claim 1: “voting doesn’t change anything”

Never forget the recent case of Kris Mayes, who refuses to uphold the Arizona supreme court’s sweeping ban of abortion.

Kris Mayes only won her 2022 election by 280 votes. Voting changes things.

claim 2: “but genocide joe”

Yep. Hold that fucker’s feet to the fire. He has blood on his hands

But trump has promised to be indisputably worse.

I won’t tell you how to vote. I just encourage you to vote. You’re not radical for ditching the only miniscule right the state has granted you to do some small aid for your neighbors.

  • Eldritch@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    7 months ago

    The party leadership is allowed to decide where their funding will go and where it won’t. And them not putting it towards a particular candidate does not mean they support the opposition. That they gave her funding in the first place even points to the opposite of that. And your conclusion is extremely disingenuous.

    Make no mistake I have no love for neoliberals, democrats, or the party leadership. And it’s great that this one person ran. But up and down the ballot in my state and city there are Republicans running unopposed. We need to be able to point to many more than one single instance. And as you said we need to be prepared to help with alternate funding. Because the Democratic party cannot be relied on to any grrat extent. Which is the whole point of us getting people younger and better to run ourselves and not waiting for them to do it. Because we know their judgment is flawed. I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make but you only really supported my point.

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      7 months ago

      The party leadership is allowed to decide where their funding will go and where it won’t.

      And they decided to spend their money on ad buys for maga candidates and to pull the rug out from under progressives. Which is why the party can get all the way fucked when it asks for my money. They’ll just waste it on maga chuds.

      And them not putting it towards a particular candidate does not mean they support the opposition.

      Their funding of the opposition indicates that.

      And it’s great that this one person ran.

      Yeah, she makes a great object lesson for what happens when you run and aren’t MAGA-adjacent enough for the party’s liking.

      But up and down the ballot in my state and city there are Republicans running unopposed.

      Wonder if that has anything to do with progressives not being able to count on support of the Democratic Party.

      Because we know their judgment is flawed.

      Their judgement is sound; they just prefer maga candidates to progressives.

      • Eldritch@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        7 months ago

        And they decided to spend their money on ad buys for maga candidates and to pull the rug out from under progressives. Which is why the party can get all the way fucked when it asks for my money. They’ll just waste it on maga chuds.

        There’s no proof of that. That is a hyperbolic and absurd claim. Have they strategically propped up and pushed for bad Republican candidates before? Yes. Not because they support them. But because they are generally so weak they think it’s some sort of viable strategy to defeat Republicans. It’s backfired soundly on them and they haven’t learned. Claiming that they actually “support” them is absurd however. You’re literally claiming that they wanted Trump to win in 2016 over hillary. Because they prompt him up early on. When clearly that isn’t the case.

        Wonder if that has anything to do with progressives not being able to count on support of the Democratic Party.

        No. It’s another bad Democrat strategy where they focus almost solely on the national level. And largely ignore state offices and legislatures. Its been that way at least 20 years. If you’re old enough to remember.

        Their judgement is sound; they just prefer maga candidates to progressives.

        No. It’s still an absurd, hyperbolic, and unsupported claim. I’m not arguing that the Democrat leadership hasn’t behaved stupidly. There’s more evidence that they have than of most other things in life. But they’re not trying to get the magats in office. They’ve always intended to beat them. But the morons legitimately don’t know how to do that reliably.

        • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          7 months ago

          We’re looking at the same set of events. You’re calling it incompetence. I’m calling it malice. If it were just incompetence, you’d think at least once the party would bumble into looking like they had their thumbs on the scale for progressives.

          • Eldritch@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            7 months ago

            They have multiple times. Whether it’s the chips act, the NLRB decision or some of the more recent ones. Some of the stuff in this list is pretty specious but it’s a pretty decent list. And it’s not as long as it should be. But it’s definitely not nothing.

            Democrats are absolutely incompetent. There’s no question. But if you think they’re actively pushing to get magats elected. You make the people thinking there was a child sex dungeon in the basement of a pizza parlor with no basement seem slightly more sane.

            • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              7 months ago

              Some of the stuff in this list is pretty specious but it’s a pretty decent list.

              Oh cool. The list that counts changing the color scheme on a plane as an accomplishment.

              Democrats are absolutely incompetent. There’s no question. But if you think they’re actively pushing to get magats elected.

              They’re paying for their ads and starving progressives of funds.

              • Eldritch@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                7 months ago

                Oh cool. The list that counts changing the color scheme on a plane as an accomplishment.

                I literally told you that some of them weren’t really valid. And that’s your best reply. The Chips act, NLRB decision, the debt relief, and recent FTC decisions. They’re HUGE. And the fact you can’t engage and act maturely like an adult. Just shows how disingenuous you’re being.

