A red mid-west and a blue south. What is this, a map of 1952?

Let it motivate you to go vote. You are not alone, even if you live in a deeply red area.

Every person who votes helps tell the story that the majority of this country rejects a crazy person leading our country.

I’ll give you three paths:

• Option 1: It’s not so much about getting a progressive in the White House, it’s about getting a significant majority in the legislature. LBJ was not considered a progressive when elected, yet he signed many progressive objectives into law. Get a decent power base in the legislature and any moderate president worth half their salt will sign the stuff into law.

• Option 2: Get Progressives in the cabinet and then utilize the order of succession. Arguably the most progressive person in recent history that we’ve had in the White House was Henry Wallace, he was VP in FDRs 3rd presidency and then became secretary of commerce in the 4th and as part of Truman’s cabinet. He was a known communist apologist. At one time, he was a heartbeat away from being president.

• Option 3: The Snapback to normalcy. Just a theory, but for whatever awful reason, as soon as America elects one party or the other, they essentially get buyers remorse the next election. Not always, but fairly often. So, America could elect someone so awful, who cuts back so many popular programs, and enacts so much of their own agenda that Americans find unpalatable. Add to that a raise in taxes and a bad economy during the election cycle, and maybe, just maybe a progressive demagogue would have a fighting chance. Of course, the opposite is just as likely to occur for another 4 or 8 years first, so when using this option, be careful what you wish for.

I hear ya, It was more of a bookend of the Trump era, but adding him felt like it loses the thread.

Sure, my plan:

• Donate & Volunteer to candidates I support
• Vote for candidates I support in the primaries
• Get as many of those people elected
• Call them and donate to causes that advocate for what I believe in (SLPC, NAACP, CCL, EFF, etc)
• Call them and donate to causes that advocate for ranked choice voting or something better than FPTP
• Throw my hat in the ring one day

I can’t control what others do, I can only strive to influence others. So to entertain the question, if a dictator gets elected - I will fight, I will protest (and have) up until the point that I can’t or it no longer presents as a viable option for change. And if we do ever get to that point, then I’d reassess my options.

And as for your ignore constituency statement, I get it. I didn’t like the way it went down either. The timing was terrible - I was with Joe up until that disastrous debate and then yea, I started to call people and voice my concern. I responded to survey saying he was unfit. Morale was low. The powers that be decided on Kamala, and I stand by much of her platform. I liked her as a top candidate in 2016.

And I’ll just present you with this idea. Wouldn’t it be so lovely to bookend this racist moron and all of his racist followers with a black man preceding him and a black woman after? I think that gives me a little bit of hope and faith in America.

No, centrists who are against the genocide are over here thinking, you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face. The president isn’t a dictator, the country isn’t a monolith, and you don’t understand how the three chambers of US government works.

But hey maybe that’s the point, you’d rather destroy the system and get a dictator. I love having the freedom I have and it’s served me pretty well these years. I support the cause, but I’m not willing to walk with you if it means the end of democracy.

It’s a bold move. I suppose if you let in the guy who 100% supports the genocide and they go through in full with it, then you no longer have the problem 🤷‍♂️

Focus that stress energy and go volunteer!

The ROC, Tibet, India and Mongolia at a minimum would like to have a word.

This is exactly how I found out my refrigerator was running.

As someone who doesn’t necessarily consider himself a progressive, I couldn’t fucking agree more. This is the way we get back to a strong middle class, not giving up all of our tax dollars to billionaires.

You had me up until friends.

Leaving this here for you: https://communications.yale.edu/sites/default/files/4-7-18_what_monkeys_can_teach_us_about_money_bbc.pdf

And that’s the problem right there. The fewer kids with mommy and daddy issues, the fewer kids these “elders” can “take under their wing.”

Funny but not so funny story. I was at the Playhouse in Cleveland, Ohio about 15 years back and my stepdad really wanted to take us to Finnegan’s Wake. It was an improv show where the actors would take suggestions from the audience in what would happen next. A few of us were trying to to be playful with the context, but the vast majority of the meatheads in the audience just kept shouting out lewd suggestions like the reverend fucking the widow. Over and over and over again. The lead guy (reverend) got so tired of it that he said “is this all you want to see!” and humped the actress a few times then ended the show. Simultaneously the best and saddest anti joke I’ve ever experienced.

Take it as you will, but these are the kind of people we are now hinging our democracy on.

No. Language is dynamic by design. If þey/þem wish to be diacritical fluid, who are we to deny freedom of speech?

What kind of MF watches the Harry Potter movies and thinks “you know, that Voldemort guy, he had a point.”

But don’t just vote. Get out there. Volunteer. Recruit.

I think I follow US politics pretty closely for the most part. Obviously every presidential election is important. However, there have been a few that have been critically so in my lifetime. I’ll leave it up to you to determine which ones were most important to you.

• 1992 was the first election post Cold War. It was also a referendum on how Bush handled the first Iraq war, and how he increased taxes after saying he wouldn’t. It was the first time in a while that we had a viable 3rd party candidate. It was also a watershed moment for NAFTA which would have unlikely been passed under a republican president. Gay rights also made huge strides due to this election.

• 1996 saw the rise of the religious right, and laid the foundation for the political theater that we experience today.

• 2000 was a referendum on how important the climate was to the average American. I’m sad to say that the fossils won that one. To me this was one of the most important races of our lifetimes.

• 2004 was a referendum on the handling of the second Iraq War and the continuation of torture as an interrogation device. This one to me is the one where we started to lose a lot of our standing and respect around the world .

• 2008 was critical in that we finally got some semblance of a national healthcare plan

• 2012 was a referendum on that Healthcare plan. This one is yet another critical juncture in the vision for America. The loss here made the right rabid. It also didn’t help that the 24 hour news cycle was no longer hamstrung to report the, you know, actual news.

• 2016 was a referendum on electing a black man to the highest office twice. It was also about healthcare, but most importantly it was when the right finally got war fatigue while the left got globalization fatigue. It was important in that the US started to return back to its isolationist roots.

• 2020 was a referendum on democracy. We hadn’t experienced such a vital threat to democracy since the era when the atomic bomb gave us near total control over the world. If trump had won, I fear we would ceased to function as a democracy at the national level.

• And now onto 2024 - yet another referendum on democracy, but with the added twist that everyone is spurned by high inflation. The economy simply isn’t working for about 40% of the population. In any other normal year, this would be a shoo in for the change candidate, unfortunately for us that change candidate is a fascist dictator.

So, is 2024 the most important election of our lifetimes? Well, I suppose that depends on whether you value living in a democracy. For me, that is a resounding yes.

This may not sway them to vote Kamala, but it absolutely may sway them to abstain from voting.

I mean, think about all of those Michiganders who are staying out this year due to Gaza.

Negative press absolutely can sway voters, even this late in the game.