Go figure, regressives undermining elections again, shocking.

Texans, check here:

Btw you can be intensely critical of the Democratic party and recognize that it is full of aged out of touch moderates who are refusing to meet the urgency of the moment,

and also recognize that voting for Democrats is extremely important because it allows things like the confirmation of Justices and prevents the literal fascist party from gaining more power and that harm reduction is an important end in itself

These things can coexist

Politics is a long game. Being disappointed and angry today does not obviate your responsibility to participate

If you want to punish Democrats for letting this shit happen, vote blue no matter who, and then hassle your representatives constantly. Keep hassling them until they do what you want. MAKE THEM WORK.

If you don't vote for Democrats, the Democrats don't learn a valuable lesson and move left. They assume you're too apathetic to vote and go score some other government job. You are the one who loses rights when Democrats lose. You get hurt, not them.

We lost 2016, and the damage will last a generation. Fixing this is going to take incredible political will for years to come. Every election has to be 2020 from now on. We're going to have to vote blue in such huge numbers that Republican voter suppression can't erase it. We're going to have to pressure our elected representatives constantly to make them reform the structural biases that Republicans have been exploiting for the last fifty years of relentless pushing to the extreme right. Our reps are going to keep disappointing us and we're going to have to keep voting for them anyway, because otherwise, the largest military the world has ever known will fall into the hands of open fascists.

Republicans have declared war on you. They arm and militarize cops to control you. They arm their followers to terrorize you. They declared Kyle Rittenhouse "not guilty" to signal that killing you will not be treated as a crime. You cannot let Republicans win anything ever again if you have any power to stop them.

I'm sorry, I really am, that Democrats are often not inspiring. I'm sorry this broken system often forces Democratic candidates to be "too corporate" and too moderate. But when Republicans want you either compliant or dead, you have to vote for Democrats just to have a chance at a future where you can vote for your values and not just your survival.

for an example: maryland is about to have an election for governor. the old, racist, sack-of-shit republican governor larry hogan cannot run for a new term. (may he burn in hell for what he’s done while in office.)

maryland is a state where abortion is still legal. this means people from out of state will be traveling to maryland to have the procedure done.

every single upcoming republican governor candidate wants to change that. they want to make abortion illegal in maryland.

every single democratic candidate for governor wants to preserve abortion, or even expand funding for it. like even the shittiest democrat is like “yeah i just wanna keep the law the way it is so abortion remains legal” and all the others are like “bruh we need to INCREASE FUNDING we’re going to be having so many people come here for abortions we gotta be able to handle the increased demand”

IT IS VITAL THAT MARYLANDERS VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR IN THIS UPCOMING ELECTION. even if maryland gets the one shitty democrat candidate who just doesn’t want to change anything about the current laws! even that one will be better than all the republicans who want to eliminate it.

This depends STATE BY STATE (or town by town), so check out your own state's rules. As for everywhere, only poll workers are banned from this, and people holding up signs for candidates have to be a certain distance from the building.

[Image Description:

A Screenshot of a public Facebook-Textpost by “Sandy and Richard Riccardi”.

This word of caution is from someone who has worked the polls a lot in the past: More and more I’m seeing women announcing they will be voting with shirts, buttons, masks or hats that say “Ruth Send Me”, or something similar. [Transcriptor Annotation: the late Supremecourt Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. /End of Annotation.] Remember: political messages aren’t allowed in the polling place (that could include [Black Lives Matter] shirts, unfortunately.) Also unfortunately, messages can be interpreted by whoever is in charge. It could mean, in some cases, that a voter wearing a shirt they believe is political can be denied the right to vote after waiting in line for hours. Approach this election strategically and vote smarter and cleaner than ever have before. Understand that the other side will do what it takes to advance their agenda. We need to vote in record numbers. But we need to vote smart. We can wear that wonderful “Ruth send me” shirt or mask when we get home, and raise a glass in her memory. Please copy, or paraphrase, and share with the groups you are members of, as appropriate. Help spread the word so that every vote counts! We all know what’s at stake. Do not throw away your shot. [Transcriptor Annotation: four emojis follow the text, the Peace-Symbol, a red heart, a rooster, paw prints. /End Annotation. /End of Image Transcription.]

Thank you for the image description!

I remember a story of someone having trouble at the polls because they were wearing a Stark/Rogers (as in Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, the very fictional people) so BE CAREFUL. 

