this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024
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OPINION: If your views don't align with either presidential candidate, vote for the one you'd rather protest against for the next 4 years. (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Nobody likes voting for the “lesser of two evils.” Casting a vote in favor of someone who is diametrically opposed to your viewpoint(s) absolutely sucks. The shitty reality is that we aren’t going to change the electoral process in the next two months.

If you don’t see either major candidate as a champion that you can support, it seems more beneficial to see it as selecting your enemy for the next four years. I would rather fight against someone that I have a chance of changing. At minimum I would rather protest against someone that I think has a lower chance of authorizing lethal force against a march that I attend.

Voting for a 3rd presidential candidate (or not voting at all), is letting someone else make that decision for you.

That said, we have got to get out of this constant cycle of only having two options. There’s too much money at a national level to start there. We’ve got to start local and get third party candidates into offices at a city level, then state, then national. It’s going to take a long time and it should have happened so very long ago. We can’t change the past, we can only change the future. The only time to start changing the future is in the present.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This argument doesn't really work in your favor, Leftist organizing was much stronger under Trump, because liberals had a common enemy with Leftists.

That said, we have got to get out of this constant cycle of only having two options. There’s too much money at a national level to start there. We’ve got to start local and get third party candidates into offices at a city level, then state, then national. It’s going to take a long time and it should have happened so very long ago. We can’t change the past, we can only change the future. The only time to start changing the future is in the present.

This has no chance of working. Electoralism is designed to not work like that. If any third party showed any chance of winning at the local level, the DNC and GOP would collaborate against them. We have seen this in Georgia, where they kicked PSL off the ballot. The only way to legitimately get somebody not in the DNC or GOP in power is via Revolution.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If any third party showed any chance of winning at the local level, the DNC and GOP would collaborate against them. We have seen this in Georgia, where they kicked PSL off the ballot. The only way to legitimately get somebody not in the DNC or GOP in power is via Revolution.

Local is smaller than state. State still has too much money and will trounce smaller parties just like you said. Looking at PSLs election results, the only showings of note are board seats, city council, and mayor. That’s where we need to start.

I’m not saying this is the only path forward. I’m all for guillotines, but you need the people on your side for that and getting the people aware of the movement is a tough process.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Local is smaller than state. State still has too much money and will trounce smaller parties just like you said. Looking at PSLs election results, the only showings of note are board seats, city council, and mayor. That’s where we need to start.

I understand that Local is smaller than State. I also understand that the second a Third Party posed any threat, both establishment parties would collaborate against them, regardless of having won local elections or not. You can't vibe a party into power.

I’m not saying this is the only path forward. I’m all for guillotines, but you need the people on your side for that and getting the people aware of the movement is a tough process.

Correct, which is why voting for PSL is good for visibility.

Please, you desparately need to read Theory.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Which theory?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

I'm a Communist, so I recommend Marxist Theory, but any Leftist Theory would be good for you.

Particularly, The State and Revolution and Reform or Revolution are relevant in this case, but I don't know what you have or have not read.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Why not vote for the lesser of two evils and still protest them in office?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Why protest if you aren't going to hold them accountable in any material way? Why would they care?

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yes! Literally this is what I’m trying to say!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Somehow I, and everyone else here, read your post as "vote for the worst of two evils to shift the general political landscape by protest and making the lesser of two evils have to work extra hard to be less evil than the slightly-less evil greater of two evils". Re-reading, I can see your point, but somehow we all misunderstood it

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Well you worded it absolutely awfully, because the conclusion I came to was that you are trying to encourage people to vote for Trump

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

@jaaake I wish we had a serious realistic third party out there

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If enough people keep voting for them, we can.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

@Maeve @jaaake Not until they lose their fixation on the presidency