I don’t like Biden either, but anyone with half a brain knows there are two choices in the 2020 election. If we had a sane voting system, voting third party might be worth it, but as it stands, no one but you knows your favorite candidate exists and unless you want to become their campaign manager that will still be true in November. Even if you did, and even if you convinced two thirds of the people who would otherwise have voted for Biden to vote for your chosen candidate instead, Trump would still win because half the country voted for him and your guy only got a third. If you vote third party you might as well stay home.

Not voting isn’t going to stop the genocide in Gaza. The US will continue to funnel them arms no matter which candidate wins this November. Trump practically campaigns on how much he hates the Jews and he’s publicly told Israel to “finish up their war”. He’ll also make life a living hell for anyone who isn’t a straight cisgender male back here at home.

A vote for a candidate is not an endorsement of them or their policies, it’s a statement that you like their policies more than the other guy’s, and “sticking it to liberals” and “refusing to support genocide” (that’s not what voting for Biden is doing, by the way – a vote for either candidate is a vote for genocide and a vote for neither is an endorsement of both) is not more important than keeping the furthest right politician America has ever seen out of office.

How incredibly privileged do you have to be to see an entire national election as what will happen in the Middle East and ignore Trump’s campaign promises to wipe transgender Americans off the map, and further, to not realize that the same thing will happen in the Middle East regardless of which candidate wins?

I hate Biden as much as every other leftist here. But I’ll still vote for him because Trump is worse. If there’s a single bone in your body that cares about the lives of your trans friends you will too.

    • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Think about it for a moment: people are opposing a genocide. Do you think if Biden called for a ceasefire or ended his support for a genocidal regime it would cost him votes?

      People sure acting like that is the case the way people are opposing genocide as a valid electoral issue.

      So shit, right now?: Bully the everloving fuck out of Biden and anyone supporting the genocide Israel is conducting in Gaza. Fuck them and their genocide. Make it an electoral issue. See what influence can be made between now and voting day, like a properly engaged member of a political system.

      • KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 months ago

        Whenever I see people bemoaning the system, (which I agree is fucked, overall) I always wonder if they’ve bothered to write/call/harass legislators? Because it’s sometimes surprising how much an angry person can accomplish when they decide to be a problem.

        I set up targeted harassment of state legislators on reddit and twitter and managed to get weed legalized after it died in committee in the preceding five years.

      • Syrc@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Do you think if Biden called for a ceasefire or ended his support for a genocidal regime it would cost him votes?

        I mean, at this point, maybe? I’m confident while probably both very small groups, the pro-genocide Biden voters are more than the anti-genocide Trump voters. Someone who votes Republican in modern elections doesn’t seem like they would be concerned for the wellbeing of black people on the other side of the planet.

      • Pan_Ziemniak@midwest.social
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        9 months ago

        If Biden ceased supporting israel, our remaining allies would be all the more disillusioned with our fickle ass nature and our soft powers would plummet.

        Guarantee you, if we had a president Sanders, 70 senators would be tripping over themselves to pass Israeli aid and overturning any of his executive orders while calling him an antisemite.