this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
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Lol, you're the one saying "fuck those people who are so smug, not voting for the democrats, even if they support genocide; those people just want to watch the world burn" ... Why are you "sir this is a Wendys"ing me??
I'm serious though, what is the incremental positive change you're talking about here? I want incremental progress. I want a solution to be a part of. I just think it's delusional to think that the democrats as they are are a solution.
I'm from CT; CT was never going to send delegates to vote for trump. All my vote would do is affirm that one more person is comfortable enough with the democrats ongoing support for the genocide of palestinians to vote for them. I'm never going to regret not voting for funding genocide.
You can engage in strategic voting as you see fit, I'm being strategic too. I'm withholding my vote, and I'm not the only one. The Democrats have gotten a pretty clear signal on this: Dearborn Michigan was a sore loss for them and it was lost because arab and muslim democrats simply didn't show up to vote for harris due to her continued support for the genocide of palestinians (will they do anything about it, I don't know. it seems they're trying to suppress their own post-mortem on this https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/18/democrats-2024-election-autopsy - my guess is they'll stick to their usual "how can we be as far right as possible while still picking up just enough votes to beat the republicans?").
And hey, that you're canadian provides an opportunity to show what I mean. Carney won in a landslide...you're sure you couldn't have done more good by staying home or voting NDP or green or whatever and making the liberals bite their nails a little harder? make them think that they actually should be more progressive? Like...the right-winger lost his seat (great, hilarious), and the NDP lost so hard they lost their full status or something, right? Fair enough if you live in a place that it was a close race with the conservatives, but if not, I'm not sure your vote for carney was really all that strategic. Or maybe there's something there I don't understand, please feel free to let me know if that's a terrible example for some reason.
I voted Carney. I'm not the person you're replying to, but I think standing clearly against the principles of the Conservatives was what was most important. I think that's the clearest message and an important one to send at the time.
Fair; I don't have a finger on the pulse in Canada, if there's a risk that the principles of the conservatives are eclipsing human decency in prevalence, then send your message! In the US, Donald trump got fewer votes in 2024 than he did in 2020; he's less popular. I expect you'd send the same message by voting for whoever you want to vote for (assuming you'd prefer to vote NDP or Green or whatever), but again, I'm not trying to shame anybody for voting for democrats. If you're not a fascist, vote your heart out for whatever reason you like. That's great. Of course I hope the democrats change, but if they don't change, the best result of that would be they win by the skin of their teeth and are terrified enough that they may change next time.
I just object to being told I'm a bad person for having any standards whatsoever that would stop me from voting for someone (not supporting genocide is a pretty low bar to clear and democrats are lying on the floor to smash their face into it).
But you are bad if you don't vote for the better candidate because it is helping the worse candidate win and implement their bad policies. that you would prefer a candidate to win given the options, not voting for them is kinda stupid too. I understand that in many states, you feel that it's a forgone conclusion and your protest vote doesn't make a difference or something. But if your vote doesn't matter, then your protest vote doesn't matter either. You just weaken the vote and the popular vote totals which is dangerous in these times with trump doing everything he can to invalidate voting blocks that will vote against him. And more importantly, pushing the narrative that the better candidate is evil will discourage other voters who do matter a lot. The time for pushing the progressive angle is the primaries. If you can't move the dial much there then making a fuss during the election will only weaken the chance at 'better'. If the Dems then get control, then push again.
I disagree that a non-vote in a solid blue state doesn't matter. The democrats lost the popular vote. That's NEVER happened. Nobody turned up. If the Democrats don't see that that's a problem they're morons and they're too conniving to be morons.
Okay, I slept on it, and I think this may help explain why I think it's ludicrous to blame individual voters for not choosing the "lesser of two evils" when each of the "evils" is itself a moral agent. I'm sure you'll find this analogy doesn't fit your mental model, but it fits mine very well so if you're trying to understand where folks like me are coming from (and I think you are), see if you can try it on for size.
Sophie has two children, Eva (8) and Jan (11), with the same life-expectancy. Eva is a sweet child, very kind. Jan's a brat...a bit of a jerk, with a cruel streak. Anyway, two Nazis with guns are arguing "I am Ralph and I wish to kill your younger daughter. This is Dirk and he wishes to kill your older boy. You may choose!" Sophie chooses for Ralph to kill Eva, or Sophie refuses to choose and Ralph loses patience before Dirk and, kills Eva. Later, the hand-wringing liberals berate Sophie for not choosing to have the older daughter killed "Jan is a worse person and has five fewer years left to live, Sophie! It's OBVIOUSLY the worse choice. Why would you choose R? How COULD you? I hope you live with that for the rest of your days! If you had chosen D instead, things would have been better."
Does that illustrate my point? It's obviously the nazis that are to blame. If either of them was decent they'd die trying to kill as many on their own side as possible, or at the very least fuck off and leave everyone alone. Blaming Sophie is absurd whether she chose or didn't choose. The hand-wringing liberals are probably right, Jan is probably a shithead (hearing his mom acquiesce to the murder of his sister probably won't have helped), and voting D probably would have been a bit better. But like...shut the fuck up, hand-wringing liberals? Maybe no children needed to be murdered, actually, and maybe Sophie's choice is not something to focus on here?