Find your polling location. Go vote!
Your ballot will be deciding much more than just the president. Even if you did theoretically think both presidential canidates were equal in all regards (they aren’t), then vote for the down ballot races!
Keep your local school boards from having insane people on it that will ban books and harm your kids or your neighbors’s.
Vote for the constitutional ammendment questions and ballot initiatives. For instance, many states have either pro and anti abortion questions on their ballot.
And thus, instead of fighting the actual enemy, the republicans, you’re antagonising the people who are more reasonable. Next time you can do it like France and call leftist crazy extremists so you’ll seem less hypocritical about it.
Been saying this the whole time. Libs were shaming and harassing undecided voters for weeks instead of acknowledging that the dems were running a god awful campaign and pivoting towards nazi policies.
What are you talking about?!?! The Dems ran a flawless campaign, it’s all the voters who are wrong!!! Don’t know they know what the Dems tell them is right is right?!? Don’t you know you’re fucking stupid if you have any qualms about not voting for Harris?!?
- 90% of Lemmy users right now trying to find any reason to blame anyone but the DNC for their hubris and entitlement
Which policies are nazi-like?
The trump 2020 border agenda that the dems adopted as their own campaign promise this time around
Also, “most lethal military in the world”.
please explain to me in what world, not voting for dems who are “tending towards nazi ideology” compared to someone who openly espouses nazi ideology is somehow the better choice.
I fail to see how, maybe i’m too intelligent and smart, but to me it seems like a really fucking simple choice.
I’m not commenting on the ethics of voting for Harris. I’m commenting on the hordes of people on lemmy and other social networks who were actively insulting anyone who expressed uncertainty in voting for Kamala. Actively insulting people who want to be on your side but are finding it difficult to support someone who is part of an administration that is actively funding a genocide.
Those people, in my opinion, pushed voters away by completely ignoring their concerns and telling them they are fucking stupid if they don’t vote democrat. It’s a brain dead strategy and mirrors the democrats campaign strategy, which categorically failed.
When you run to the right, and the people who like right-wing policies already have a party giving them the policies they want, they’re not gonna switch parties, and you’re just going to alienate the parts of your base/coalition that are affected by those policies.
Campaigning primarily on being the lesser evil and maintaining status quo failed, you can tell people 1 choice is slightly better all you want but on election day we found out that you can’t win that way. If the dem politicians actually want to win they’ll try a different strategy next time
Republicans tell me the same thing.
They are technically correct in that a first past the post system will always reduce to a 2 party contest. The fact that conservatives are more consistent and reliable voters is where that distinction breaks down in reality. Non-voting and splitting the left wing coalition hurts the Democratic Party more.
I’m more right leaning the left. So I guess I’m your statistical outlier. Harris won my state. Doesn’t matter, the oligarchs have gained more power.
The democratic party should get to it replacing First-past-the-post voting then. Stopping the Republicans is priority right?
If you’re a politically uninformed citizen: Please. Do not vote. It’s your right and duty.
You Americans are really weird in that regard. As a foreigner, both your parties are fucking horrible. To demonstrate what I mean: one party wants to ban abortions, the other party says that unless you vote for them, the bad guys will take away your abortions and then they proceed to do absolutely nothing about it.
So yeah, one of your parties is almost cartoonishly evil, the other is plain old adult-level evil.
It’s not that democrats are any better than republicans, they’re just smarter about pretending they’re not evil.
This is not only incredibly reductionist, it’s just flatout wrong. How can people still tout this “both parties are the same” bullshit?
It’s gonna get real hard to keep it up in a few months when we start to see the real world implications of a second Trump regime.
Again, this is a foreigner view. Maybe it’s different when you actually live there, though I doubt it. But from my point of view, both parties suck extremely and unless you somehow manage to get a 3rd party to win, you’re fucked for eternity. Both parties have no reason to make anything better if they know you’ll vote for one of them anyway.
Removed by mod
100% this.
I think I’ll do some data Analysis on how much this community shits.on third parties, non voters, and Republicans relative to how much they advertise what’s good about the Dems.
highest voter turnout in history
nailbiter race between fascists and liberals
Don’t worry, the communists of Lemmy are already celebrating the Trump victory.
They were never leftists, or if they are, then they’re extremely anti-American leftists who want to see the US burn, not improve.
Are you even federated with Lemmygrad and Hexbear? Because they’re not celebrating. You’re like the Republicans who blame immigrants because you want an easy excuse to hide the fact the party is dogshit.