                They’re paying for their ads and starving progressives of funds.

                And? Lay out the conspiracy gymnastics to go from that to literally supporting Republican candidates with intent of getting them elected. Is this being orchestrated by the Bilderbergs, the lizard people, maybe the greys? Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained with incompetence. Though in your case it may be both.

                • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  7 months ago

                  And? Lay out the conspiracy gymnastics to go from that to literally supporting Republican candidates with intent of getting them elected.

                  You want me to prove intent?

                  Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained with incompetence.

                  I do not believe that this can be adequately explained by incompetence. Democrats’ “incompetence” only benefits candidates to the right of progressives.

                  • Eldritch@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    arrow-down
                    3
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    7 months ago

                    I do not believe that this can be adequately explained by incompetence. Democrats’ “incompetence” only benefits candidates to the right of progressives.

                    That’s a consequence of a century of encroaching fascism and heavy right-wing framing. From the 1950s Red Scare all the way through today. Including Reagan’s terrorist assaults. It’s easily explained by Propaganda and incompetence.

                    You’re young passionate and uninformed. I’m not going to hold that against you. Because that’s how we all tend to start out. And the first two are solid assets. However a failure to engage with the facts. An employee reasoning and understanding to learn. Could be something that people will hold against you in the future.

                    Take it from someone who’s old enough to remember when drills telling you to hide under your desk to Shield you from an atomic blast were commonplace. Ignorance, incompetence and propaganda ran rampant. And you aren’t immune.

    • Krono@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      The Democratic Party gets to choose, and they consistantly choose conservatives over progressives.

      We, the voters, dont get to choose. We are forced to Vote Blue No Matter Who.

      • Eldritch@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        7 months ago

        That’s why it’s equally as important as voting. To replace the candidates the current Democratic batch prefer and fun with ones that we prefer. If we do it and keep at it eventually enough of the establishment will be replaced that they will have to rely on the support of the candidates we like. Who will then move up in the party ranks till eventually they’re in control of the party. Need to remind you that in the middle of the 20th century the Democratic Party was a fairly large League bigoted racist party. The Republican party was and still is. But the point is the Democrats changed. And they can be changed again. But we need to push candidates on them.

        That’s something that really hasn’t been done in the last half century.

        • Krono@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          7 months ago

          What do you mean it hasn’t been done? There have been many progressive challengers to DNC-backed neoliberals. I can tell you about my experience volunteering for a few of these campaigns and all the structural hurdles the DNC uses to crush the progressive wing of the party.

          But I think the bigger issue is urgency. We can’t afford to wait a generation before taking serious action on climate change. Our current path leads directly to the end of human civilization.

          And for the families in North Gaza eating grass to survive, they cannot wait until the next election cycle.

          • Eldritch@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            7 months ago

            There are vasts swaths of offices here in red states where republicans run unopposed. Yeah if you primary democrats chosen candidates they will do everything they can to support them. To counter that. You need good name recognition, reputation and pedigree. From holding these lower often seen as less important offices democrats ignore and progressive candidates don’t run for.

            The problem is everyone tends to try to primary for higher level offices. Federal level etc. And that’s the problem. Replace the base and the top will eventually follow. Go for the empty offices. I vote on almost every ballot that comes up here. I leave a bunch of it blank because my only options are open republican fascists or closeted right wing libertarian fascists. I would love to see DSA candidates, green Party Candidates etc. I’m happy you’re primarying them for some of the few offices they decide to pursue. That is unfortunately largely a waste of resources and effort. But still important. But there are thousands of offices they don’t run for actively. That instead of clashing with a chosen candidate and causing both parties to waste more resources. Could probably find you being amicably supported by the larger party for having the initiative.

            • Krono@lemmy.today
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              7 months ago

              From my experience the problem isn’t reputation or pedigree, its DNC-created problems. Progressive challengers have a hard time doing basic things like printing flyers, because print shops know that if they work with a progressive challenger once theny they end up on the DNC blacklist. Its official DNC policy and it’s super effective.

              I too would love to see more DSA backed candidates running for lower offices, but from what I’ve seen it’s not a question of tactics, it’s a question of resources. Most modern politics is funded by corporate donors, and since the DSA does not accept this corruption, they simply dont have the money to run a candidate for dogcatcher in your flyover town.

              Where I live in a populous blue state, there is no such thing as a republican running unopposed. If that’s different where you live, then you should sign up to be the next DSA candidate running for one of those seats.

      • Woozythebear@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        7 months ago

        No one is forcing you to vote blue no matter who. Democracy is withholding your vote if your voice isn’t being heard.

        • Krono@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          7 months ago

          Maybe I’m an idealist, but I think democracy is when your views are represented and government is responsive to the needs of the people.

          “Democracy is when you don’t vote” just doesn’t make sense to me.