this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2026
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You can fight to install progressives at the local level while voting defensively at the national level. Local progressive movement are not only a LOT easier to pull off, but will help create widespread acceptance of progressive ideals as they get good outcomes. Then you expand to the state level and house, then the senate, then you're well positioned to push for a progressive in the presidency.
This is true, but it's also important to be aware that if all americans ever do is vote then things will never improve. It's important to vote still, but it can't end there
Yeah, but also, things would get better faster if we only focused on getting more people to THAN IT WOULD if we only focused trying to get people who dont take other actions to do so.
See: Zohran Mandani, Katie Wilson...
Next could be Nithya Raman?
These are good examples of what it takes, however, including primary participation and grassroots activism. In addition, the NYC mayoral featured ranked choice voting.
In other words, Duverger’s Law can’t simply be ignored in FPTP systems like those of the US, and anyone who suggests otherwise (like saying you should vote non-strategically to defeat the MAGA opposition) is either terribly ill-informed or, more likely, is working for the opposition.
duverger's "law" is literally a tautology and has no predictive power at all
The name is a historical artifact of his 1950s phrasing. It’s a tendency theorem with scope conditions.
Cox, Riker, Lijphart, and Clark+Golder have all reformulated the law as a conditional strategic-equilibrium claim.
that’s a lot of ink spilled for “literally a tautology”
And the national party does everything it can to make sure you're stuck with trumpist shit like Henry Cuellar.
Or, hear me out, you just let people vote for progressives if they want and don't blame them for dems losing. Maybe look at why people stopped voting after Obama? Maybe he happy that people vote at all because it allows more votes for progressives/dems in the local level, even if it doesn't help at the national level? Cuz dems have a lot of issues, not just leftists "not" voting for them. (sure, some don't but iirc they're actually the highest % dem voting block, even if they are much smaller in population. )
I'm not blaming them for dems losing, and they can vote however they want, I'm not stopping them. This isn't about how you can and can't vote, it's about how to make your vote work to prevent situations like we're in right now, while also pushing for longer-term outcomes, and we can all have - and share - our opinions on how to do that.
Personally, I think it's counter-productive to refuse to actively vote to prevent our current situation in the name of ideals or whatever else. It's going to take years if not decades to fix the damage being done right now, in all likelihood. But you're welcome to have your own opinion on that matter.
if that sort of voting prevented this situation at all we wouldn't be here?
Do you think supporting the lesser evil magically makes the two parties put forward BETTER candidates? All that shit does is lead to parties racing to the bottom, voters getting fucking tired of it and either stop voting, or look at trump and go "at least he isn't a politician he'll do something different" and vote for him. Dems refuse to do shit about it but run shit after shit after shit. When they had huge turnout for Obama's message of "change" and now their message with biden is "nothing will fundamentally change" which.... cool. Great. Way to energize your voters. "Not trump" isn't enough. and until the DNC learns that, they can fuck themselves as they aren't improving or preventing shit. I'll always vote, but I'm voting for candidates that are the most worthy of a fucking vote.
Is your stance that Harris would have been doing the same shit Trump is doing, had she been elected instead? That it wouldn't have been any better? If that's what you're positing... I strongly disagree, and I really don't know how you can even start to back that claim up.
Regardless, vote how you want. I've had this conversation with enough people with your exact stance to know that there's nothing I can say to change your mind and there's nothing you're going to say to change mine, so continue doing you and I'll continue doing me.
She said she'd do the exact same amount of genocide in Gaza. She would absolutely let Israel start a war with Iran.
No, you’ve said voting defensively prevents exactly what is happening. As if people don’t vote defensively. As if we are not here.
Harris being run is WHY we are here. The DNC thinking they can get away with being antidemocratic (attacking third parties, suing to get them off the ballot, don’t get me started on the “victory fund” bullshit) is WHY WE ARE HERE. It’s on them. The DNC has fucked itself since after Obama. That’s why so many normal ass people haven’t voted since Obama. I’m not talking super principled leftists. I’m talking normie shit. They don’t vote anymore because it’s fucking garbage. Because even if the DNC won they wouldn’t do anything of substance to help. Half of what happened in Palestine was in collab WITH Biden, planned by him and passed on to Trump. Maybe it would’ve been slower. Draw out the suffering more, but it wouldn’t have been changed for the better, which is the problem. Better than the worst imaginable isn’t good enough for people.
What I said was that voting defensively makes your vote work towards preventing this sort of thing, whereas voting third party does not. Protest votes, ballot spoilage, 3rd party votes and similar actions make a statement, but so does voting for progressives down ballot.
To put it succinctly, people voting 3rd party didn't cause the current situation, but they did nothing to prevent or obstruct the current situation, either.
I mean, voting Dem didn’t do anything to prevent it either, is my point.
My annoyance also isn’t with people voting Dem. Vote how you want. My annoyance is with dems attacking third party. With people blaming third party. My real annoyance is people refusing to criticise the DNC. This defensive voting blue no matter who shit is what got us here. When you refuse to criticise someone because they’re marginally better than the opposition, we get into the position of literal Hitler, or “at least I’m not LITERALLY Hitler do you HAVE to vote for me.” Which… bad.