If your state itemizes write-ins (like, all of them. Not many do), these things read like a message board lmao.

https://www.bergencountyclerk.gov/_Content/pdf/ElectionResult/write-ins 11_7_24_signed.pdf

I’ve been saying this for over a year, but: I will not vote for a candidate who would rather threaten me with fascism than say “okay maybe we should tone down the genocide”, who is willing to risk open fascism to keep the guns flowing, who gives their finest most bloated cutting edge weapons of murder to the literal Hitler apologist neo Nazi piece of shit actively on trial for genocide he admits to like every five minutes, and old outdated crap we would otherwise be throwing away to Ukraine¹.

Like, putting aside the fact she’s a legendarily transphobic cop, and nothing short of personally going down in culturally aware and exceptionally competent ways on every single trans adult in the country would make me forget that long enough to vote for her, these chucklefucks were never going to be the bulwark of democracy. They did not question the extremely suspicious election results² the open election interference or more than half assedly prosecute the violent coup. The defenders of liberal democracy would have had gallows up on January 7. Elon musk would have been hung drawn and quartered by now, and it would have been shown on cspan, mandatory viewing in every school in the nation. None of this is surprising, for those of us who remember 2000. I’ve been telling people the libs would roll over for belly rubs at the slightest excuse for years, that they’re not worth voting for, because they will not even attempt to hold the line. They have affirmed that this was the right decision.

Bringing on the Clinton and starmer teams as advisors was just a declaration that they wanted to lose. Actual democracy can involve a vote, but it is at best a small part of it, and I don’t believe its valid here. The strict adherence to voting is a failure of imagination, a failure of volition, and an abdication of ones role in society.

I dont know how many of you have long talks with random strangers outside of lefty spaces, but so many people suffer from this failure of imagination. They have died inside, their imaginations and consciousness, even their sense of themselves and connections to community stifled by lifetimes of obedience and fear, their horizons cut away in bloody strips by the knives of capital, individually packaged in neat little boxes by alienating neoliberal media. Their resurrection, and the murder of the metaphorical cops residing in their heads, is our responsibility. Even if we don’t immediately love the person who climbs out of that dirt. Where we as leftists must act is not just in feeding the hungry, in practical needs or armed resistance or whatever the fuck your praxis is³, but in sparking the imagination, expanding horizons past the options explicitly presented by their masters, and connecting those expanded views and ability to act to everyday life. We can and should use this chaos to break out of the ordinary, to make the world more surreal, to blur the edges of what capitalist subjects see as possible. This is the responsibility not only of the mass chef and the soldier, though it does remain a part of theirs, but of the artist, the drug dealer, the thief, the builder, and the engineer-including and especially of software.

Get out there and do some necromancy, folks. Scream messy poetry in a coffee shop, project a movie on a blank wall. Intrude on peoples fucking tiny little lives. Make the world a little stranger. Bring back the dead.

¹I know, not popular here, but at least in the lib rhetoric they’re fighting a defensive war against a genocidal invader. Whatever you believe, it shows what the libs really value. And more importantly, there was a god damn treaty since they gave up their nukes. Nobody’s ever fucking doing that again after this example. The failure to defend them ended even the most remote dreams of nuclear disarmament without dismantling the state. There will be fallout from this, and it will be literal. Just when we were back to making fresh modern LBR steel, too. Fuck.

²I’d believe trump won the electoral college, but he absolutely did not win the popular vote. Not honestly. They cheated. We knew they were cheating. We caught them cheating. They admitted they were cheating. Nobody cared.

³its still that. I don’t mean to call what youre doing unimportant. Whatever it is, we probably still need that. I’m saying its not enough. What I was doing wasn’t enough either, as demonstrated by a lack of revolution. By lack of mainstream resistance. By the left still being marginal.

A good response whenever you hear someone express shock over voting for Trump:

“If you were able to overlook a genocide and cast a vote for Harris, you already know how a conservative was able to overlook Trump’s extremism and vote for him.”

https://xcancel.com/briebriejoy/status/1854548845381787825#m

Anyone have any thoughts or reflections on better messaging towards men from the center and left given the results of the election?

