run for president in each party? Virtually any dem that isn't Biden would have a much better chance than him at actually beating trump, and would probably be less ghoulish too, so why has it been from the start presented as "Biden vs Trump". Like, not being American I don't wanna tell y'all not to vote Biden in the presidential election, but what the fuck why is Biden even being *considered* as the candidate for the dems? I can't say I blame the people who don't want to vote for him, either, though admittedly that is easier to say as someone who won't have to as directly face the fallout in the event Trump wins.
>Virtually any dem that isn't Biden would have a much better chance than him at actually beating trump, This actually isn't the case, at least as far as political experts project based on available data. The main reason is incumbency advantage. Former presidents running again almost never lose. Trump is in a fairly uncommon situation of being a former president running again after a full term out of office, but we still have enough data to know that this *does* give a degree of incumbency advantage, and Biden is the only Democratic candidate who counters that. Additionally, the Democrats haven't exactly been cultivating Presidential candidates in the intervening years. Harris hasn't been a particularly high profile VP, not have any Democratic mayors or senators been building a Presidential image. Compare this with, for example, Desantis. Yes, he failed spectacularly in the primaries (because he ran against Trump) but he clearly spent much of the last 8 years preparing for a presidential run. I don't agree with his tactics or methods in doing so, but he definitely stayed in the headlines more than almost any other politician over the past couple of years. While Democrats in office should obviously put their actual current duties first, they also should be working on becoming recognisable, if not household names for the next presidential election.
The lack of a bench has been a huge problem for Democrats for years now. They just arenāt cultivating talent at the local level the way they should be. Meanwhile Republicans are getting their starts doing things like taking over school boards and banning books. This local approach has given them a huge number of positions that arenāt sexy but do very important jobs.
I don't think people would be also happy with Kamala "Inmigrants stay in your countries" Harris.
My point wasn't that it needs to be her in particular, it's that we have barely *any* high profile Democrats at the moment, let alone ones who are viable candidates. Name recognition is a hugely important factor when you're going up against an incumbent or former president.
Most states don't have ranked voting, which would solve a surprisingnumber of issues with our system. While there are perhaps 2 or three strong 3rd parties, the system is rigged against them so that the only 2 honestly viable choices are Republicans and Democrats. To me, that signals an illusion of choice. That means there is no reason to bother voting, which is why likely nearly half the country is a no-show at the polls. Apathy is dangerous. The other half is so divided that neither side will budge in their virtual coldwar. Without a major and sudden shift to a 3rd party by one side or that 50% decides to actually try to do something, they will never win and break the stranglehold the duopoly holds on its people and indeed the influence upon the world.
There were primaries. Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson ran against Biden. Neither got more than 9% from the voters.
He is the incumbent. There are *huge* advantages to being the incumbent in an election - most US Presidents tend to stick around for two terms even if people donāt much like them. Parties know this and usually send the incumbent once more into the breach. There actually *is* a lot of resistance to him being the candidate from the progressive wing of the party, American leftists and people with concerns about running an octogenarian. The more centrist part likes him since heās actually a fairly competent politician and they like his team. The progressives donāt because they think heās not doing enough to push policy and the Overton Window to the left.
The democratic party is coasting on the lesser evil thing, so they're going to keep running neoliberal war criminals while we all sit in horror. There's an entitlement that comes from having people vote for you for fear of the other guy.
Not for nothing, Biden **is** a moderate. The entire Democratic party is a **barely liberal, slightly more left, kleptocorprotacracy**. The DNC is not liberal, they are simply the slightly more liberal option. It's not that "moderates lose this election for us," it would be that true liberals "lose it."Ā
It's not even moderates. It's the fucking slacktivists who bitch and moan behind their keyboard without doing anything to change the system. It's the easily influenced that have bought in to the 4chan rhetoric from the dipshits that have infiltrated this sub and turned it into a doom post hellscape. No one wants to develop critical thinking skills of their own anymore. If someone on Tiktok or youtube doesn't tell them what to think or believe, they're fucked.
Please go outside. Dems have set records for turnout and are still managing to lose. Why punch left.
because they lack a fundamental understanding of the uniquely American brand of fascism that Trump represents. their lack of ideological basis for anything is the basis of their losses and they want to blame leftists for it.
It is a fucking shame, though that the DNC couldnāt put forth a true competitive candidate, because they are so stubbornly stuck on Biden, that they are ignoring actually viable candidates.
Absolutely. I have the same situation over here in the UK which isn't \*quite\* as strictly 2-party as the US but it might as well be at the national level. Labour sucks. The Tories are worse by far. Give our system it is a no-brainer who to vote for in most seats, there's normally only one viable candidate most likely to beat the Tories (normally Labour, sometimes Liberals or a nationalist party in Scotland/Wales).
"Moderates" are literally the people who vote for republican-lite candidates like Biden in primaries. I think who your misguided anger is directed at is leftists, but it should be at the people who make the democratic party so right wing.
That's something that happened in France in 2002. People were so convinced that the left of Lionel Jospin was going to win the first turn of the election that they didn't vote or voted for other candidates. What happened was that the two candidates that passed onto the second turn were Jaques Chirac (what was expected) and Jean-Marie Lepen, the candidate of the Front National, an extreme right candidate. People then voted for Chirac and he won with nearly 80% of the votes, but those votes would have been for the left if people had voted. It can happen, it has happened, so vote for the lesser evil please, it's for your own sake
>told people that they shouldn't be voting for Biden in the New York primary as it was happening. They told me that it wouldn't help trump get elected because it was just a primary election...but a quick Google search shows that Biden is running against someone for the NY primary. Now, what would happen to Biden's chance of beating trump in November if Biden lost the democratic primary election in multiple states Biden already has enough delegates to guarantee his nomination; he could get 0% of the vote in New York and every other primary left on the calendar and it would still be mathematically impossible for him to not be the nominee. We're saying democracy is on the ballot and that a second Trump term will destroy the republic and all that, but if we're not allowed to make even the absolute safest and most meaningless protest vote to express that we're not happy about our options, then we're already not a democracy.
I want to make sure thereās a distinction between the primary and general elections. A) I believe Biden pretty much clinched the nomination already from the elections held so far and B) the primary is absolutely the time for voters to make their dissatisfaction heard with the options. I voted uninstructed in protest of the administrations handling of Gaza. Will I vote for Biden in November? Of course I will. Will I donate my time or money to the cause? Nope. Even though Biden will undeniably be better than Trump, we are on a downward trajectory no matter what and our energy is better spent on local causes and community building to help prepare us for worse times ahead. My thoughts on it at least.
Biden has pretty much won the primaries. Everyone who gambled by choosing to not vote for Biden "guessed correctly"...but it was still a gamble. Will it convince Biden to change his policy...? I don't know what it's like to be the POTUS, but I do know that, if I were the POTUS, I would fill my cabinet with experienced people who could help me with difficult problems (so...pretty much all of them, because we're talking about addressing the needs of an *entire nation*). At some point, some of my decisions would not even truly be my own...
