• Snapz@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Anything that helps legitimize trump (increase overall pop vote numbers, regardless of loss) or props up green party and stein with a stated intention to get trump elected, in fact “helps trump”

    Considering a vote for Dr. Jill Stein? I’m open if you have some insight I’m missing, but in my experience the green party has some exciting ideas on the surface, as lip service, but the party doesn’t put in meaningful work in interim government outside of a presidential election cycle every 4 years. So it’s a meaningless party.

    You may think, “I’m in a solid red or blue state where my vote can’t influence at the national level”, but I find it hard to support Green/Stein in any capacity with how blatantly Stein has, in my opinion, been knowingly running as a spoiler candidate. The Green party has a (now publicly stated) intention to have Harris lose Michigan specifically. Below is clip from a Stein rally in Dearborn, Michigan. A surrogate for Stein is about to introduce her and spells out their intentions very clearly during remarks,

    "We are not in a position to win the White House, but we do have a real opportunity to win something historic… we could deny Kamala Harris the state of Michigan. And the polls show that most likely Harris cannot win the election without Michigan.”

    I would ask anyone considering a vote for Stein, in any state, to consider that truth they speak openly - When they are admitting that they can’t win, stating a goal to defeat the Harris campaign and acknowledging that Harris likely cannot win the election without Michigan, the undeniable net of that is that they are working to directly secure a second trump presidency, in my opinion.

    As I see it, we just cannot have it both ways in a two party system. If the green party was a serious movement working against two party politics (and I would personally embrace and support this) they would become THE platform for ranked choice voting with a green party candidate in every meaningful on/off year election to make that issue ubiquitous with green. They speak endlessly about the flawed two party system (with a clear bias towards shitting in dems), but in the current two party system we actually have, you can’t cast a protest vote without actually casting a vote for trump in this election - And that cannot be stated more clearly than this green party spokesperson states it at this event before Stein speaks.

    Here is a link to direct feed of that green party rally in Dearborn Michigan if anyone wants to see first hand to consider. It’s a longer video, but it starts at the point discussed and surrogate makes the above quoted statement within about the first minute speaking. https://youtu.be/WKSm2FQ8z60?t=5153

    And trump acknowledges as much directly mentioning Stein and green party campaign by name recently,

    “Cornel West — he’s one of my favorite candidates, Cornel West,” Trump said. "And I like — I like her also. Jill Stein. I like her very much. You know why? She takes 100% from [Biden]. [West] takes 100%. Kennedy’s probably 50/50, but he’s a fake.”

    https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/trump-speech-jill-stein-cornel-west-rcna158627

    I’ve heard individual positions I like from West, Stein and others in the past, but in my opinion if they aren’t fighting to be the bridge to engage the flawed structure of elections in this country as third parties, these are just campaigns driven more by individual candidate ego than a motivation for systemic change.

    Those are my thoughts.

    • HorseRabbit@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 hours ago

      If the dems lose votes to the greens it will be because of their own fucking policies including genocide. They could always change their policies. But instead they blame the public.

    • AliSaket@mander.xyz
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      2 hours ago

      I get the logic you put forth. Yet as someone who lives in a more diverse democracy (although it has been getting dangerously more polarized in the recent decades), I’m always baffled by this presumption that a candidate deserves someone’s vote by default.

      In this case, let’s say there aren’t any other parties on the ballot other than the Democrats and Republicans. In Michigan specifically you have a voter group, that says that they cannot vote for genocide especially if it is against their own families or people that look like them. And both parties are either promising the continuation thereof or have been engaged in it and have been excluding anything related to addressing it, or people representing that voter group, from their campaign. So the presumption, that if there wasn’t a Green Party to vote for that they would be coming out to vote for the Democrats is imho just flawed. They might just as likely stay home.

      What I find even more baffling is that this party can’t seem to clearly outperform the even more clearly dangerous candidate to democracy. The Arabic or Muslim population in Michigan should not be this decisive for the outcome, if the Democrats were able to actually persuade voters to turn out by delivering an attractive policy plan, thereby earning the votes, instead of just arrogantly thinking, they’re entitled to them.

  • quoll@lemmy.sdf.org
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    8 hours ago

    if you live in a state with preferential voting (eg alaska, maine?) wouldn’t you be better off voting green if they represent you views better?

    • Mataresian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 hours ago

      The Green Party, maybe. Jill Stein, with the stuff she’s been saying I am not quite sure if she would actually present your views better or if she’s an actual competent leader. Of course you can have the question of the best of the worst, but then still I’m not sure if she compares well.

  • J'Pol @lemmy.sdf.org
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    16 hours ago

    I heard a piece on Here And Now today about a group of single issue voters in Dearborn that is actively working to disrupt and damage the Harris campaign. They are trying to get dems to vote for Stein.

    • Fish [Indiana]@midwest.social
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      15 hours ago

      It seems like they’re using multiple strategies in an effort to put pressure on the Dems. Some are saying that they are going to vote for Trump even though they are also anti-Trump. Their logic is that Kamala is actively contributing to a genocide, whereas Trump is not.

      I doubt there is anything they can do to actually make Democrat politicians feel pressure, but I do agree with their sentiments. I’m not voting for some who is pro-genocide. Trump is both pro-genocide and fascist. I’m also not going to vote for a 3rd party candidate because most 3rd parties focus on the presidential race more than they focus on grassroots efforts.

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        I mean they’re naming an illegal settlement after trump and Netanyahu is explicitly advocating for trump. What’s crazy is polls show Kamala would get like a 6 point poll boost by breaking with biden on this and saying something a little more forceful about a peace deal, such as a deadline where arms deals are halted. It would almost singlehandedly secure michigan.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        6 hours ago

        Their logic is that Kamala is actively contributing to a genocide, whereas Trump is not.

