Some people out there seem to be confused, but I always vote in every local and every national election for every office and every ballot initiative since I was 18 years old. Some of my greatest civil rights heroes have fought and died so that we can all vote and I honor their memory in the ballot box every single time.
To some of us, especially those of us like myself who have been scheduling secretaries for US senators, it often seems like a morally reprehensible choice between compromised corporate Democrats and fascist-minded Republicans. Where I live in California, I have the luxury of voting my conscience for president for third-party candidates that better align with my ideas of justice and equality.
But in any and every contested race, as my mom Mary Morello always said, we have to fight the fascist every which way we can, recognizing that even if there’s but an inch of difference between two candidates, there are a lot of vulnerable people who could be greatly harmed in that inch. So vote your ass off, but don’t just exercise your right to vote. Exercise your right to fight for, organize for, struggle for, and manifest the kind of world you’d like to really see without compromise and without apologies before, during, and after election day. And let’s stop the fascists every which way we can. Power the people.
Tom Morello lives in California.
You don’t.
Vote strategically, dumbasses.
This is the vital detail. By all means vote your conscience if you live in a safe state. And his criticism of conservative Democrats is entirely justified.
But if you live in a battleground state, please do whatever you can to block Republicans, even if it requires holding your nose.
Even in battleground states, you can vote in primaries, for school boards etc. If the choice comes down to a corporate shill vs. a Nazi, you should always vote against the Nazi, of course, even if the alternative is also unpalatable.
Yeah, he even explicitly makes that clear. It’s a pretty good take.
And educate people on ranked-choice voting.
Agreed! And open primaries, while we’re at it. These are all simple things that make our democracy more democratic and less prone to corruption and polarization.
But in any and every contested race, as my mom Mary Morello always said, we have to fight the fascist every which way we can, recognizing that even if there’s but an inch of difference between two candidates, there are a lot of vulnerable people who could be greatly harmed in that inch. So vote your ass off, but don’t just exercise your right to vote. Exercise your right to fight for, organize for, struggle for, and manifest the kind of world you’d like to really see without compromise and without apologies before, during, and after election day. And let’s stop the fascists every which way we can. Power the people.
He did not vote for Harris. He said he was lucky enough to not have to. Then quotes his mother advocating for harm reduction if you do not have that same luck with your vote.
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Is it the platform that makes the difference for you?
I live in a contested state and voted for the democratic socialist candidate in the primary but I will, of course, vote for the mainstream dem in the general.
As a counterpoint, my uncle lives in a blue state and voted for a third party candidate in that last presidential election. My mom has basically gone no-contact with him over it. I think she’s just about equally as angry that I didn’t vote for the mainstream candidate in the primary but gives me a bit of a pass because I’m her son?
I think you make a good point about Tom having a platform that I hadn’t considered before. Did he use his platform to encourage people not to vote for her?
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Maybe don’t call them assholes for that.
I am not from tge US but it’s so frustrating, we really shouldn’t support this infighting. Anyone still supporting Israel IS disgusting, people are rightfully pissed of about this.
I still believe that there is no way forward other than voting Dem but the infighting and namecalling and belitteling of each other is infuriating.
This really just feels like another devide method of the ruling class.
If you want to beat the Rep you need more solidarity in the left wing and this starts by communicating like adults.
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If Dem candidates support zionist racism they will lose.
Dont harp on the voters as if they are the problem here. Harris could have won that election by not taking aipac money, but she chose the money. She chose to shout down student protestors. She also chose to parade around stages with Liz cheney talking about prayer and her glock. She made a lot of odd choices, and then she lost every single swing state and every demographic of the dem voting base declined.
The reality here is that many Dem voters will just not vote for crimes against humanity, even if you euphamistically call it “strategic” voting. They do not care what you say, and you cant finger wag your way to convincing them to pull the lever for a genocider. I’m afraid thats the reality we live in, so maybe you should concentrate on pressuring Dem candidates to not lose a third of their base to idiocy.
I can’t believe that this era of extreme Trump bullshit, war on Iran, Trump supporting Israel 100, we still have people acting as if being aligned with Israel is the reason to not vote for a Democrat, despite them being far better on three dozen other issues.
Well here he is applying nuance. He can vote that way thanks to the realities of California. He is trusting the audience to understand that nuance of that stance.
