Tumgik
#He is democratically elected don't worry
missiletainnyt · 2 years
Text
Me and my DnD and tabletop friend group have been talking and returning back to our old Villain game we ran, and now have a google doc with a file named “Hero World Lore” which is about 3 pages long already as a group world building project and it is the most thrilling thing I’ve done in my free time the last three weeks.
6 notes · View notes
anarcho-yorpism · 13 days
Text
To all the communist transvestites, VOTE👏VON👏HINDENBURG👏
I'm just as radical as you; I'm a proud member of the great Social Democratic Party of Germany! I don't know what the crazy communists are telling you, but Paul von Hindenburg is our only hope to defeat the Nazis. After we elect him, then we can discuss other politics, but this is the BARE MINIMUM, and if you don't vote for him, you clearly have this crazy purity test that'll bring us all to fascism.
I know you might be worried about his "senility" and "failing health", and I know you may not like him because of his push to the right, and I know you may be worried about the brownshirts, and the recent persecution of Dr. Hirschfeld and his work, and maybe you STILL haven't gotten over the whole Rosa Luxemburg stuff,
but none of that really matters! We need to keep the SPD in power, or else Hitler will get in charge! This is the most important and most basic thing you could do to help Germany stay a democracy. In 6 years, then maybe we can find a better candidate, but no matter what you think about von Hindenburg, he's the best shot we have at keeping the fascists out of power. We can totally push him left!
Any vote against von Hindenburg is a vote for Hitler. #Hindenburg1932
1K notes · View notes
ahaura · 9 days
Text
im sure its been said already but as the election draws near more and more liberals will come out of the woodwork to shame people with a conscience to give away their vote to the democrats for free. i'm already seeing posts saying "why aren't people more concerned about a trump presidency?" you want to know why? it's because people already know he's bad. everyone already knows what he is and what he's done and what he'll do. there's nothing to discuss. he's a racist despotic worm of a man. there's nothing else to say.
biden is currently president. the genocide is happening under his watch. he's the one funding isra*l and arming them; he's sidestepped congress more than once to give them weapons. by oct. 27, the biden administration already knew that "Israel was regularly bombing buildings without solid intelligence that they were legitimate military targets." the state department/biden have engaged in atrocity propaganda, cast doubt on the legitimacy of the death toll recorded by the gaza health ministry, and so on. the united states is currently in the process of trying to pin the "war in gaza" on netanyahu (see sen. schumer's speech) after months of backing blatant genocide as a means to act as if they're "doing something" about the genocide (Instead of, say, threatening to cut off all aid to israel with the condition that all hostilities in gaza, the west bank, and occupied jerusalem are halted immediately and permanently, allowing palestinians freedom to travel, allowing aid into gaza, etc etc etc.)
the long and short of it is that liberals view their own lives as being worth more than palestinians'. that's it. they'll vote for another 4 years of the guy ushering in genocide and supporting apartheid + settler colonialism because he isn't outright attacking them (despite various laws and rulings happening both at the supreme court level and at the local level all over the country that will endanger people). they'll settle for the illusion of safety and security and shame anyone with a conscience and accuse them of "supporting the republicans" when in an actual democracy you would be able to use your vote as leverage to extract concessions from those who want to be elected. that's how it's supposed to fucking work.
democrats are not owed people's vote. if biden loses, it will be biden's fault; it will be his campaign's fault; it will be the democrats' fault. trump is bad; the republicans are bad. we already know this. this is not an endorsement of either. but if democrats are too cowardly and feckless and servile to the motivations of the american empire and never do anything for their constituents then why the fuck should anyone vote for them. you want to get mad at someone, why don't you do something useful and stop worrying about team-sports with a purely selfish basis and start hounding the people in power who are supposed to serve you, the voter.
#i think i already said this and frankly idc#uspol#📁.zip#to me personally it's abhorrent and vile to tell palestinians 'biden is facilitating the murder of your people culture and history but you#still have to vote for him!!1' like how is that not unbelievably callous and ghoulish#frankly speaking. a lot of this 'you should be concerned about trump' is going to turn into#blaming palestinians and arabs and muslims and anyone remotely with a conscience for biden's loss#instead of doing something productive like pushing for people in power to do something they'll nitpick and belittle#and tell palestinians + arabs and muslims + everyone who understands that genocide is bad that they SHOULD#settle for a decrepit genocidal monstrous freak who is CURRENTLY facilitating genocide because#it makes THEM feel better and they aren't personally threatened (yet) by the guy currently in power#any and all 'you're not taking trump seriously' comments should be met with extreme skepticism#because i promise i PROMISE that the vast majority of people unhappy with biden are not going to turn around and vote for trump#and if they do? well guess what THAT'S BIDEN'S FAULT! nevermind the vote uncommitted campaign that was very successful and#will be replicated in the near future. but liberals only care about asthetics and superficial and not#about real material change which is why they'll dress up their callousness and racism in a 'you hate gay people if you dont vote for biden'#like this country is already going to shit we are rapidly descending into fascism and i dont see biden doing anything to even remotely#challenge it do you???? once agian. NOT an endorsement of the republican party but my GOD when the 'lesser evil'#is DOING the evil or normalizing the evil then you cannot settle for 'the lesser'! end of story.
376 notes · View notes
fromchaostocosmos · 1 month
Text
Like many others I'm worried about the USA presidential election and I'm worried for a variety of reasons.
I want to focus on specific worry I have in regards to said election.
I am Jewish and if don't already know Jews only make 0.2% of the world population, not even half a percent.
In the USA we make up 2% of the USA population. American Jews are majority democrat and our voting trends reflect.
The past two presidential ballots that have had Trump on them Jews were the second highest voting bloc to vote against Trump, the highest voting bloc being Black Americans.
I remember when Trump won the presidency and election night was not even over and how I saw people, leftist specifically, blaming Jews for his win.
Despite the numbers showing that we did not want him as president and did our best to make sure he did not win.