I feel like this would be a slippery slope towards making it illegal for people to choose to not vote.

that’s already how it is in australia

That’s just so fucked up. :( Do certain medical conditions exempt you?

?????? why is it be fucked up to have compulsory voting? that’s the way it is in most democratic countries? it’s a part of being a citizen, like paying taxes and obeying speed limits? the fine for not voting is only like $50 and because of the compulsory voting law, our country bends over backwards to make it accessible: it’s always on a weekend, lasts most of the day, and is set up at schools and community centers so there’s one within easy reach of almost everybody. you can also mail your ballot or vote early if you’ll be out of the country on the day. like, IT’S EASY TO VOTE, and the penalty isn’t even that ridiculous. i don’t understand why the usa doesn’t have this, except obviously it would make it harder to literally stop minorities from voting.

I think we Americans tend to forget that a lot of other countries don’t actively work to make it harder to vote.

Adding to this here, in Australia you don’t have to vote. Or, more precisely, there’s no way they can tell if you ruined your ballot. You have to turn up, get your name marked off, but you can put a line through the ballot if you don’t think any of the candidates are worth voting for. Or do this: 

Or this: 

Or this: 

You have get your name crossed off (if you don’t want to wear the fine), but you don’t have to make your vote counted if you’re opposed to it. 

And it is so, so easy to vote. Stuck at work or on holidays? That’s fine. Do a postal vote.  Stuck in hospital? That’s fine. They’ll go to you. Stuck in an old people’s home and can’t get around? Again, they’ll go to you. It’s amazing to me that it’s so hard for so many Americans to actually vote. If you make it compulsory, than at least the government is obligated to provide you with the means to vote. 

And look, I get it. Sometimes I don’t want to vote either. But I suck it up, I walk three minutes down the street, and I hope that this year they’re selling lamingtons again. Oh, and I buy a democracy sausage, which, even if all the candidates suck, makes the effort of turning up pretty worthwhile. 

ALSO, you can see even on the fucked up ballots that you NUMBER CANDIDATES IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE. There’s no need to calculate whether I would be throwing away my vote on the candidate that I most agree with if they’re not from a major party. I can say, I want that independent person to get in, but if not them, give me Big Party A, and if not them, that minor party person is still better that Big Party B, and I’m not giving any preference to the Lunatic Fringe Party.

Our system certainly has some issues still, but I can show up to somewhere nearby, line up for a few minutes (if at all), vote exactly in line with my values (on paper, leaving a paper trail that can be recounted), and then buy a sausage and some home made cupcakes on my way out.

A country’s voting system matters a hell of a lot and every citizen deserves one that makes it easy to vote and results in a government that is representational and accountable.

And by the way, one time I had a bad asthma flare-up on Election Day and didn’t make it to my polling station. I got my fine in the mail, I filled out the form explaining why I couldn’t vote, no more fine. I would rather have, you know, expressed my preference for who should run my country, but they were cool with the fact that I couldn’t do it that day.

“oh no, what if people actually have to participate in picking the government officials who will impact their lives” jesus christ

Hey. Hello.

I am monumentally tired of fighting. But I’m going to continue to do so for as long as I can.

Right now I am seeing long-time followers attack Kamala Harris and Joe Biden for picking her as a running mate. I know a lot of people look at this duo and see “more of the same.” I’ve seen so many intelligent people saying they are not going to vote.

It is absolutely critical that you vote the Biden/Harris ticket. I want you to remember that while you are pointing out the flaws, and here is why.

The current president is literally a fascist. He’s slow-burning, meaning he’s slowly moving the goalpost farther right. The only reason he’s slow-moving is because the Republican party still has the barest semblance of a conscience. Think of what would have happened if #45 said “we should delay the election!” and McConnell said “yeah okay that sounds cool.”

Do you know how terrifying that is? Because if he got congress to delay the election somehow, there would be no reason to ever have a federal election again. He could just keep delaying it forever.

“But CK,” you say. “The constitution says we can’t delay a presidential election!”

Checks and balances say a lot of things. Checks and balances say that bills are supposed to be voted on and go to the president for signing or veto. Currently McConnell has found a loophole and just has 400 bills sitting on his desk, ignored.

I want you to keep this in mind: Under fascism, the constitution does not matter. They will find a way around it. They’re trying to find ways around amendments, too, poking and prodding at free speech until they can find a way to shut it down.