It’s a tricky one, since on the one hand he may be overestimating the electorate, but on the other folks inclined to listen to him may internalize the nuance and not get alienated by assumptions that he is selling out. I’m leaning towards the latter since he at least is calling people to vote instead of some blindly anti electoral take, which is fairly prominent in the online discourse.
I’ll be honest, most of the people I see critiquing elections or candidates like Kamala have nuance to their views. Which makes sense, because it takes reflection and thought to break with the normal for most people.
On the other hand, I see tons of binary “any criticism is anti-electoralism and literally fascist” takes online that totally lack nuance. Which also makes sense, because when confronted with a break in normality, most people tend to react emotionally, not logically.
I dont see that at all. Every kamala hater ive seen have nothing but genocide on their minds.
Lol just a couple posts down from yours
Sure, that’s a hard line for many people who vote with their conscious, and probably most protest voters agonized over the decision, knowing that in our system it could help Trump (although, as it turns out, even if every single third party vote went to Kamala, it still would not have been enough for her to win — protest voters are a tiny demographic).
That’s still more nuanced than “Blue no matter who” or “nothing but genocide on their minds.” (As if genocide isn’t a huge fucking thing that should break every politician who supports it, but that’s a separate argument.)
Yes and no? There’s a lot of chuds who listen to RATM and somehow don’t get their message; but they’re not necessarily listening to Tom Morello, and very likely may not even know his name (or Zack, or Tim, or Brad). The people who listen to RATM and know who Tom Morello is, are far more likely to understand the nuance here.
I was downvoted to hell for saying this on the original post.
It is a privilege to be able to “vote with your conscience” when you’re life isn’t literally hanging in the balance of that vote.
Whether we like it or not, we are a two party system at the moment and voting third party in a presidential election is a wasted vote. I don’t care what anyone else says.
As cool as Tom is he still has the privilege of voting as white man, which is a very different experience compared to the rest of us.
Toms not white.
he literally talks about not being white in the first post
In that society and country, it’s the only approach that can be taken.
It’ll take a while to win that war through the vote if it can be. There’s only one way to win it…progressively change one party from within and with the vote and there’s only one party that could be achieved with.
There is no other peaceful solution, other than a national shutdown large and long enough to bring production to a halt and force the Houses to act.
That’s it. Those two. No others.
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Honestly, maybe you need some time away. Your post is pretty vitriolic for someone who didn’t even address you specifically or say anything in a disparaging way.
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If you understood how things worked, I would expect your worldview to be somewhat less disappointing when it comes to delivering tangible results. Yet, here we are, 4 decades later, and we still don’t even have a basic right to medical care.
I see it’s time to purity test Rage Against the Fucking Machine!
This is straight up conservative hit piece propaganda. The dude is a Harvard educated pol sci master, maybe if he says one single thing you disagree with, listen to what the cunt is saying.
They’re trying to just throw whatever little piece of shit they can on him so they can go- “hey, this guy disagrees with you on one point of all the thousand things you are both in FULL agreement of. See? Everything he says is fake.”
GTFO of here with this mainstream media psyop diarrhea.
There are reasons that all of this is coming out at the same time Morello is involved in promoting protests against the regime concerts.
Well it’s fine that he didn’t vote for shit Democrats but honestly wish he would have been this outspoken DURING the campaign, when it mattered, instead of now.
Notwithstanding but FFS, organize and make the statement during the election for not voting for crappy candidates.
But then you get libs yelling at you cause they think criticizing Dems = supporting fascists. You are only allowed to do so in that 1 year gap between the election ending and the start of the next primaries (whether it be midterms or presidential). Any other time and you’re called a Russian bot or psy-op agent.
So? As long as you can live with the decision you made who gives a flying fuck about what they think? Especially in the Internet where everything is made up and the points don’t matter.
Given the plurality voting system, voting Democrat is the only meaningful way to take power away from the Republican fascists.
You can vote third party all you want in the PRIMARIES. When it comes to the general, you vote Democrat or you’re helping the fascists.
Also, don’t stop at the primary. You can be part of your local organization and help choose the people in the primaries. As well as improve the local government.
Why would someone vote third party in the primaries? Most third parties don’t get the funding or support from states to even host primaries. And there’s pretty much no reason to withhold a third party vote in noncompetitive states.
Buddy what?
Primaries are party specific.
The fuck are you smoking?
Participating in a third party primary doesn’t stop you from voting Democratic in the general.
