Unpopular opinion. When it comes to electoral politics, that centrist is right. Voting won't fix anything. Only better candidates and parties will. That is, of course, outside of some sort of revolution or cultural awakening. And if that's your plan, shit or get off the pot.

The general election is absolutely the wrong time to protest vote.The right time to protest vote is in the primary. The primary is the wrong time to think about running. The right time to think about running is all the years before the primary. All things many actually on the left struggle to achieve. And then being incensed when a party that doesn't represent you doesn't represent you. Who could have known?

We're good about protesting on the left. Perhaps to a fault. But outside maybe the DSA. We suck at getting people we would want to vote for, in organizations that stand a chance of winning. You can't effectively elect someone who wants to represent you if there's no one capable of winning that wants to. And it isn't a catch 22. Collectively a lot are sleeping on basic actions we should be taking.

Forget third parties till we reform the voting system. They think we are cuckoo. Maybe we should start acting like cuckoos. Maybe we should stop being the ones being cucked, supporting and raising politicians that don't represent us. And start doing the cucking ourselves. Like the DSA. Put people we want to vote for in any major party primary we can. Yes, even Republican. Till then they aren't going to represent us if they don't have to.