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This is why the rhetoric around "The dems are unsalvageable. Elections will never save us" is so destructive. It discourages people from participating in the democratic processes in the first place.
The very people who need to participate in it more in order for the system to work in our favor are the ones who are most likely to be dissuaded by this line of thinking. Of course democracy won't work for us if we refuse to vote. That's kind of how it works.
If a progressive had run in that district's primary, they might have won the nomination and this seat's general election could be a completely different story. Of course that would also require progressive voters to show up and vote in the primaries.
So the "don't bother voting" crowd does twofold harm: they discourage progressives from running, and they discourage progressives from voting.
We made our bed and now we have to sleep in it
I think you're overstating the prevalence and influence of "don't bother voting". This feels more like trying to misplace blame on your fellow socialist who don't believe in "electorialism" instead of blaming plutocrats and propaganda and the ideology of greed and individualism. Or blaming the party that had Harris run.
There is a real danger in this heated rhetoric about voting. Like if you just vote harder it will work out this time. We must resist that lie. And don't be surprised about some trolling if you try to sell that lie to a bunch of gnarly socialists. Imagine someone came to your house and told you something like "Yes, Trump is a bit bad, but he is with the angels and the power of religious faith surrounds him on all sides and just believing in Christ and praying will lead to an untold utopia!" I mean what would you say to such nonsense?
But I don't think it actually discourages a single progressive from running if they want to. Which means having to play a corrupt game if you want to actually gain power and rise to the top.
If you want to actually do something I recommend some autonomous action.
Roughly a third of eligible voters abstained from voting in 2024. And you want me to pretend that for months leading up to it, the internet wasn't flooded with self-proclaimed leftists screaming about how they won't cast a vote and you shouldn't either?
Plutocrats and propaganda are certainly to blame. And if you think they don't infiltrate leftist spaces on the internet to astroturf their agenda by posing as leftists, then their propaganda is working.
Your entire second paragraph is disingenuous so I'm not going to bother. Comparing voting to door-to-door evangelism and prayer? Really?
You don't?
Okay fed.
Their second paragraph is literally how the political opposition supporting Trump approaches their politics.
Not bothering with a reality you do not wish to contend with is very on-brand here. Almost too much so.
And ~~you're~~ they're inserting that into this conversation as if it's relevant to what we're discussing, and then acting like I'm refusing to confront the reality of it when in fact all I'm doing is refusing to follow a red herring.
Hence, it's disingenuous ~~and therefore very on-brand for you~~.
Edit: just realized you're a different commenter
It's all a public conversation, which is the point. Unless you delete or edit yourself, it gets to stand publicly for scrutiny.
That's fine, I don't see how that changes anything. It still wasn't relevant to the conversation and doesn't say anything about the stance I was actually taking. So I didn't bother responding to it, because it was a red herring.
I could randomly say "Killing babies is evil", but that doesn't automatically mean that you support infanticide. And if you decide it's not worth your time to say "Duh" then I'm not going to be like "Aha! Now it stands publicly for scrutiny are you sure you don't want to delete or edit your comment?"
That's honestly kinda batshit
Shout out to the Palestine protest voters
I'm sure the Palestinians in Gaza are so glad that Kamala Harris didn't get elected... 🙄
Shout out to Schumer who said we would get 3x the votes from the GOP never trumpers by rejecting the left flank of the party.