We had 8 good years before that and didn't set up any protections.

More people (as a percentage of the eligible voting population) voted in 2016 than 2012, and more in 2020 than in 2016.

Finger wagging at people for criticizing the current ruling party (which is sending weapons to a country that is using them to commit genocide) instead of recognizing that we live in an undemocratic system is taking it out on the wrong people. Clinton literally won more votes in the election you're saying people didn't vote hard enough in. It's spitting in the face of everyone whose votes were shat on by the Electoral College to turn around and blame the people who were disenfranchised.

Mitch McConnell specifically refused to allow Obama to appoint a justice while there was an election going on.

Not just voter abstention, but ineffective voting too. Voting 3rd in this election is a surefire way to get trump back in office. If you wanted to stick it to Biden and get someone else, your chance was 4 years ago during the primary.

You're not voting Biden because you like him, you're voting Biden because you want to be able to vote for someone else in 2028. That is literally what is at stake here, and it can't be said loud enough or often enough.

Before the "real left" quisling trolls respond, please tell us two things... Who is the 3rd party candidate you are supporting instead? What are their chances of winning this election?

Well said, but sadly they are a lot of people here that don’t care. Which is ironic, considering the meme.

This Supreme Court is a direct result of Ruth Bader Ginsberg refusing to retire because ???.

Thanks again DNC. Couldn't have done a worse job.

Right. Voting third party truly is trying nothing, since we already know it's pissing in the wind.

For how long has this trifecta been under fascist control? Because it seems like fascists act with impunity and unlimited power as soon as they control one institution.

There’s also the fact that even when they have absolute control by the numbers, reality doesn’t really reflect that; The democrat party is not united, and is full of politicians who will refuse to follow the party line unless the party bends over backwards for them.

“Oh, you want me to vote to stop fascism? Sure, I’ll be happy to do that, as long as you add funding for a brand new bridge in my home state.” Repeat ad nauseam until you have a horribly bloated bill that nobody actually wants to vote for.

In a potential future where Democrats own 100% of the senate, and nobody sane is voting GOP, it’s also possible for third party candidates to make progress in elections since no one has fear of a batshit lunatic getting into office.

It is fairly rare for either party to control Congress and the executive for long, so I'm not sure if that's exactly the main pitfall we've run into.

I think this is mostly an unforced error on the part of neoliberalism, specifically 3rd way political ideology. In the 80s and 90s 3rd way politics grew as an idea to work around congressional gridlock.

Basically, the democratic party figured they would work across the aisle with moderate Republicans on policy they could both agree on. Hoping that this would show the American population that they were the party that could get things done.

This worked in part, Bill Clinton the main architect of American 3rd way movement became very popular. However, it had two repercussions that we are still dealing with today. It gave the policy initiative to the Republican party, allowing them to be the directors of this across aisle cooperation. It also drastically shifted the democratic party to the right.

If the DNC is rating Congress members based on criteria of Third way ideology, then the members most willing to cooperate with moderate Republicans are going to fill leadership positions. Which is why the DNC leadership is currently full of center right senior citizens conditioned to bending backwards to the whims of Republican economic policy.

Democrats have had control of house, senate, white house exactly 4 months of the last 44 years.

Democrats: "We only have 60 votes in the Senate! That's not enough to pass anything!"

Republicans: "The Senate minority will filibuster the debt ceiling bill unless you extend the Bush tax cuts, double border spending, and add birth control pills to the Schedule I drug registry."

The Democrats had a two year period, 2020-2022. GTFO out your lies.

But without neoliberalism, who will protect us from the Far-Left Authoritarian Tankies?

If people win on that type of rhetoric, it means the fascists are part of the electoral strategy, meaning it's not in their interests for the fascists to go away, because how will they win votes then?

voting is pointless, just reinforces ruling class, you are not subject of social change but an object to manipulate with and blackmail with every mean possible

Americans did have the ability to vote in SCOTUS. it's called the general election. and they did in 2016, except democratic voters didn't feel like it. so now you get 6-3 decisions that are dismantling the whole country.

God forbid we point out problems and demand reforms while the politicians are asking for our vote. All protests must apparently wait until the president is safely ensconced in office and can ignore us again.

So put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye, because this is what voting blue no matter who gets you.

We are fucked, and the DNC doesn't care.

Prove me wrong.

And yet, somehow the DNC is completely powerless while we are watching all of our human rights get washed down the drain and simultaneously watching it become legal to bribe judges.

This is horseshit and the DNC is complicit.

Once every two years is enough.

No. In a democracy, it should not be "enough" to partake in elections once every two years.

Let's get our collective heads out of the Middle Ages peasant mindset.

At least the peasants rebelled every once in a while when the lords fucked them over too much.

That it only becomes a topic of popular discussion once every two years doesn't mean people are sitting on their hands the rest of the time. I've volunteered on local, state and Congressional campaigns, mostly translating campaign website and literature/fliers into Spanish. I've done this in the lead up to the 2020 presidential elections, state assembly, city council and mayoral races here. If I talk to people about this stuff outside explicitly political gatherings or a presidential election cycle, I'm an annoying leftist who won't shut up about politics. When the rest of the country gets off their collective ass and pretends to care, I get "Why haven't you done anything in between election cycles, you're not serious," from the same people who didn't want to hear about local elections the last few years.

Yeah, it's pretty exhausting having the same liberals disengage between presidential elections and then pretend to be the arbiters of serious politicking once every 4 years to try and punch left and exclude any actual leftist viewpoints. Thanks for doing your part to keep that liberal tradition going strong.

