Wishful thinking, but, with Democrats showing their cards by helping Republicans fund ICE who’ve been terrorizing Minnesota and murdering Americans. I can’t really say for certain that I’m going to be voting for them anymore in the future, their track record of holding corrupt people accountable has been atrocious. Stern wording is not what we want, we want to see impeachments, we want to see stubborness, we want to see actions that side with the people than self-interests.
Yet, that’s what we’re really seeing, is self-interests being practiced. No Democrat is going to own their mistakes either, just like Republicans won’t.
If there’s any other candidate in America who we can vote for, who? Because I’m tired of voting for Democrat who’ve proven that they only govern if it means making themselves look good than helping the public get in shape.
Every election year is the year you should vote for “other candidates” in the primaries.
That is how you work to reshape a party you’re not happy with.
Luckily primary season is here now so go make your voice heard!
*Disclaimer* - this applies to the US’ two party system. There are probably better ways in better systems.
What about all the times the DNC gently massages preferable primary candidates?
Also vote in every election, not just the big national ones. You’re more likely to find viable third party candidates in smaller local elections. The more local wins a third party gets, the more exposure they get, the more possible it becomes to have a viable third party at the national level.
This is the right answer. USA is first-past-the-post voting, so vote/campaign for who you love in the primary and vote for outcome in the general
During the primaries, yes. By all means yes, use the primaries to get as good a set of Democratic candidates as possible.
In the actual ballot box? Hell no. Hold your nose and vote lesser evil. Those are literally your only options at that point. The game theory explaining why this is the case is quite simple, I recommend taking a look a this video. It’s only 6 minutes long and will tell you why there’s a two-party system in the US and why there will always be a two-party system.
If you vote for anything other than Democrat in the actual election then you’re throwing your vote away. Kang and Kodos are unfortunately correct, you have to pick one of those two or you’re throwing your vote away. Wishing it was otherwise is not going to change reality even if you wish really hard. Only changing the US away from a first-past-the-post voting system will do that, and you’re not going to get that done in 8 months.
People will tell you otherwise. Those people are either liars, ignorant, or fools. I wish I could sugar-coat this, but this shit is too important for you guys right now. First put the fire out, then try to deal with the arsonist at large.
You must get the Republicans out of power. Only the Democrats can do that in this upcoming election, as lame and uninspiring an option as that might be.
Not just during the primaries, every election. If the winner of the primary election is not worth voting for you don’t vote for them because it’s your preferred party. That’s how you guys ended up with a senile pedo after Trump’s first term
Literally the first person I’ve heard make the pedo claim about Biden. Edgy
New to the internet?
Apparently Biden is worse than Trump because he’s an old pedo.
…
Trump supporters are idiots.
Trump supporters are idiots as much as Democrats are idiots. Both of their leaders serve the same purposes and people and it’s not us
That’s how you guys ended up with a senile pedo after Trump’s first term
You may not believe it, but Trump didn’t actually win the 2020 election.
Im referring to the other senile pedo
There’s no other candidate who can win.
Anyone who doesn’t vote for a Democrat candidate is voting for Trump.
pretty much, and left/communism has ben so demonized for decades no candidate would every risk being that and not a laughing stock.
Your group lost two significant elections to a carnival barker, elections where they had every possible advantage in their favor and you managed to lose to a d-list celebrity. Its time for Democrats to listen to leftists, who have always been right.
Or maybe the dems lost because the left is mucking around fighting among themselves.
If you dont want Trump, vote democrat.
Democrats gave us trump because are either inept in governing or they wanted him in office to continue the nations lurch towards fascism
Or maybe its because more people voted for Trump than voted for Democrats. The brutal arithmetic of democracy.
The dems’ corporate donors do want fascists in power, but the main way they achieve that is by giving the dems bad advice that makes them lose. Some Lemmy users are smart enough to see through that ruse and vote for the dems anyway so the fascists don’t seize power. Some Lemmy users are not that smart.
Oh please.
You realise politicians make way more money when they win elections right? Do you really honestly believe that you have a better understanding of how they can win an election than they do?
Yes, I do think so. After all, I’m smarter than Trump, and that old pants shitter keeps beating them.
That’s a pretty flawed way to look at things. So, you’re basically saying, always vote for the other party even if they prop up shitty options like the Democrats have done, right?
No.
You fail to understand that it can work both ways. Vote for other parties, you’re taking away votes from Republicans too. Stop being so narrow-minded.
No, because the Republicans are all voting for Trump. And they’re trying to split the Democrat vote so Trump wins. Nobody’s splitting the Republican vote. But Republicans are spending a small fortune to astroturf on social media to try to split the Democrat vote. I’m not saying everyone saying as you are is Republican funded — a lot of people are buying into the idea and reposting it for free.