And the second time he was on the ballot, but he didn't win. Still we were blamed for not doing enough, for it being to close, for one thing or another.
Again regardless of what the facts had to say about how Jews voted and it was still the same people doing the blaming.
For a group that is only 2% of the countries population to be second highest voting bloc against Trump is something that I think is pretty impressive and we did it twice.
We currently are dealing with people openly celebrating one of the most horrific and tragic events in Jewish history since the Holocaust. We have people openly cheering on the deaths of Jews, calling for the deaths of more Jews, doxxing of Jews, calling us unclean, using blood libel, I mean you name it they are doing it and it is not coming from the Right only as one would expect. But rather from the Left.
Many Jews myself included who consider ourselves leftist and still do no longer feel safe in these so called progressive spaces and how can when our safety is at serious risk.
So I'm seriously concerned because if we had two elections with Trump on the ballot where leftist blamed Jews despite the evidence showing Jews overwhelming did not vote for Trump and now we have this climate that we have and the odds of Trump being the Republican nominee are pretty high.
What is going to happen after this presidential because either way no matter Jews do, no matter how we vote we still lose.
(This is not me saying Jews should vote for Trump, G-d forbid no, do not do that)
384 notes · View notes
qqueenofhades · 2 months
Note
It's definitely a refusal to engage with or truly understand politics. I'm 24, I was in middle school during Obama's second term and 17 in 2016, and I feel like a lot of my peers just continue to be appalled at how bad things have gotten with the Republicans and why Democrats can't do anything to stop it. What's missing from their understanding is how long it took for the Republicans to get here. It didn't start in 2016. They worked for decades to do all the nightmarish shit they're doing now, and Democrats just haven't been able to do the same (because people refuse to vote consistently and give them the power to do those things). I feel like that's where the "both sides are the same" bullshit comes from - the idea that if the Dems wanted to stop the GOP, they would. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of how anything works, and often relies on downplaying how bad the Republicans actually are in order to support their 'Dems are just as bad' stance.
Things did get catastrophically worse when Trump was elected, and he broke things way more than they ever had been, but he doesn't exist in a vacuum and it took the Republicans a lot of fucking work for him to do what he did. The only way the Dems can counteract that is by having a party of people willing to put in a similar level of work, and that requires understanding our structures and how things work (executive orders are only temporary fixes and actual legislation takes time, compromise, and work), and a lot of these people just aren't willing to do it.
The thing is, yes, I absolutely do get the feeling that everything is terrible and we are doomed. I went through it when GWB was re-elected in 2004 and then again in 2008, worrying about whether Obama would get elected and end that particular run of Republican-induced misery (when John McCain looks like a fucking saint compared to the GOP candidates we are being offered now), and obviously plumbed the depths of despair in 2016 with Trump. But I don't remember ever thinking that I should just give up trying, stop voting, or any of that, and I don't think it was because I was some kind of special person who was just so tenacious. I obviously have not been a teenager in the present era and yes, that means I have different views on things from the next generation, but also: this has always happened. Moments of total political despair and feeling that everything is fucked are also not a new thing. We are going through it with Trumpism, the previous generation went through it with Reagan/Thatcher, the previous previous generation went through it with Nixon/Vietnam, the previous etc generation went through it with the Cold War, the previous etc. etc. generation went through it with World War II -- and so forth. There has never been any one point when everything was great and there was no work left to be done, because, y'know. That is not how either history or human nature works.
Hence, that is why I'm trying to figure out what in the fuck is going on right now, and whether it's just social media that have made things so bad (entirely possible). Critical thinking is a shambles, yes, but that's not necessarily something young people have chosen for themselves. The current world is a late-stage capitalist dystopia run by four or five trillionaire oligarch cartels and corporations, and obviously public education, basic civic responsibility, the teaching of any "controversial" history, and everything else that might threaten that setup has been systematically and methodically dismantled, politicized, or so infiltrated with false information that it's basically useless. That in itself is not young people's fault. They have genuinely been dealt a terrible hand in many ways, and I don't blame them for being angry about it. I too am angry about it! I do question, however, when the overwhelming sentiment became "well we should just give up and let the bad guys win, either because it's too much work to change it or because that will spark the Great Revolution and that's the only way to fix things ever, and doing anything else at all in the meantime is wrong."
Once again: I do not blame young people for being angry at the shitty situation they are currently facing. I do not blame young people for being disillusioned with the system and thinking that it can't solve everything at once. But yet again: there has never been any government, country, or organization in the history of ever anything everywhere that was able to do that, and the ones that tried, or insisted that they could do it, were infamously murderous bloodbaths, because breaking society (even with all its flaws) into a thousand pieces and thinking this will make My Preferred Ideological Utopia Now Appear is probably the deadliest belief in all of time and space. The world is flawed and has been for all time because humans are flawed and probably will be for all time. Being a grownup requires coming to an understanding of that fact and seeing what you can do in spite of that. People in every era have had gaps and biases and blind spots and other things that hobbled their understanding or made their efforts for change less perfect or complete than they would have wanted in an ideal world, and they have had to move past those anyway. The current generation is no different. Not to sound like a boomer, but even despite the mess they've been faced with, they need to figure out how to engage with it anyway and not just completely absolve responsibility because they can't fix it all at once. Which I don't think most young people do! There are plenty of them who really do get it and are engaged and idealistic and working for good change, and that's great! It's just the other part that worries me, and which is not as small as we would like to think.
And yes, part of this is just flat-out bad information and the stubborn lack of any desire to change it if it conflicts with pre-existing beliefs. (This is by no means exclusive to young people of this current generation, as it's another bad habit of humanity, but yes.) In the aforementioned "you're driving young leftists away :(" ask I got yesterday, there were also plenty of dubious and just-flat-wrong claims, such as that Democrats keep moving to the right "especially economically." That is just not true. In the last four years, the Democrats have moved the most economically leftward in all of American history and have finally and flatly rejected the Great Reagonomics Myth. Just because Clinton did Reagonomics-lite in the '90s (when most of the current generation of Online Leftists weren't even born), that is thirty years ago and in wildly different circumstances. These things are not difficult to look up. Do it. Try to educate yourself, even if the system doesn't want to do it. You can't just throw up your hands and insist that nobody taught you, so how could you know??? Put that "instant access to all of human history and knowledge" to use, even just a little. It'll be good for you!