And if #45 decides he doesn’t want to play anymore, he’s got a whole fucking army, and he’s just proven that the secret police he has in his employ will do whatever the fuck he says. I need you to recognized that this throwing people in Portland into vans thing wasn’t the ultimate violation of freedom. It was only one step in a massive authoritarian takeover. You cannot trust the secret police to do the right thing and say no. #45 has just proven they’ll listen to him like trained dogs.

He has already started talking about more terms. If he discards the constitution, there will be nothing stopping him from taking them. He’s currently, blatantly trying to rig a free and fair election. This has happened in other countries across the globe, and the same people who are posting “NEVER VOTE FOR BIDEN” are the same ones who post things like “JUSTICE FOR _______” when a despot steals an election.

If the incumbent president wins another term, this will be the last election we have. This will be it. This is how fascism works. This isn’t slippery-slope talk. This isn’t “potential worst case scenario.” We are in the middle of the worst case scenario now.

Please. For the sake of the millions of people who will die under #45. For the sake of people who cannot survive another 4+ years. Think of Biden/Harris as a road block. A barricade. Right in the middle of the road. It stops traffic and doesn’t do anything to get people where they’re going, but at least it stops them from careening off a bridge.

If you never want to have to make this choice again, you have to fight to abolish the US’s First-Past-The-Post voting system, but it is TOO LATE to do that now. No third party candidate can win. Study the election results from the last 40 years and you’ll see.

Please. Wise up. This is our last chance.

As someone who is in local leftist circles, I’m seeing a lot of people mocking “vote blue no matter who”. Lately, even comparing those people with the Back The Blue movement which sides with the police against protesters. They’re saying that if you insist people vote Democrat, you’re basically a boot licker. I’ve been hearing, “time to burn it all down”.

Mmkay. When?

When is your glorious revolution going to start? Please explain your plan to me. Explain how it will topple the current government. Explain how you will install something better in its place. Explain how the new government will legitimize itself and stay in power. Now, Explain how you will do this without killing millions of poor, disabled, and marginalized people.

Oh. You don’t have one of those plans? Then you have to deal with the government we actually have, not a fantasy version of it. You have to look at what you can realistically accomplish within the two party system that we have, not the fantasy multi-party system you want. You have to look at the REAL, ACTUAL candidates and say, “which one starts closer to my eventual goal, and which one can be moved by a sustained concerted effort?” And you have to say, “which one will kill the fewest people while we’re trying to fix the problems that gave us this system we hate in the first place?”

Because you cannot campaign for a ranked voting system in the eleventh hour. It’s too fucking late. That choice isn’t on the table for you anymore. Don’t whine and kick your feet and refuse to take the first step towards fixing things because that step isn’t big enough for you. There are hundreds of notches on the needle between Biden/Harris and all the things we want: racial Justice, indigenous land reparations, universal basic income, socialized medicine. Hundreds of notches. But if we cannot even agree to pull the needle ONE NOTCH FURTHER LEFT in unison, how the fuck are we supposed to get there? How do we ever reach a destination when half of us turn our noses up at a first step?

The Right got us here because they pull in unison. They’ve been doing it for decades and every election, the whole country slides. There are more of us but we refuse to work together. We refuse to just decide on a first step and take it. We refuse so hard we’d rather say “burn it down” than comprise our political purity. But I am here to tell you that no amount of philosophy is worth an ounce of praxis and your purity will not absolve you from the moral laziness of deciding your neighbors are acceptable sacrifices in the name of a brave new world.

Change requires realistic goals and sustained effort. It requires responsibility and involvement. It is measured in increments. It isn’t glorious.

“Burn it all down” only requires you to stand back and watch. So. I see y'all.

Harm Reduction

160,000 are dead. 

Our nation is descending into full blown fascism. 

Progress takes time. 

I wish we could flip a switch and have an army of AOC and Bernie style progressives running things. But it’s just not realistic to think we can get there overnight. But I do believe we can get there eventually. 

I’m voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I am done complaining about the things I don’t like about Biden and Harris. I know they are not ideal. So I’m going to advocate to change Biden’s mind and push him towards policies I like. I’m going to advocate for better congressional candidates. I am going to advocate for better local officials. 

