Cross-posted from "if the entire population just acted in a way they’ve never acted before..." by @Wheaties@hexbear.net in !chapotraphouse@hexbear.net
furryprovocateur:
literally why is gerrymandering legal. why is america the stupid idiot country.
ndiamichelle:
This could be counterproductive if people actually vote. Everywhere. We can blame the system and politicians all we want but if people don’t get off their ass to vote correctly or just vote in general that would probably solve a good chunk of our problems.
furryprovocateur:
enthralled at the interpretation of the world you have. the best way to vote out a system that exists to suppress votes and bottleneck specific populations from being heard is to vote harder. tell me more.
toloveviceforitself:
There’s a certain kind of democrat whose whole politics is basically “if the entire population just acted in a way they’ve never acted before on a level that borders on the miraculous, we could win without changing anything else about how democrats govern or campaign!” and they think that’s not only a useful insight, but a good justification for rejecting literally any alteration of their ideology, their strategy, or even suggestions that (on the occasions they have power) they alter the rigged system that requires such miracles in the first place.
Sure, but places like Australia with mandatory voting shows that forcing increased participation doesn't solve or really improve things. You would need to create conditions where a leftist/progressive politics could actually push forward a real policy after getting elected. But even that is hardly possible except under extreme catastrophe or duress in a capitalist system. The causality is that the major parties being undemocratic and out of step with the nation creates low voter turnout rather than the other way around.
Sooo... blaming the population for not participating in a fundamentally anti-democratic system didn't magically turn the fundamentally anti-democratic system into something democratic?
Colour me surprised.
yeah mandatory voting is not the solution. the argument that change must come from below has some merit, but in a climate of voter suppression it's not a useful one.
Yeah, the point is that there needs to be some material or structural change that would buy people into a movement and motivate them to focus their efforts into some political project. Not that chiding individuals online, hoping people spontaneously thought and acted different or just getting more people to vote would magically fix things.