Well I agree it should be easier. Mail-in ballots should be universally available, for starters. And, as I have stated, I’m complaining about people who are choosing not to vote. I’m not complaining about people for whom oppressive tactics are being actively engaged to prevent them from voting even though they are trying to. Those of us who aren’t being targeted have even more responsibility to show up and vote, to get more representatives who will fight to protect voting rights.
I’m complaining about people who are choosing not to vote.
This makes as much sense to me as complaining about people who “choose” to become gambling addicts or who “choose” to become homeless or who “choose” to engage in self harm, it just doesn’t work like that. If people are “choosing” not to participate in your democracy either there’s a problem with your democracy or they’re in some kind of self destructive pattern that is almost certainly not going to be improved by criticism.
Moreover, how we define our problems leads directly to the sorts of solutions we end up with. If the problem is bad leaders, we can replace those leaders, and if it’s a bad system we fix that system, but if the problem is that many of our voters are bad people that starts suggesting the best solution is we just stop trying to involve them in the process and just ditch the whole democracy thing altogether, and that’s something I oppose almost as much as I oppose fascism/supremacist movements/genocide.
I am probably a bit too absolutist on this, but I really do think there’s a slippery slope from “some eligible voters suck” to “democracy sucks” that I don’t want to go down, so I really don’t think we can go beyond “Republican voters suck”, and I’m only willing to indulge in that kind of thing because they’ve been flogging the southern strategy (which is and always was fascism) for like 5+ decades and if we don’t destroy that political party they will destroy us, but even then I think it’s a real shame things have gotten to this point.
This makes as much sense to me as complaining about people who “choose” to become gambling addicts or who “choose” to become homeless or who “choose” to engage in self harm, it just doesn’t work like that.
I can’t think of a single person I know who was disenfranchised out of voting. But I know multiple people who simply choose not to. The two most common reasons are “my vote doesn’t matter” and “none of the candidates represent my principles.” That is why I emphasize things like AOC and Mamdani, where the established campaigned hard against them but the voters turned up and beat the establishment. And why I point out that people can turn in a ballot with races left unselected as a way to protest the candidates while still being counted. And I emphasize doing so in the primaries, because that is when we are most able to take such a principled vote just to select the best candidate to nominate. Seriously, 2024 primaries, no state reached 40% turnout.
So 60% of the eligible voters sat out and didn’t bother with any of the downstream races for US Senators, US House Representatives, State legislators, Governors, Lieutenant Governors, Attorneys General, judges (in Texas), city councils, school boards, etc. And then they say they’re not voting in the election because the candidates suck. Well fuck me my dudes, you had a chance to speak and you didn’t!
But even with that low turnout, like 4% of the Democratic ballots cast had “Uncommitted” for the presidential race. and that received massive news coverage, leading to [I believe] the first time a sitting President dropped out of the election after winning the primary (yes I know, no real challengers ran in the primaries). So it’s an excellent talking point to slap down in front of people who say their vote doesn’t matter or they don’t like the candidates. If we could get primaries up to the same turnout as the actual election, and all those previously non-voting ballots were “Uncommitted.” There’s no way that wouldn’t have a massive response in the candidates.
If people are “choosing” not to participate in your democracy either there’s a problem with your democracy
There is definitely many things wrong with our democracy.
they’re in some kind of self destructive pattern that is almost certainly not going to be improved by criticism.
That is why I try to be clear that I am only taking issue with people who are eligible to vote and are freely and deliberately choosing not to. Minorities who are being disenfrachised, people who have health issues (mental or physical), they need the rest of us to step up and defend their rights.
Moreover, how we define our problems leads directly to the sorts of solutions we end up with. If the problem is bad leaders, we can replace those leaders, and if it’s a bad system we fix that system, but if the problem is that many of our voters are bad people that starts suggesting the best solution is we just stop trying to involve them in the process and just ditch the whole democracy thing altogether, and that’s something I oppose almost as much as I oppose fascism/supremacist movements/genocide.
