Trump speaks not just for himself. A substantial section of the ruling class is convinced that it confronts a massive social movement of workers that poses the greatest danger to its wealth and privileges.
I don’t know about political parties, but there are definitely socialists and communists here. It’s a free country — people have all sorts of beliefs and politics here.
I vote for democrats because they’re not actively working to take my rights away, but I do not like them as they lean too far to the right. I have a feeling a lot of Americans are on the same boat as me. Everyone I know voted for Biden, but I don’t know anyone who actually likes him or what he stands for.
I lived in The Netherlands for a good portion of my early adulthood and I just wish we could be more like them in some ways. Holy shit it was so nice not to worry about the cost of seeing a doctor, and not feeling unsafe holding hands with my partner in public (am gay) and so on. Also knowing I would have weeks of paid time off every year was amazing. I haven’t had any actual time off work since I came home… 20 years ago.
A lot of Americans have called me a communist or socialist (many don’t seem to know the difference). I am definitely neither. I just want this country to be better for everyone.
It was Democrat DA Sherry Boston in Georgia who charged 22? environmental protestors with domestic terrorism for being present at protests in vague proximity to where a police car was burned.
It was Democrat Mayor Andre Dickens, and Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff & Raphael Warnock, who remained silent when the Atlanta City Council passed funding for Cop City after 90%+ of public testimony urged them to vote against it. Although the Senators had no problem implicitly supporting the state’s narrative that the protestors are violent terrorists, while waxing poetic about “sacred constitutional rites”. They’ve also all been silent, as far as I’m aware, about the police firing 57 rounds into Tortuguita / Manuel Paez, an environmental activist who had his hands up at the time of death according to an independent autopsy. The first environmental activist killed on US soil - which, as an act of politically motivated violence, would actually fit the definition of terrorism - with the full complacency of the Democratic Party.
It was Obama who passed the Trespass Bill allowing federal authorities to designate certain areas as, essentially, “1st Amendment does not apply here” zones. He also signed the NDAA, which, as the ACLU explains: “…[codified] indefinite military detention without charge or trial into law for the first time in American history. The NDAA’s dangerous detention provisions would authorize the president — and all future presidents — to order the military to pick up and indefinitely imprison people captured anywhere in the world, far from any battlefield.”
It was all presidents, Democratic and Republican, who decided not to exercise the unilateral authority granted to the executive branch to end the wildly unpopular Drug War which especially targets poor and/or marginalized people, particularly black people. (Based on rates of arrest vs rates of self admitted use.) All presidents have the ability to reschedule any substance at any time without any approval from any other branch of government. The Drug War, or just cannabis prohibition even, could end tomorrow if Biden wanted it to.
Not to mention they may not be taking away your rights, as an American, but the Democrats might be taking away the lives of your parents, siblings, or neighbors as acceptable collateral with the wars they champion overseas. (Speaking less about Ukraine as the whole nuclear disarmament in the 90s is a special case, and more about, for example, our unjust occupation of oil fields in Syria or Obama’s illegal strikes in Libya).
Vote 3rd party, because you’re doing something worse than throwing your vote away when you vote Republican or Democrat. Both teams have largely the same corporate ownership.
I will not risk voting third party when a Republican president will do everything in his power to take away my rights and the rights of my trans friends. It’s easy to do that when your rights aren’t on the line, but mine are.
Please note that I don’t disagree with you. I fucking hate democrats. It’s a garbage party full of garbage candidates with garbage ideas and garbage officials with no spine.
But these are my rights we’re talking about. This is my actual life. The rights of my friends and loved ones to exist. Right now, right here. I can’t risk that.
I also don’t really think it’s fair to both-sides this. I don’t disagree with you that democrats are awful (see above) but they’re orders of magnitude less awful than Republicans. At least they’re not trying to turn this country into a theocracy.
I’ll happily vote third party when my loved ones and I aren’t one election away from a fucking death camp.
Then why would did the Democrats not use their brief supermajority to codify protections for abortion, for trans people, etc? Could it be that they don’t actually care about you at all and just need a narrative in order to hold up a sign that says “If you don’t vote for me, look what will happen!”
They’re playing their role in the Ratchet Effect, and Republicans are playing theirs. All to benefit the same people.
Also worth mentioning that more people died of COVID during Biden’s administration and police killed more people in 2022 than any other year. While Biden insists we need to “fund the police” and Democrats champion Cop City - are those not just components of a decentralized, country-wide “death camp”?
It’s not “both sides-ing”, it’s insisting that they are the same side. One actor playing two roles in the same movie.
They already said they don’t like the Dems, just that they dislike Republicans more. Which is absolutely valid. One is not doing enough to protect them, the others are actively trying to remove their rights. Both sides are not the same.
In a different system, I would definitely encourage everyone to vote for a 3rd party. Not being from the US, I do.
But in a FPTP system, that’s just not viable. It’s not a vote for the other party, but it’s the same as not voting, or worse if your 1 democratic state is the only one to go 3rd party.
Until a primary candidate of one of the established parties runs on a platform to change the electoral system, there’s just very little you can do. Which I can only imagine how frustrating it is. I’m not from the US, but I’m invested enough and have close friends living there that I want to see a change as well.