I am federated with the bear, but not grad. What’s going on is thinly veiled celebrations. Plus never have I heard a single one of those people have a bad thing to say about Trump or conservatism.
I’m not too sure most of the people on Hexbear are leftists tbh, I reckon they’re fans of authoritarianism more than anything. I even got banned for saying that voting third party (aka not voting against Trump) is pretty much voting for genocide. Of course, they don’t see it that way - Biden and Harris are personally killing Palestinians and under Trump this would surely be stopped.
I think both Dems and Republicans suck in very different and not proportionate ways, but I am also a very big proponent of voting. Go vote! It’s your duty.
Removed by mod
In my experience, most people voting for 3rd parties care more for their own sense of morals than they do with actual outcomes. This election has not changed that in the slightest, and it’s even more open and obvious when the question of ‘ok, then what happens?’ comes up. I’ve been told by a supposed anti-genocide person that it’s ok if Palestinians get genocide harder because of the Democrats win they won’t pay attention to the progressives.
Like, how can you take someone seriously that is openly advocating for a path that makes their cause worse?
I’d say most people think a wasted vote in a contentious election with a racist, rapist, fascist who wants to end democracy is stupid.
If you were to say, I don’t know, be working with local parties at the town, city, and state level to grow them and get them into positions, making them viable for the presidency down the road - not stupid! Awesome, in fact.
Telling people vote for a 3rd party in this presidential election?
Stupid. Very, very stupid. Yes, it will be frowned upon. Because its stupid. And people should be telling you how stupid it is. Because it is.
Huh? I’m for everyone voting. I just want everyone to vote.
If you want to organize and elect socialists at local levels of power who form coalitions with other left wing groups to coordinate against conservatives, I will help you do it.
If you do nothing but whine online and avoid politics to vote for a socialist candidate every 4 years during the presidential elections in a FPTP system, you’re a moron.
I can see you understand the flaws of First past the post voting quite well. We are going to need people like you to change this mathematically flawed voting system.
Feel free to stop by my ask lemmy post to discuss replacing First-past-the-post voting in your state when you’re ready. Thanks.
We’re working on it in my state. It’s got the support of our local Democratic Party and because of the way our state legislature works, the next time to push further is the 2025 session.
I find that the thing people need to remember is that the general election is purely damage control time. For actual change, and getting candidates that don’t suck, the work needs to already be done by the time the election rolls around.
Politics is marketing. Governing is the slow boring of hard boards. You only get there with dilligence, conviction, and commitment to the idea that you are planting the trees that will shade your grandchildren.
This, except that the foundations that lead to change are laid on election night. Yes the cement was mixed and the scaffolding raised, but today sets the tools we have to work with to enact that change for the next 4 (or rarely 2) years.
Politics is marketing.
Right, the election is the Primary. In this case it was 2020 when I voted for Burnie. Biden won (and then handed over to Harris). That’s who was chosen, and I’m okay with that.
The local candidates and party officials matter more than the final presidential vote. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t vote for President.
I find OP’s post functionally defeatest. It hinges on this theory that there really is only one choice every election season. You must vote Democrat - whether it’s Sherrod Brown or Eric Adams - and you can never question how these officials behave during an election season.
The Dems don’t have any real duty towards their voters, or even an obligation to do a particularly good job of governing. They can just point at Republicans, say “Worse! Vote for us or that’s who you get”, then blast people with anxiety-inducing advertisement until folks panic.
The end result of this system is one in which Dems win by maximizing anxiety, rather than improving quality of life for anyone.
Which is why they lose. People literally tune them out. Unless they’re morons like myself who keep trying to help the Democrats.see their nonsense.
I don’t disagree with you.
There are vastly larger numbers of choices in local and legislative races. And I encourage people to work hard to more variety in local and legislative races to push your values instead of only checking in every 4 years. The primary is the key time to push for who you want as the candidate.
During the actual election though, with FPTP, it unfortunately is that reductive. You are stuck choosing who is the lesser evil or who you want to push for change. The November presidential election is like public transportation. You may not like the conditions of the train or the exact destination the bus ends up at, but you take the bus that gets you closer to your destination.
Yup, they know they’re outnumbered so they try every trick in the book to stop the Democrat bloc surplus from voting.
Making wild leaps of interpretation and assumption is the only way Democrats have any points.
brother, republicans thrive on making shit up
would someone like to explain to me why dem turnouts were SO FUCKING ASS this cycle?
