A quick drop of my "no American politics" rule...
On a surface level, I totally understand why folks might not want to vote for Biden/Harris. I wouldn't personally want to vote for them, either: a handsy old white guy and a woman whose progressive values are questionable at best.

But on a deeper level, I don't get it at all. The choice is between these less than ideal candidates and fascism. In a two-party system, that's it. There is no third ideal progressive candidate. It's literally: "not great" or "total destruction of American democracy."

Up here in Canadia, I'm a very far lefty voter, and anytime I can reasonably do so, I vote as far left as I can find. But when the numbers tell me the choice is between a middle-of-the-road candidate and an evil one, I'll pick middle-of-the-road.

And that's in the context of a multi-party system, where such numbers are actually relevant: likelihood of a win in a given riding, majority vs minority government, who the opposition will be, etc. You don't even need that kind of analysis in the US cuz it's stark: just A or B.

A vote doesn't need to represent your ideal. You don't need to vote for someone you like or even respect. Within the flawed democratic system, you need to choose the least awful candidate from the choices presented to you, and then spend their term pushing them to be better.

So seeing progressive folks in the US being like "I'll never vote for Biden" just baffles me. If you don't vote for Biden, you're voting for fascism. If you can't bring yourself to vote at all, you're one less vote cancelling out the vote of a MAGA hat. How is this a good thing?

How on earth is it mathematically better to absent yourself from the electoral opportunity to get rid of the current administration? You're not going to see overnight change toward a socialist state. If you want to get there, choose your next opponent: a centrist or a fascist.

How on earth do you think facilitating the reign of a fascist is going to get you closer to your ideal state? To turn around a ship as big as the USA, you'll spend the rest of your life pushing it, no matter what. Why not start from a little bit closer to the finish line?

I'm all for big dreams, for idealism, for lofty visions. But you have to look at reality, and take the steps that come between the present situation and the one you're hoping to achieve. They're not all fun. You have to clean up the shit before you fix the toilet.

Fascism is definitely not the fault of progressive people, so I'm not going to be one of those "you get what you deserve" finger-waggers. *Nobody* deserves fascism. But you're making your own job much harder if you turn up your nose at an opportunity to take it down.

Even a flawed opportunity. Even an undermined and gerrymandered opportunity. Even an opportunity that feels like a chore. Yes, even an opportunity that feels like a betrayal of your own dearly held values. You'll have to make *far* worse choices if fascists *aren't* outvoted.

It's so alarming to see some of my feed being like "nope, can't vote for Biden/Harris" as though that were a truly progressive stance. It's not. Every Russian agent monitoring Twitter cackles with glee when they read that shit. "Oh good, one less vote in the way of takeover!"

OK, off my soapbox for the moment.
Please, vote, my friends.
Signed,
one of your neighbours to the north that really doesn't want to share the longest unmilitarized(ish) border in the world with a (fully) fascist state for four (more) years / the rest of their life.
Please.