cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14778555
@MaxBlumenthal
“Democracy is on the ballot”
@DrJillStein
BREAKING: Jill Stein and her Campaign Manager and Deputy Campaign Manager, Jason Call and Kelly Merrill-Cayer, have been arrested at Washington University in St. Louis while supporting a protest against WashU’s ties to the war on Gaza. Video from @KallieECox
Direct video link: https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1784410882627227648/pu/vid/avc1/1280x720/0RbEXrPU8hvKoqwU.mp4
Source: https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1784440127734812900
Excuse me, OP. Please provide a presidential voting strategy that you would like me to employ with the goal of maximizing positive impact. That's generally my goal. I try to things that will have a positive impact on society. Please note that ineffective actions don't have any impact, by definition.
I ask for a voting strategy because you seem to be drawing a line connecting a phrase used to argue in favor of voting for Joe Biden for president (over Trump) with an incident that has recently happened in St. Louis. Presumably you think this incident is bad (on the surface I think it is, too) and would like for things to improve. Presumably you also think Biden is in favor of the outcome with this incident. Do you think Trump would be against this outcome?
There are, of course, other ways to deal with the negative incident that don't center around your individual vote for president, but you seem to be suggesting that the two are directly connected, which is why I asked my question.
Goal of maximizing positive impact?
Vote Biden.
There are two viable candidates, Biden and Trump. Taking votes away from Biden only helps Trump. So not voting, voting Stein, Kennedy, West, all of that only helps Trump.
Helping Trump is supporting:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-hannity-dictator-authoritarian-presidential-election-f27e7e9d7c13fabbe3ae7dd7f1235c72
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-mexico-military-cartels-war-on-drugs-1234705804/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/30/trump-interview-jail-political-opponents-glenn-beck
https://apnews.com/article/trump-biden-israel-pr-hugh-hewitt-21faee332d95fec99652c112fbdcd35d
https://visitukraine.today/blog/3712/trumps-peace-plan-is-to-surrender-crimea-and-donbas-to-russia-wp-reveals-details
https://apnews.com/article/trump-nato-presidential-election-congress-republicans-20e902788e8701999ce0424f73d478cc
So, yeah, when the alternative is maximizing negative impact, the only voting solution is to vote for the one person who can defeat that agenda... and that's Biden.
Why do you claim that is unidirectional? Why not:
"There are two viable candidates, Biden and Trump. Taking votes away from Trump only helps Biden. So not voting, voting Stein, Kennedy, West, all of that only helps Biden."
E: I only inversed this claim to highlight how ridiculous it sounds. I don't believe either statement is true. Do you truely not believe that someone would be deciding between Trump and Kennedy, without any consideration for Biden?
Great point by reversing it!
Thanks for sharing!
You too bud. 😘
Sure... the difference is the Trump block is monolithic. Nothing is going to convince a Trump voter to switch their support, or stay home.
The Democratic side has always been subject to fragmentation in a way that the Republican side has not.
So the risk is peeling off Biden voters for Kennedy, Stein, or West, or simply saying "I'm not voting."
If your intent is to maximize the most beneficial outcome, vote Biden.
If you want to change how elections work, get your state to go 100% vote by mail to increase turn out, and ranked choice balloting to kill first past the post elections.
Voting for a 3rd party or Independent only splits the vote and guarantees a Trump win.
Because people who vote Stein at least in theory should be ideologically-aligned with Democrats than Republicans. If you're voting Stein because you are on the left side of the spectrum, then you need to educate yourself that this is a wasted spoil vote that only enables the Republican party candidate who is further from your goals to get in power. Green party candidates are often bankrolled by Republicans. Guess why.
Ideally, we'd want life-long Republicans to not vote or vote Kennedy or West while we want Stein voters to vote Biden.
Moreover within this community that is predominantly left-leaning, the message is: not-voting or voting third-party helps Trump. If I was in a conservative community, sure I'd be pushing for apathy and voting third party.
Now you know what right-wing operatives and online troll farms do.