Image Transcription:
A tweet from the George Takei Twitter account which states:
"A Democrat was in the White House when my family was sent to the internment camps in 1941. It was an egregious violation of our human and civil rights.
It would have been understandable if people like me said they’d never vote for a Democrat again, given what had been done to us.
But being a liberal, being a progressive, means being able to look past my own grievances and concerns and think of the greater good. It means working from within the Democratic party to make it better, even when it has betrayed its values.
I went on to campaign for Adlai Stevenson when I became an adult. I marched for civil rights and had the honor of meeting Dr. Martin Luther King. I fought for redress for my community and have spent my life ensuring that America understood that we could not betray our Constitution in such a way ever again.
Bill Clinton broke my heart when he signed DOMA into law. It was a slap in the face to the LGBTQ community. And I knew that we still had much work to do. But I voted for him again in 1996 despite my misgivings, because the alternative was far worse. And my obligation as a citizen was to help choose the best leader for it, not to check out by not voting out of anger or protest.
There is no leader who will make the decision you want her or him to make 100 percent of the time. Your vote is a tool of hope for a better world. Use it wisely, for it is precious. Use it for others, for they are in need of your support, too."
End Transcription.
The last paragraph I find particularly powerful and something more people really should take into account.
Why do you assume someone like me wouldn’t strategically vote in the same manner? I understand strategic voting just fine thanks.
Why do you think I assumed that? I certainly said nothing of the sort.I did in my first reply to you.
Because you seemed pretty passionate about defending people engaging in that sort of behaviour. Again, the one day that isn’t for that is the one day democracy is on the line.
Democracy doesn’t exist when you’re coerced, and the economic conditions behind all of this are consented to by both parties. All the stuff Trump did with tariffs and immigration is still active under the Democrats, I mean Biden is finishing the border wall but you won’t hear Democrat voters complaining now, haven’t heard anything about the kids in cages since the Democrats won either etc. They only care when it’s politically convenient, as good liberals do, it’s about using these examples to look superior in the moment then quietly consenting when it’s not convenient. Pointing out the hypocrisy gets you shamed by them cause they assume you don’t understand strategic voting and how “less bad” can exist, they’d rather explain it over and over like you’re a child than address the fact they actually support fascism too on the down low.
The liberal take on Democrats right now is basically, “it’s a shame this fascist genocide is hurting Biden’s polling numbers.” I think you’ve already lost if you’re in that position. At least I can say what I see and react to it freely without some institutional obligation to consent to. The impulse to do this is suppressed by Democrats for fear of losing the election, but it’s only through expressing dissatisfaction that you can even begin to organize anything different, everyone hiding their true feelings and quietly consenting is enabling the downward spiral. And they’ll say “yes organize” but as soon as that means coming up against the Democrats it’s “fall in line” again.
So you see one party that’s actively burning things to the ground, and is likely to swap elections with a series of genocides, and another party that’s not undoing the bad things the fascists did, and you say they’re the same, and then
votedefend voting in a way that empowers the fascists. You think you’re being coerced because a terrible option exists that you should avoid? Wait till they’re in power.You understand why I think this is moronic, right? Childish fucking virtue signalling that risks democracy. As I said, work to make the Democrats better literally every other day of the election cycle, then vote like a goddamned adult - like lives are on the line.
You mean genocides within your borders, because Democrats are already enabling genocides outside your borders. Like a good liberal you can ignore those or appeal to them at your political convenience.
And no… you are coerced in to voting Democrat because the alternative is more aggressive fascism. You have no choice but to vote for the less bad option. Democrats give ad money to fascist GOP candidates betting on you doing this, they’re easier to win against because they can run on being the less bad party, coercing your vote out of pure fear of the alternative. I see it’s working well on you. These parties serve donors not you, donors want this and give money to both parties, in return you get to choose the aesthetic of neoliberal capitalism you want to be represented by.
You think it’s moronic because you’re drawing an equivalency where I’m not, I’m very clearly telling you the differences between GOP and Democrats and you’re choosing to interpret as me saying they’re the same. They’re both right wing parties one is just center-right and uses language of the left to brand themselves with, the other is middle-far right and uses fashy language to brand themselves with.
My major point is you shouldn’t be happy with this arrangement, strategically voting within this arrangement isn’t profound or complicated, and nobody should be shamed for expressing how the result of the state of politics in the US right now affects them. Instead embrace how bad it is and use that as motivation to organize. As in the past change will come if enough people are hurting enough to organize along class lines, the Populist movement and the Civil Rights movement both came out of labor organizing.
Ah - you’re an accelerationist - there’s not a party that perfectly represents you, so you’ll vote in a way that’ll give power to the fascists so they make everything worse, end democracy, ramp up support for the foreign genocide, and commit a bunch domestically so the survivors get fed up enough to hopefully revolt and dismantle that government entirely, rebuild from scratch, and hopefully build something better. Because getting a bunch of workers killed while making life worse for everyone is the strategic, pro-worker thing to do.
You don’t need to burn everything to the ground and get a bunch of workers killed to organise. You deserve to be first against the wall when the fascists win.
Uhh no… recognizing the decaying structure of American politics does not mean someone wants that. See how quick you make someone your worst enemy, how liberal of you.
I recognise the problems. The issue that that your solution to those problems is to make them all worse, burn democracy to the ground and cause a bunch of genocides because that’ll somehow magically make it better.
I think I might have overestimated you when I called you an accelerationist - between the incoherent pseudo-leftist nonsense, American diabolist leanings, “fixing” things by electing fascists, performative third-party nonsense, and calling everyone a lib… Are you a Jimmy Dore fan?
The fascists are the enemy - you’re just their useful idiot… and what an idiot you are.
Lol okay you’re just making things up out of anger at this point cause you can’t find any faults with what I’ve said. If I was accelerationist I’d say vote GOP but I’m not, strategically vote Democrat so the process is slower, build labor power and fight the economic system that is causing fascism to rise. Just don’t act like you’re high and mighty or exceptionally intelligent for voting for the less bad Democrats because they’re part of this system too.
Your politics is determined by the economic conditions you’re in and what advances your material interests in that arrangement, you don’t really have control over that. You have ideaology, which is the difference between the values you think you hold with those that advance your material interests. Structural stresses change these conditions and alter the political ideology which people believe advances their interests. That’s happening all the time independent of individual human agency. This is basic dialectics and I also subscribe to Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. If you want to actually know my point of view rather than making up weird shit to get internet-angry at.