The problem is twofold: One, they think they’re smarter than you and they think you’re their tool. Two, you totally are. (Unless you’re one of the ones at the top pushing it, in which case it’s a similar twofold problem: One, you think you’re smarter than us and you think we’re your tools. Two, a lot of people are falling for it.) I don’t know which one you fit in and I’m not going to assume. I’m just leaving this to help others make up their minds whether or not they wanna get used by the Republicans.
Baselessness.
Assuming you’re not just a troll or Russian plant.
It IS flawed. But it’s also REQUIRED. we have a first past the post voting system. Only one of two parties can win. So you never vote FOR anyone. You vote AGAINST the worst candidate. Voting for third party helps both main parties equally by reducing the bar to win.
Hate it all you like, but that’s just math. You want it to be different? Push for ranked choice.
Disagree, way to make baseless assumptions. You’re why people don’t want to vote.
3rd parties have always benefited the gop winning then not, and many times they have been found funding the 3rd parties to siphon votes from dems and it works. 3rd parties dont have significant enough power to even form a coalition with the dems even if they wanted to.
You can disagree all day. Do you have any logic behind that disagreement? Or just a bunch of feels?
The easiest way to get around that is to mass vote for a 3rd party candidate, FPTP fixed. Doing things the DNC way has been a total failure.
Theres not going to be a mass vote for a 3rd party.
Absurdly unrealistic.
You can’t even get a few percent to not vote for an authoritarian felon child rapist.
Then you better get busy canvasing for one otherwise you will get more of the same
Well, two things. First, the tea party did exactly that and it didn’t fix first past the post. They just tanked the Republicans, and then melded it into the Republican party the next season.
Second, there are a certain number of Americans that will vote Republican or Democrat because that is what they self-identify as. That number is about 30% of the voting population. So for a third party to be viable, they would have to take all of the independents, and then break some people of their identity.
So is it possible? Yes. Will you ever be able to do it? No. It’s possible the same way winning the lottery is possible. I.e. it feels like a chance to people who are bad at math.
Theres always the lazy route and continue doing whats gotten us to where we are now.
And what’s the viable other route? By all means, if there is one, put it out there. If you’ve got one in your head and you’re holding out on us, I’m going to be a little pissed.
I would LOVE to see a massive third party movement that makes more options possible!
I would also love to see the Browns win a Super Bowl.
I agree it’s the superior scenario, but if you vote third party, you’re betting that the Browns are going to win the Super Bowl. Sure, it could be a huge victory, but odds are, you’re going to lose.
you’re taking away votes from Republicans
No you’re not. Conservatives will vote republican no matter what. You’re never going to vote republican.
The US has a shitty electoral system. Votes for minor parties don’t count. You know Trump is going to manipulate the coming election, Dems need to win big enough that it can’t be stolen.
If you don’t want to live in an authoritarian dystopia, vote Democrat.
In England we had a three-party system for many a year. Then the third party (Liberal Democrats) showed their true colours. Then we had two. Now a new third party, Reform, is rising up on a platform of racism. They’re splitting the racist vote. That allowed a fourth party, the Greens, a noteworthy victory in a local by-election.
I don’t know how it works over there, but what I take away from this is that it wouldn’t have been possible without people who were willing to vote for not a third party, but a fourth party.
It would be amusing if this actually got the powers that be to consider proportional representation. Better chance of having a say in government if the alternative parties start beating first-past-the-post. One voice that must be listened to is better than shouting impotently from the wrong side of the house.
having multiple parties prevent anyone to becoming too dominant over a long period of time. which is why putin was pushing the reform to be the dominant one. the “2 party system in the us” is really just one party, or a uniparty of the right wing. thats what AIPACdems are so afraid of, they wont be able grift of wha tthe GOP as opened the door for.
No, this year more than literally any other year in human history would be the absolute worst time to not vote for a democratic candidate. We are dealing with unprecedented challenges to rule of law, and we need every single person with a functioning soul to scream “NO” as loud as we can. Because if you don’t, you might not get another chance.
I mean, you’re not wrong, but also try your best to primary candidates outside of the two parties, if you’re in the US.
While it is true there are no good kings, we should try to get as many halfway decent people in the office as possible.
Once primaries are done, then under no circumstances vote for Republicans. And if the option is between a Democrat that might narrowly win and a third-party candidate that might narrowly win, then vote for the third-party candidate. Otherwise vote for Democrats.
I prefer to try to primary a candidate within my party, because no offense people not voting in the primaries is how we got joe biden.
newsome is far worst than biden in opinion.
We know the line, most important election. Yada yada yada. I’ve been hearing that every election for the last 38 years since I can vote. If Democrats would stop voting for what they thought was the lesser evil things wouldn’t keep getting worse
If Democrats would stop voting for what they thought was the lesser evil things wouldn’t keep getting worse
If you could get every Democratic voter to collectively agree to that, yeah, sure.
Do you have an actionable plan to get 80 million voters to suddenly vote differently? Because if not, that’s kind of a useless hypothetical.
