Fuck The Two Party System - Tumblr Posts
Vote for someone else in the Primary though! If we CAN run someone else against Trump, we very much should. At very least, we can send a message to the Democratic Party that we don’t support the genocide. I understand it’s a rigged system and Biden will win the nomination but don’t just throw up your hands entirely. There are still ways to voice your displeasure while realizing the margins are razor thin in the general election and Trump truly is the greater evil.
Furthermore, don’t fixate on this. Support candidates who aren’t part of the two party system down ballot. Keep up the boycotts. Keep calling, posting and giving what you can to end this conflict. The presidential election is a wedge issue for left leaning people. We can’t let it be. We need to never stop engaging in solidarity and community building. Part of that is not meeting people who differ from you for perfectly legitimate reasons (I mean who WANTS to vote for someone actively backing a genocide?) with mockery or derision. It’s not an unreasonable stance for people to have. It’s mathematically correct that in practice voting third party, writing in or abstaining from voting are increasingly the likelihood of a second Trump term, if done en mass but at the same time, it is emotionally true you have to mark yes next to the guy who actively supports an ongoing genocide. Let’s not pretend that’s not a very shitty thing to have to do. Let’s not pretend it doesn’t take something out of our souls every time we are forced to do it. Pragmatism does not overcome how horrible the act is.
It’s a fucked up system. Just because you know how it functions and the little control we have over it doesn’t mean other people are wrong to abhor it and to want out of it. That’s what we should focus on. We all want out. We all want better. Anything we do now should be to negate and mitigate awful outcomes, but we should all be putting our energy into working together towards something better.
I see this kind of post and I see what people who aren’t voting Biden see, an appeal to just accept this system. It seems like there is never any follow up. It’s just “you’re dumb for not voting for Biden b/c Trump will win” what you’re not doing is empathizing or engaging in community building. You are not saying “vote Biden now, even though it sucks and I promise to be building dual power structures with you so we never have to do this again”. If you’re not explicit about how you seek to make changes with the time you’re buying with a second Biden term, then you are in effect just appealing to a less-bad but still horrific status quo.
Well… that got away from me. TL;DR: vote for whoever you want in the primaries. Don’t fixate on presidential politics too much though. Spend most of your time trying to build a system that does not constantly posit us with “terrible” and “worse than terrible” as our only viable options. Don’t be a dick to people who want off this ride, especially if you are not making your own commitment to larger systematic change clear.
Anyway, if you don't vote for Biden to Teach Him A Lesson and Trump wins, I'm sure all the thousands more Palestinians killed in Gaza when Trump gives Netanyahu full steam ahead and pulls all diplomatic support for a ceasefire/peace process, the Ukrainians and/or other Eastern Europeans likewise genocided when Trump gives Putin everything he wants and pulls out of NATO, the immigrants deported and put in concentration camps, the protesters detained en masse under the Insurrection Act, the women who die from being refused divorces and reproductive care, the LGBTQ+ people legislated and harassed out of public life, the people of color murdered by fully sanctioned white supremacy, and the societies around the world affected by America's collapse into a theocratic fascist dictatorship will definitely fall at your feet in thanks and give you the Gold Medal For Twitter Social Justice. So yknow, that's very important.