And THIS is why you vote for harm reduction every fucking year.
Yes, this has been part of a plan going back to even before reagan. But one fucking election of people whining that the wrong person won the primaries extra fucked the supreme court for the foreseeable future. And we have the same clowns trying to pull the same shit going into this Fall.
“Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against.” – W.C. Fields in a rare serious moment.
Yeah. My father is a REAL piece of shit and said it in the context of “I hate that <homophobic slur> Bush” but it still sticks with me:
In primaries? Vote for who you like. When it is time for the real election? Vote for the platform you hate the least. Bare minimum, it gives you the right to bitch and moan come February. Because if you don’t vote? You actively chose to not have a say in the government.
… well, you also may have been disenfranchised by a bunch of republican shitheads. But it is the thought that counts.
Bernie is the closest it comes to a politician I actually like and even he is to the right of me on some things, so I can’t even vote for someone I like in a primary most of the time. The best I can do is the person I dislike least.
But I agree with you about the general. Vote to block the person that has the greatest chance of winning that you dislike the most. It’s kind of a complicated calculus in some countries, but in the U.S., that means either a Democrat or a Republican because no one else is going to win.
So, even though I don’t particularly like the Democrats, I vote for them anyway.
Fight hard to get FPTP or deal with the constant abuse you sustain from the government. This mindset keeps both of these parties in power.
Since you seem very familiar with the shortcomings of First Past The Post voting, you probably would be interested to hear there are alternative electoral systems out there with no chance for a spoiler effect.
Alternative vote
Ranked choice voting
STAR voting
You should ask your representatives about electoral reform so we can fix this mathematical flaw in our voting system. Then no one would have to cast a “harm reduction vote”. They would be free to vote for someone they feel best represents them, safe in the knowledge their vote would still count against those they don’t want in office.
I am less convinced that alternate voting models will make a significant difference (especially when we look at stuff like France actively unifying the left-leaning parties to fight fascism), but cool.
Unless you are going to implement that by early October, it isn’t the topic at hand. The topic at hand is harm reduction and preserving human rights.
There were a lot of people saying they wouldn’t vote for Hillary/Biden because the DNC “stole” the election from Bernie. You see a lot of people saying they won’t vote for Biden in this election, as well.
So yes. “Leftists” who refuse to vote for harm reduction are at least partially to blame.
Also, if you are putting all of your energy into telling people that the election is rigged and the candidate is unelectable and your vote doesn’t matter? It doesn’t matter if that particular moron is “just venting” and still plan to vote. You are actively discouraging others from voting.
And those tend to be the same kind of idiots who think you vote once every four years. Rather than every single year. Because your representatives in congress matter a lot. So does the god damned local comptroller in your town. Because “grass roots” is not a bunch of people online deciding they like the c-span meme guy. “Grass roots” is about shifting your local party in the direction you want so that you can get those good candidates in office and turn a red state blue and so forth.