I don’t know about political parties, but there are definitely socialists and communists here. It’s a free country — people have all sorts of beliefs and politics here.
I vote for democrats because they’re not actively working to take my rights away, but I do not like them as they lean too far to the right. I have a feeling a lot of Americans are on the same boat as me. Everyone I know voted for Biden, but I don’t know anyone who actually likes him or what he stands for.
I lived in The Netherlands for a good portion of my early adulthood and I just wish we could be more like them in some ways. Holy shit it was so nice not to worry about the cost of seeing a doctor, and not feeling unsafe holding hands with my partner in public (am gay) and so on. Also knowing I would have weeks of paid time off every year was amazing. I haven’t had any actual time off work since I came home… 20 years ago.
A lot of Americans have called me a communist or socialist (many don’t seem to know the difference). I am definitely neither. I just want this country to be better for everyone.
It was Democrat DA Sherry Boston in Georgia who charged 22? environmental protestors with domestic terrorism for being present at protests in vague proximity to where a police car was burned.
It was Democrat Mayor Andre Dickens, and Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff & Raphael Warnock, who remained silent when the Atlanta City Council passed funding for Cop City after 90%+ of public testimony urged them to vote against it. Although the Senators had no problem implicitly supporting the state’s narrative that the protestors are violent terrorists, while waxing poetic about “sacred constitutional rites”. They’ve also all been silent, as far as I’m aware, about the police firing 57 rounds into Tortuguita / Manuel Paez, an environmental activist who had his hands up at the time of death according to an independent autopsy. The first environmental activist killed on US soil - which, as an act of politically motivated violence, would actually fit the definition of terrorism - with the full complacency of the Democratic Party.
It was Obama who passed the Trespass Bill allowing federal authorities to designate certain areas as, essentially, “1st Amendment does not apply here” zones. He also signed the NDAA, which, as the ACLU explains: “…[codified] indefinite military detention without charge or trial into law for the first time in American history. The NDAA’s dangerous detention provisions would authorize the president — and all future presidents — to order the military to pick up and indefinitely imprison people captured anywhere in the world, far from any battlefield.”
It was all presidents, Democratic and Republican, who decided not to exercise the unilateral authority granted to the executive branch to end the wildly unpopular Drug War which especially targets poor and/or marginalized people, particularly black people. (Based on rates of arrest vs rates of self admitted use.) All presidents have the ability to reschedule any substance at any time without any approval from any other branch of government. The Drug War, or just cannabis prohibition even, could end tomorrow if Biden wanted it to.
Not to mention they may not be taking away your rights, as an American, but the Democrats might be taking away the lives of your parents, siblings, or neighbors as acceptable collateral with the wars they champion overseas. (Speaking less about Ukraine as the whole nuclear disarmament in the 90s is a special case, and more about, for example, our unjust occupation of oil fields in Syria or Obama’s illegal strikes in Libya).
Vote 3rd party, because you’re doing something worse than throwing your vote away when you vote Republican or Democrat. Both teams have largely the same corporate ownership.
I will not risk voting third party when a Republican president will do everything in his power to take away my rights and the rights of my trans friends. It’s easy to do that when your rights aren’t on the line, but mine are.
Please note that I don’t disagree with you. I fucking hate democrats. It’s a garbage party full of garbage candidates with garbage ideas and garbage officials with no spine.
But these are my rights we’re talking about. This is my actual life. The rights of my friends and loved ones to exist. Right now, right here. I can’t risk that.
I also don’t really think it’s fair to both-sides this. I don’t disagree with you that democrats are awful (see above) but they’re orders of magnitude less awful than Republicans. At least they’re not trying to turn this country into a theocracy.
I’ll happily vote third party when my loved ones and I aren’t one election away from a fucking death camp.
Then why would did the Democrats not use their brief supermajority to codify protections for abortion, for trans people, etc? Could it be that they don’t actually care about you at all and just need a narrative in order to hold up a sign that says “If you don’t vote for me, look what will happen!”
They’re playing their role in the Ratchet Effect, and Republicans are playing theirs. All to benefit the same people.
Also worth mentioning that more people died of COVID during Biden’s administration and police killed more people in 2022 than any other year. While Biden insists we need to “fund the police” and Democrats champion Cop City - are those not just components of a decentralized, country-wide “death camp”?
It’s not “both sides-ing”, it’s insisting that they are the same side. One actor playing two roles in the same movie.
They already said they don’t like the Dems, just that they dislike Republicans more. Which is absolutely valid. One is not doing enough to protect them, the others are actively trying to remove their rights. Both sides are not the same.
In a different system, I would definitely encourage everyone to vote for a 3rd party. Not being from the US, I do. But in a FPTP system, that’s just not viable. It’s not a vote for the other party, but it’s the same as not voting, or worse if your 1 democratic state is the only one to go 3rd party.
Until a primary candidate of one of the established parties runs on a platform to change the electoral system, there’s just very little you can do. Which I can only imagine how frustrating it is. I’m not from the US, but I’m invested enough and have close friends living there that I want to see a change as well.