Seeing that they have tried the same failed approach for decades, they’re not going to change. They’ll just bitch about the system as it is while refusing to acknowledge their participation in it
So then you admit that it’s a useless hypothetical, and your proposed strategy doesn’t actually accomplish anything except splitting the vote to let the far right win more?
Splitting the vote is liberal fantasy based on the idea if 3rd parties didn’t exist or there were none to vote for we would vote for your candidates.
Rest assured we would not. They either need to earn our vote or they can fuck off.
Do you not even remember your own point?
If Democrats would stop voting for what they thought was the lesser evil things wouldn’t keep getting worse
That’s precisely splitting the vote.
This only applies to Democrats voting for Democrats. Those that will accept anything as long as it’s their team doing it. Their ‘lesser evil’ bullshit has grown to a huge acceptable evil.
Been hearing this exact line for decades. Yawn
yeah, hasn’t every administration fired the entire federal government for refusing to tell the president no, coordinated an election fraud campaign, and then pardoned the people who participated? that’s totally normal.
Life long Dem voter here. I’ll never vote for a liberal or zio again. Hard to believe the Dems could lose my vote during a Trump presidency, but here we are.
As a black man and mother of two…
You don’t have to believe me, it matters little. Keep supporting those that commit atrocities and bow to the Israeli government. I know my conscience is now clear.
Now is primary time – MANY elections have honestly decent looking people running under the Democratic ticket. Now is the time to replace the incumbents with people who give a shit
at the least schumer in '28 or '30 needs to go. i think jefferies is doable every 2 years, if not this years.
this should be the year you finally try to organize a general strike.
Successful strikes require a strike fund, money to pay bills while hourly workers are not working hours. Americans largely live paycheck to paycheck, with little to no savings. Without funds, strikes end prematurely due to the threat of starvation and eviction.
and fixing fascism by voting in the fascist election would have required democracy in the first place.
it’s time to shake their institutions off and pressure them the old fashioned, class conscious way.
Did you not read what I wrote? It doesn’t matter what “time” it is if you don’t have the necessary tools.
what you wrote has always been a problem and that never stopped strikes.
doing nothing instead won’t solve your problems.
yes, there is gonna be sacrifice if you really want your problems solved.
Successful strikes have had strike funds. Unfunded strikes fail.
I never said to do nothing. But action for action’s sake without setting the necessary foundation is foolish and counterproductive.
well, then i guess you are defeated and there is nothing you could ever do against fascism.
When did I say that? I’m for a general strike, I’m just not for a half-assed general strike that’s doomed to fizzle out within a week.
You missed the boat. 2025 was when the we should not support the democrats because they don’t do neough voting happened. Yipee!! Its been awesome. Can’t wait for more. Look. I will abandon the democrats when the republicans are no longer a thing. Want my votes or others like me. All we have to do is have republicans losing in droves.
First of all, it’s not wishful thinking. Second of all, many of us have been doing this for decades. And most importantly, if you only try to express power through your vote, then that will definitely not be good enough for real change. It’s incredibly important that you get out there and do other things at other times, however you reasonably can given your situation in life.
There’s an old saying that everyone is equal on election day. Actually that’s not true because of gerrymandering and the Electoral College and disenfranchisement. But even if it were true, then everyone would not be equal the other 364 days of the year. Or non-election years. So don’t rely on voting to solve problems, but do it anyway.
yep, Also you should find out which candidates chuck schumer is protecting, he had 8 sacrificial dems that wernt up for re-election, but i heard thier were 13 he was shielding,. likewise with hakeem jefferies, he needs to go and those he shielded. i believed one of the dems was pardoned by trump.
Kinda hard these days. Republicans are so hell bent on being anti woke and anti liberal freedom they eat the boot that kicks them and will always vote Republican no matter what. Democrats are the same way because we see most of today’s Republicans as the most evil and vile party in history. It comes down to Gen z to actually go an vote if they’re of age, but at the same time that requires young adults to form their own opinions and not be brainwashed by their super policial parents.
I dunno about your district, but we usually have some pretty good candidates through the DSA on our ballot: https://platform.dsausa.org/
I vote third party/independent at every chance for every level of government. I do the research to see who is putting in the effort to earn my vote and who’s just sitting on their ass expecting me to give it to them by default. Last time it was PSL who basically stood for 100% of the things I did. Unless the Dems adopt their platform, I refuse to ever start supporting them.
This last election cycle really hammered home how I need to deeply research every candidate I’m going to vote for. I do have a hard and fast new rule though. No more liberals and no more Zionists. Those are nonstarters and make my voting choices a lot more manageable.
Elitist Democrats will never get another vote from me as long as I live.
hate to break to you, there isnt a true liberal in the DNC ever you are just falling into russia propaganda.
I’m not sure what you mean by this. If you think American liberals are doing things correctly it sounds like you’re falling for American propaganda.
