@benroyce @juergen_hubert I got plenty of hope. Hope that we can actually change things. Hope that we can do something other than the same damn strategy that's been failing for decades already. You're the one that seems to be saying that the only option is to settle in and enjoy the status quo.

@benroyce @juergen_hubert My state has been voting for Democrats almost exclusively since the 80s. I must have missed the part where that fixed everything.

@admin @juergen_hubert

Then propose an alternative approach. We can't start a third party in our stupid fucking voting system. So we're stuck with having to take over the dems. Im not calling it easy. Im calling it our only way forward. And youre not helping. And why? Third party dreams in RI (i think you're in RI)? Would you excuse me if i said this focus of yours is rather immaterial to national concerns? Please scope your words to national concerns and not your goals in RI

@benroyce @juergen_hubert You can't go zero to national, doesn't matter if you're taking over the Dems or building something new. You start in the states you can change and you build from there. It's gonna take some time unfortunately. Should have started years ago, but second best time is now.

Dumping FPTP would be a great step too, there's efforts to do that as well in plenty of places, including here in RI.

@admin @juergen_hubert

and we'll get fptp dumped by voting people in who will get that done

we need *less* dreamers

more effective action

@benroyce @juergen_hubert No, you start where that isn't an issue until you've got the momentum to run for bigger shit. I'm not talking about running for President, we aren't gonna get anyone left of center in there by *any* strategy without doing a lot of work locally first.

@juergen_hubert

a focus on the dem estbmnt is a red herring

of course they suck

#mamdani showed us just show up and #vote for who we like. he got no support from the estbmnt, even hostility. now he's mayor

because we voted!

the dem estbmnt is not going to change. does it matter? why should we care?

1. ignore them

2. vote

*especially #primaries #primaries2026*

3. and replace them

et voila

voter anger is not the fault of #democrats

the dems being shit is the fault of people not voting

@benroyce @juergen_hubert @cascheranno

My take: You vote counts. If that were not true, why would they (both parties) spend so much time and money trying to stop you? They want a low turnout, because it's easier to tip an election that way.

The solution is obvious: Vote. I will tell you now; I don't care *who* you vote for. Just as long as you vote.

Want to do more? Volunteer to help folks get to the polls. Whatever gets the most people voting is how all this gets fixed.

@benroyce @juergen_hubert @cascheranno

My take: You vote counts. If that were not true, why would they (both parties) spend so much time and money trying to stop you? They want a low turnout, because it's easier to tip an election that way.

The solution is obvious: Vote. I will tell you now; I don't care *who* you vote for. Just as long as you vote.

Want to do more? Volunteer to help folks get to the polls. Whatever gets the most people voting is how all this gets fixed.

@agreeable_landfall @benroyce @juergen_hubert @cascheranno
Vote? Definitely!
Doesn't make a difference.
The rich buy politicians on both sides; no matter who gets elected, the rich get richer and I am poorer.
Why are they spending money on elections? Cost of doing business. To maintain the farce so the oppressed do not revolt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiTJ7Pz_59A
James Talarico: "The culture wars are a smoke screen, because the real fight in this country is not Left versus Right; it's Top versus Bottom."

@benroyce @juergen_hubert @cascheranno

My take: You vote counts. If that were not true, why would they (both parties) spend so much time and money trying to stop you? They want a low turnout, because it's easier to tip an election that way.

The solution is obvious: Vote. I will tell you now; I don't care *who* you vote for. Just as long as you vote.

Want to do more? Volunteer to help folks get to the polls. Whatever gets the most people voting is how all this gets fixed.

To the #VoteBlue people in the USA: Yes, voting for the #Democrats _is_ necessary in all upcoming elections. But you also need to realize that the anger at the Democratic Party establishment is both real and entirely justified, and you should understand where that anger is coming from.

To quote the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail":

'First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.”'

Letter from Birmingham Jail, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter to 8 white church leaders, written from a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963.

(letterfromjail.com)

@juergen_hubert

a focus on the dem estbmnt is a red herring

of course they suck

#mamdani showed us just show up and #vote for who we like. he got no support from the estbmnt, even hostility. now he's mayor

because we voted!

the dem estbmnt is not going to change. does it matter? why should we care?

1. ignore them

2. vote

*especially #primaries #primaries2026*

3. and replace them

et voila

voter anger is not the fault of #democrats

the dems being shit is the fault of people not voting

@benroyce

Yeah, voting in the primaries is one of the most important paths for change in the USA, although I think this should be accompanied by political action groups independent of the political parties. Political leaders need to fear voters even outside of the campaign seasons.

Though I do think only blaming voters for "not voting" misses the mark a bit. The US election system offers methods for vote manipulation and Big Money influences that are inconceivable in most democratic countries. The "will of the voters" has a massive structural disadvantage in the USA, and this has been the case from the start.

@juergen_hubert

you delineate the problem accurately

i'm describing the solution

which is we vote

what is the point of giving fascists what they want by not voting?

and what is the value of honoring convoluted self-defeating rationalizations against the thing that is the solution for our problems?

i love that MLK quote

thing is, MLK would be telling us to vote

and be shaking his head at those not voting, because such people are a flavor of what he is complaining about in the quote