Likewise, there was also the anon's befuddling insistence that I was "patronizing" or "shaming" anyone "further left than Biden," which reflects their apparent feeling that telling people to vote for Biden is a "personal attack" on their cherished beliefs, or whatever. I'm unsure how many times we have to keep repeating that voting for a candidate does not mean you are canonizing all their beliefs exactly as your own, and that it's just one tool to do the bare minimum to not live in a fucking fascist theocratic dictatorship, but yeah. I can guarantee you that I personally am well left of Biden. I can guarantee you that most people on Tumblr voting for Biden are probably well left of him as well. That does not negate the fact that Biden is the most progressive president America has ever had, regardless of how much Online Leftists shriek otherwise. It also does not negate the fact that this is by no means true of America as a whole (witness the large faction that still thinks Biden is a godless far-left evil socialist). It does not negate the many complex historical, political, social, cultural, religious, racial, etc reasons that have collided to produce the America where this is the case. Therefore, if I do not want to live in a society ruled by Trump and his orange Nazi minions, which is the case due to how badly the last 10 years have been fucked up, I will use the tool of voting for Biden! He can be successfully pressured to create positive change in the direction that I would like! Trump cannot and will not under any circumstances, regardless of the wild fantasies that suddenly he will transform into a perfect progressive on Gaza or whatever other issue! THIS IS NOT THAT FUCKING DIFFICULT!!!!!!!
Anyway. All of this is obviously complicated. Obviously things are bad and frightening and we want a solution that fixes all of it at once, instead of slowly, badly, and piecemeal. But as I said: that has never, not once, been the case in all of history, and we know what happens when people and/or governments with delusions of psychopathic grandeur try to do it. We do not want the "Final Solution" (which is infamous as what Hitler literally called the Holocaust). We do, in fact, want the careful step by step, we want things to get better and not just explode in a mountain of nihilistic doom, and that does take work, from everyone. So unfortunately, there is no real choice except to do it.
219 notes · View notes
reasonsforhope · 2 months
Text
Btw, if anyone cares to know, my position on Biden and the 2024 election is this:
Starting September* 1, 2024, I will be doing whatever I can to make sure that Trump does not get a second term as president
Until that day, I'm going to be doing whatever I can to push for an end to the genocide in Gaza and an immediate ceasefire, and that includes criticizing, protesting, and lambasting Biden for funding and providing weapons for Israel's genocide
ETA: I will still be posting about significant good things the Biden administration has done, though, because some of it is a really big deal that people deserve to know about
ETA: But I will not be defending Biden from any criticism around Palestine/Israel/war crimes
*This originally said October 1st but someone pointed out to me that there are a few states where early voting starts in late September, including a couple swing states, so I changed it because that's a very good point
I don't plan to tell anyone not to vote for Biden in the meantime, myself, because shitty two party system and I'm really serious about Trump not getting reelected
But I'm also not going to do anything to discourage people who are seriously rallying against Biden, because he is, you know, literally bypassing Congress to make sure he can fund crimes against humanity
I never want to diminish that reality.
And more than that: If we want genocide to actually be a dealbreaker for politicians and presidents... then we need to start acting like it could be.
--
Details/related thoughts:
I will still be posting about good things Biden and his administration are doing, because they are the ones running the US government and Congress is super deadlocked, so a lot of the national-level good news in the US has been done by his administration, and I'm not going to stop posting about that good news
Shout-out to the anon who accused me of being a US government propagandist with a whole PR team bc I posted about Biden a few days in a row. I promise you I'm blogging from my bed in my pjs and do not have a PR team lol
Also, for people who don't think we should be spreading serious criticism about Biden, for fear of Trump winning in 2024: I hear you--that's an incredibly valid fear. I've struggled with that myself, in the process of coming to this(/these) decision(s). But consider this: it's better that we really pile on the criticism and pressure now, because a) people are dying, and b) Biden's chances will be much worse if Israel is still bombing/decimating Gaza on election day
Relatedly, for anyone who's tempted to think Trump would be better when it comes to the Gaza genocide, again, it's really understandable to want to put your hope in any viable alternative. However, I promise you that is not going to happen. Joe Biden at least conditionally gives a couple shits about human life. Trump doesn't. Remember Trump's Muslim ban? In all likelihood, Trump would just tell Israel to bomb Gaza harder and ban Palestinian refugees from entering the US
Last thing on Trump: maybe this is naive of me, but for a lot of reasons, I'm not actually particularly worried about Trump winning in 2024. If I was, I might have made some different calls here. I have a few asks about this in my inbox and will probably make a post at some point about the reasons why, but yeah, Democrats have mostly been wanting to run against Trump instead of DeSantis or Haley or whoever for some very real reasons
You're welcome to disagree with me/this post in any direction, btw
Seriously, I'm just a random person who doesn't speak for anyone besides myself and my own blog. I'm not saying these are categorically the right answers, or that any of this is what everyone should be doing. This is simply the system I have settled on (right now) for how I personally want to handle all of this
You're welcome to disagree with me but please don't send me any angry asks about any of it. Not that I in any way get a lot of those, thankfully! But yeah, this isn't something I'm interested in debating, this is mostly for notification/explanation purposes
165 notes · View notes
renthony · 16 days
Note
Just curious. How bad has Biden been at controlling COVID-19 in your view?
First: I already responded to a similar question you left on this post.
