While rebutting another post here on Lemmy, I ran into this. This says exactly what I want to say.
I am not a friend of Biden’s Administration. I think they drug their feet over a variety of things ranging from holding Trump and his goons accountable for January 6th through rulemaking on issues like OTC Birth Control and abortion rights, and yes, I think he’s too quick to please big business. But then I remember what the alternative is, and … well, disappointed in Biden or not, I’m voting for him. Because my wife is a Black bisexual goth woman, four strikes under Team Pepe’s tent. And I have my own strikes for marrying her as a White dude, and respecting her right to not have kids since she doesn’t want them is another strike against me. And I care about my Non-Christian, Gay, Transgender, and Minority friends, and will never willingly subject them to Team Pepe.
It’s a goddamn shame in what’s supposed to be a representative democracy that there are so many calls for those who supposedly should be the ones represented to change their views to conform with those who represent them and not the other way around.
But it’s power dynamics, innit? The Biden administration and their wealthy kind won’t be that harmed by a Trump administration, so they don’t have a lot of motivation to actually change anything. It’s those who stand to be horrifically harmed by Biden’s opponent who must swallow their morality and vote for monsters lest more harm come to them later on.
Indeed there is. And I agree, we need changes to this system. But there are smart ways to do it, and there are dumb ways to do it. Allowing an authoratarian jerk in who will run roughshod over our rights and maybe even take away our vote entirely, causing untold pain to people you claim to support, is the dumbest and cruellest way of all. If you’re cool with that, you do you, but understand, I’m not going to be quiet about the choice you just made. It’s how we got Bush-43, and how we got Trump the first time around.
Biden isn’t a monster. Netanyahu is the monster slaughtering people in Gaza, and I’ve already written a whole missive on why Biden aids Israel while Netanyahu does genocide, so I won’t repeat it here. Biden IS squishy, and believe me, if I could get a more progressive candidate, I would take him or her in a heartbeat, but we’re not there yet. Not in a country where only 26% of the population willingly identifies themselves as Liberal and 74% says “no, not that.” I’m not saying we’ll never get there, but it takes hard work and dedication, like what Team Pepe has done to convert Team Red into itself. Surely, you folks on Team Green aren’t gonna let Team Pepe beat you at the ‘convert major party to our mirror’ game, are you? They have a rule over on Team Pepe: “Vote the Conservative in the Primary and the Republican in the General.” That rule works because they have leverage over even squishy Republicans that they don’t over Democrats. It works the same way over here. Biden is being pulled Left by angry voters, articulating that Netanyahu is risking support by attacking innocents unjustly. Pro-Tip: Trump’s voters want ALL the Muslims subjugated or slain, so he’ll face no such pressure. In fact, he’ll double down on supplying Israel because he knows that pisses you off and his main goal is to own the libs. So even by your ‘genocide’ argument, the only vote you have is Biden, to keep Trump out of office. Keep that in mind.
Edit: Brain Fart. Voting Biden won’t put Trump in office, thank god.
You’re making a lot of assumptions about my opinions and intended actions that just can’t be gleamed from a post kvetching about the sorry state the US finds itself in.
Maybe think about your own knee-jerk responses before you make up ones for others.
I’m just replying to your words, dude, and pointing out to anyone who may be swayed by your argument that your argument is flat out wrong and cruel to everyone who will suffer for a Trump victory in 2024. But I can see why you might not want to talk about that.
To everyone else: Remember that Trump’s campaign has admitted to leveraging dissatisfaction on the left to push them to sit out the election. They’re counting on this so they can steal close states like they did in 2016 with Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Mr. Albatross, there are two kinds of people that push the meme that you just can’t POSSIBLY vote for the genocidal monster of Joe Biden. One is the useful idiot that’s bought the bullshit being peddled by Russia and the Republicans. The other is the sorry sack of shit asshole that is actually pushing the bullshit made up by Russia and the Republicans.
Which are you?
Not once did I say anything about who people should vote for. The only sentence I used that talked about voting was saying people will vote for Biden.
You’re making up opinions so you can argue against them. Isn’t there a phrase for that?
Well, to be fair, I actually didn’t say you were saying not to vote for Biden until my very last comment. My first comment to you attacked the foundation of your argument, that you must vote for a monster to avoid harm coming to somebody else. Biden isn’t a monster. And I explained why he isn’t. And I explained that even with your ‘concern’ over what Biden has or hasn’t done RE: Israel, there is still only one choice for President, and that’s Biden.
But if we’re going to start accusing each other of dishonest debate tactics…what might it be called when somebody has concerns about how things are going, who thinks that both sides are equally bad, and who reacts to any criticism with semi-polite attacks on the ‘tone’ of the argument in order to try to make a person with an argument they don’t like look bad. So if we’re going to play this game, you might want to be careful with the stones in your glass house, buddy. ;)
Why not answer my point that Biden isn’t a monster, eh?
There are a lot of reasons things are the way they are - the fucked up way we elect a president, the fucked up way we count the votes, the fucked up way we apportion representatives - but the bottom line is that our government is broken and we’re not going to get actual representation out of it.
So unless progressives are going to move the red states en masse to actually change things, we need to get used to being an unrepresented minority, ruled by a different minority that has more land.