This “Kamala is a cop” rhetoric isn’t going to help with anything. This defeatist “they’re all the same” attitude isn’t going to help anything. This isn’t even the “lesser of two evils.” Biden and Harris are worlds away from the evil that is Trump and the GOP. It’s like saying a paper cut and decapitation are basically the same. The paper cut isn’t the lesser of two evils. It’s annoying and you want to get rid of it eventually, but at least you still have a head. 

I don’t want to die. I don’t want my parents to die. I don’t want my chronically ill friends to die. I fear if Trump gets reelected we will descend into even more chaos. Social Security and Medicare could be at risk. Both things I need to live. Things my parents need to live. 

I’m done shitting on Biden. And I’m not going to start shitting on Harris. I am going to support them and advocate everyone vote for them. They are the only viable alternative to Trump. 

I hate that he lost too, but the mourning period for Bernie is over. He supports Biden for president. We all should too. 

And, no, not voting is not an option. Don’t be that person. Perhaps you have good health and would be able to survive more Trump. But there are many who would not. Please think of them. Think of the people suffering in ICUs right now. Think of RBG fighting to stave off death.

Being sick for 20 years I know sometimes harm reduction is the only option. It always feels a bit like giving up and compromising. Because it is. But it keeps you moving forward. It allows for the chance to improve things later on. 

Look, Trump’s trying to get rid of Social Security.

I’m disabled, and I can’t work, and that’s my sole income. It’s not enough, but I have a place to live and food to eat. I don’t have family, and I don’t have friends who can afford to support me if that goes away. I would be completely fucked.

If Biden wins, he’s not going to attack Social Security, and I can scrape by for a while longer.

Refusing to vote means you are casting a vote for me to be homeless.

Please hold your nose and vote for Biden, and maybe we can start to dig out of this hole we’re in.

Yes, voting is important, and we all should do it.

Can we please stop punching down at the people who are frustrated about the candidates we have? Can we please stop talking about how they want ~ideological purity~? Can we stop trying to emotionally blackmail the people who are just fucking tired after politician after politician has promised to make life better, and then thrown them under the bus in order to appeal to upper-middle-class white centrists?

We’re all supposed to fucking be in this together. If you’re out there yelling at someone poor, someone queer, someone of color, that Trump is their fault because they didn’t vote in 2016, and they better fucking straighten up or they’ll get it again this time - stop it. Support your siblings in resistance. Don’t waste your energy fighting the people who are already hurting. Put it against our actual goddamn oppressors.

Now that I’ve calmed down a bit, some clarification.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be pushing for people to vote, and vote Democrat, whereever they can. Blue-waving it is our best chance for survival at this point, and anyone who tries to argue that that’s not true better have a hell of a plan for what we should do instead, or else they’re talking out their ass.

What I’m saying is, we shouldn’t be filling our “hey! go vote!” posts with “if you don’t vote you are personally responsible for all oppression in America over the next two years”. Even if you don’t care about the anxiety and pain that fills people with on a personal level, that kind of guilt-based praxis burns people out really quickly, and a lot of us are already on the edge of burning out from compassion fatigue. We need people to be voting in 2020, and 2022, and 2024, and after. Hell, we need people to be voting on the local and state level in 2019. Emotional blackmail isn’t a sustainable way of getting people involved; if we want to change the world long-term, we need to make the people invested in social justice feel engaged, like they have a path to materially affect their own conditions, instead of just feeling like they have to keep pressing the “lesser of two evils” button and watching as half the time it doesn’t work anyway.

And that’s the thing. The Republican strategy, for so long, has been in making people feel like they can’t be effective, that there’s no reason to be engaged. It’s been a strategy of muting people’s rage so they burn out trying to be heard, then telling them their apathy is reasonable and rational and they should just leave politics to the adults in the room. If we burn each other out with guilt and fear, we’re playing right into their hands. That’s what I mean when I say “support your siblings in resistance”. Tell us why we’re helping, how we can help, and what we can do to make things better above and beyond the ballot box. Push us into pride and power, not apathy.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2018/10/03/thousands-texas-voter-registration-applications-filed-using-online-tool-could-invalid

Updated 12:58 p.m. on Wednesday to include a new statement from Secretary of State Rolando Pablos.

Texans–especially those in in Dallas, Bexar, Cameron and Travis counties–who registered to vote using an online tool provided by the California nonprofit vote.org are not eligible to vote.

The office of the secretary of state, the top elections administrator, says the applications submitted through vote.org weren’t valid because they didn’t have original signatures. (They would sign their name on a piece of paper, snap a photo of it and upload it to the online application.)