Second: Biden has been atrocious for COVID-19 safety and management. COVID-19 is still killing people, and our president has done a horribly insufficient job in mitigating that. "Better than the Republicans" is not the same thing as "good" or "effective." Biden's abysmal reaction to COVID-19 is part of why I'm so thrilled that the Uncommitted campaign for the Democratic primary has achieved some success. That particular campaign is focused on ceasefire in Palestine, but the People's CDC explained in a statement how Palestine is also very much a public health issue. We need to scare the bastard and actually do some of that "pushing him left" that people claimed they'd do after getting him elected. Though it seems to me like a lot of people just settled for, "okay, we got rid of Trump, we don't have to worry anymore."
Third: While I'm at it, people have to do more than vote. You have got to get involved. You have got to do more than participate in the presidential election once every four years. Join a union (may I recommend the IWW?), follow the guidance of The People's CDC, volunteer for your local Food Not Bombs, get involved in a tenants union like the Autonomous Tenants Union Network, read Riot Medicine, get trained in first aid and get involved in a street medic group, read up on your local politics and get involved on the small-scale, do something in addition to voting in the presidential election. Even if you're limited in how much you can personally participate, find the people who are talking about these issues and signal boost them, and share the information with others who may be more able to participate more. If you can tell people to go vote in the presidential election, you can also tell them to go do other things, too.
Now, with all of that out of the way, here are some links related to Biden's abysmal COVID-19 response:
During his 2020 campaign, Biden promised immediate $2K stimulus checks. Instead, he delivered $1,400. Sources: [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
Velena Jones for NBC Bay Area: "‘Too expensive': Bay Area residents shocked over new COVID vaccine prices"
Reuters: "COVID vaccine manufacturers set list price between $120-$130 per dose"
Joseph Choi for The Hill: "Free COVID-19 test program to be suspended for now"
Disability activist Alice Wong writing for TeenVogue: "Covid Isn't Going Anywhere. Masking Up Could Save My Life," and the follow-up article, "COVID and the 2024 Election: What Biden and Democrats Owe High-Risk People."
Laura Weiss writing for The New Republic: "Democrats Can't Keep Ignoring Covid in 2024."
David Cohen and Adam Cancryn for Politico: "Biden on '60 Minutes': 'The Pandemic is Over.'"
Alex Skopic for Current Affairs: "COVID-19 is Still a Threat. So is Biden’s CDC."
Adam Cancryn for Politico: "Biden Appears to be Over Covid Protocols."
Paul Thornton for the Los Angeles Times: "Covid Still Rages, and the Biden Administration Isn't Helping."
Eric J. Topol for the Los Angeles Times: "The U.S. is facing the biggest COVID wave since Omicron. Why are we still playing make-believe?"
We should have free, universal testing. We should have free, universal vaccination. We should have free, universal treatment. We should have financial assistance for those of us who can't work outside the home. We should have mandated work-from-home for any job that can be done remotely. We should be emptying prisons and paying attention to the way disease and abuse proliferate inside their walls. We should have COVID-19 safety PSAs and government support for universal masking. We should have free distribution of N95s. We should have mandated masking in medical settings and public spaces. We should have a higher minimum wage. We should have healthcare reforms. We should have strong worker protections. We should have improved infrastructure. We should have a president who gives a single flying fuck about how many of us are dying.
And we have none of it.
But we sure seem to have money to keep dropping bombs, arming cops, terrorizing the vulnerable, and imprisoning innocent people to use for slave labor.
144 notes · View notes
fairuzfan · 4 months
Note
I don’t want to misunderstand and make things worse for people. When you (and others) say don’t vote, do you mean don’t vote for biden or don’t vote at all?
Hey thanks for sending this in. No worries I understand the confusion.
I said in the tags in the previous post that I think people should vote for the reps in that list because they can be bullied into doing things based on the traditional means of opinion sharing (calling, writing letters, etc) and plus it's a nice little "we meant it when we said we would not be voting for you when we called" to the other dems. Basicially, using your vote strategically as a threat and sending a message instead of just blindly voting blue because red is "worse" and not because you actually like any of Democrats policies.
When I personally say I'm not going to vote, I am still voting in local elections and school boards and things like that. I definitely think you should always vote on the school board, especially, if nothing else. But I don't think I will be voting for major politicians like presidency — at least next election. I don't live in any of the districts of the ceasefire reps either.
Not voting and seeing people not voting would make people change their strategies. They know they can't rely on votes naturally anymore — they actually have to earn them based on material change. That's my personal intention, at least, with not voting. That and... like hell am I going to vote for the party and people that called for the blood of Palestinians. I do genuinely think they're bad people that no one should ever support under any circumstances, and I'll stick by that.
People mention voting for third party and I've recieved asks about it but.... I'm not sure. I think being president of the most powerful country in the world changes you fundamentally. We (palestinians) were hopeful for Obama when he went into office, and he did nothing, largely abandoning us, and he was taught by Edward Said himself. He was friends with Khalidi. He knew what was happening and still he made the decisions that he did.
Now I don't think you should just blindly follow whatever anyone says on the matter. I'm only giving you my opinion on this based on personal experience and past circumstances. You should genuinely, honestly, think about how your vote impacts others, especially around the world. Voting "blue" just because it might be easier for you here, then largely ignoring the entire world that's affected by the US, is, in my opinion, a pretty selfish decision. Besides, as someone who is disabled, Biden has already abandoned a large swath of people and basically left them to die with how he's dealt with covid. The migrant concentration camps are still there. He can't do anything about the Supreme Court and their messed up decisions. He won't do anything meaningful to protect any type of person in the states either, so what are we voting for exactly?
Voting is not a chore you have to do to keep your rights. Voting is a participation in your political system depending on the circumstances surrounding the things you care about. When that political system largely ignores you, I don't see a purpose in participating and showing support — because that's what Voting is, support — to people you fundamentally disagree with and those that don't really care about you.
204 notes · View notes
postingonanon · 5 months
Text
Hey Everybody, you need to get ready.
