If these didnt upload correctly let me know I'll delete the post. Conversation I just had in a local discord where dude didn't even read my comment and attacked me for not being onboard with Harris and fed me a fearmonger. So over fucking dem voters man.
I just dont have any leftists in my life to gripe with, sorry. ๐คฃ
EDIT: Ive always gotten on well with this dude and we agree on a lot, which really made it worse that he didnt bother reading what I wrote. I just deleted my comments and left the server (its just a small side server for our area anyway.)
I've been following US politics for years, so yeah, I know the drill. I live close enough that y'all's politics directly effect us too, so it's important to stay informed. (Hello from the great white north. :)
I won't argue about the ratchet effect. I totally agree. My concern is that if Trump wins, you could very well go from a 2 party system to a 1 party system, and lose any ability to ever vote 3rd party.
I'd like it if you could do no fascism this election, but in lieu of that possibility I'd prefer the facism in 4-8 years, buying you guys some time to fix things, rather than the facism now and potentially in perpetuity.
I've never felt the need to comment on your politics before now, but installing a wannabe dictator is where my line is I guess.
Are you sure you're not American?
It has already been said and demonstrated that if a 3rd party candidate ever gains traction, the Dems and Republicans band together to ensure they fail. So you really can't vote 3rd party now either. Well you can, but it's the equivalent of throwing your vote into the trash.
I don't understand the fixation with the "2 party system" when the two parties have the same policies, both are pro-wall, pro-kids in cages, pro-israel, and have demonstrated no will to protect abortion or trans rights. And the party that's making you lose the ability to vote 3rd party is the Democratic Party.
Fascism is not something you simply vote against, it's not up to you or some large section of the population in some elections. Fascism is capitalism in decay, the response to a deep crisis that needs violence to bring capital back to safety, and it is implemented through any means necessary. Is "installing a dictator" necessary? No, because none of the two parties represent a threat to capital, and in fact they serve capital, and their hegemony remains unchallenged (and everyone in their way gets the media against them, gets prosecuted, or plain killed). Both parties have continued their policies (Kamala even criticized Trump for not building the wall he promised), they work in tandem. The elections are already a sham, working perfectly fine. The dictatorship is already there.
This is precisely what I tell Democrats when they get extra faschie about "falling in line" with Harris. They get so mad about being called Blue MAGA but can't stop themselves from using every MAGA behavior in the book.
Fair, I see a lot of Europeans on Lemmy so that tends to be where my brain goes for non-US on here.
I get real irate about the "must vote dem or you'll never get third party" because its gaslighting. No matter which election, what year of the cycle, there is no time in no way that libs will entertain the idea of a 3rd party. Voting dem only rewards them for moving right, and they use it as justification to sprint even further. Hell, half of Kamala's campaign has been "I'm rolling with republicans."
Every action the DNC takes is to keep power isolated to the chosen establishment. Kamala recently paid lip service to the need for aid in Gaza and a hold on weapons to Israel, then sent somebody out to do stump speeches assuring that policy opinion hasn't changed, she's still all in on Israel, and she was just trying to shut up progressives.
This isn't a sudden happenstance, its been a long road leading to this, and Democrats are actively complicit - Fascism is just the end game of capitalism. Hell, Musk just sued an advertiser into paying him for ads. Freedom!
I honestly fully sympathize with you. We have the same thing here. "Vote ABC - Anything But Conservative", but actually that means just vote Liberal. And now that the Liberal party is floundering, I don't think Liberals will be singing the same tune to strategically vote NDP (labour/social democrat). They'd rather burn the country to the ground, than to give anyone even a hair's width left of centre any power.
Normally I'd agree with you, but if you guys get Trump, he's going to do everything in his power to not leave after 4 years, 8 years, etc. You might not have the opportunity to vote 3rd party until he keels over, and he's going to make that time hell for any non-white non-cis-male non-red-hat-wearer.