Was this the most important election of our lifetimes?

Is this really the last chance to stop fascism?

Will Trump make the Palestinian genocide 10x worse?

Is democracy itself over now?

Then where’s the rioting on the streets fucKKKing pussies

I think they’re right, tbh, at least in the vibes sense, but why aren’t they rioting?

The Democrats did not treat this as the most important election of our lifetimes. They did not even seriously treat it as an election at all.

They treated it as a protection racket. “Oh, it’d sure be a shame if ol’ cousin Donny broke your kneecaps. Now, I can keep him away from you but I’m gonna need a little something from you first.”

The real story here is that Trump won the popular vote. That signals an enormous shift in sentiment and culture, and should be the subject of any serious analysis here. This is nothing less than a catastrophic failure of the liberal project and liberal vision–a total implosion of the do-nothing “centrist” political consensus. Democrats have shown over and over and over again that they have nothing to offer the majority of Americans. The Harris campaign was just the apotheosis of the trend: courting capital and neo-conservative ghouls while jettisoning any talk of policies that might help people. This is not a winning election strategy. That should be screamingly obvious now. People are angry, hurting, and looking for anyone that even suggests they understand that pain and might do something about it, even when the suggested solutions make no sense. The only sane response to this result is a SWEEPING reexamination of the neo-liberal consensus. Liberalism in its current form has failed most people, and the Democrats have failed to articulate any message or position that appreciates that. Until someone in the United States starts articulating a positive vision with policies to engender some hope for the future–healthcare for everyone, housing as a human right, SERIOUS action on climate change–the far right will keep winning. They’re the only ones with ideas.

Now is the time to reach out to your liberal friends to help them understand that this is not a fluke, but the system working as designed. This failure by the Dems didn’t come out of nowhere. Lots of us on the left saw this coming a mile away, and can help make sense of it. They’re flailing and looking for an explanation. We have that. Help them understand. Help them see that we don’t HAVE to live like this. We don’t have to put up with only being given a sliver of political power every 4 years, with the threat of fascism hanging over our heads. The people at the top–the donor class, campaign managers, and beltway lanyard bros–aren’t worth your time. But your mom or friend who voted for Kamala and is devastated and confused by the loss of the popular vote definitely IS worth your time. Those people can be comrades. Give them a chance. Reach out and listen to their frustrations and concerns. Don’t be smug–be sympathetic. Talk to them about why they think this happened. Offer your perspective. Ask them why the Democrats raised over a billion dollars and still lost the popular vote. Ask if those might be connected. Ask why progressive voter initiatives–protecting abortion, sick days, wages increases, etc.–outperformed the Democratic presidential candidate so much in so many places. Ask what they think that means about the state of the electorate; does it mean most of America really is irredeemably evil? Or could it maybe mean something else? Ask if they really think Kamala Harris and “nothing really needs to change” is the best we can do, or the message most people need to hear. Help them see that it isn’t. Help them see that a better world is possible. Help them get organized. This is your chance.

I might not be good at agitprop.

Every time that someone implies that Palestinians should have been sacrificed for the country, I just call them fascist.

It is after all what they are but I’m not sure if that convinces people to try something different.

That there are fifteen million people in the US who said “I’m not going to vote for genocide and I’m not going to vote for things to stay the same” is fantastic fucking news. You really can’t say it any other way. That’s fifteen million people who are prime candidates for radicalization.

This should be a signal for american liberals that the democratic party is not a viable option anymore. Look at what happened, a total defeat, the republicans control both the house and senate in addition to having elected someone who according to your own law is a convicted felon.

Do you still want to cling to the democratic party as it keeps on recycling the same impotent strategy over and over again magically expecting a different result?

I have come across a somewhat uncomfortable scenario more than once this past week that I need some advice on from non-white folks here as a white woman in real-world organizing/activist spaces that do not necessarily lean very far left. I do not know how to approach BIPOC folks in these spaces (or even just in the general public I’ve encountered) espousing the virtues of voting Kamala Harris. I feel like @Angel@hexbear.net’s response to this in here is absolutely the correct perspective, but…is that even my place to say? I do not want to tell any non-white person how to express their frustrations and especially not as a white person, but…voting for Kamala was not it. It was never going to be it. I heard the same things back in the Obama days, too, and we have the benefit of hindsight now to tell us how poorly that goes. But I feel like I can’t be the one to say it. Is that the correct way to handle stuff like this? I feel very stuck.

