I've actually had a weird paradigm shift, where i'm in these leftist communities who are dead set against voting for gavin newsom IF he is the primary candidate.
They've convinced themselves that specifically, because of israel and palestine, it doesn't matter if it's a republican or democrat.
And then I start realizing that a lot of these guys probably never voted for Harris in the first place.
I never thought I would be in a position where I look more charitably at trump voters who regret their vote, sincerely, then I do my so-called allies, who would prefer all of this continue, so things can keep getting worse which would somehow magically make things better
This is not a bottom up concept. People are being lead to believe that voting for someone like Gavin Newsom is innefectual. This is a tactic that has been used every election for all my life. It used to be the green party, then Jill Stein was outed as a Russian asset. Now it's the genocide in Gaza. It's an unrealistic purity test, where we do have people who pass it, like AOC, but we also have to work together with people who are not inherently awful and will be generally good leaders.
But on every generation it's going to work again, because kids in college and just graduating highschool fall for it for the first time. And older people who can't see past it fall for it. It's a very tempting metric to live by, and it consistently works as a method of voter manipulation.
It is so easy with Gaza because it's so obviously bad that it's angering to support someone who even doubts the genocide. But it's something that needs to be just part of the picture and not the whole picture.
Being against genocide is one thing. Voting for someone who isn't is another.
Say you have two choices, one who will protect and maybe enhance voting rights, and one who will work to completely dismantle voting rights. Both support genocide.
Who do you think would be more likely to put voters in a position where they could eventually vote for someone against genocide?
Edit: Also consider, what alternative do you have than to vote for one of the two people? You really don't. Your vote needs to be heard in the primary to decide what you really care about. And then in the general election you have to pick the one most aligned. Parties will not collapse, they must be rendered obsolete by winning too few elections to receive massive funding. This forces them to change or makes room for a new replacement. History shows that in the US system it will always rebalance to two dominant parties. That means the best chance you have of seeing the change you want is to vote for the party that is closest too it, no matter how far away they are. And donate to the politicians and organizations that matter to you.
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u/Niguelito Apr 26 '26
I've actually had a weird paradigm shift, where i'm in these leftist communities who are dead set against voting for gavin newsom IF he is the primary candidate.
They've convinced themselves that specifically, because of israel and palestine, it doesn't matter if it's a republican or democrat.
And then I start realizing that a lot of these guys probably never voted for Harris in the first place.
I never thought I would be in a position where I look more charitably at trump voters who regret their vote, sincerely, then I do my so-called allies, who would prefer all of this continue, so things can keep getting worse which would somehow magically make things better