Read on Twitter
Ite now that Biden is officially the winner and everyone’s too distracted to get pressed:
Blaming third-party/non-voters for political losses is FUCKING RIDICULOUS in principle and in strategy: a thread
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✨" title="Funken" aria-label="Emoji: Funken">
Blaming third-party/non-voters for political losses is FUCKING RIDICULOUS in principle and in strategy: a thread
“You’re helping republicans” is a glorified strawman when you consider that 1) For every green voter that’s also willing to vote blue, there are probably three libertarian voters who would vote red otherwise, and 2) most of them are NOT willing to vote for a major party anyway.
This is also why it makes no sense to point to the fact that, in key areas in 2016, green voters alone outnumbered the margin by which Trump beat Clinton. Would she have won those areas if every green vote went to her? Yes. But that’s exactly the fallacy.
The exit poll among Jill Stein voters showed that only 15-20% of them would have voted for Clinton otherwise. The idea that there was a chance they could have singlehandedly won Clinton the election is more of a mental exercise than anything.
Now what about those people who CAN be convinced to vote for your major candidate (I was one of them)? What do you think is more likely to make that happen? Convincing them on policy, or shaming them and saying they’re “complicit in fascism” or whatever other bullshit?
Voting third party or sitting out is what you do if you DON’T wanna be involved in the process, if you believe (for good reason in this case) that both major candidates have way too many dealbreakers about them. Vote shaming exacerbates the tribalist vibe that these people get.
Why’d I vote for Biden? I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t at least in part due to the fact that Howie Hawkins wasn’t on my ballot and I didn’t wanna fuck up a write in by choosing wrongly between Howie and Howard, which I know is kind of a spineless reason, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY-
I think there’s a solid case to be made for voting Biden. Iran deal? Good. Paris agreement? Good. Concessions on marijuana? Fuck it, we ball. By the same token, it’s stupid to dismiss/downplay the reasons someone would NOT wanna do it.
He cheerlead the Iraq war and therefore has the blood of hundreds of thousands of civilians on his hands. He verbally gatekept Blackness. He expressed apathy towards Latino outreach. He’s probably a sex offender. Don’t even get me started on Kamala Harris.
In general, Biden is a corporatist who’s only interested in giving concessions to his donors. Throughout his campaign, bar COVID and his Buy America plan, he did virtually NOTHING to speak to working people’s material concerns.
This also applies to Hillary Clinton, who, to this day, continues to blame EVERYONE around her for her loss EXCEPT herself, when she lost to a xenophobic demagogue with 26 sexual assault allegations and the lowest favorability rating of ANY US presidential candidate.
Politics is about winning people over. No candidate is entitled to ANYBODY’S vote. Their job is to convince voters that they will steer the country in a better direction.
Hillary Clinton failed to do that, and what did her supporters do? Any introspection at all? Nope. Blaming a solid 4% of voters who went third party. Blaming progressives for wanting quarter measures when they were given sixteenth measures.
All Trump had to do was PRETEND to care about the working class and pick out the key counties in the key swing states he needed to win. Even then, he only barely pulled it off after running the best campaign he could from an economic lens and Clinton running a terrible one.
I went off on a tangent, so what’s my point? As republicans slowly become socially further left, Trump went in the exact opposite direction, and democrats didn’t wipe the floor with him. When you lose to that fucking guy, you should take a good hard look in the mirror.
In conclusion, blaming less than 5% of voters is a terrible excuse and a terrible cope.
That’s it. That’s the thread. I hope y’all do better in 2024https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤪" title="Zany face" aria-label="Emoji: Zany face">
That’s it. That’s the thread. I hope y’all do better in 2024
