this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
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As a foreigner I never understood the novote sentiment in the US. You aren't voting for either candidate because you dislike them, so who would you actually vote for? AOC? RFK Jr? Bernie? Does your ideal candidate even exist in reality yet? All a no vote does is take away your own rights in your country, while the rest of the world moves on without you.
For what it's worth, both parties can be trash but one party actually can be shamed to doing the right thing once in a while.
I'm with you. I love everything George Carlin did, except for his anti vote bits. Somehow voting is supposed to make you compliant in the current going on in government, is the argument.
The only way to change things is too consistently vote until the baby boomers are thinned out of their electoral advantage.
Carlin isn't wrong on the crucial parts.
The system is broken and cannot be fixed by voting. It must be dismantled and replaced.
But while we get started on the dismantling and replacing, maybe vote so that the current system doesn't deteriorate, break down and gets replaced by something worse before you have the chance to bring about meaningful and positive change.
The problem being that a fledgling political organization has to then expend the energy to endorse a candidate outside their party and vote in support of one enemy over another enemy.
Any fledgling political organization that participates in the system in a traditional way is either
a) stupid or b) delusional or c) sacrificing vulnerable peoples actual needs in favor of ideology or d) a false-flag operation designed to weaken the side they are ostensibly closer to
Any meaningful change can only occur outside the standardized channels. Inside the existing structure the math simply demands a two-party-system that will always favor the side that can both form the biggest coalition and dissuade the opposed voters from voting. Both parties have had problems with the coalition forming for a long time, so they try everything to dissuade opposed voters.
If you want meaningful change in the US, find a way to invest your activism not into who people vote for, but into changing how voting works.
First: The "National Popular Vote Interstate Compact" is a band-aid that might help with warding against the worst excesses of far-right ideology, with it in place, it should be easier to ward against the white nationalist power grab and protect vulnerable people.
Second: Electoral reform in favor of ranked choice voting. With this in place, your goal to create viable alternative candidates will be basically met. Suddenly you don't HAVE to vote for the lesser evil. The math suddenly doesn't favor a two-party-system anymore.
Third: Implementing the Fair Representation Act to bring about ranked choice voting in then multi member districts. This counteracts gerrymandering and will make the representation much closer match the voters. No more taxation without representation for the plurality of citizens.
Fourth: Some form of true proportional representation. Open or closed list proportional representation would both help with SO many problems the US faces right now, it's absolutely bonkers.
P.S.: But in the meantime... all these goals are may be more or less opposed by most democrats, but they will never be implemented when the republicans further erode american democracy. So vote democrat if you want to have any chance of bettering circumstances, at all.
🤔
What's hard to understand? Maintain the current level of badness to not reach worse levels before meaningful change can be achieved.
"I want to change the way voting works" only brings positive change in a future where voting is still a thing.
I don't see how you expect to get democrats to support voting reform when it goes against their interests and you support them whether they do it or not. That's the fundamental problem with what you're saying, you recognize that the current system is dysfunctional, but you're expecting that system to function well enough to enact the changes necessary to make it functional.
You're saying you want the people in charge to give up the systems they depend on to maintain their own power, to act in a way that very directly goes against their own interests, and I don't see what your plan is exactly to force them to do that, beyond asking nicely while giving them full unconditional support.