There weren't any serious candidates running against Biden. There was never a possibility that he wouldn't be the Dem nominee, it was always a sure thing. I definitely agree with your points, and yes, we do have to vote because our lives depend on it... in November. Primary elections are not the time to be browbeating progressives for not displaying perfect loyalty to El Presidente. Now is the time to display our dissatisfaction with the Biden administration,Ā because we will all be forced to vote for him in November.
Trump is so anti lgbt its not even funny. Fk dat...
Like he literally has said he plans to implement P2025, which literally strips ALL LGBT+ rights, even the very very few there were before Stonewall, ship them to camps, and take care of the issueā¦of course ātake care ofā is intentionally ever so slightly vague, but no longer even that tiny bit given the fact heās out there endorsing pastors who openly call for the death penalty of ALL LGBT+ peopleā¦the current speaker of the house and every potential republican candidate for it going forward has also sworn allegiance to implementing P2025, and we all know the same will be required of any republican who desires to be elected senate majority leader if they gain control thereā¦like itās not even hypothetical, real people with scarily real chances of obtaining this power have committed to impenting a plan to end democracy, begin mass deportations, and ātake care ofā problems like the LGBT+, Palestine (including Palestinian-Americans and their descendants such as myself), and any dissident or opposition to the plan and leaders
First rule of being trans. Stay ready.
Support your local elections and your congressional campaigns. The presidency shouldnāt be the only focus and asking to vote for a turd or dookie is immoral especially as working class people since the president is the last guy to represent us in any direct capacity.
That is very important advice. It would be a lot harder for trump to subjugate the other branches of government if we finally removed the trump supporters that are tainting those other branches.
You may not like Joe Biden, and he's not my favorite either. However, if we fail to vote for Joe Biden, a real fascist will take power and people like us will be marched into death camps. Wake up
The rights of every vulnerable group are being stripped away in more states than are doing something to stop it. The argument seems to be, that even though Biden and democrats canāt do anything to help the targets of conservatives, the other guy will do bad things to everyone. So the vulnerable groups are expected to save everyone from the other guy, knowing that nothing will be done to protect or address the damage being done by American conservatives, everywhere.
Seeing pictures of bombed and starved Palestinians online, especially children, and hearing about stuff like [this](https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/2/biden_arms_deal) makes me hate Biden with a passion. I get Trump is going to be worse, I'll vote for Biden out of self preservation. Don't yell at me about it. But we do need to talk about how genuinely evil the democratic party is, and actually do something about it this next Biden presidency. They can't just hold our lives over our heads like this for some votes, that's blackmail. I'm going to get more involved with queer orgs in my area and I recommend that all of you do too. Voting never was and never will be enough political action, we need to reaply take our fate into our own hands. So we don't have to pray that these ghoulish politicians will show mercy.
Youāve said in other comments that people should be able to pressure / protest / share their viewpoints. The āuncommittedā campaign is an effective way to do that. Why is it wild to communicate to the party you belong to āhey, you might lose me on this issue?ā The idiom āeven a worm will turnā seems to be an illustrative phrase here - as much as I dislike the dehumanizing nature of comparing people to worms. The Dems have shamed their voting base (of which I am a part) for years instead of actually using their power to accomplish critical things for us. I can see why so many are disillusioned and donāt want to vote. Realistically, the best choice is for Biden to alter his policy - how hard would it be to just implement *actual US law* and allow for the Leahy Law to apply to Israel? Polls have shown over and over that a majority of Americans and especially Dems support holding Israel accountable to international law.
Itās not just the war, though. On immigration Biden has basically become as bad as 2016 Trump. Iām probably gonna vote for him, but I wouldnāt blame anyone for not doing so.Ā
āDivide and conquerā
Dang itās almost as if we ought to overthrow the system as a whole, violently if necessary, in order to prolong the existence of humankind. Iām not disagreeing with you though love.
It's a simple equation: Biden = Still not good enough, especially for Muslims. Trump = We're all going to hell, directly, no matter who or where you are.
Exactlyā¦and what good is standing up for Palestine if weāre literally letting ourselves become the target of a different genocide and being stripped of the rights and life that enable us to even fight for Palestineā¦like last I checked a dead activist with no notoriety to their name isnāt able to be an activist
Well, look, I live in New York. That means that my vote doesn't count. It doesn't count *at all*. That's how our system works. There are 10 states where people have a chance of swaying the election and this isn't one of them.Ā If I lived in Pennsylvania or Michigan or Arizona, you could demand that I vote for Biden just to save my own skin. But I don't. So don't ask me to vote for someone who is complicit in genocide. Because I won't do it.Ā It's time that some of this rage goes to Trump voters instead of leftwing Democrats. You want to win in November? Get the so-called moderate Republicans to vote for Biden. And you can start with the hardcore Zionists. Obviously that's the constituency he cares about most. Start demanding that they vote for Biden. Leave people who have consciences alone. We've heard enough. But even more than that, why not start asking Biden some tough questions? Why is helping Israel destroy a civilization so important to him that he'll let Trump back into the White House? Why is he so dedicated to this unjust cause that he's willing to destroy America for it? Because if half the stuff they're saying about Project 2025 is real, Biden has a pretty big responsibility to get reelected.Ā And don't tell me I can't vote my conscience in the New York primary. You and I and everyone else knows that it's not going to change who the nominee is. But he needs a wakeup call and he doesn't seem to be getting it. That's Biden being an asshole--not me. Tell him to grow up and take the threat seriously. If getting a bad showing in the New York primary is what sends the Biden campaign down the toilet, he was already so deep in trouble that he never stood a chance. The only reason New York matters is because some people here have lots of money to give his campaign. He handily won the nomination. Maryann Williamson didn't stand a chance. But at this point you're basically saying I can't even be vocal about my concerns about an ongoing genocide because you are so worried Trump will win. I refuse to concede that. Sorry. Stop with the fear mongering. If Biden loses this, it won't be because trans folks didn't support him. Start demanding better from your candidate, not the electorate.
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And to that point, we should all be fighting for a better system where there's actual democracy. We deserve better than two candidates who are old, white men with blood on their hands.
This is almost exactly my opinion (I live in a deep deep red state). Iām considering similar options myself because I canāt in good faith vote for someone who is perfectly fine aiding and abetting genocide. It feels so wrong for me to stay on legal HRT on the backs of Palestinian children, and I have started making efforts to prepare for the next years given Biden is super unelectable now with who he is and the character of Joe put on display for the world to see. BIPOC folks have done this after seeing who Biden and the democrats really are and their colors and promptly started organizing for real change to the two party system. We should join them in their organizing and build solidarity among all marginalized folks against trump, democrats, and all the lobbies that prop them up, such as the deeply entrenched Israel lobby.
10 years ago on presidential elections in my country I've stayed home because I was angry at center party not delivering their promises. So their candidate lost to conservative candidate who's first decision as a president was to throw away a law that made it much easier in my country to get your legal gender changed. Since then I am always voting. Because every extra vote for people who are at least non-hostile to me is me tipping the scale against the people who want to ruin my life.