        Even though he literally is, has put the Israeli Embassy in Jerusalem, and has advocated for the deployment of nukes in Gaza…

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        Their logic is that Kamala is actively contributing to a genocide, whereas Trump is not.

        This is literally the most braindead political take I’ve ever heard, and that’s saying a lot

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          It’s a classic “technically true, but not particularly useful” information tidbit. Harris is in office, Trump isn’t.

          Of course, you could argue that Vance - as a powerful member of the US Senate - is participating in the genocide while Walz - a governor of a midwestern state with no meaningful role in foreign policy - isn’t. Equally true, but meaningless.

          The problem Harris has isn’t that Trump gets innocence-by-default by being out of office for four years. Its that she’s doggedly clinging to the “both sides” framing of the Israeli genocide and scaring off Arab-American voters as a consequence. It doesn’t matter whether Harris is better or worse than Trump when the baseline of US policy is the mass slaughter of your friends and family.

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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            12 hours ago

            It’s a classic “technically true, but not particularly useful” information tidbit. Harris is in office, Trump isn’t.

            Harris is in an office that is entirely powerless (yes, she casts a vote in the event of a Senate tie, but no bill funding Israel has come down to that). She and Trump have nothing to do with the (current) Palestinian genocide.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              9 hours ago

              Harris is in an office that is entirely powerless

              Harris has enormous amounts of power by simply having access to the President’s phone 24/7. That’s before you get into how much authority she’s been delegated by a man whose brains are leaking out of his ears.

              • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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                6 hours ago

                And you’ve confirmed that you don’t understand how the President works. He isn’t simply the King of America who can wave a magic wand and do what he wants.

        • Fish [Indiana]@midwest.social
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          14 hours ago

          I agree that it’s a bad take. But at this point I think that they’re desperate, trying anything they can to get Kamala to change course. It’s an urgent issue that can be solved easily: just stop supplying weapons and aid to Israel. Four years from now, most Palestinians living in Palestine will already be dead.

            • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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              6 hours ago

              it’s not just uninformed voters, my grandfather is a retired history teacher and, he firmly believes that while Isreal is in the wrong, that it’s not in the US best interest to drop them. He’s worries that the destabalization of the area further will invite other foreign adversaries to invade it while also losing basically the only is friendly territory around. He’s worried it’ll be a repeat of the last time

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        Voting is a strategic choice, not an endorsement. You should vote for the candidate who you would rather have in office.

  • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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    16 hours ago

    So much energy from democrats that they should instead spend on pressuring their party leadership to change their evil policy of genocide support.

    • Xylight@lemdro.id
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      4 hours ago

      A side effect of me being terminally online is that you can predict the top comment of some posts

      • Whopraysforthedevil@midwest.social
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        23 hours ago

        Agreed. I’m a teacher and see it in my classrooms. I often feel that they’re not taught how to have healthy community, so they become lil fascists…

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        right wing support amongst <35 y.o. men is surprisingly high…

        The media is flush with fascist attitudes in a country where going on the computer and listening to fascist rants is all you’re allowed to do with your time.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          15 hours ago

          “in a country where […] all you’re allowed to do with your time.”

          Eh… The same phenomenon is observed all over first world countries and all of those countries you’re allowed to do mostly whatever the fuck you want with your free time…

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            you’re allowed to do mostly whatever the fuck you want with your free time…

            You’re free to do what you want and the police are free to rough you up for loitering.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      I have great hope that they’ll be better than our generation, just as we were better than our parents. Fuck the ‘fuck the kids’ mentality.

      • Whopraysforthedevil@midwest.social
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        23 hours ago

        I’m a classroom teacher, and I find that you’ve gotta sometimes have both “fuck them kids” and “for the kids” in different measures. But overall, I feel like they’re doing a lot of cool things.

        • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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          18 hours ago

          That’s a good point. I think that one of the myths that needs to die is that if the cherubic, sweet, innocent, and pure child. Many children, without guidance, are sociopathic assholes. We’re not born “good” then corrupted by the world, we’re born with some personality traits that may or may not help us as social creatures and need help to learn how to handle our emotions and cooperate with others in a manner that is pro-social.

          • Whopraysforthedevil@midwest.social
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            18 hours ago

            Yup. Like John Green, I’m generally in favor of humans, but we’ve got some perfectly natural tendencies that can really harm others if left unchecked. I think kids want to do good, but they need to be taught how to, given the space to practice, and corrected with grace when they fuck it up.

  • Ekybio@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Good. Scammers need to be called out and avoided at all costs.

    A vote for Stein is a vote for Trumph

      • Matt
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        15 hours ago

        Voting third party is viable when we change the voting system, to ranked choice voting for example. Until that time comes, the two primary parties will remain dominant.

          • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            It’s literally already happening. Locality by locality state by state at least take the time to look around you before you make any absolute statements. It’s going to take forever at the national level absolutely. Far longer than I should. But it can and will happen.

  • index@sh.itjust.works
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    17 hours ago

    According to the “lesser evil” rhetoric Jill Stein is the lesser evil candidate and anyone who doesn’t vote for her is supporting fascists.

    • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Nice gotcha, but she’s not going to win, so she’s not practically a choice. “Vote for the lesser evil” is a good shorthand, but it’s still shorthand; the philosophy is to vote in a way that will cause the least harm. If your candidate has no chance of winning, then you aren’t doing that, since your vote is roughly equivalent to not voting. Voting for a third party only makes sense if you weren’t going to vote at all, and in that case it’s a better choice but still not the best one. Hope that helps clear up any confusion around the lesser evil sentiment.