Image Transcription:

A tweet from the George Takei Twitter account which states:

"A Democrat was in the White House when my family was sent to the internment camps in 1941. It was an egregious violation of our human and civil rights.

It would have been understandable if people like me said they’d never vote for a Democrat again, given what had been done to us.

But being a liberal, being a progressive, means being able to look past my own grievances and concerns and think of the greater good. It means working from within the Democratic party to make it better, even when it has betrayed its values.

I went on to campaign for Adlai Stevenson when I became an adult. I marched for civil rights and had the honor of meeting Dr. Martin Luther King. I fought for redress for my community and have spent my life ensuring that America understood that we could not betray our Constitution in such a way ever again.

Bill Clinton broke my heart when he signed DOMA into law. It was a slap in the face to the LGBTQ community. And I knew that we still had much work to do. But I voted for him again in 1996 despite my misgivings, because the alternative was far worse. And my obligation as a citizen was to help choose the best leader for it, not to check out by not voting out of anger or protest.

There is no leader who will make the decision you want her or him to make 100 percent of the time. Your vote is a tool of hope for a better world. Use it wisely, for it is precious. Use it for others, for they are in need of your support, too."

End Transcription.

The last paragraph I find particularly powerful and something more people really should take into account.

  • deaf_fish
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    30
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 months ago

    It’s ok to complain. The complaints are valid. Still vote and encourage others to vote.

    If your two choices are between a 99% fascist and a 98% fascist. Vote for the 98% fascist.

    • spookedbyroaches
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      Problem is that people actually think that it’s 99% vs 98% (not saying you think that) when that’s not the case. You have a guy that incited a riot against our democratic process and a guy that kept encouraging unity and actually helped fund infrastructure, local chip manufacturing, renewable funding, etc.

        • knightly@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          7 months ago

          Remember when the Democrats voted with Republicans to censure the only Palestinian-American in Congress for objecting to the arms deals that are currently enabling one of our proxy states to perpetuate a genocide against her ethnic group?

          Voting for the “lesser evil” is still voting for evil. Worse, it provides the lesser evil with no incentive to seek redemption, since they know you’ll vote for them anyway out of fear.

            • knightly@pawb.social
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              7 months ago

              I’m not asking to be persuaded, folks are just mad that I refuse to commit to “vote blue no matter who”. The people who need persuading are those 188 who aren’t demanding resignations from the other 12.

              I’m not going to give up the only leverage I have on the party by promising it my vote a year in advance. If you want to describe that as “handing you to the fascists”, then you’ve clearly misunderstood me.

              • PhlubbaDubba
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                7 months ago

                No, I understand you just fine, your a priv who knows you’ll be fine either way, so you leverage that to attempt extracting concessions from Women, PoC, and Queer folks while waxing ethical about teaching the establishment a lesson by treating them to our deaths if they don’t comply with you as if they’re an autocratic monolith who can just cave and give you what you want without any process or persuasion.

                You’re a vote karen, you’re demanding to see the party’s manager and until us lowlies customer service face it up for you and bring them to you you’ll see fit to torment us with the specter of you letting the fascists into power to have at us.

                If you’re someone who feels confident negotiating, you’re the exact fucking last person who should be right now, because you’ll inherently be talking over the people in greatest need right now.

                You prefer us as martyrs for your cause to us being agents for our own.

                • knightly@pawb.social
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  7 months ago

                  No, you’ve clearly misunderstood me.

                  I’m a left-wing trans furry, why would I think I’d be “just fine” under the Trump dictatorship?

                  Don’t you want “vote Karens” bugging the Democrat party managers to stop financing Genocide?

          • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            8
            ·
            edit-2
            7 months ago

            That’s why participating in primaries is so important, the primaries are where the candidates are chosen for the parties. So pushing for more progressive people in the primaries helps prevent such out comes.

            That vote was 234-188 it wasn’t a unanimous thing.

            Edit: the way people have been screaming about it makes it sound like all the Dems voted for that out come when they didn’t.

            • knightly@pawb.social
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              7 months ago

              “Pushing for more progressive people in the primaries” is what I’ve been begging people to do instead of wasting time trying to persuade me to hold my nose and vote blue no matter who, lol.

              • Seasm0ke@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                7 months ago

                Exactly. I registered D to vote for someone halfway decent in primaries, not to shill for whatever donkey the DNC force feeds us.

      • deaf_fish
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        I’m sorry to say that this will probably not be a choice.

        3rd parties are great and all, but the most likely outcome is that a vote for them will remove a vote for a more realistic candidate.

        I hate this, but it is the reality of the situation.