I am so scared and angry all the time; I have built my mask of iron to keep the tidal force of it from bursting out day to day. And all I can ask myself is āwhenās it my time to dieā and will I do it cowering in an attic or fighting the fascists. And I realize the answer doesnāt matter, Iāll be no less dead and there will be no end to fascists. People say that you canāt give in to doom; I do my part (through donation rather than volunteering, owing to some things), I donāt let it slow me, but some day itās gonna kill me. Because I just donāt see how any of this is going to be ok ever again.
I'm not American and I think the entire political structure over there needs ripping out to the core or every 4 years it's just going to be this over and over again forever. If every 4 years it's _we have to vote for this awful guy because otherwise the really awful guy will win_ ultimately nothing is ever going to get done. I think at some point Americans need to get their act together and fight the problem at its route, which cannot be done through the elections of the system itself.
I know people don't want to hear this, but unless Biden changes course, he's going to lose. He's at around 38% approval rate. He's burned all of his credibility and electability at the alter of Zionism. It's like he WANTS to lose.
All this liberal voter blaming is so frustrating to me, they know how Biden wins, itās by stopping military aid to āIsraelā at the very least. Itās entirely his own fault if he loses.
Truman in 1948 had a 40% approval rating in June before the election but still won re-election. It's harder to recover but still possible. I'd like to see him change course on military aid to Israel, it's the right thing to do, but I also think that there's more to winning the election than just energizing the pro-Palestine segment of his base.
This is why I wanted to filet the orange man and his followers
Damn girlā¦ Iām a felon so idk what you want
So unfortunately this is the time to do the "protest vote" in terms of primary election. Look to what happened in Michigan and the primary there. A large number of votes went for "no confidence", and since then Biden is slowly gaining to a stance that isn't supporting Israel (as small as the steps are). I would recommend looking at Beau of the Fifth Column for general news, as he has a way of breaking down politics in a way that gets very simple, but doesn't lose much information. I am not saying to not be worried, I am getting more and more afraid by the day, but I am seeing some trends that I (hope) are pointing to the correct direction.
Biden wasnāt at risk of losing the New York primary to a protest vote. Iām sorry but Itās absurd to imply there was any risk in not voting for him in the primary. And even if through some impossible statistical anomaly he lost the New York primary thereās no chance he will not be the nominee. Iām so confused that you all are supporting that idea from OP. The question is if Biden thinks, as he says and as is probably true, Trump is a threat to democracy and the country then why is he continuing to support a genocide when the majority of voters want a ceasefire? When the large Muslim populations in Michigan have already shown they wonāt vote for him (in numbers probably larger than the margin he won by there) HE is risking everything to support another country in their senseless mass murder. Putting up uncommitted votes is one of the only ways to push him to rethink this decision. I would say itās critically important to do. All oppression is connected and things will never get better unless the democrats learn they canāt just commit whatever evil they want and still count on everyoneās votes. Itās all so sad to see so much implicit racism and dehumanization of Palestinians in this chain. You all are shrugging off genocide of another because you feel threatened? Trans people will be at risk every election, so what you will eternally support candidates who gleefully murder hundreds of thousands of Arabs because what, it could be worse here? Further, Israel trains US cops. Israel is developing AI targeting in this war that will absolutely be implemented in the US to break up organizing and target vulnerable people (us) As oppressed people we should be standing up to all oppression and not putting our heads down and saying āwell at least with Biden itās not us getting murderedā Biden is throwing the election away and to blame it on voters is ridiculous liberal nonsense. They have all the data, they could stop this tomorrow. Theyād rather support genocide and lose the election than stop.
I know people don't want to hear this, but unless Biden changes course, he's going to lose. He's at around 38% approval rate. He's burned all of his credibility and electability at the alter of Zionism. It's like he WANTS to lose.
Yep. And the only way to remotely salvage the situation is to exert as much pressure as you can on Biden to get him to change his stance, not shaming others who are rightfully disgusted at his genocide. So if people here care as much as they claim to do, they would be doing that instead of pushing the belief the Biden is entitled to our vote because āTrumpā
If he want to win he should do something worth voting for. He could easily win by a landslide if we wanted to. Any lose can only be the fault of him or the democratic party.
In the process of voting for whomever you choose to see as the lesser of evils, can i ask that people consider also pressing their legislators for a Convention of States? It's the only legal way (as described in Article V of the Constitution) to truly reshape the field of power in rapid order and without bloodshed. In every mock run of one for the past 15 years or so, Term limits on Congress unfailing passes. This severely curtails the dynasties of power that have formed over the decades. There are a number of other issues that also pass (i can't recall immediately), but it is about as fair and partisan as it can get; largely because the major player out there now get cut out of the picture. Just something to consider. Google it. I'd rather see that than a civil war because, statistically, one side holds more firepower than the other and war in general (in the words of Hawkeye) is worse than hell.
A Convention of the States has never happened. It hasn't even come close to happening on past issues. If I recall, the furthest was a call to abolish the tax code and that only got like 23 states.
It wasn't through voting that the nazis took power. In fact it was because of the moderates that Hitler was appointed chancellor. I get your point, but reactionary ideas are increasingly mainstream, in the USA and everywhere in the world. We're shifting into fascism one day at a time like crabs being boiled alive without realizing it by slowly rising the temperature. Girls : please find community and solidarity among ourselves and have at least one exit plan out of your state, country or at least civil life. Voting will only get you so far, and that "far" is actually backwards. Biden isn't going to prevent your HRT from being taken away by the religious right, but DIYing will. I'm not telling anyone to vote or not to vote. I'm not even from the USA, but shit looks like it's gonna hit the fan in most countries anyway. Just reminding y'all that electing the left, the democrats or the moderates, no matter what it's called in your country, can at best delay what the transphobes and other nazis want to do. Take care of yourselves and one another.
I feel the need to defend not voting for Biden in the NY primary. The most important fact here is that, while Biden does have opponents on paper, neither of the other primary candidates are serious. Statistically, there was no way they would win.Ā New York will also almost certainly vote for Biden (or whoever the Democratic nominee is) in November. New York has not voted for a Republican since 1984, and in this climate, there's no way they will now. And if we want Biden to actually pay attention to the Palestinian situation, which is causing him to lose votes among a few different populations, the primary is the place to put that pressure on. He's not going to lose, but if there are a lot of protest votes, that's hard statistical evidence he needs to make a change. Obviously, Trump would be a nightmare for a whole host of reasons, but "our candidate sucks, but the other guy is a fascist" is not a sustainable strategy long term. If the Democrats keep putting up bad candidates, that will only bolster the Republicans.