Think that statement through for me real quick
Those 2 or 3 DNC glazing posters on Lemmy: “sO yOuRe a FaScIsT tHeN.”
I’ve seen those.
I’m sure I’ve been called those, but my point is two-fold:
- Act BEFORE the general election to support better candidates
- But when the choice is between lesser-evil and greater-evil, NOT voting for lesser-evil IS VOTING FOR GREATER EVIL. That’s not opinion, it’s simple math.
If the only thing someone does with politics is refrain from voting in the general election, they absolutely are supporting fascism. If the only thing someone does is vote in the general election, they are not supporting progressive candidates if their only option is between a fascist and an establishment Democrat.
You must act BEFORE the primary to support who you want to SEE in the primary. Vote for the best option. In the general, vote for the least-bad option. Not doing those things supports the greater evil of fascist.
How much of the country do you think lives in a swing state?
Or, if someone decides to keep being the candidate of the lesser of two evils in a safe, Democrat-voting state, perhaps we could aspire to something more than merely being less of a piece of shit than the other guy? No? I guess you have your answer right there. No matter the time, you people always want to come out of the woodwork to criticize anyone who dare criticizes the Democratic establishment. We wouldn’t be in this situation if asshats like yourself spent half as much time fighting Republicans as you did fighting other Democrats that you find “too” liberal.
EDIT: I’m editing my replies to you because all you have done is refuse to read anything I wrote, are vocally supporting fascism, and fucking lying about me, trying to make accusations that are untrue. Fuck anyone who does that shit.
I hope you personally feel the effects of the fascism whose dick you obviously fucking suck. Piss off.
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The democrats & republicans have been spending the better part of a century making sure voters are too dumb to figure them out. Making sure other options are never picked, making Communism and Socialism are taboo words…
Anytime a left-wing person talks about being disappointed with their lesser-of-two-evil options, people get all up in arms about the idea that we owe the Democratic Party our fealty.
Nobody owes anyone anything, but when given the choice between a fascist who wouldn’t mind seeing me dead vs. an establishment Democrat who doesn’t mind if I manage to survive just as long as the oligarchs get their tax breaks, I’ll go with the one who doesn’t want to actively take away my human rights every time, if for no other reason that it’s the better choice at that point.
So what the fuck are you doing BEFORE the general election? Or are you blowing the entire process off and then feeling smug about not voting for the lesser-of-two-evil THEREBY HELPING THE GREATER EVIL WIN.
Or, and I realize this is a big ask for idiots captured by the Democratic machine, you could spend two minutes to read the actual article and realize that he takes into account that he’s voting in a state that so reliably swings to the Democrats that his vote is negligible when he says he didn’t vote for Kamala. You people would rather twist yourselves into knots rather than realize that you fielded a shit candidate and actually acknowledge that you should do better next time.
No, it’s not you who’s wrong when your base says they can’t vote for you, it’s your constituents who must be wrong, no matter the circumstances.
He also addresses the need to take action between presidential elections, for all the dumbasses who just go “He no vote Kamala, downvote the evil person.”
EDIT: I’m editing my replies to you because all you have done is refuse to read anything I wrote, are vocally supporting fascism, and fucking lying about me, trying to make accusations that are untrue. Fuck anyone who does that shit.
I hope you personally feel the effects of the fascism whose dick you obviously fucking suck. Piss off.
Don’t even bother, I went through this same rigmarole on the original article that was posted.
Some people on Lemmy are so blinded by their hate for the political system it doesn’t mater to them if said hatred wil cost the life of others.
And I’m gunna be honest, the ones arguing the hardest that were just “democratic mouthpieces” when we call this out, are probably the ones with the least amount to lose regardless of the outcome.
Yeah its definitely not the fault of the people who would harm others. They are innocent, blinded by rage, unable to see reason. Really, it’s the voters that are the monsters, pulling the strings.
Good story bro!
I have read what you’ve written perfectly well. Unfortunately for you, you write shit fascist apologia, and can’t seem to accept the existence of anyone who isn’t wholeheartedly swallowing your dumb as hell DNC talking points. Get bent, have fun continuing to lose elections because you can’t accept that your ideals are dumb as hell to anyone who considers them and happens to have two brain cells to rub together.
I hope when the fascists round you up, they personally rub it in your face how enlightened you thought you were.