I don’t think they’re bad people for not voting. I think they’ve been conditioned and/or propagandized (like that Boomer Doomer guy) and they need to be convinced that their votes do matter, can make a difference, and they can simultaneously protest vote and be counted.___
History shows that quietly kowtowing to the fascists only emboldens them to go further. We have to collectively rise up against them.
This is a lot easier to do when we don’t have scumbag morons attacking our voters to deflect from how their shitty leadership got us to this place (arc)
That’s why I advocate for submitting a blank ballot instead of simply not voting.
Because submitting a ballot is just so easy for everyone /s
Well I agree it should be easier. Mail-in ballots should be universally available, for starters. And, as I have stated, I’m complaining about people who are choosing not to vote. I’m not complaining about people for whom oppressive tactics are being actively engaged to prevent them from voting even though they are trying to. Those of us who aren’t being targeted have even more responsibility to show up and vote, to get more representatives who will fight to protect voting rights.
This makes as much sense to me as complaining about people who “choose” to become gambling addicts or who “choose” to become homeless or who “choose” to engage in self harm, it just doesn’t work like that. If people are “choosing” not to participate in your democracy either there’s a problem with your democracy or they’re in some kind of self destructive pattern that is almost certainly not going to be improved by criticism.
Moreover, how we define our problems leads directly to the sorts of solutions we end up with. If the problem is bad leaders, we can replace those leaders, and if it’s a bad system we fix that system, but if the problem is that many of our voters are bad people that starts suggesting the best solution is we just stop trying to involve them in the process and just ditch the whole democracy thing altogether, and that’s something I oppose almost as much as I oppose fascism/supremacist movements/genocide.
I am probably a bit too absolutist on this, but I really do think there’s a slippery slope from “some eligible voters suck” to “democracy sucks” that I don’t want to go down, so I really don’t think we can go beyond “Republican voters suck”, and I’m only willing to indulge in that kind of thing because they’ve been flogging the southern strategy (which is and always was fascism) for like 5+ decades and if we don’t destroy that political party they will destroy us, but even then I think it’s a real shame things have gotten to this point.
I can’t think of a single person I know who was disenfranchised out of voting. But I know multiple people who simply choose not to. The two most common reasons are “my vote doesn’t matter” and “none of the candidates represent my principles.” That is why I emphasize things like AOC and Mamdani, where the established campaigned hard against them but the voters turned up and beat the establishment. And why I point out that people can turn in a ballot with races left unselected as a way to protest the candidates while still being counted. And I emphasize doing so in the primaries, because that is when we are most able to take such a principled vote just to select the best candidate to nominate. Seriously, 2024 primaries, no state reached 40% turnout.
https://statesunited.org/resources/voter-turnout-since-2000/
So 60% of the eligible voters sat out and didn’t bother with any of the downstream races for US Senators, US House Representatives, State legislators, Governors, Lieutenant Governors, Attorneys General, judges (in Texas), city councils, school boards, etc. And then they say they’re not voting in the election because the candidates suck. Well fuck me my dudes, you had a chance to speak and you didn’t!
But even with that low turnout, like 4% of the Democratic ballots cast had “Uncommitted” for the presidential race. and that received massive news coverage, leading to [I believe] the first time a sitting President dropped out of the election after winning the primary (yes I know, no real challengers ran in the primaries). So it’s an excellent talking point to slap down in front of people who say their vote doesn’t matter or they don’t like the candidates. If we could get primaries up to the same turnout as the actual election, and all those previously non-voting ballots were “Uncommitted.” There’s no way that wouldn’t have a massive response in the candidates.
There is definitely many things wrong with our democracy.
That is why I try to be clear that I am only taking issue with people who are eligible to vote and are freely and deliberately choosing not to. Minorities who are being disenfrachised, people who have health issues (mental or physical), they need the rest of us to step up and defend their rights.
I don’t think they’re bad people for not voting. I think they’ve been conditioned and/or propagandized (like that Boomer Doomer guy) and they need to be convinced that their votes do matter, can make a difference, and they can simultaneously protest vote and be counted.___