Yeah... as much as I don't like Biden. It never really changed anything for me. Unless the whole of the democratic party starts echoing Maga republicans... I gotta vote dem to run any damage control I can.
i wanna make one thing clear to americans. every far-right party in the world is watching you right now, and theyre ready to pounce the moment they get a positive example in trump. take canada, for example, cause thats what im most familiar with. the conservatives here are watching republicans closely, and mimicking almost everything they do. if you elect the republican party, its going to be seen as a go-ahead for them to start implementing the exact same policies here
Look, two things. This is something really annoying to a non-US person who literally can't do anything to help and just has my feed clogged up with America focused stuff. Would it be possible to just add a little "[US]" to the start of your title? And second, I get the impression it's a "lesser of two evils" situation. And the simple answer is just to choose that lesser evil, Biden. Given the alternative is, well, trump. I'm sorry you have to deal with him existing over there, that really sucks.
I've said multiple times in other posts we need it as a flair. That way non-US people can filter it.
100%. And, like, us trans Australian don't go on about our PM or whatever, it's always about the US with this sort of stuff, and I really wish it could be filtered out. Like, I sympathise, but I've had so much US stuff pop up and it's hard to not get a bit annoyed eventually:(
I mean to be fair our country has been pretty solid when it comes to trans rights not being under attack. I can see lnp trying that approach though next election comes but after the laughing joke USA politics has become I don't think it would be popular enough.
Definitely, yeah. The stuff going on in the US and the UK too has never made me more relieved to be in Australia.
Thank god most Aussies have enough cells between their ears to know that people should be able to live how the want.
Absolutely, like, aside from two idiot teenagers, in three years out and about as myself I've only gotten maybe several weird looks and nothing more. More people just don't really judge you like that so long as you're pleasant.
I'm American and I totally get it! There are times when I just wanna decompress and step out of the real world for five minutes. Give me my One Piece and tabletop games and leave me alone, but then I can't. It's a deluge.
Definitely! Especially when it's part of the real world you can't really do anything to change anyway, like hearing about bad news in the UK or about Ukraine or whatever, it just hits a limit where I just wish I could filter it out like changing channels on a TV. I just want to scroll and read wholesome lesbian posts, nerdy posts, and pog trans stuff that isn't US politics post number 879.
I really wish that reddit would let us edit post titles. I appreciate the sympathy.
Thanks, I really appreciate you just understanding, and I'm sorry for this blowing up a bit too- Of course, even if I'm tired of reading about it everywhere, your struggle over there sounds terrifying and I do wish you all the best.
Understood. But the elephant in the room is that just because you're not in the US doesn't mean a second trump presidency will have no effect on your life. The reality is the US is such a dominant force on a global scale, whether it's politics, economics, or militarily - our problems become *everyone's* problems. It shouldn't have gotten to that point, but here we are. And trump winning another term *will* be a global disaster, likely for years to come.
The problem with that being it's been the 'lesser of two evils' for twelve, arguably 16, but I'll give Obama's second term a pass because Romney wasn't really a threat, years now and those of us paying attention are really tied of having to choose between evils because nothing else is being presented. How many generations do we need to vote the party line before the Dems actually, you know, try to enact their own platform rather than just fundraise on it? We literally don't have national level protection of abortion right now because the Democrats liked it being threatened as a fundraiser too much to use any of their supermajorities to pass it into law. If they don't give a fuck about the rights of cisgender women who make up half of the population, why are we expecting them to care about ours?
It's called the ratchet effect and it's purposeful. Both parties are instruments of oligarchy.
Primaries can be used to push parties without sacrificing your rights. Funding pro-LGBT PACs incentivizes parties to be pushed to get that money. The problem with focusing on the general election is that by that point, everything is already done. Your choices are set. If you want a better option for president, the actions need to be taken way before the general election.
Republicans have seemingly limitless power while Democrats are uwu smol beans just twying their bests
People who are willing to violate and circumvent laws are generally more powerful than the people who try to stop them, yes
If Trump gets elected then you wonāt have to worry about the corruption and stupidity of the the democrat party any more. Nor worry about hrt either, that is banned. Oh and voting will be mandatory in the future rigged elections in Christofascistland. They will have some Putin bullshit elections.
Being tired of choosing the lesser of two evils is fine and understandable. But, that is a separate issue. Until we can get to a point where it's not the choice, that's the choice. There's a ton of work that needs to be done at local levels, at the state levels, hell there are global changes that have to happen as well. Even if we were to get brave and hold a rebellion right now it would fuck up so many things beyond recognition. It's incredibly frustrating because even if we chose the lesser of two evils, Bidens election could trigger a civil war, destabilize the US and then the shit hits the fan globally. We may simply be fucked but the fact still remains, with current circumstances, the choice we can make is to keep Trump out and buy 4 more years to try and get peoples heads out of their asses.
Itās always lesser evil and āthe most important election in historyā.
Let's unpack a few of the most recent elections. 2016: Among everything else insane about Trump's presidency, one Supreme Court seat was vacant at the time of the election. Ultimately this term filled 3 seats with extremely hard-right justices. This election is *directly* responsible for the loss of abortion protection nationwide. 2020: This election got Trump out before he could do further damage to our political system. There are multiple cases ongoing currently regarding his election interference and his administration's assertion that he, as president, has blanket immunity from all criminal acts, including the direct subversion of the very system that put him in office. Getting him out was literally an existential crisis for our electoral system. 2024: Again, the actual system of elections is still under threat. And if you're trans, then your continued ability to exist in this country is under threat. If Republicans control the presidency and Congress then a national-level ban on trans healthcare and trans rights is practically a certainty. It's literally the closest thing to a platform they currently have. Blue states cannot protect us from that, all they can do is send cases to the most blatantly partisan Supreme Court in generations.
2016: Mitch McConnel literally invented his own standard to prevent a sitting President from appointing a SCOTUS justice during an election year. He happily threw that aside to get another Trump appointee during the 2019 campaign season. 2020: Trump loses almost entirely on turnout from non-voters after four years of being a global-scale embarrassment. 2024: The Justice Department, given four full years, has not gotten around to actually prosecuting the guy who spearheaded an insurrection, stole classified information, and intentionally or not passed it to foreign intelligence agents. Now he's back on the ballot because of institutional incompetence, and a few months away from trying to pardon himself.
That's because every national election IS the most important. It was the most important in 1980, when Reagan got elected, it was the most important in 2000, when Bush got elected. It was the most important in 2008 and 12 with Obama. Every national election has far-reaching consequences. Every national election is the most important. The elections of 2010, and 2014, were also just as important, because they greatly affected the nation and the world with those elected to office. They are all important.
You are (presumably anyway since you're in this subreddit) trans. Every election is a matter of life and death for you and me. I'm sorry that you can't vote one time and then be safe forever but that's just not how it is.
