So, this is a pet peeve of mine. I ended up dealing with weirdo voter shamers again, and they're pulling the same BS argument that voting isn't just a matter of self expression or about voting for values, and how you have an obligation to support the side that can win and blah blah blah. And....I'm going to shut this one down.
Look, voting is ALWAYS an expression of your values. The thing with blue no matter whoers is that they have a specific value system that colors their voting calculus. It's "pragmatism". It's "okay I can't win if I just vote for what I actually want, so let me vote for this candidate who i dont like as much but who can win." And....that's a fair point if you wanna play it that way, but that IS your value system. You ARE valuing so called pragmatic concerns over more ideological or policy oriented concerns.
There is a debate to be had about this, but let's face it, most blue no matter whoers don't want a debate. They want to loudly and obnoxiously push THEIR values on everyone else, and act like people who don't have the same calculus as them are objectively wrong.
And they're not. Ultimately, democracy DOES belong to the voters. Our electoral system wasn't designed in a certain way where our founders were like "okay, theres these two parties, republicans and democrats, and you have to vote for one of them." If anything, they HATED parties. Their entire system was designed to counter parties and "factions" as they called them in federalist #10. And they basically thought that the idea that we be organized under two parties voting for one out of fear of the other was "the greatest evil" that could occur under our system. I am not 100% sure that that's true given that Trump winning in 2024 and overthrowing said system is even worse, but yeah, pretty close. And we're in this situation of having to vote against trump in order to avoid that, because we got a psycho wanna be tyrant who wants to potentially undermine the entire system.
And that's literally the only reason I'm ceding the argument in 2024 to these guys. I guess, when you are in a system THAT dire, and that unprecedented that it was well beyond the founders worst nightmares, maybe ceding to pragmatic concerns is the right thing to do.
BUT....let's face it. The blue no matter whoers have been doing this with every election. They did it in 2020 before Trump committed January 6th. They did it in 2015 before Trump was even the nominee. The dems went into 2016 wanting to prop up hillary, and bullying the democratic voters into voting for her.
And at that moment, would I argue there was ANY constitutional emergency that would warrant a moral requirement to vote blue no matter who?
NO!
It is up to parties to convince voters to vote for them, and if they can't, the ultimate responsibility for that typically falls on the party. They have to appeal to voters. They can do that through positive policy. Or they can do that through negative campaigning, which is generally considered slimy and unethical (although very effective, which is why they do it) itself. And Clinton chose negative campaigning and bullying voters rather than appealing to them. That's her fault and her loss. it's not the fault of the voters, that implies that the voters have a moral responsibility to vote for a certain party, and that the candidates cant fail, they can only be failed, an anti democratic sentiment in itself.
Ideally, I would say, we all vote for our positive sentiments, pragmatic concerns be darned, and we all get what we want. That's the best, ideal way to practice democracy. If we do compromise, we should be doing mild compromises. Like ok yeah, this guy isnt 100% of what i want, but he's 80% or 90%. If someone doesnt represent you or your ideals much at all, or it's only a very flawed partial match, and a third party matches you far better, or the policies the third party emphasizes are the policies that you care about most, I think voting third party is well justified.
I just dont advocate for doing it when the alternative literally wants to undermine democracy itself.
We've discussed my logic behind voting for Biden several times. But the arguments keep coming down to this.
1) Trump represents a constitutional emergency that requires the suspension of my normal ethics.
2) Biden has shifted the dems just left enough to actually earn my vote
3) The left is kinda losing the plot and not really appealing to me in a significant way this time.
4) I see Biden losing as counterproductive to my long term goals and there really is no one else.
It's not a good position for voters to be in, but I'm reading the room and I'm making a calculated decision based on my own values.
And honestly, when you vote, you're gonna have to think about what you value. Unlike what blue no matter whoers say, you vote is a statement of your values and who you are, for better or for worse. if you vote third party, you're probably doing it because you value something the two party system isn't giving you. Maybe it's ending the genocide in gaza. Maybe it's UBI or socialism. Maybe you're an RFK stan and you're still really mad about vaccines and lockdowns for some reason (2020 called, they want their issues back). Maybe you're a libertarian who cant support the GOP but thinks the dems are too statist. Whatever it is, you are making your values known.
Same if you vote for Biden. if you vote for Biden, you either like milquetoast neoliberalism, are a social justice warrior who does the privilege thing, or maybe he's doing something good for you with unions or student debt forgiveness (a fine, positive reason to vote for him), or maybe you are more left wing but really dont want trump to win. There's a lot of good reasons, but just be aware, you're sending a message that speaks to certain values too. You're not value free just because you vote "pragmatically", that is a reflecting of your value system.
And if you vote for trump, well, you're lost. Either you're a fundie christian or wrapped up about immigration, or you want to overthrow democracy. Not all reasons to vote for trump INHERENTLY mean you hate america, although some do. And either way, the values that come with voting trump are not values i want to be associated with at all, so let's just say I have nothing nice to say about the values that push people that way.
Anyway, with that said, choose wisely. Your vote is a reflection of your ethics. Normally i would say you're under no ethical compulsion to vote democrat. To say that is a violation of a core principle of democracy IMO.
BUT, i would say that democracy is facing enough of an emergency where I would actually argue that. So please vote Biden, democracy should be our #1 concern since none of us can do anything or get anywhere without it, but to the blue no matter whoers? YOU ARE voting your values too, so stop pretending you're not. I'm just going to say that in my value system, dedication to preserving democracy should override literally every other concern we have. If you're not convinced by that argument, you do you, but I'm not gonna pretend it isnt value laden in itself.
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