This election season has been a test for journalism, and it failed miserably.
Oh buddy. During 2016 election The New York Times published thousands of stories about Clinton email/Benghazi, not one on Trumps lifelong ties to NY/Russian mob. As if The New York Times, THE PAPER OF RECORD, wasn’t in a particularly knowledgeable position to report on 70 years of NYC construction & mob history.
Mainstream Journalism already failed the internet test, it wasn’t magically going to come back for 1 election cycle.
That this fascist is so close to being elected at all, especially given that we’ve already seen him “do the job” once, means this country has already failed any such test. At this point, someone like Trump getting elected again is only a matter of time.
This election is a test: Can the American public resoundingly reject a man who has not merely been a chaotic extremist but has also attacked the American system of republican government itself?
Is it a standardized test?
We clearly already failed. Despite there being better candidates, most of the country seems hell bent on supporting the status quo. “Law and order” crowd backing a felon, ACAB crowd supporting a prosecutor. Both of who are backed by the richest people in the country and spending over a billion each. The mental gymnastics to consider third party a waste compared to trading in all your morals for “lesser evil,” it is just astounding.
A third party vote is a waste until the system is fundamentally changed. Rather than spending all the effort trying to sabotage the election for Trump, if all of the people doing this instead put that effort into promoting systemic reform from the ground up, we’d all support you, instead of thinking you’re Russian propagandists astroturfing.
Bro, you people always say its the wrong time or place. You think I am a Russian propagandist because I am upset people like yourself want to support the status quo? Since we are being baseless in our accusations, how do I know you’re not an Israeli operative since you came here to tell me I am wrong if I don’t vote for one of the two pro-genocide candidates?
No, friend, we are upset that you can’t see the reality of being locked into a two party system right now.
Your vote for a third party won’t get you the outcome you want, and is more likely to make it so you can never get the outcome you want.
Lot’s of us want ranked choice voting, among other changes. We definitely will not get that if third party voting results in Republicans winning.
So join us, use your vote pragmatically right now and then tomorrow start working towards reforming our elections.
If you have read and understood all this and you still don’t understand how this current reality works, I am worried you have a reason that you don’t want to understand it.
That was alot to tell me that ”now is not the time, support my candidate and it will get better”, like has been told to me since before the turn of the century. That you don’t understand why I am upset, sounds like you just want to “stay the course.”
I understand.
If you’re a progressive leaning individual and still can’t see why voting for someone who can actively beat Trump is the only option right now, I really don’t know what to tell you.
You want to work to get third party candidates into other positions? Local government, state government, congress? I’m with you. All for it. Let’s do it. But if you honestly think that this is the time to cast a protest vote for president, you either aren’t paying attention at all, or you’re being willfully ignorant. Or you honestly think there’s no difference if Trump or Harris wins and if that last one is the case, then you are well and truly lost and I have nothing else to say to you.
No one is saying it’s “the wrong time,” like the people who say we can’t talk about gun control after a shooting. What they’re saying is that a third party candidate is fundamentally a waste of a vote, or worse, in a two-party system. It doesn’t move the needle in the direction you want, it takes a vote away from the major party candidate who is closer to your ideals.
The problem is neither of the major candidates are even close to near my ideals. Like literally both sides are surviving on hate for the other side in my eyes. Like how many Kamala supporters you seen that aren’t essentially Fuck Trump, and how many Trump supporters you seen that aren’t essentially Fuck Kamala & Biden. I feel like I am taking crazy pills, because neither side is for the average person or even well liked. Meanwhile I keep being told, oh just learn to make a million concessions and support my candidate. When I resist, those same people claim I am some foreign operative who is trying to discourage voting, and if I am serious to revisit this issue next November like I have been for decades where each time I am told the same nonsense.
I guess you and I just disagree. Yes, for me there’s for sure a “not Trump” aspect to Kamala, but she seems like the most progressive candidate we’ve had for some time.
Until and unless the US changes FPTP and winner-takes-all voting, it will always boil down to tactical voting. More people running for local offices and working their way up the system would also help.