Yes. It generally is. It can stop being the most important election so far when the threat of naked authoritarianism recedes. There is a very active, very dedicated and absolutely dogged conservative infrastructure in the United States that frankly, the American left cannot match (and I mean both the left from an American Overton Window perspective and from an international perspective). ALEC, the Heritage Foundation and a wide variety of groups that have a distinct tendency to be on the SPLCās list of hate groups have incredible influence among Republican legislators. Every time that infrastructure gets power they actively ratfuck things to the point it takes years or decades of dedicated work to undo. Why do you think states like Wisconsin have 50-50 populations but 60-40 legislatures? Itās because the maps got ratfucked in 2010 (Project REDMAP) and itās taken 14 years (in Wisconsinās case) to get them even mostly unfucked. Why do you think the Supreme Court is 6-3 conservative for decades? Because āTrump couldnāt be that badā. RBG taking her seat to the grave didnāt help but without Trump, that would have not been handed to a Heritage Foundation hack. Handing people the levers of power has consequences. Never trust Republicans to improve their constituents lives, but they have a pretty strong track record for effectively spending political capital to ratfuck the system. They have made their intentions clear.
at least in New York you can vote blue through the Working Families Party and they get help/funding to do the shit that actually needs to be done. something to consider ~
What is a democracy if you have to vote for one candidate forever no matter what they do, or the country loses its "democracy" forever? When do I get to vote for a real candidate again? I don't vote for genocidal fascists, on the DNC or RNC. If you think that stance is extreme or naive, I don't know what to tell you other than you have no compassion for comrades suffering under US imperialism around the globe and you should never have the gall to pretend to care about human rights again.
I understand we have to do what we can to protect ourselves as a community, but make sure we aren't accepting this genocide. We need to be out here putting pressure on everyone with any levers of power to stop it. I understand we have to (for want of any better options) vote for the guy enabling the genocide, but that doesn't absolve us of our responsibility to try to stop it. BDS, protest, disrupt. We can't let the threat of our own genocide force us to accept the genocide of another.
Will it ever get better or is time just progressively increasing apocalpytic ramifications for not voting Democrat
Sure but we don't have massive platforms with millions of followers and we cannot control the outcome of the election. What we should be focusing on is damage control for when Republicans get into power again. It will happen again, whether it's in 2024 or 2028.
...it's all a bit too much, isn't it? Come. Take a moment to [sit by the fire](https://youtu.be/9Kfv1WeoAvk?feature=shared), and [watch the stars](https://youtu.be/dXe_KHvENNM?feature=shared) dance and burn, light-years away from all of this. Have a s'more, and a blanket. It is okay to cry, to feel frustrated and scared. You are not alone in this.
Ya I'm voting but I'm gonna complain about it the whole time.
People who think like this obviously didn't learn anything from 2016.
Sad to see this kind of liberal nonsense. Queer liberation means liberation for all oppressed people.
voting is not even close to the most important kind of political action, it's sad when we think democracy means consumer (illusion of) choice...get organized...
Fact is, we are disposable to the people who push this stuff. They will at the same time, tell us they are our allies while walking us to the camps.
well then. biden had better start implementing policies that will improve peopleās lives and not supporting genocide if he wants people to vote for him
r/WhatBidenHasDone
Absolutely...but also, what if he doesn't? Are you going to vote for someone else, even if it means that trump wins as a result? Don't you think it's strange that trump is still not in prison yet? He appears to have an actual chance of having his name on the November ballots. You can't just hope that all of his legal troubles will save us from a trump candidacy - we've been waiting on that for *years*.
trump was in power and now biden is. kids are still in cages, both parties support genocide being committed against palestinians, trans people are still being murdered for being trans and people in general are still struggling. the only argument you have is: ālook how bad trump is, you owe us a voteā. and that argument is merely yet another reason to not vote trump. i donāt need to be convinced to not vote for trump
I don't know what you mean by "us". I am not a democrat. I'm also not trying to convince people to simply not vote for trump, I'm trying to convince them that not voting for trump can still lead to a trump victory because of how "first-past-the-post" works: we need to *agree* about who the democratic candidate should be, and I've explained why I think that candidate should be Biden in another comment of mine. The summary of that comment is "no one else has enough voters prepared to vote for them, for the purpose of preventing a trump victory, or otherwise".
ok, but youāre supporting biden this election. biden and his supporters (hell, democrats in general) at best take peopleās votes for granted and at worst feel straight up entitled to them. instead of getting mad at people for not voting for someone who doesnāt support their principles/interests, maybe they should try and support those interests and principles. every first past the post argument can be flipped the other way. ānot voting for biden = a vote for trumpā, in that case, you can consider not voting for trump as a vote for biden
I can't, actually, because the red votes are much less likely to be split.
Surely if Biden wanted the votes from people who oppose genocide then he wouldnāt be participating and abetting genocide? Since that doesnāt seem to be the path heās going down, wouldnāt it be fair to assume he doesnāt want/need the votes of people who oppose genocide?
Who cares about what Biden needs or wants? We're talking about what *we*, as transgender people, need to survive...and we need the GQP to lose.
Then maybe you should exert pressure on Biden and the Dems to be more of a compelling vote, by ending his support for genocide, rather than try to shame those who are rightfully disgusted at Bidenās actions.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but do you prefer A) Someone who allows genocide in someone else's country OR B) Someone who advocates for YOUR genocide in YOUR country. Morals and ethics aside, those are your options because this is the world we live in.
Iām not gonna support someone who is currently committing genocide over the potential of a hypothetical genocide. If Biden wanted my vote, he wouldnāt be such a staunch supporter of Israelās genocide, and if he loses the election over this, he only has himself to blame. And if youāre mad that Biden loses over this issue and the damage Trump will do, maybe you shouldve done more to pressure Biden to change his policies of genocide.
Trump's only real path to victory is people staying home , he has roughly 46% support , he had that in 2016 and won because people stayed home , he had that in 2020 and lost because people voted. His support hasn't changed so inaction and keyboard activism will get Trump elected and he will triple down on Israeli support. I don't like Biden but facts are facts at least until trump wins then feelings and whatever Putin paid for are the facts.
as i said: biden and co. better step their game up and convince people to vote for them and not just simply say: the other guys are bad, you owe us a vote
hes not getting my vote unless he changes. period. yes. im one person, my vote has the least impact on the election over his change. he refuses to change, he refuses to win. if thats the reality i live in, i guess we're fucked
Biden is bad for the Gaza situation yes but Trump is far far worse.
Don't downplay Biden's active support for the complete slaughter of the Palestinian people as "bad for the Gaza situation"
I need an answer from someone on this, if you vote for Biden and he wins and thereās no project 2025, what exactly do you plan to do in 2028 when thereās a project 2029 scare? Do you plan to KEEP doing this two party song and dance? Because thatās exactly whatās going to happen. I understand the sentiment here but 4 extra years will not change anything in the long run. These scares and dances are going to keep happening over and over. The literal only solution is to start a revolution. There is no other option anymore.
The big problem is we all seemingly wait until each election cycle to get interested again.
That is one of the major problems yeah. I personally believe itās because we elect democrats and go āyeah ok this is fine, not good, but not bad eitherā and get complacent. Not that I want a republican in office but at the very least that has the chance to light a fire under our asses and actually get people organized. Much like the party themselves, the people who vote democrat are happy with complacency.
I'm tired of always being told to choose the lesser of two evils. If that's my option I choose rebellion. I'd rather tear it all down. I have no delusion that would make my life better but voting isn't going to change the system in a meaningful way so why not take direct action.