I've seen a LOT of posts floating around left-leaning spaces lately about "I'm not voting for Biden next year." And... I get it. I'm not going to even attempt to argue over strategic voting or whatever, because it rings hollow and it's pointless - there are a LOT of people saying this, and whatever reach this tiny scream into the void may have it won't shift those numbers.
So I'm going to be straight - get ready for a second Trump administration. It's obvious that he's going to be the Republican nominee in 2024, and the literal only determiner of whether the Republicans win is Democratic voting turn-out. Biden won because Trump was awful, but Trump won in the first place because people didn't vote for Hillary. That's looking like it's going to repeat itself.
I'm not saying this to shame anybody - you don't want to vote for someone complicit in genocide, I get it. But there isn't going to be a leftist alternative that wins the 2024 American election. There isn't one even running in the major two parties that the system is designed to accommodate.
I'm saying this because you need to get ready now. All that online leftist talk about community self-support, community policing, organizing with like-minded people? If you're just talking about it, you need to stop talking and put it into actions. As soon as you can. BEFORE TRUMP TAKES OFFICE AGAIN. You may not have the MEANS to organize afterwards. The major platforms online are all held by right-wingers who imagine themselves American oligarchs. They WILL turn over your identities upon request by a Trump administration. Even this one.
The Republicans have gone mask-off fascist since 2016, and they weren't meaningfully punished. Project 2025 is a direct, published by conservatives statement that they plan to end democracy and install direct autocratic rule. Even if they don't succeed at that, expect Texas and Florida to be the model of the federal government with targeted persecution of oppressed classes as a direct, OVERT point of policy. Expect direct, OVERT support for genocide of "undesirable" populations in the global south, Palestine, and pretty much everywhere else - including in 'Western' nations. Expect the defunding, privatization, and asset-stripping of all government funded social-support networks. Expect an exponential increase in violence across all right-wing political apparatuses, from the informal (militias and organized hate groups) to the local (police) to the national (military). However bad Trump was through 2020, keep in mind that he's going to be on a revenge tour and will - one way or the other - never have to be worried about getting reelected again. I mean this clearly and with as much seriousness as I can convey: people are going to DIE. People are going to be KILLED.
If you're in the United States, you need to organize resistance NOW. Whatever you're doing in support of Palestine, whoever you're talking to, whatever you're doing to build a community to protest or slow the progress of the decimation of Gaza - you need to keep it going, and prepare to need to apply those same techniques to protect indigenous/oppressed people in the United States in just over a year. Because the left looks like it isn't going to vote for Biden again, but the right is sure as shit going to vote for Trump again. And the United States, as it is today, will not survive another Trump presidency intact. You need to prepare for it like you would a natural disaster. You need to prepare for it like you would an army you know is marching in your direction.
Most people are going to pull a 1930s Germany and hunker down, comply with the demands for brutality, and hope to make it through. That means they will not act to save you, or anyone else, out of fear of being targeted. If you expect to survive without doing so, you're going to have to organize a critical mass of resistance EARLY so that you aren't relying on people to spontaneously organize while staring gun barrels in the face. The 2020 George Floyd BLM protests only happened because people had time due to the COVID shut-downs and the military officials refused Trump's orders to deploy on American soil to "bust heads." The Republican party is currently trying to hold up as many military promotions as possible so that the next Republican president gets to fill them all, to prevent a repeat of that scenario. They LEARNED from that, and will act to keep it from happening again in that way. They're going after mutual aid groups using RICO right now.
I'm serious. Get ready. Start getting ready now. If you don't wind up needing it, it will still help you to have a local organization for support. I hope that you will not need to rely upon this to save your life or the lives of those near you. But I expect this will be necessary.
GET READY.
43 notes · View notes
plethoraworldatlas · 4 months
Text
Muslim American leaders from six battleground states on Saturday vowed to mobilize their communities against President Joe Biden's reelection over his support of Israel's war in Gaza, but they have yet to settle on an alternative 2024 candidate. The states are among a handful that allowed Biden to win the 2020 election. Opposition from their sizeable Muslim and Arab American communities could complicate the president's path to Electoral College victory next year .... It remains to be seen whether Muslim voters would turn against Biden en masse, but small shifts in support could make a difference in states Biden won by narrow margins in 2020. A recent poll showed Biden's support among Arab Americans has plunged from a comfortable majority in 2020 to 17%. That could be decisive in a state like Michigan where Biden won by 2.8 percentage points and Arab Americans account for 5 percent of the vote, according to the Arab American Institute. There are around 25,000 Muslim voters in Wisconsin, a state where Biden won by about 20,000 votes, said Tarek Amin, a doctor representing the state's Muslim community.
Every state, especially major swing states and Big Democrat states, have massive immigrant communities, including Muslim and Arab/Middle Eastern immigrant communities; Biden cannot win if he goes against the explicit desire of over 80% of all democrat voters who want a ceasefire and actions towards peace and de-escalation, and he especially can't win if immigrant voters in this country might have family his supporting of war crimes have gotten killed. It's not just Muslim voters; The US has a history of meddling in other countries and supporting horrible regimes and genocides. Every immigrant voter who has family in another country has to ask themselves if Biden might support genocide that kills their family too.
Biden and the democrats as a whole Absolutely have to support first Ceasefire, then De-escalation and further actions towards peace for both moral reasons and because they simply won't win reelection if they don't.
If they actually want to keep Republicans from taking over like they plan, Democrats have to act fast.
A small number of Democrats have begun calling for Ceasefire, keep fighting to push more towards joining those calls. Make them actually listen to their voters instead of worrying about lobbying money; All the SuperPAC money won't buy them anything when it costs them the actual voters.
33 notes · View notes
racefortheironthrone · 6 months
Note
So, the right wing party here in NZ (National, with further right leaning Act as support) just won the election in a landslide victory over Labour - for someone who is unsurprised yet still disappointed and kind of worried, do you have any words of advice, encouragement or even just positive vibes?
