I don’t like Biden either, but anyone with half a brain knows there are two choices in the 2020 election. If we had a sane voting system, voting third party might be worth it, but as it stands, no one but you knows your favorite candidate exists and unless you want to become their campaign manager that will still be true in November. Even if you did, and even if you convinced two thirds of the people who would otherwise have voted for Biden to vote for your chosen candidate instead, Trump would still win because half the country voted for him and your guy only got a third. If you vote third party you might as well stay home.

Not voting isn’t going to stop the genocide in Gaza. The US will continue to funnel them arms no matter which candidate wins this November. Trump practically campaigns on how much he hates the Jews and he’s publicly told Israel to “finish up their war”. He’ll also make life a living hell for anyone who isn’t a straight cisgender male back here at home.

A vote for a candidate is not an endorsement of them or their policies, it’s a statement that you like their policies more than the other guy’s, and “sticking it to liberals” and “refusing to support genocide” (that’s not what voting for Biden is doing, by the way – a vote for either candidate is a vote for genocide and a vote for neither is an endorsement of both) is not more important than keeping the furthest right politician America has ever seen out of office.

How incredibly privileged do you have to be to see an entire national election as what will happen in the Middle East and ignore Trump’s campaign promises to wipe transgender Americans off the map, and further, to not realize that the same thing will happen in the Middle East regardless of which candidate wins?

I hate Biden as much as every other leftist here. But I’ll still vote for him because Trump is worse. If there’s a single bone in your body that cares about the lives of your trans friends you will too.

  • aldalire@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2·
    3 months ago

    Not voting when able is throwing away any right to complain, if you didn’t exercise your right to representation in the primary, then you voluntarily waived any standing to complain about the general election candidates, but should still choose one as this is the only step in the presidential election process where one candidate is guaranteed to lead the country and not voting is again throwing away your most accessible tool for representation.

    That makes sense actually. I’ll grant you that the primaries are important. But seeing as it’s now a Biden vs Trump, voting is pointless. Also, I don’t vibe with the rationale for not voting third party. If everybody just votes for whomever they please and most align with, without having to please a political argument saying that a third-party vote is a waste of a vote, then yeah maybe a third party might win.

    But in America there’s this weird mind worm of “oh, the two party system is broken! Let’s vote into it because voting third party is a waste of a vote.” Suddenly everyone becomes a game theory expert come election day >_<