Did you guys just like, forget to vote? What the fuck happened?
Removed by mod
Very few voters care about what is happening in Israel. A poll (I think msnbc) weeks before the election showed about 2% of voters considered it a “top 3” issue for them.
Removed by mod
Americans and most of the world don’t care what’s happening in Israel. As a yank living abroad and often traveling for work (conferences, support, sales) It’s typically viewed as an extension of a 30 year conflict, extended on an 80 year conflict, extended on a 1500 year old conflict. In otherwords, it’s “passe.” it’s boring because it’s the norm. it’s unfortunate.
Removed by mod
Depends where. Some of the world loves America
Better vote for the literal fascist.
Removed by mod
deleted by creator
I think there are 3 reasons.
-
The economy is ALWAYS, FUCKING ALWAYS, the driving force behind the general public’s vote. The current American economy, when observed at a macro level, has been great under Biden’s presidency. Inflation induced by COVID and Trump’s first term policies has been declining, GDP is up, the trade balance is good, and interest rates are starting to come down. Americans aren’t benefiting from this in their personal finances. The wealth gap is severe because of trickle down economics. The democrats are shit at communicating this or even having a plan for it. Instead the democrats campaigned that identity politics were as important as the economy. Just fucking stupid. We all know the democrats policy on minority rights and protections. Talk about the economy and how you’ll make individuals wealthier.
-
Some exit polls asked what emotions voters felt when they voted. The bi-partisan answer was overwhelmingly anger. (I think it was a cnn poll and a smaller website poll.) Guess which candidate plays into that emotion and guess which ran on “good vibes and joy.”
-
In 2020, Harris wasn’t well liked and didn’t primary well. She may have done her job well as VP, but the public didn’t know about it. She and her campaign didn’t even communicate what she was doing. When she was “anointed,” that turned off many democrats. Most of the excitement came from relatively few. The relatively many democrats or people who could be persuaded to vote democrat were not motivated. At current count, Trump has lost about 6 million votes from 2020. Harris has about 14 million less votes than Biden in 2020.
TLDR The DNC are master fuckups
-
America simply feels like they can “Sit this one out” if it means putting a woman in a position of authority over a man.
If Kamela was VP and Walz was the top of the ticket and nothing else changed…
Walz would have won in a landslide.
I’d wager a fuck ton of them moved far left and stayed home.
Yeah we know trump is awful, but in the end we could buy more stuff under trump than we can now and that’s all we really care about so we voted for him anyway.
They are in for a rude awakening this time around. They are going to find They can’t buy nearly as much
The dumbest most selfish motherfuckers on the planet.
Did you not see the meme? It was obviously because of REPUBLICANS!!!
Those darned Republicans made you not vote!! It’s always the REPUBLICANS!!!
Its only been 24hrs and this post aged like milk.
Aged like fine wine my dude, ~14mill less dems showed up to vote
Do you think these people stayed home?
I know that they didn’t vote
You know there was 14 million less people this time l than last. You don’t know if they were Democrats. Literally low information, high opinion person. And we know what happens to them.
(Hell, you don’t even know that 14 million didn’t show because we don’t have the final vote total.)
Trump also has less votes than last time and almost all votes are tallied at this point, there isn’t millions left. Voters in general didn’t show up as much for this election.
Lowest turnout since 2020. Second highest since 1920.
Exactly. Trump got less votes than he did last election (which he lost).
What definitely didn’t happen is people changed their mind. That’s impossible!
And the fault for that lies squarely with Democrat politicians.
it’s absolutely not politicians, it’s the people.
This is like being presented with “would you rather stick a nail in your arm, or in your eye” and then doing nothing, only to have the nail get stuck in your eye by a third party.
Removed by mod
The fault lies squarely with people who make assinine claims without any evidence, pretending they hold some deep wisdom when they really don’t know shit.
You are the evidence to support my claim, Poopster, in case that wasn’t obvious.
What’s a politicians job during the campaign?
To convince people that they’re worth electing.
and it’s the peoples job to vote for the best candidate…
Weird that donald trump WON the election, that’s real curious.
When did voting become mandatory?
The only obligation to voting is your right to exercise it how you choose, full stop. It is not anyone’s “job” to vote any specific way, this is the entitlement Democratic voters need to get over.
Yeah, Trump won because he convinced his base he was worth voting for. Harris couldn’t convince her base that he was a threat and that she was worth voting for.
She did try to win over Republican voters instead of her own, though. 94% of them voted Republican anyway, just like they did in 2020.
