this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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Politics

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[–] davehtaylor@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You’re not voting for Dems, you’re voting to keep Reps out

This is what I have to keep telling myself, especially with how utterly feckless Dems have been, and how completely uninterested they are in trying to make things better. Repubs are well on their way in turning this country into a fascist dictatorship, and any roadblock is better than nothing. It's infuriating and I despise the fact that I voted for Hillary or Biden. But I just have to keep reminding myself it wasn't a vote for them, it was a vote against Trump.

I really wish we had people we could vote for instead of only focusing on who we have to vote against, but here we are

[–] alyaza@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I really wish we had people we could vote for instead of only focusing on who we have to vote against, but here we are

an important step toward this, if you want something actionable to do, is advocating for voting reform. pretty much any reform away from FPTP will do at this point, although personally i'm partial to working toward mixed-member proportional representation. the organization FairVote prefers RCV; STAR Voting and Equal Vote are both orgs that prefer STAR voting for starter orgs in this space. as far as recent switches to novel systems: Fargo and St. Louis have recently switched to approval voting!

[–] NattyNatty2x4@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I really wish we had people we could vote for instead of only focusing on who we have to vote against, but here we are

Agreed, and the way I've come to view it is that federal elections aren't ever going to be making huge waves. It's a representation of what the system is already moving towards and expecting monumental changes here is unrealistic. Local and state elections, however, is where we can push for legitimate change that eventually cascades up to the federal level. E.g. we need to reach a critical mass of state and local places using alternative voting systems before we have enough momentum to force it at the federal level, since the entrenched parties don't want it.

[–] SubArcticTundra@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Agreed. The best thing is, only one state needs to adopt proportional representation for sending reps to Congress for it to have an impact. Even a small new party with a dozen seats is likely to be a tie breaker.