this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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I get the frustration but this is a bad take.
In a two-party, first-past-the-post system you kinda have an ethical obligation to vote for the lesser evil. It's just a statistical fact you can't ignore.
It fucking blows, but if your choices are the shitty status quo or full blown fascism, you really should pick the status quo.
Obviously doesn't fix the problem with the Democrat party sliding further and further right since they can continue to claim "lesser evil"... and it also doesn't fix the DNC superdelegate shenanigans that got us Hillary instead of Bernie... but I'd rather the country be able to still exist to fight another day.
Not really, but you're free to believe that.
The ethical stance to take against 2 evil candidates is to support neither. Supporting the lesser evil makes useful idiots think that they're winning and therefore stop fighting back.
Any ire you direct towards the people who don't support evil candidates would be better spent directed towards those who do support evil candidates. i.e. don't waste your breath arguing with non-voters, dedicate that energy towards the people who keep supporting candidates that don't represent their interests.
Actually, the people who refuse to support evil candidates are a statistical fact you can't ignore.
Since we're talking facts, let me lay another one on you. All you people do when you get mad at me for not voting is reinforce my decision to keep doing it. I'm not going to cave to look good in front of ya'll, I genuinely don't care what most of you think.
Either run a candidate that supports the working class, or I'm not voting for them.
You're conflating voting for someone with supporting them. I didn't support Hillary or Kamala but I still voted for them because the alternative was so much worse. That's just the shitty reality of our two-party, fptp voting system.
In this system, one of those two parties will win regardless of how you specifically cast or don't cast your vote. The time to fight for the ideal candidate is the four years leading up to the election. When you get to the ballot box, you really just have to swallow what's perfect and pick what's not terrible (at least in that moment).
But the alternative is effectively accelerationism, throwing millions of people under the bus, and hoping that things shake out in your favor after a violent revolution. Which... I don't agree with as a plan, but we're kind of already on this path so 🤷♂️.
Also, I'm not mad at you. And I think I largely agree with you, with anger at the system and candidate selection. I just don't agree with you about casting your vote being the time and place to stage a protest (in a system like ours at least).
No, I'm not conflating anything. I'm referring directly to the people that supported hillary clinton over Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary.
It's fine for us to disagree on this. Perhaps more fascism will eventually cause you to advocate for doing something different.
I can say with certainty that trying to argue with me about why I should support the lesser evil is a complete waste of your time and energy.
Well, I guess we'll just have to agree on that then.