1. The DNC learned nothing from 2016. It is the definition of irrationality to do the same thing twice and expect different outcomes.

2. Bernie could garner huge crowds and massive support by campaigning on the basis of policy that has mass appeal, such as universal healthcare. Kamala chose not to do this because she prioritised business as usual over stopping Trump.

3. You say “things will get worse under Trump”. That’s true. But things got worse under Biden/Harris after Trump’s first term as president - environmental policy, the border camps, reproductive rights, trans rights, cop city, the genocide of Palestinians etc. So when you say “we must vote for Kamala or things will get worse” that line of reasoning is at best unconvincing and at worst it betrays the 4-year state of amnesia you have lived in because you are so politically detached from the consequences of your voting.

4. Telling people to protect democracy—the system where you vote for the candidate who best represents your political values—by voting for a person who in no way represents your political values in order to save democracy is tortured logic.

5. No, I’m not an accelerationist. Me advocating for people not to vote for Kamala Harris is not an accelerationist position because we should not be giving a mandate for a genocide, climate change, and civil rights-eroding accelerationist by voting for them.

6. How many delegates did Harris win in the last primaries? How many did she win in the primaries to get her to run for president this time? Is this what you claim as your democracy?

7. When I list a number of legitimate grievances with Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s regime and issues with Kamala’s election platform, none of which have a single thing to do with her race or gender, and you respond by calling me racist or misogynistic it drives home how little you are willing to listen to my political concerns and how intransigent your favoured party is. When you act this way and then tell me that people have to vote for Kamala in order to push her left while you yourself are unwilling to even acknowledge the fact that Kamala’s platform has serious issues, it signals to me that there will be no shifting left on anything. I already knew this fact but you have done an exceptional job of inadvertently teaching other people this lesson.

8. When entering into negotiations with someone, it’s a uniquely terrible tactic to hand over your one state-sanctioned bargaining chip before making even one single demand.

9. You are chasing the DNC to the right and one day you will wake up and wonder to yourself “How did I end up all the way over here?” I’m not following you into that marsh but you’re welcome to go into it yourself, just don’t get upset at me when I point out what you’re heading into and don’t get angry when I refuse to blindly follow you.

10. Kamala Harris is the only thing that can stop fascism. Kamala Harris cannot do anything to protect reproductive rights, trans rights, Palestinian lives, the lives of Marcellus Williams and Robert Robertson etc. because she is powerless to do anything about it 🫠

11. Kamala Harris said she would “follow the law” regarding trans people. She was angling to become the primary lawmaker in the US. Not only does this show a lack of whatever libs care about like “leadership” but it shows how cowardly and detestable she is because she understands the law and she is willing to follow it but not when it comes to things like international law, only when it’s laws that she can use to hide behind while trans people are subjected to further oppression through legislation that strips them of rights.

12. Historically, fascism has never been stopped at the ballot box. You being convinced that this is possible does not sway my opinion on any matter aside from my estimation of your political awareness and your ability to achieve change.

13. You had four years (eight+ if you count Trump’s regime and the lead-up to it in this calculation) to “stop fascism”. What did you do in this period of time? Did you push Biden and Kamala to adopt policies which have mass support? Did you do anything except go to back to brunch?

14. When you accuse me of not organising irl, when you say that I’m not doing anything:

• I’m not about to dox myself

• I’m not going to make a laundry list of the things that I have done w/organising and activism just to impress (?) you, especially not when you’ve already told me that I haven’t done anything

• It’s a huge self-report and it’s obvious that you’re projecting

• You alienate others by telling them “I do not recognise your efforts and everything that you have done is unimportant in my estimation”

15. You aren’t entitled to others’ votes. Stop pretending that you are.

16. We aren’t splitting the so-called left, Kamala Harris did that all by herself.

17. You have no red lines. There is nothing that could make you not support Kamala Harris and we know it. Telling people to drop their standards and ignore their conscience to vote for Kamala is a fatal strategy and you killed her campaign by deploying it.