I don't have a specific analysis to offer, because to be honest it's hard to find Aotearoa political news and I haven't been able to follow events particularly closely.
However, as a social democrat, I'm perfectly familiar with the concept of potentially dispiriting political setbacks; it sort of comes with the territory of being a social democrat. So what I can say is that people like us have been here before and have found a way to work through it until better times came, and have thought through how to get through the bad times in eloquent and meaningful ways.
My personal touchstone is the famous passage from Max Weber's "Politics as a Vocation:"
Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. It takes both passion and perspective. Certainly all historical experience confirms the truth --that man would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out for the impossible. But to do that a man must be a leader, and not only a leader but a hero as well, in a very sober sense of the word. And even those who are neither leaders nor heroes must arm themselves with that steadfastness of heart which can brave even the crumbling of all hopes. This is necessary right now, or else men will not be able to attain even that which is possible today. Only he has the calling for politics who is sure that he shall not crumble when the world from his point of view is too stupid or too base for what he wants to offer. Only he who in the face of all this can say 'In spite of all!' has the calling for politics."
27 notes · View notes
tieflingkisser · 1 month
Text
Hey AOC, is genocide a 'progressive value?'
Progressive Democratic leaders want us to be 'adults' and vote for their candidates in the US elections this November, but doing so requires us to lose our moral conscience
It's an election year in the United States. If you're one of those voters who has the temerity not to like genocide and white supremacy, you might be feeling weird about being told to vote for Democrats, even if you don't like Donald Trump. It's difficult to see how President Joe Biden and his party represent a material improvement from the previous administration. They continue to run concentration camps at our southern border, continue the policies of Trump's Muslim Ban, and enthusiastically partner with Israel to slaughter tens of thousands and displace more than a million innocent Palestinians in the past four months alone. Suppose you're worried about voting for the people supporting genocide. In that case, the most progressive Democratic officials want to assure you that there's nothing wrong with endorsing powerful leaders who commit crimes against humanity. In fact, it's the "adult" thing to do. You wouldn't want to be some weird, emotional Trump voter who has a strange, tribalistic attachment to their candidate and party, after all. "We've just got to be adults about the situation," Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a recent interview where she stumped for Biden. "I think sometimes people [think that] if you vote for someone, they have to be the embodiment of you. That's something that I think Donald Trump provided to a lot of people, where it's like if you voted for him and you were a Donald Trump person, like, it symbolised so much. But I think what we have here in this situation is a more honest thing. There are plenty of things that the president does that I completely disagree with," she continued. Ocasio-Cortez doubled down on her support for Biden, despite his carrying out what she says are unacceptable atrocities. Speaking with CNN's Jake Tapper on 13 February, the congresswoman said the choice to vote for Biden - even as he commits genocide - is an easy one. "And what I know is who I'm going to choose is going to be one of the most successful presidents in modern American history," she said. "I think we need to be very, very realistic about the grave impact of a Donald Trump election…It is not a game. We need to protect our democracy and, ideally, it's going to be on progressive values." With her effusive praise and meritless assertions, Democrats like Ocasio-Cortez are asking voters for a near pathological level of hastily resolving cognitive dissonance. If it is easy for her to support Biden, that's fine and well, but to then make the jump to call Biden a historically successful leader is downright propaganda. Ocasio-Cortez is speaking to progressive voters when she describes and derides Republican voters as having some inappropriate psychological need to feel represented by…their representatives. What she is demanding from voters instead is that we jump through an at least equally psychologically complicated set of hoops to vote for Biden and her colleagues.
[keep reading]
13 notes · View notes
deadpresidents · 7 months
Note
Do you think Biden would have beaten Trump had he run in 2016? I know Biden stepped aside because because of his son, but it also seems likely he stepped aside for Clinton.
Yes, I do think that Biden would have beaten Trump in 2016. I don't know how Biden would have handled a campaign at that time with the death of his son having taken place much more recently, but if he could have emotionally handled the rigors of a full-on Presidential campaign at that time, I think he would have beaten Trump in the general election.
The question to me is whether or not Biden could have won the Democratic nomination in 2016 if he had run against Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Obviously, Biden was younger at the time than he is now and still a much better retail campaigner than Hillary ever was, but I don't know if a Biden campaign in 2016 would have had the same energy as the Sanders campaign that year -- either from the grassroots or from the top-down. It would have been a much different campaign than 2020, as well, because that one took place during the pandemic and Biden was able to run against an historically unpopular incumbent in the midst of botching the worst public health crisis that every voter in America had ever lived through.
The other big question if Biden had run in 2016 is the role of Barack Obama. In 2016, Biden was the incumbent Vice President, finishing his second term of a partnership with President Obama that ended up being one of the closest personal and political relationships that a President and Vice President ever had. But it is no secret that President Obama did not believe that then-Vice President Biden was the best choice to succeed him. Biden's emotional well-being after the death of his son in May 2015 certainly worried Obama, but in books and reporting since that time, it's been apparent that Obama believed that Hillary Clinton made more sense as his successor in 2016 than Biden for a number of reasons. That ultimately resulted in some hurt feelings on the Biden side at the time when Obama seemed to be urging Biden to step aside in 2016 while the Vice President was still considering a potential run. It never impacted Biden's loyalty to the Obama Administration or truly got personal, but it was especially troubling to Biden because he still had not made a final decision about a potential 2016 campaign and one of Beau Biden's dying wishes was that his father would run for President. Obama never directly discouraged Biden from running in 2016; he thought that Biden earned the right to make his own decision about the race, but he was worried about Biden's emotional state in the wake of Beau's recent death, he worried that Biden wasn't the right candidate to defeat Hillary or Bernie for the nomination, and he worried that a potential Biden loss -- either in the primaries or the general election -- would tarnish Biden's overall political legacy and possibly come across as a repudiation of the Obama Administration eight years in the White House.