You think we just don't know about the lower offices? Really?

"Tankies" are largely accelerationists of a few flavors unified by one desire: watch the United States burn to the ground. You shouldn't take their viewpoint seriously except as adversaries.

God you guys are as obsessed with tankies as republicans are obsessed with trans people.

First, can you define a tankie? Secondly, can you tell me how many tankies you think live in the US?

Remake this meme for tankies where instead of vote, it just says, "Tankies say 'get gunz!'"

Actually, the recent record turnouts should really be getting you to pay attention to how the elections are structured. It turns out, the way districts and the electoral college are organized means that where you get out the vote matters. Telling people to vote harder doesn't make those systemic obstacles go away.

Yeah should be -> not enough people actually vote -> fascists retain enough power to evade consequences -> fascists seize more power

Democrats say "vote!" -> not enough people actually vote

If it's known that voting isn't effective for whatever reason (including turnout) then suggesting it in the first place is a marker that one is unserious about realistic solutions and should be ignored.

"They go low, we go high", has absolutely rotted Dem brains. Going low has worked pretty fucking well.

It's not really a consequence, more like a slight slow down of their plans. All Democrats really do is not make things worse cause as soon as they "try" to make things better they run into some problems that you know the Republicans would never let stop them. So that just means losing elections is just a slow down rather than a serious consequence for Republicans cause eventually people will get tired of the Democrats not being able to do anything and end up either not voting or voting Republican.

Except nothing is changing (positively anyways).

As it stands now voting is nothing more than a placebo for the masses.

The disease is still killing us.

But we're voting for the lesser of two evils in the meantime - and then doing jack shit to fix the broken system.

The problem is that Dems have had control of all 3 (presidency, house of reps, and Senate) for only 4 years of the last 24 years. When you don't have all 3 you are forced to reach across the aisle.

*If you include Bill Clinton then it's 6 years of the last 32 years. If you include Bush senior and Reagan, then it's 6 years of the last 44 fucking years.

Pick a country that doesn't depend on NATO or Western influence to survive. One that won't soon be swallowed by the sea, isn't under China's boot, and doesn't cost a fortune to live in.

New Zealand tops the list. Though maybe don't buy beach front property.

How can you not love democracy? You have the power to choose the one that you definitely don't want to win but you never vote for whoever represents you. Working as intended.

Everyone has an equal vote in the US (of course I'm not talking about felons, etc. who lost their vote). Everyone is just so scared "of the other guy winning" they don't elect the person who should win. There isn't a candidate even bothering with a "crawl back to democracy" plan with the end of gerrymandering, federal protection for absentee ballots, better healthcare laws to allow better movement between jobs (why not do Medicare For All which takes out the middleman?), etc. The people still have the power, they are too scared they will lose what position they have in society if they attempt to use it.

Democracy isn't failing, propaganda is just winning.

edit: Why should there be a candidate who wants to make things better? Why put resources into that kind of work when it's not even needed to secure votes.

I remember when the needle only barely started to move toward Bernie before the democratic party super-geniuses swiftly moved in to make a whole bunch of candidates drop to put their full support behind decrepit Biden right before Super Tuesday while funding a PAC to keep Warren in the race to split votes with Bernie while running their media machine in overtime talking over and over about the "Biden miracle" after the endorsement in South Carolina gave Biden his only victory up to that point. You know, South Carolina, which didn't even end up voting for Biden during the actual presidential election.

Are these the democrats who are fighting back? Well, they're certainly fighting off the leftists with all their might, that's for sure.

Well on the plus side I'm sure once they get rid of that whole separation of powers thing it'll be a lot easier to do stuff.

A significant portion of the right believe in a Unitary Executive and that is what they've been working towards for decades. They believe the president has the power to control the entire federal executive branch. They've captured the judiciary branch and gotten the rulings they want.

Our current situation really is the culmination of almost 70 years of rightwing efforts. They turn out to school board meeting and ban books. Their base is extremely mobilized and there are dozens of grassroots movements with varying interests. At the end of the day they all show up to vote for their guy(s) to push their party the direction they want, it's worked and that party has mainstreamed extremism.

I tell people as often as I can, especially my trans and bipoc friends; now is the time. Get a couple guns (a long one and a short one) and learn how to use them. Learn some basic first aid, you really just need to know how to stabilize someone. Start networking with like-minded people in your communities. The police will not protect us, they’ve proven they’ll happily club senior citizens to the ground and shoot any protesters in the face with rubber bullets while escorting a rightwing murderer to safety.

Iran was a secular, liberal state until almost 1980 when they (mostly legitimately) elected an Islamist theocracy; it could happen here

They could have gotten rid of the filibuster. But nope. Just the usual non partisan corporate welfare bills.

So brave, so bold 🥲

Democrats are hard neolibs, which is another way of saying pro-Oligarchy (they want the State to not regulate Money, making the latter the greater power of the two, which is anti-Democratic since the State is led by elected leaders whilst Money is not) - in their pyramid of power, those with most money sit atop, then come them, then the State, then comes the rest - whilst Fascists put themselves atop, then the State, then Money, then the rest.

The "plebes" are not represented by either one (for either they're just supposed to produce wealth and provide manpower to maintain the power and priviledges of the higher levels of the power pyramid), but they are different beasts from the point of view of the elites.

All this to say that a vote for a Democrat is not a vote for Fascism, though it's also not a vote for Democracy or to actually be represented in any way in the power circles.

It's a sad, sad state of affairs in the US.

That's so deep. You must be proud.