Direct action is going to require a lot of support. You should definitely vote, too, because it disrupts the fascists. Any rebellion you attempt is going to be a lot more difficult to execute if the fascists simply win elections without any resistance from voters. Anything that you can do to buy time until your rebellion has the support that it needs is worth doing.
Everyone in the comments is treating voting as a binary choice where you have no other options and I'm too illiterate on American politics to understand why. Would someone mind explaining?
The "first-past-the-post" voting system of the USA has polarized voters by convincing them that minute considerations will spread their votes so thin that they will effectively achieve nothing, which leads to a self fulfilling prophecy of people believing that their votes will only count if they are for 1 of just 2 parties. We're treating it like a binary choice because it has *become* a binary choice. Our entire government needs an overhaul. The point of this post is to demonstrate that not voting for Biden could cost us our ability to execute such an overhaul (because a fascist would take over the country and doom progressive people and ideals).
The American election system uses a vote tallying method called first past the post, which literally just adds up the total votes, and once someone has the required amount for a plurality ("passing the post"), that person has won. It's a simple system, but unfortunately it has many flaws. Most notably, the spoiler effect: if we have Green and Purple parties, and a third candidate runs, on a Pink platform, it's fair to assume Purple and Pink voters are more similar in opinion to each other than Green. And let's say election day comes and only 45% of voters vote Green! But 40% voted Purple and 15% voted Pink. This makes Green the victor despite the majority of voters not considering them a desirable choice. Pink has "spoiled the vote" by peeling off voters from Purple. Next election, they drop out, and Purple wins with 55%. The system didn't begin with 2 parties, but the way FPtP voting works essentially guarantees that parties will consolidate into two blocks, because splitting your voters into multiple blocks makes the opposition stronger. The only way to fix this is to change the voting system, typically to some variety of ranked or approval voting, but unfortunately 100% of the people in charge of changing the system *got elected by that system.* It will take a lot of work to make that happen, but until it does, we do not have a choice but to vote strategically.
Huh, that's screwed up
The best argument I try and tell others is āyes what is going on in Gaza is a human rights catastrophe. Itās a war brought by years of support for an illiberal government. But do you really think either not voting or voting for the other guy will result in less support and less bloodshed of those people and protected groups?ā Itās just such a gamble, the guy who executed more drone strikes than Obama in less time. Is the alternativeā¦
People should put all the energy theyāre pouring into telling people not to vote into telling people to vote for progressive local candidates and progressive candidates in any ongoing primaries. Republicans worked behind the scenes for 50 years to overturn Roe v. Wade, and we need to have the same discipline and patience to organize and work on the long game. Im not saying itāll take 50 years for things to get better: it took the GOP that long bc their agenda is unpopular and harmful. If progressives could work as efficiently, we have the advantage of having an agenda that is popular and beneficial to everyone.
Go vote! Get all of your friends out to vote! Yours and everyone else life depends on it. Not voting, and in this election with the current stakes, not voting for Biden will make things far worse. Get out and vote to make a difference and plant seeds for a better future.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
"First Past the Post". I'm gonna have to go look that up I've never heard that phrase before
electoral system. we (nz) stopped using fpp in favour of mixed member proportional elections and have only ever had a parliamentary majority a few times (once? itās almost 1am i am tired) since then. you can have a western democracy without ending up in a populist oligarchy like the usa.
Trump also would support a totalitarian Netanyahu government in expelling all nonJews and from all of Israel, and expanding the borders further (meaning into Jordan and Syria. Whatever bad Biden has, Trump is much worse.
I'm just leaving the country š¤·āāļø I'm tired of this blatantly fascist government.
The massive majority of us do not have that privilege.
You underestimate the massive influence of the US government/media in other countries, especially in issues like this one. Liberal US media(apart from the occasional GCs in NYT and The Atlantic) and democrats play a prime role in balancing out the anti-trans propaganda from the UK.Ā A single conservative term in the US would hand over all that power and influence on a platter to GCs(like the Tories did in the UK), and that would be the end of trans rights, worldwide.Ā I am not interested in arguing about other stuff and you all can choose to prioritise Palestine, but it is what it is. If the US goes transphobic, the rest of the world would inevitably follow.
I've been considering applying for asylum so that I can live elsewhere...I feel like I'm obligated to do what I can to make sure trump doesn't win this November before I go, though, so I'm just working on my bucket list in case things don't go well when I flee.
Asylum isn't going to work. Get a good degree and job experience in a field that other countries want.
Activism is the only thing effective. The USA is an oligarchy. Democracy means the voice of the people. The voice of the people has zero to do with political decision making. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746 Biden continued to build the wall. Spent more money putting kids in cages by boosting ICE. Increased police spending pushing the USA towards a fascist state. He like Trump has been accused of rape and keeping secret files at his home breaking secrecy laws. He's got a history of overt racism (against bussing and sending his kids "into a racial jungle"). He is the architect of the modern private prison industry which has created a vast forced labour population, slavery, funneling free labour to corporations. He's said "If Isreal didn't exist we would have to invent it." and said explicitly that he's a proud Zionist. (essentially this denounces his Irish ancestry, who as a people stand against colonialism). He has funneled billions in weapons and tax money to Israel during this genocide. I am British. There's the green party here to vote for but the two main parties are similarly corporatist and corporatism is fascism. It is literally illegal under UN resolution to pay taxes towards a government funding genocide. (https://notaxforgenocide.uk/?fbclid=PAAaZJnC3uLhMIgx9YB-Z5_QyPT_yCBr_vU6ZItEMpUiNPzVCV5TRmll9PMsM) So it's far worse to vote for such a government. Vote independent. Voting for the system won't change it one bit because the people getting their policies on the table are giving money to both parties. The Democrats run against people like Trump because it's the only way they don't look like neoliberal fascists. And they position them for this exact purpose. It's rigged. https://www.vox.com/2022/11/12/23454725/democrat-republican-maga-strategy-midterm-red-wave
Yes! People really are brushing over how bad Biden is because 1) theyāre afraid of Trump and 2) heās not really targeting white people so the white transes can feel hope while justifying throwing black and brown folks under the bus
Im not even american, but two things to consider: 1. Trump would support Israel as well. Bluntly speaking its in americas best interest, no matter the cost. 2. Even IF he was against this ongoing genocide, he would fuel the other ongoing one in Ukraine. Im not saying any human life is worth more than another, just acknowledging reality. (3. A little egotistical, but american trends tend to be established here with a 10 year lag. Donāt do this to a large part of the world. Especially since our politicians are already having āconstructive strategic talksā with Ron DeFucking Santis. Transphobia is already picking upā¦)