Of course, Trump's victory over Hillary in 2016 gave Obama's successor the opportunity to immediately start reversing many of Obama's accomplishments and reset the hope and change represented by Obama's successful 2008 campaign. And the irony is that the crucial, traditionally-Democratic blue-collar voters that Hillary Clinton's campaign tended to overlook in 2016 are the same voters that Biden has spent a significant portion of his political career representing and connecting with. So in 2016, Trump won battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Ohio that Obama had won in both 2008 and 2012. Without those states in 2016, Trump wouldn't have defeated Hillary Clinton, and when Biden did run against Trump in 2020, his victories in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania (Trump once again won Ohio and Iowa) were crucial in the Electoral College.
29 notes · View notes
Text
If you need another reason to vote:
Last week (September 13th, 2022), Senator Lindsay Graham introduced a bill that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
While Republican members of congress are hesitant to endorse said bill, the vibe is mostly that they're worried it'll affect midterms.
This is not good! While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has claimed he believes abortion laws should be left to the states, he'll likely be the one deciding if this abortion ban goes to vote in Congress. We have no idea if he'll refuse to bring this bill to the voting floor.
Other Republicans have stayed quiet about whether or not they'd support a federal abortion ban. Republicans that initially had a staunch anti-abortion stance are now back-tracking saying they're against all abortion except those that threaten the life of the pregnant person, cases of rape, or cases of incest.
Pretty much every Republican is repeating this line, suggesting that this is a decision to win over voters, not their actual beliefs.
What's most likely going to happen is Republicans are going to denounce Graham's bill until abortion is no longer as widely talked about as it is now.
And if they have majorities in both the House and Senate, they can pass this bill before any of us can even do anything.
So what can we do?
Right now, we need to vote, vote, vote.
Here's a list of all the voter registration deadlines by state. Many states require you to register to vote 3-4 weeks before election day. That means you'll need to register to vote by the beginning of October.
If you will be 18 by election day, you can register to vote!!!!
This is the case in pretty much every state, but check the above link to see your state's laws.
Vote.org is a great resource to register to vote, view your registration status, send in a mail ballot, find drop-box locations or your polling place, and even get a breakdown of voting laws in your country.
They also have a countdown timer to election day and will send you election day reminders by text if you opt in.
But Dems don't Do anything! Why should I vote for them?
Look, I see you and I completely understand your anger and pain. When democrats suddenly started introducing abortion protections after Roe was overturned, I was pissed. I even stopped donating to the DNC (and I still haven't donated since). I didn't want to hear about their anger and sadness at this shocking turn of events.
But doing nothing is just going to ensure Conservatives win elections again and again. The more democrats there are in office, the more progressive legislation can be introduced.
So organize your protests and take to the streets. Protesting is just as valuable a source of change as voting.
But don't just stop voting altogether.
What if I can't get to the polls?
If your state allows absentee voting, you can request a mail ballot here.
If you don't have a car and need to vote in person, RideShare2Vote offers free round trip rides to polling locations on election day. You can even volunteer to be a driver on election day if you have your own car.
If you have to work on election day, check here to see if your state has time off to vote laws. Some states require advance notice of an intention to vote and may even provide PTO for a few hours while you're voting. Again. This varies by state, so use the handy drop-down menu to see the laws in your state. Some states will fine or even revoke a company's corporate charter if they deny an employee the right to vote, so use your rights, dammit!
Also consider speaking with your manager or employer to see if you can arrange your work schedule so you have time to vote. You just need to be in line before the polls close, whether that's a minute or an hour before. You have the right to vote even if the polls close while you're in line. Anyone who tries to deny you the right to vote despite this is committing a serious crime.
The best advice I can give is to make a plan now! If you have your transportation and time off from work planned, you'll be able to vote with a little less stress.
What if I'm disabled and have trouble voting?
According to NPR, "83% of polling places posed at least one impediment for voters with disabilities". A little less than 40% of polling locations aren't equipped to let disabled people cast their votes privately (y'know. One of the core rights citizens have?).
If you're unsure whether or not your polling place is accessible, or if you've had trouble voting in the past, find your polling place and local election office, and contact your election office. They may be able to let you vote curbside, or mail in a ballot. This can vary by location so finding this out in advance can be helpful.
Remember, it's your right to vote. If you're having trouble with accessibility at a polling place, contact your election office so you can receive accommodations.
You should also know that you have the right to use any equipment to help you vote, even if it hasn't been offered to you. So make those requests if you're voting at a machine or in-person. And make sure you take your time. If you feel rushed, remind the poll workers that voting is a right everyone is reserved, regardless of how convenient it is for others.
If you need assistance while voting, you're allowed to bring one person with you. They can be anyone except a union rep or your boss. Poll workers are also required to assist you if you're struggling to vote.
Poll workers may question your ability or right to vote if you have a mental disability. This is absolutely disgusting and if this happens, stand firm. If your name is on the roster, you can vote, regardless of the poll worker's opinions on the matter.
But unfortunately, you might need to receive legal advice on your rights while voting. Check the National Disability Rights Network to find an agency near you that can assist you.
If you're already at the polls and you're experiencing trouble, call 866-OUR-VOTE for on-demand legal help from a lawyer. If you need assistance and you're deaf or hard of hearing, there's a video call option if you call 301-818-VOTE
But what if I can't wait in a long line due to my disability?
Fun fact! If you have a disability that makes it difficult or impossible to stand in long lines, you have the right to be moved to the front of the line. And don't be embarrassed if you have to ask for this accommodation. Your personal health is important and you don't have to sacrifice it just to vote.
If the polling location is just not accessible, call your local election office or speak with the poll supervisor. It doesn't matter if it takes 5 minutes or 8 hours for you to vote, you have the right to cast your ballot, even if the polls close, so don't. Leave!
Below is a list of sources I used in this post along with voting resources linked above. I figure it would be easier to put them in one place rather than only scattered through the post:
Lindsay Graham introduces abortion ban
Republican reactions to Graham's bill
Voter Registration Deadlines
When Can You Register to Vote?