But I’m sure you’ll tell me that was the voter’s fault too. 🙄
Edit: I brought up mandatory voting because it could be legislated that way, just as voting day could be made a federal holiday. And laws could be passed to mandate paid time off to allow essential workers to vote on voting day if absentee/early voting are unavailable. Or what if you were automatically registered to vote on your 18th birthday, none of this registering nonsense.
Damn, those are all great policy ideas that the Democrats could run on, or even implement, since they have been outwardly more supportive of people voting. Funny that they haven’t done that in the last couple decades…
… It’s almost like the Dems don’t want that roughly 60% of people who don’t vote to start voting. Wonder why that is…
When did voting become mandatory?
i didn’t say it did.
Fact of the matter is, if you don’t exercise your vote, and the result is worse, you exercised your vote badly. There is no difference between not voting, and having a bad outcome, and voting (for the wrong thing) and having a bad outcome. They are the same.
It is not anyone’s “job” to vote any specific way, this is the entitlement Democratic voters need to get over.
i don’t disagree, and in fact, i agree, this is an entitlement that democrats need to get over, because if they did get over it, we would start fucking winning. The republicans are literally an abusive partner right now, and we’re just sitting here like “well maybe if i close my eyes he won’t hit me” and then being really fucking confused when it doesn’t do anything.
As a party, we’re literally cannibalizing ourselves over this issue. It’s not that deep, just vote for the least bad candidate, and get over it, go do local political lobbying, go vote in primaries, go vote in local elections, whatever the fuck, nobody cares, just do something
She did try to win over Republican voters instead of her own, though. 94% of them voted Republican anyway, just like they did in 2020.
she didn’t try to win over republican voters, she tried to win over moderate voters. I would say it worked to some degree. But obviously since we got like a 50% turnout, it’s really hard to say if anything worked, and frankly, i think the democratic institution is failing right now. If we don’t get up and do something about it in the next 4 years, the republicans are going to run uncontested.
it’s funny that the image says moderate republicans, and while that’s partially true, it’s also pushing for support from the moderate left. Which is the vast majority of the party. She was also appealing to the moderate left (most of the dem party)
Damn, those are all great policy ideas that the Democrats could run on, or even implement, since they have been outwardly more supportive of people voting. Funny that they haven’t done that in the last couple decades…
maybe they should, but in defense of them, running on voting policy, in a federal election is pretty fucking silly. You can’t really do much about it on a federal level.
It’s almost like the Dems don’t want that roughly 60% of people who don’t vote to start voting. Wonder why that is…
so they can lose repeatedly to the republican party? ok.
If they could understand that you need to appeal to voters to win an election, they’d be very upset.
I love this, you made me smile on a very shit day, so thank you for that.
If I don’t laugh, I cry. I have to make comedy out of a shit situation or I’ll wonder how far I need to jump.
Some of us are actually not Democrats or Republicans because we really think both sides are bad in different ways. I still voted though.
It’s still worth it to register for one of the major parties to vote in their primary and push them towards your actual politics. For example, I wouldn’t consider myself “a Democrat”, but I am registered to the party and I vote as progressive as I can in primaries.
From what I’ve read, the two times Trump won, many Democrats felt that they were denied this choice, which left them disillusioned, and they didn’t vote. I don’t think that’s the main reason for Trump’s victory, but what you touched on was definitely a factor in the Democrats’ loss.
I wonder how many times we need this to happen for people to learn that letting others make your choices for you will often lead to your worst possible option.
But then you don’t get to brag about your enlightened centrism.
Not all states work the same. In Ohio I can just show up and tell them which one I want to vote in each time. I always vote in the Democrat or Republican primary, I get a voice without committing to one or the other.
In a lot of places, you pretty much have to register for a party to have any say in the local elections. Where I live if there is a primary for an office it is guaranteed whoever wins the Republican primary is going to win the office, so if you want to have a vote in that election you have to register Republican.
I think everyone should get a vote in every primary. If there is a Republican and Democratic primary then you should get to cast a vote for a Republican candidate and a Democrat candidate. I think this would result in a better selection of nominees for offices.
And some of us who are that way understand that in FPTP there can only be a winner from one of the major parties and we are choosing who we want to fight to push for changes.
I always vote for who I perceive as the lesser evil of the two. This year is no different. I’m not excited about what either candidate wants to fight for. I will oppose whoever is elected on multiple fronts.
The November elections are damage control. Unfortunately they always have been.
Howd that work out for us?