In a statement on Wednesday, Secretary of State Rolando Pablos said: “We remind all eligible Texas voters that online voter registration is not available in the State of Texas. Any web site that misleadingly claims to assist voters in registering to vote online by simply submitting a digital signature is not authorized to do so. All Texas voters should be extremely cautious when handing over personal and sensitive information to any unknown third party.”

He urged voters to check their registration status on the secretary of state’s website (https://teamrv-mvp.sos.texas.gov/MVP/mvp.do), where they could also get more information on the elections.  

Texas does not have online voter registration.

Registration applications require original signatures. The applications filed through the vote.org process contained only copies of signatures — in the appended photos — which made them invalid.  

The secretary of state is advising counties that received the applications to notify residents that they are incomplete. To finish registering, they will have to return applications with an original signature within 10 days of receiving the notice.

“Even if that 10th-day deadline falls after that Oct. 9 deadline, they would still have 10 days to sign an actionable form,” Taylor said. “It’s not going to affect whether or not these people are going to be registered.”

Executives at vote.org said they are sending printed applications with stamped envelopes to people who registered using their tool so they can complete them for free.

Yes but not the right kind of American

This road trip has been really difficult emotionally. Mostly because I’m hearing the same thing over and over again. Either a variation of “My vote doesn’t matter anyway" or the much more heartbreaking, "Am I not an American?”

This has been the two most difficult things to hear because my instinct is and always has been to help. When a 97 year old women tells you about how proud she was to vote for the very first time and how she’s voted in every election since, having this woman ask you if this means she’s no longer an American is really…devastating. My answer is yes. Of course it’s yes, you are.

But is she? The reason she can’t vote isn’t because of money, we’re going to pay for her ID. It isn’t because she has to work on voting day. She has long since retired. It’s because she is 97 and she is a Black woman who was born in an old shack of a house in Alabama. A state she no longer lives in. She doesn’t have a birth certificate and she doesn’t know if there ever was one. She never drove so she never needed a licence and for most of her life, her social security card was a good enough piece of proof that she was who she said she was. 

Well, the SS card isn’t good enough for her DMV. She needs a birth certificate. She told us that another group tried to help her get one in 2012 because she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to vote. Thankfully, the law hadn’t taken affect at that time and she did vote. She stood in line for 3 1/2 hours.

The people who tried to help her before tried for almost a year. They didn’t get anywhere. Know why? How are you going to prove who you are if you have no proof of who you are? See, they requested the birth certificate but then they got the run around. She needed to call the state she was currently living in. No, the state she was born in. No, the local such and such no, the federal such and such. It’s over a year later and they’ve given up. 

Not for lack of trying. I sat with her and saw a stack of paperwork. Paper work that, quite frankly, asked questions that had absolutely nothing to do with getting a birth certificate. I found myself looking at a 3 page form that was asking about illegal drug use and if she’d had an abortion.

FOR A G-D DAMN BIRTH CERTIFICATE.

So yeah, maybe she’ll get it. Maybe she won’t. But see…that’s the thing. I can’t say, “Oh well.” I can’t. It’s not part of me. So I sit angrily talking to people who are supposed to help but refuse. I keep my cool while I’m imagining twisting their little heads off. I sit through lectures about how if brown people would just work a little harder and have a few less babies they could be respected.

I do this because every head that I don’t twist off, gets me a tiny bit closer to getting her to a birth certificate. Everyone has an opinion and the fact is, there are a whole bunch of people who’s opinions carry weight. Those people have backers and those backers don’t like brown people. Does this sound like an oversimplification? It shouldn’t, it’s the truth.  

What do I say when a 97 year old woman, who’s proud to be an American and prouder still of her right to vote says, “Ain’t I American No More?”

This pretty much sums up why the voter ID laws are disgusting.  Rich white people talk about how what’s the big deal, it’s not hard to get an ID.  Yeah, for you.  Read this woman’s story and tell me it’s no big deal.

There is no excuse for this.  None.  

Unfuck your Election day by getting your ass to the polls. Here's some useful shit for your epic journey on November motherfucking 6, 2012:

This list is fucking incomplete—so if you have anything important, how about adding that shit? People out there could fucking use it.

Most importantly, get your ass to the polls and vote, or so help me god I will haunt you in your nightmares.

This post is fucking great.