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If Biden loses in November, don’t blame voters who are angry over Gaza | Arwa Mahdawi
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
3 points (55.2% liked)
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I'm so tired of this rhetoric. Let people vote for who they believe in without shaming them. Americans should not be strong armed into voting for a candidate they don't actually want.
If you are eligible to vote, and don't, that is the same as a vote for the winner - whoever that is.
Nah, only half as strong.
Candidate A and Candidate B.
Vote for A: Candidate A has 1 vote
Vote for B: Candidate B has 1 vote
Vote for neither: 0 vote for either. Midway between the two outcomes.
That being said, voting for neither doesn't make much sense for anyone in terms of outcome. If you prefer one outcome, it doesn't make much sense to only use half of the strength of your vote to support that outcome.
Not voting makes more sense if you're making the argument that the time spent voting isn't worth the return you get.
No, it's not. For the record, I'm a huge advocate of voting. I think everyone should vote for the candidate they believe in.
If you're driving in a bus with 40 people voting on where to go, with 14 wanting to drive to a buffet, 16 wanting to drive off a cliff, and 15 saying that they don't care enough to vote but they don't really want to go to the buffet because they're not hungry, yes, I am going to judge the 15 people who are content being driven off a cliff.
And before anyone judges this analogy because one option is objectively good while the other is objectively bad: Everyone is guaranteed to get food poisoning at the buffet. Now both options are objectively bad, but I'm still judging the people content with going over the cliff.
You can criticize the fact that they didn't vote, I literally just said that I think everyone should vote. But that's not the same as saying they did vote for the winner. If you're mad that the bus is driven off a cliff, then be upset with the people that did vote for it.
This is excusing that I personally think your analogy is an oversimplification.
Both instances are willful action that contributes to direct harm to yourself and others.
No, in the context of a voting system, it is not literally a vote for the other option. I don't think your friends tumbling off the cliff will really care much about the distinction that serves no purpose other than personal moral satisfaction.
I trust my friends to distinguish between the people who voted for the cliff and those who, you know, didn't vote for that.
But you'll happily sit on the bus, never questioning why you're helping to maintain a system that results in such terrible options, and then blame others when that system you help to maintain comes back to bite you in the face.
Voting is like freedom of speech. Everyone is free to vote for whoever they want, but they aren't immune from criticism for how they vote. If someone votes for a guy who says he'll "be a dictator on day one" and encourage Russia to "do whatever the hell they want", I'm gonna shame that person for supporting such an insupportable candidate who espouses such insane ideas.
To be clear, I was directly responding to someone who was claiming that not voting for Biden is like voting for Trump. I hate that rhetoric and it's not true. If you want to blame someone for Trump winning, you blame the people that voted for him.
Sure, but you also said not to shame people for how they vote. I responded specifically to that statement and not the others because I understand wanting to vote for a candidate you actually want in office.
Unfortunately, strategic voting has to occur in order for things to get better in the USA. Until we massively overhaul the voting system, voters need to understand that you either vote for the lesser of two evils, or are (albeit passively) contributing to the greater of two evils' ascent to power.
Even far-left progressives like Bernie Sanders or Noam Chomsky were like, "Dude, you gotta vote for the Democratic candidate or else these crazy far-right candidates are gonna push the country further to the right. At least if the Democratic candidate wins we either stay where we are, or maybe get to move a bit further left during their tenure."
It's a deeply flawed system, but in the general election, it's a simple calculus. There's nothing Biden could do to lose my vote in November because I owe it to our society (and our allies worldwide) to prevent another Trump term.
I said that as a direct response to someone saying not voting for Biden is like voting for Trump. I wasn't trying to make some general statement. I don't know how else to say that.
If you want to judge a Trump voter for voting for Trump, judge them on that merit. Don't judge someone that didn't vote for Trump if Trump wins, that's bullshit.
Sure, but what I'd say is I'll still say in this fricken 2 party system, you also have to justify not going for the lesser of two evils, however you define that. And if your position is "I want someone to stop Israel continuing their war on Hamas", you also have to contend with the idea that neither option is likely to do what you want. This just reads to me like throwing a fit that mommy brought you peas instead of beans with your dinner and saying you want daddy, when he's not bringing any food at all.
I don't have to justify not voting for the lesser evil when I can vote for an option that is, in my opinion of course, not evil at all. I encourage every American to vote, and vote for who you actually want to be the President, not just against who you don't want.
At first, I thought you weren't American and weren't aware of how the system works.
I'm not American, but I do know that if you live somewhere where your vote matters, you would improving Trump's odds of winning.
If your riding already has a victor predetermined, then sure, vote for whomever you want. But if you're in a swing state or anything like that, then not voting for Biden means helping Trump win.
You can hate how it works all you want, but it won't change the reality of the situation.
No, it doesn't, and loops right back around to the rhetoric that started my whole comment chain here.
A vote for Trump helps Trump win. If Trump got no votes, Trump would not win. The responsibility for electing Trump rests squarely on the shoulders of those who voted for Trump. No one else.
Yes it does...
Because this is impossible. The Republicans will always get some votes.
If only one Republican voted for Trump, and no Democrats bothered to vote, the Democrats helped Trump win by not voting.
If instead of 0 Democrats, 2 came out to vote and Biden won? Then all Republicans who didn't vote helped Biden win.
If you have the opportunity to change the outcome, but you don't take action to make the change, you're responsible for your part in the result.
Okay but we're in a 2 party system. It sucks, but it is what it is. It's either Biden or Trump winning no matter how you feel on the matter.
Both of them support Israel, one with slowly(very slowly, yes) waning support and the other essentially saying he'd gladly help turn Palestine into rubble.
Domestically, Biden has been doing pretty good. The rail strike was a fiasco but besides that he's mostly been a small step forward from Obama.
Meanwhile, Trump is Trump. His first term was a complete disaster for the country, and now he's outright saying he'll be a dictator rounding up the "enemy", he's saying he won't defend our allies from Russia, he's well and truly dementia-addled now(Mercedes? oof), etc...
Voting for Trump is far worse obviously, but not voting against him still makes it more likely he wins. Just as you have the freedom to make that decision, I have the freedom to judge the shit out of you for it.
Ever consider that we only get to choose between these two parties because people like you fear mongering and demanding everyone maintain the status quo?
If it's guaranteed that Trump or Biden are winning then elections are obviously foregone conclusions, our votes don't really matter, and neither party has any reason to ever change because they're guaranteed to hold at least 50% of power at any given time. We might as well eliminate ballots and just automatically declare a winner based on party registration numbers.
If Biden is polling to lose and Trump ends up winning, you're also supporting Trump by backing a losing candidate and handing the election over to Trump.
This is rhetoric from party loyalists who don't give a shit about the country. It's the Democratic version of MAGA, people who actively vote against their own best interests just to 'stick it to the other guy,' while the country crumbles and the rest of us suffer.