Request a mail ballot
Time Off to Vote laws
What if the polls close while I'm in line?
Voting with a disability
Polling place locator
Find your local election office
Disability Rights Network
Election protection hotline: 866-OUR-VOTE
Video-call hotline: 301-818-VOTE
161 notes · View notes
dappercritter · 8 days
Text
I reblog a lot of political posts on here so I guess it's only natural I'd make one myself at some point. Anyways... (*deep breath*)
While Genocide Joe absolutely deserve to have his approval ratings plummet for ongoing support of the IDF's brutal invasion of Gaza, I worry about what this means for the elections this year.
I worry about how many people realize that refusing to vote blue at all in November to protest a genocide could lead to another one in their own country over an angrier Trump.
Palestinian lives matter, do not get me wrong. Do not stop talking about Palestine. But we all know Trump's not going to fix it. He's going to endorse it.
Just like how he'll endorse America becoming its worst possible self at this point.
I don't know if it will get as bad as Gaza, but I know that I have a lot of friends who mean so much to me that could be put in serious danger if the government doubles down on rolling back basic human rights. Especially internet privacy and protection for queer people.
I know it's sickening to see another POTUS endorse another attack on an Arab country with all the horrific casualties it entails, but listen.
I watched the last one endorse turning the country into a living nightmare with influence still felt today, wondering if my friends--my only real friends at the time--would make it if he got another term.
It's not a perfect solution I know. But unless you guys are ready to storm the White House for different reasons this year, and you have a plan to keep this kind of scenario from ever happening again, you need to vote in the Democrat primaries and/or vote Democrat in the November elections.
And yes,
Palestine still matters.
But so does the trans community.
So does the gay community.
So does the ace community.
So does the black community.
So does America's own muslim and arab communities.
So does every community living in America under threat.
7 notes · View notes
gentil-minou · 3 months
Note
hi! I hope you’re doing ok! I’ve never written an ask before so I have no idea how to do this, but you’re one of the only people I follow who is posting about Palestine, so I wanted to ask. And as a brown person I’m really worried rn.
Elections are next year and I’ve seen so many saying that people should vote for Biden because he’s at least better than Trump which is… I don’t know what to say, but it’s completely absurd. This is going to be my first time voting and all I get from people is the same “lesser of two evils” rhetoric. It’s genuinely disheartening to see that these are the only options that are shown to people. I was wondering about what you think of what’s happening, and whether voting third party seems possible
I’m sorry if this was rude to ask you, but thanks for taking the time to read this!
It's not rude, I'm glad I made you feel safe enough to ask this!
I only have one answer for you: Do not let anyone tell you who to vote for or make you feel like an evil person if you choose not to vote for the person they want you to.
Vote, definitely vote!!! Especially in local elections, those are the best ways to get people you want in power and they are in charge of a lot of important changes.
As for the presidential elections, I've had so many people I thought I admired or at least felt comfortable around attack me for my choice not to vote for Biden. I've had people claim I was spreading "pro-Trump propaganda" (which is just ridiculously bad faith in all ways), tell me that I—a queer POC—am anti-LGBTQ, and tell me I'll be deported.
They do this all while ignoring and invalidating the very real anger and hurt the Muslim and Brown populations of the US are dealing with, all because their comfort is being threatened. And instead of pressuring the party that's doing that harm and try to listen to why we feel so betrayed by Biden, they double down and attack us. In fact, they are showing their true colors. They, like Biden, only ever pretended to care about us. So I am going to vote for people who actually do care about me, even if they say I'm going to "waste my vote"
Here's the thing; as long as you vote for who you feel the most supported by, as long as you go into that voting booth and step out feeling good about your vote, then you are not wasting it.
Putting this under a read more cause it's getting long
Personally, I'm voting third party. I've had my eye on the Socialist Party but am also keeping an eye out for the others and whether or not they stand out to me
At this point, unless the DNC decides to put another candidate forward, which they most definitely won't, the Democratic party has lost me forever. I'm lucky that my Dem representative has at least shown they're on the right side of history, but I don't think I will ever vote for the Dem party again. I've forced myself to do it for the last decade and I've been disappointed or betrayed every time, so no more.
I agree this two party system is a joke and we are all being made to be a part of it when no other democratic nation has something like this. Even other countries say our "progressive" party is just centrist. And that just doesn't reflect my values.
Liberals and "vote blue no matter who" are going to tell you that you're wasting your vote by voting third party, but in actuality they are the ones supporting a flawed system that only benefits itself, not the people. The more people who vote third party, the more the dems will be pressured to put forth progressive candidates like AOC or Rashida who are actually on the left. By voting third party, you are saying you won't stand by a broken system any longer
does this mean Republicans might win and we get another trump administration? Yes, probably, but here's the thing: when you look at the last 3 years, and I mean really look at it, have things improved all that much under biden? I, as a queer poc can't say that it has. Both are evil, one just pretends not to be. At this point I see no difference between Trump and Biden. Both don't give a shit about me.
The lesser of 2 evils is still evil, why vote for them? Why would I vote for either of them?
Why would I reward anyone who support genocide and cheers for it? Both Trump and Biden openly do. Their only difference is Biden is a better actor.
If my people were the ones being slaughtered (and they were. For a long long time they were), would I be okay with sitting back and letting these parties walk all over me? No, I don't think I would be.
The fact of the matter is that change does not come fast or easy. These things take time and pressure and a refusal to give in. Voting for Biden after all the horrible things he's done the past couple years is just rewarding a system that is fundamentally broken. You can keep trying to chug along on a broken wheel hurtling you towards doom, or you can take the time to force it to change.
I do believe the younger vote has a big chance to change things, to pressure our government to actually support its people, not just the white ones with money.
Ultimately you get to decide who to vote for. Use your right to vote, don't ignore it and don't waste it by voting for someone you don't actually believe in.
10 notes · View notes