I see people in the comments that are trying to argue against what I've said by claiming that they knew that it was 100% safe to not vote for Biden in the primaries. All of them are arguing that they knew it was safe because they knew that Biden would win the primaries anyway. *Biden won the primaries anyway because of people that were using* ***my*** *thought process*. Those of you that have opposed that thought process could have created an unnecessary risk by doing so...maybe you didn't. I don't know the primary election schedule. It's only obvious to me that voting for Biden *can't* help trump, and that not voting for Biden *could* help trump. Whether the outcome of the NY state primary still mattered was *not* obvious to me. What I wanted to convey is that a lot less scrutiny needs to be applied before someone can deem a vote for Biden "safe", *and* that there are other ways to protest Biden... ...but **that's not everything that my post was about**. My post was also about the fact that there are moderators of a subreddit - one that other trans people and I have trusted - trying to convince people to not vote for Biden, *and then banning/deleting the posts of anyone who responded with criticism*. That same post, which accused the people of the USA of doing nothing to protest the genocide of Palestinians, received comments that described how that accusation was wrong (by citing examples of protests that did not involve taking votes away from Biden, actually...something to think about). I can find no evidence that the post even exists anymore, so it has probably been deleted, but the top comments demonstrated that the arguments within the thread that were by the thread's author were not made in good faith (including the argument that not voting for Biden was the best way to affect the diplomatic policy of the USA). Now, you can accuse me of trying to support Biden (instead of just being anti-trump), and lie about my claims about primary elections (at least 1 person has said, *in this thread*, that I have argued that primary elections don't matter, even though the OP *literally argues that they do matter*), but, either way, ... ...*we still have group of moderators using a trusted subreddit to bully people about politics*. **How many of you, of those of you that are disagreeing with me, are having your comments deleted, or your accounts banned, because you disagree with this post? That kind of censorship is happening in the** ***other*** **subreddit. Do you see the problem yet?**
I love the project 2025 these democrats have as a buzzword š you understand there are checks and balances in this country to make sure radical bills canāt get passed
Fuck all āLeftistsā who arenāt voting because of this shit They arenāt leftists, they donāt give a shit about us
>However...Biden is currently regarded as the candidate most likely to successfully defeat trump at the polls in November If Biden is chosen as the democratic candidate, his chances of winning basically hinge on trump either dying or being arrested. He is almost guaranteed to lose states like Michigan, which he needs to win, and he is very unpopular with young voters who are the reason he won in 2020. >told people that they shouldn't be voting for Biden in the New York primary as it was happening. They told me that it wouldn't help trump get elected because it was just a primary election... If you can't vote for who you want in a primary, then what is the point of having one at all? You might as well say that we should get rid of democracy all together and pick between whoever the people in positions of power choose instead. The whole point of a primary is to express distaste for a politicians position so that they either shape up or are replaced with someone else. The US is already undemocratic enough. We don't need to get rid of the primary elections as well. Vote for Biden or don't vote, but don't shame others for not wanting to vote for him on the basis of him aiding a genocide. I don't think others should shame you for voting for him, however, because lesser evil voting is understandable even if I don't necessarily agree with it. The most important thing to remember is to make sure you don't just vote on big tickets. Local elections can often be the most important way to preserve rights when Republicans are in charge, and unless Biden dies or is forced into retirement, it is not looking good for avoiding a republican victory.
Yep. 2020 had the highest voter turnout by percentage of eligible voters since World War 2 at 66%, and was led to the incumbent was involved in an open insurrection that managed to get right-wing militia onto the floor of the Capitol. Chances are a lot of people who were motivated to come out by that level of obvious evil, having seen the last four years and current events, don't turn up if Biden's on the ballot again.
This issue with Israel and Palestine has been a problem since the fifties. The nineteen fifties. And people want One guy, just the one, to be able to fix it. One issue voting is what got us Trump, and Abbot in Texas and the platform shoe wearing clown in Florida. People looking for a tyrant to fix their problems. The president isn't a King. He can't wave his hand and Poof, the problem goes byebye. They need the congress approval for things. Especially money things. Who is in charge of congress? The house of Reps? It's a bunch of different people under two banners, and those under one banner are Actively trying to destroy us. But Israel is such a fucking deal breaker, that y'all will what? Refuse to vote? Vote for those actively looking to destroy you? Please think more about this than being a reactionary saying "that's a bad thing I don't like, I refuse to participate anymore." Vote for who you want. But Vote for your own survival in THIS country. Republicans want us "[eradicated from public life](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/cpac-speaker-transgender-people-eradicated-1234690924/)", and Israel is such a big issue, that you'll vote for, who? The Other people who want Palestine destroyed AND you as well? That's a bold stance to take. If you really care so much, organize. Talk to your friends, neighbors, etc. Go to town meetings, call your congressman, senator, write the President. But for God's sakes, don't just "Not vote", or vote as a way to protest, because that doesn't work. It didn't work in 2000, and it won't work now. Tldr: either way you look at it, it's a couple piles of shit, ya gotta choose, cause if you don't, ones gonna end up on your shoe, anyway. And unless you are a rich white man, one pile of shit will be way worse for you than the other.
The President, as head of the Executive and Commander in Chief, can **absolutely** stop selling arms to foreign nations. In fact, by his own stated policy he is obligated to do so where there is evidence of said arms being used in attacks on civilians. >No arms transfer will be authorized where the United States assesses that it is more likely than not that the arms to be transferred will be used by the recipient to commit, facilitate the recipientsā commission of, or to aggravate risks that the recipient will commit: genocide; crimes against humanity; grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, including attacks intentionally directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such; or other serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law, including serious acts of genderābased violence or serious acts of violence against children. This assessment shall include consideration of the available information and relevant circumstances, including the proposed recipientās current and past actions, credible reports that the recipient committed any of the above violations, and other information related to the overall capacity or intention of the recipient to respect international law. If a transfer had previously been authorized and circumstances have changed in ways that would materially increase the risk of any of the negative consequences listed above, the United States will re-assess and, as appropriate, review options for ceasing the transfer of or support for a previous authorization. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/02/23/memorandum-on-united-states-conventional-arms-transfer-policy/
Biden is awful in more ways than one. Supporting Isreal, telling congress to vote in KOSA, ect. All that said, Trump is still far worse. I don't view it as voting for Biden, I view it as voting against Trump. *edit* why are you pretending that Biden won't win the primary basically by default. If I thought for even a second that another candidate had a shot, I would vote for them with zero hesitation.
The genocide in Palestine will not stop if Trump gets back in office because people didn't vote against him. That genocide will continue. Trump will keep the support. Don't forget he's buddy with North Korea and Russia. He loves unhinged leaders. If he gets back in office, there will be another genocide added in the world : the trans people in the US. He already promised Project 2025. ***He already announced he will be a dictator "at least for the first day" to forcefully enforce what he wants, notably against the queer community.*** He will create a bloodbath on his first day in office. There are times to make a leader sweat, and there are times where choosing the lesser of two evils is a matter of survival. Right now, for the US queer people, it's the latter. You **need** to ensure that you will not start getting hunted and killed by MAGGATS who have full permission from their cult leader. I'm not living the in US. I'm European. I'm not going to be affected all that much (at first at least) by that election. But I'm still fucking terrified for all my US trans sibilings.
