A Primer on Voting (Or Not Voting)
This post will likely be controversial. It's also not directly related to our usual subjects of preparedness and collapse (but it comes around to it). I think it's worth having this discussion if for no other reason than having a response to liberals trying to guilt you, or to leftists who are maybe a little misguided on the subject.
Let's start zoomed way out: I don't think that it's worth your time, as a leftist, to be absorbed in US politics in general. They are a dog and pony show meant to trick the public into thinking that our system is functional, that it creates worthwhile change, and that there is a substantive difference between the two parties. There may have been a point in time during which these things were true, but I think they're pretty inaccurate now. As Bill Hicks would say, whether you're voting for the puppet on the left or the right, they're controlled by the same asshole.
Inside that shell of irrelevance, I don't think it's worthwhile to be engaged in presidential politicking because I think politics at this level are a complete charade. Republicans are favored by the monied interests in this country because they will lead the charge in giving said monied interests the most money and tax breaks. Democrats, for their part, pretend to be outraged at this piecemeal sale of the country and draft off our desire for social progress. Ultimately, though, both parties are simply engaged in the business of being a politician and are in it to make money for themselves and their friends. Whether this wealth-accrual happens by changing laws or by simply pursuing election doesn't matter one whit to these people. Both parties have been racing rightward, with Dems of late appearing much closer in the true political spectrum to 1990s-era Republicans than actual progressives.
Now, before we get into particulars, let's ask the question: why should we ignore this system that's robbing and aggrieving us? And the answer is we shouldn't ignore it–but we shouldn't engage with it on its own terms. Participating in the system that is robbing us, at best, gives us a false sense of ownership over our own persecution–this attitude that "Biden may not be everything we wanted, or even anything we wanted, but at least its our guy making the calls" kinda thing. Which, if that's the level of your consideration, you're probably too busy thinking about your fantasy football team to be reading this anyway.
Voting Dem for Harm Mitigation
The argument that I'm hearing a lot, and have heard in past elections, is that we (leftists) should vote for the Dems because they will do less harm than Trump (or the GOP, depending). My swift response to this question is: for whom exactly is harm being mitigated? We have spent, contrary to popular belief, the last four years under a Dem president. Trump hasn't been in office. Your student loans still standing, your grocery bill soaring, your tax dollars funding the militarization of police and the border, and your taxes sent overseas to bomb Palestinians–this is all under the Dems. The brutalization of anti-genocide protestors happened under Biden. The loss of Roe v. Wade happened under Biden. Most of our COVID deaths have happened under Biden (though that isn't the fairest metric). And to reiterate: Israel's genocide of Palestinians is occurring under Biden. An actual genocide is being armed and funded by the United States with a Democrat as POTUS.
And to shush any hemming and hawing about Israel's atrocities in Gaza as something other than genocide, here are a few links to authorities on the matter who would say it is, in fact, a genocide. The University Network for Human Rights has concluded that Israel is violating the Genocide Act of 1948. From a rights expert speaking to the UN:
Specifically, Israel has committed three acts of genocide with the requisite intent: causing seriously serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group[.]
And an overwhelming percentage of scholars on the Middle East state that Israel's actions are either "genocide" or "major war crimes akin to genocide."
Any entreaties by candidate Harris to stop shipments of bombs or call for a ceasefire have had the verve of every attempt by VP Harris–which is to say they've done nothing and no one expected them to. And Biden has been all but silent on the subject–on all subjects, really–for a while now.
Then there is what Harris has promised: to enact Biden's border policy, which is lifted from a GOP wet dream; to stand with Israel and its "right to defend itself"; and, honestly, not much else. There are the standard promises of tax cuts and credits, but mostly Harris' campaign has thus far been a generic refutation of Trump's presidency, four years in the past. It's a campaign of Joy!™ But not of substance. Her signs say that "We're Not Going Back," but her campaign has embraced the endorsement of Dick Cheney, and it's been claimed that Reagan-era advisors would vote for her. One would assume that in fine print on each sign there is a line which reads "We're not going back to 2016, but 1990 is on the table."
Trump v The Democratic March Right
The other side of this argument is that Trump's candidacy is very scary–and that is true, and I've preached it, myself. Project 2025 is terrifying. But that's the thing; Project 2025 is not Trump. It's its whole own entity, and it won't go away after this election. Nor will we somehow manage to vote a Dem into office and then push them left. It didn't work with Biden and it won't work with Harris. So while you're voting for harm mitigation and hoping that the Democrats will serve as a bulwark against fascism for four more years, they are dragging the Overton window right while pasting rainbow and equality stickers onto their bombs. The threat of further fascism doesn't go away with this election–its more obvious manifestations for you get forestalled, perhaps–but it doesn't go away. Voting blue in this environment is effectively appeasement for a lesser evil.
Really though, I can't begrudge targets of Project 2025 a harm mitigation vote. I don't begrudge people whose lives are definitely going to be worse under Trump a vote for Harris. But a great many of those potential voters are Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian, who know full well what Trump might do and who are still choosing to vote (or simply not vote) their conscience. They understand what most people in the US and even some leftists haven't wrapped their heads around yet: this is one struggle, and quite literally what happens around the world will be brought home eventually.
Voting in a Broken System Sucks
Our democracy is broken. Participating in a broken system and expecting it to do anything other than occasionally spit out an okay result is, well, silly. Investing time and energy into a broken system is also silly. Neither party has our interests at heart, and have structured what is left to enrich themselves and their friends. You can argue that there are times in which a vote is worthwhile, and I wouldn't disagree theoretically. However. Engaging with the system on its own terms is what the people in power want–they don't want us to realize that there are other means to seek change.
Rather than sink your energies into campaigning for the Dems, or following the election with rapt attention, there is an alternative path. We haven't talked too much about this, because frankly I'm not a subject matter expert on it, and frankly screaming it from a platform in this day and age is perhaps not the wisest. I'm not going to actually say it, so I have a shred of plausible deniability and perhaps avoid some Skynet crawl of leftist work. But you know what I mean. I'm not talking about waiting for the collapse, or hastening it. I mean the other inevitable thing.
Generations of Americans are being priced out of owning homes. The criminalization of houselessness and simply existing out of doors is proliferating–especially in liberal cities. Cops seize more assets from us than are stolen by any kind of crime. Billions of dollars in our taxes go to the deaths of thousands of people across the world. We are not funding a nation: we are funding a machine meant to enrich a specific subset of people, and the rest of us are on life support. Much like with cops in general, there is no reforming this. We've got to start from scratch.
An Unfortunate Anniversary
When/If turned 4 a few days ago. It unfortunately costs money to keep this website going and to send the newsletter out, and it costs money for me to buy food and water that make my brain work. If you feel like subscribing, now would be a cool time.
Or, what I'd appreciate more, is if you put some money toward Gazan mutual aid. As I write this, it has been exactly one year of brutal war on the Palestinian people following Hamas' attack against Israel. One group that's giving aid on the ground is the Gaza Mutual Aid Collective. As the war expands, it's important not to lose sight of who has remained in the crosshairs the longest.