18. Selective invoking of people of colour to advocate for Kamala was ridiculous and disgustingly tokenistic. Yes, Angela Davis is smarter than I am. Telling me that I’m stupider than her and so I should take my political cues from her with regards to electoralism is a losing argument and it’s low-key ableist became you’re arguing that the person who lacks intelligence also has a commensurate lack of political virtue. Historically speaking, very intelligent people have had absolutely atrocious politics. Also people like Thomas Sowell and Clarence Thomas are almost certainly a lot smarter than I am. It would be wrong of me not to defer to their superior intellect and their politics, isn’t that right?

19. You say that democracy is going to be strangled in its crib and that fascism has come to town. You are maybe posting about this online in your echo chamber and that’s it. You do not take politics seriously, not even your own, yet you demand that I take your politics more seriously than you yourself do. There are things that I am doing right now to avert this trend in politics. There are things that I would do if fascism proper had seized power, none of which I would post about online. We are not the same. Enjoy your brunch though.

20. Almost all of your arguments for voting for Kamala Harris (aside from the “it will stop Trump” argument which, in retrospect, appears to be a dismal failure) also apply to reasons for voting for Trump. “You can push them left”, “By voting we will get a seat at the table”, “Voting third party or not voting at all is a wasted vote”, “We have to vote this way to protect the country”, “Politics is about comprise - you cannot expect them to be your perfect political candidate”, and whatever hold-your-nose-and-vote arguments you trot out. Did you ever stop to ask yourself why it is that you do not find these arguments for voting Trump to be convincing?

21. Last time Trump got elected you were brutally vindictive. You took glee in the thought of people in red states and marginalised groups suffering due to policy and things like natural disasters, regardless of their politics or how they chose to vote. You were excited to tell these people that they were going to get deported and put into concentration camps. You will do it again this time too because you have learned nothing. November came and these people you targeted with your vicious schadenfreude remembered. They aren’t going to forget how effortlessly you abandoned them and how you wished the worst suffering and ill-fate upon them.

22. You said that a non-vote or a 3rd party vote is a vote for Trump. We have been shouting from the rooftops that Kamala Harris is fundamentally unwilling and incapable of stopping Trump. History vindicates this position; Trump managed to win the popular vote while Harris underperformed by millions of votes, even compared to Joe Biden. Thus your support for Kamala Harris was therefore support for Donald Trump’s presidency. Congratulations on getting the candidate which you campaigned so hard to get elected.

23. I don’t care about the US. America must die and if Trump is to be its undertaker then I am relieved to hear it. What you have done is to accelerate the destruction of the US. If I were cynical about achieving my political objectives, wouldn’t have said any of the above. If I was an accelerationist I would have been pushing for all of the things that you’ve been pushing for instead of pushing back against them. I would have even gone so far as to furnish your side with more poisoned chalice arguments (I do this with the far right, I exactly know how to do it). Instead I’ve been defending your political project against your own excesses and self-defeating narrow mindedness. You are right in the fact that I am your enemy but you are wrong to oppose me because you are a far greater enemy to yourself than I could ever have the stomach to be. You won’t listen to a word of what I’ve said because you refuse to learn and to reflect.

24. A cynical person might argue that my strategy is to oppose you in the knowledge that this will make you react by becoming more deeply entrenched in your position, encouraging a sort of siege mentality in you, so that you see any criticism or difference of opinion as being an existential political threat that must be eradicated as a means to create more disaffected people to radicalise out of bourgeois democracy. This is not my intent. If things improve for the proles and the marginalised because of what I argue for then that’s a win for my political objectives. However I can’t control your actions and if you choose to respond by taking a hatchet to your precious liberal democracy then, likewise, that’s a win for my political objectives. Which way, western man?

The road to hell is paved with “lesser evils”.

All I have to say is

https://hexbear.net/post/3789920?scrollToComments=false