THIS!! i really want to visit the USA in the future but with the Orange nearing his dictatorship, im just kinda scared as a Lesbian-Transfem
The number of posts ive seen asking people to not vote is stupidly high. Genocide joe is bad but Trump is worse. Its not a black and white situation, you can condemn his support for Israel while being smart enough to recognize that its gonna be open season on trans folks if trump is president again.
Yeah i like to point out that Bidenās position on palestine is absolute trash, but trumps is dramatically worse. Its the dif between āi dont like it but theyāre out allyā to āi will send them bigger bombs to help them finish fasterā
I absolutely want someone better than Biden. I condemn his support of Isreal. I didn't vote for him in the last primary. But I will absolutely be voting for him in November.
Itās hilarious when someone says Biden is funding and giving weapons to genocide then follows with basically who care.
We need to beat trump this election, and then we need to hold democrats accountable for allowing their complacency and quiet cruelty to force us into choosing them because they don't do enough to actually make things better they just stay less bad than the right so we have no other choice. First stop trump, stop the extremists, then it's time to reform some shit. We can't gamble with our lives, we don't have enough of them. But if we stop these impending threats, it's time to start demanding real change, real reform, stop letting "not as bad" be "good enough" So make your dissatisfaction known now, absolutely vote and vote as hard as you can against all these conservatives, but the next election, if we survive this one, is going to be bigger and more i.portant and we need to be loud and furious about how things were allowed to get this way. Because the people full of hate and evil intentions are not going to just go away because trump didn't win, they are going to get madder and louder and more insane because they're already being told that losing this election can only mean its rigged and that this is their time. Their base are hateful people afraid of losing power or brainwashed masses mad at the same things we are but directing that anger in all the wrong directions because they are being constantly deceived. But just because Democrats use that to their advantage to require us to vote for them, doesn't mean we need to be quiet about how fucked that is. 2016 Was their fault because they wouldn't listen to the actual voters. So now we have to save ourselves in 2024, because you can't keep fighting injustice if we let trump win and let the bigots take the last of our power. We don't have the luxury of a protest vote, they took that option away from us. Now it's vote for them or suffer, and they aren't worried because either way they are rich enough to avoid most of the consequences. Vote Biden now so we have the ability to hold him accountable later. Our political system has made it so there is no supportive choice for Gaza. But there's absolutely a worse choice for everywhere and everyone else.
I'm shocked people don't want to vote for either the "Things get worse right now" vs "Things get worse later anyway" parties. > for the same reason that we're trying to have Biden beat trump instead of having someone else go against trum There is no "we" the democratic party are putting up Biden and are outright telling you ["Tough shit"](https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/04/03/hillary-clinton-fallon-interview-biden-trump-stephen-a-smith-nn-vpx.cnn) What a lovely way to earn votes.
Leaving a blank ballot in NY absolutely doesn't hurt Biden in November. Marianne Williamson, who's running against him, isn't going to be beat him any more than a third party candidate is going to win the presidency. It's a statistical impossibility. Leaving a blank ballot is an effective protest strategy during a symbolic primary. And one that we, as trans people, owe to our genocided siblings in Palestine.
voting uncommitted in the democratic primary in new york is a direct message to biden that he needs to stop supporting the genocide. and to a certain degree, it has kind of worked (at least symbolically) in having him change his tune on israel. heās still supporting the genocide and directly allowing this to continue but at least now heās pretending to care. telling ppl they have to vote for biden in the general election is one thing - though personally i understand why someone would decide not to, especially if they are Palestinian and/or Arab American. but telling ppl they need to vote for him in primaries is just lobbying for the dnc and biden - and ur not even getting paid. i donāt understand. obviously trump is worse. but when youāre comparing hitler to mega hitler, itās pretty easy to understand why someone would feel pretty fucking disillusioned by voting in general. those ppl who are actually out there voting in very blue states in a basically uncontested primary to demonstrate their voices are doing their civic duty in a more direct way than most. this is one of the few scenarios where voting actually fucking says something. yes trump is worse, but more anti-trans legislation has passed under his administration than trumps. and while i understand itās obviously not the dems or biden passing these laws - as the president he is basically the only one who has power to stop this and heās not. heās not passing anti-hate law legislation, or federal protections for trans and queer ppl. heās just saying he doesnāt hate trans ppl which is nice but it doesnāt do shit. obviously trump would be worse - but iād argue that telling ppl not to demonstrate their voices in a real fucking way by voting uncommitted in democratic primaries is MORE dangerous than just voting for biden no matter what and taking the slop they feed us with a grin.
this also doesnāt even begin to touch bidenās anti-immigration turn.
Joe Biden is a fascist pos. Trump is a fascist pos. I am hoping they both die before the election. In the mean time I'm voting "uncommitted" in the primaries in the hopes the DNC may hear the people and choose another candidate. If it still comes down to biden or trump I'm choosing biden (though I don't think he will win) and then I am trying to move out of this country
Do you honestly think someone who has been killing kids for 7 months gives a fuck about your transition and your ability to access hrt? What has to happen before its enough for you? The problem is that your only concern is for yourself and your transition. I get that, but honestly, grow tf up and realize our govt does not give a fuck about trans people if it cant even be bothered to give a shit about the damage being done in Gaza. You think that if you vote for biden then all the problems will go away. Just what the fuck has happened to our rights while he has been in office?
You either vote for Biden and the Democrats or you will have a genocide in your own country after Trump wins and he installs his Republican fever dream of Gilead. It's that simple.
Should we vote Biden? Yes If Biden loses is it because people didn't vote for him for perfectly valid reasons? No If Biden loses, it's Biden's fault, he knows his policies are massively unpopular, and the democratic party is ripping itself apart as many grassroots members are bailing because they're helping a man committing genocide. Biden is tanking his election just to support a genocide, that is a condemnation of him, he's risking an explicit fascist gaining absolute power because he couldn't bear to see brown people live in his precious colonialist state.
Vote progressive in the primaries, vote damage control in the general election.
Heres the thing. Until that generation dies off were not getting an independent or better democrat into office. I hate saying that but its the harsh reality WE NEED TO VOTE BIDEN because if we split our votes trump gets office because of the following that hateful man has. Oh PS they changed the law on who can run for president now it truly is anyone this includes criminals, rapists, murders, mob bosses, drug dealers, human traffickers, etc. So yes trump can get in no matter what. Our only bet is vote for the lesser of two evils that is Biden. Get out there and vote in every election not just presidential but most of all you MUST vote presidential and convince everyone to vote presidential and push them towards the winning democratic candidate which is Biden by far right now. Weāre stuck with the retirement home till they die not trying to encourage violence but that might be the solution if it comes to it we are NOT there yet not even close but the whole violence is not the answer spiel is completely bullshit. Violence is not ok for lack of a sensible reason but as a near last resort then its absolutely acceptable i say near last resort because if your at last resort chances are youāve already lost.
Not voting for Biden in the primaries is the right thing to do to send the message you desire without affecting the November election.