All you have done is refuse to read anything I wrote, are vocally supporting fascism, and fucking lying about me, trying to make accusations that are untrue. Fuck anyone who does that shit.
I hope you personally feel the effects of the fascism whose dick you obviously fucking suck. Piss off.
I like the bolded big font, but can you underline it and make it blinky too? You’ll need to use an animated gif. You could also italicize it. Maybe surround it with emojis too.
/s
“Selling oak logs 15gp each!”
Democrats aren’t going to do a single fucking thing to fight fascism. No party wants to decrease the powers of the presidency.
So you’d vote for Hitler as long as he didn’t hurt you specifically.
Its okay, their moral code is just “whatever is slightly better than the worst thing”.
The circles people run in trying to justify supporting awful people is hysterical.
So what the fuck are you doing BEFORE the general election?
Voting in the general election is how you vote in the real primary - the money primary. The money primary is the first real contest of an election. The “primaries” you tell us to focus on really aren’t the first contest. The money primary is. And the donors pick candidates they hope can win. And since Kamala lost in 2024, pro-genocide Democrats are going to have a hell of a harder time winning the money primary in 2028 than they did in 2024.
By the time you get to the ballot in the primary, the real contest is already over.
Boo hoo you got morals. How dare you vote by your morals if it inconvenience me?
If Kamala Harris would have gotten a primary she would have come last? If Dems had a proper primary instead of panding to a senior buffon there would have been an actual promising candidate. Dems lost not because of people not voting; they lost because they didn’t represent anyone, other than the donor class.
I voted for Kamala Harris but I was originally going to vote Cornel West. I thought Cornel West would’ve saved this country.
Imagine if instead of supporting two useless people doomed to lose, you had campaigned for an actual progressive with broad appeal?
“an actual progressive with broad appeal”
Who? Be specific.
The electoral process overrides the voice of people anyways. It’s all a shit show to keep us all fighting.
Yea, I put blue dicks in my ass, but not blue dicks that I have identified as seperate to my identity manifested from the dick-in-ass-illusion complex the Buddha spoke of.
This is what you people sound like.
This is what your posts read like.
It’s for marketing purposes!
I get the stupidest mother-fuckers to reply to me!
GIGO
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Look how true this statement is boys. I do wanna fuck a really fat bitch. Like, fukken help a bro decimate some cute-faced thuquabdanite sweetling slut tonight, on the Discovery Channel. We filming this shit dawg! Get you a fold of the gelatinous foid! It all festers in this digital hellscape, I tell you boy. Bitch Priest of the normative order! I am Cthulhu for I have forty dicks, ready to go, for all types of cunts! There we go. Now I’m in the mood. You scalp a ho before? Then you ain’t in the real world! It a jungle out here! Good gravy!
When your opponent is fascism:
YOU VOTE AGAINST FASCISM.
I thought he was smarter than this, but it seems purity tests don’t leave room for raging against machines.
He votes against fascism every single time.
That all of California’s electoral votes would go against republican fascism was a foregone conclusion. So what he did is use his vote to promote a third solution, one that is not corporate democrat. That’s absolutely fine.
Knowingly throwing away a vote on someone that mathematically and realistically cannot win is the same as not voting at all where the outcome is concerned.
Doing this enabled trump to win as it was a vote not counted toward the one that stood a chance to win.
What? The vote changed nothing, all of California’s electoral votes went to Harris. Do you not know how the US voting system works?
Knowingly throwing away a vote on someone that mathematically and realistically cannot win is the same as not voting at all where the outcome is concerned.
Doing this enabled trump to win as it was a vote not counted toward the one that stood a chance to win.
When your opponent is fascism and you vote for a different fascist, don’t be surprised when this does nothing to combat fascism.
“they’re all the same” is ignorant, elitist and privileged
You are reading what you want to see and not what I wrote.
They are not the same, but they are idealogically aligned and working towards the same goals.
That’s just saying they’re the same with extra steps. It’s willfully ignorant and childish, a way to participate in politics while being uninformed. The Dunning-Kruger of political discussion participants.
That’s exactly what you wrote.
wrong
LMAO…. The shit we tell ourselves to justify our ignorance I guess.
You brought us trump. Take your bow.
if you don’t vote straight blue you’re part of the problem and can get fucked.
Bullshit!!! He’s been Fenders fuck boy, for like 2 decades. He could not be any more corporate.
