So, we get into another election cycle, and we deal with...this again. I admit I have shifted a bit this election cycle on this issue, and I will be getting into that a bit later, but the discourse online is toxic as fudge, and it's annoying the crap out of me.
I don't care who you vote for. Be it biden or cornel west, it's up to you, come election time. I don't even have a particularly solid opinion this time around either. Biden aint everything that I want, but he did some stuff I like, and trump and desantis are fledgling fascists, so I really don't want the right winning, but I COULD still go third party if the candidate and conditions are right.
But I'm getting it from both sides this election. The same insufferable vote blue no matter who dialogue that does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to win anyone who isn't in the blueMAGA cult over ever, and now leftists acting like you're not a true leftist if you DO vote for Biden.
And now we got this. Kyle Kulinski, who I started watching in part because he was a third party voter himself, starts distancing himself from that rhetoric and goes toward the whole blue no matter who stuff. And then it's like all the blueMAGA people like vaush are cheering that "YES KYLE FINALLY GETS IT" and blah blah blah and doing their stupid virtue signalling crap. Just...stop guys.
Now, while I'm going in a similar direction, I do justify it with different logic, so now, I'm going to outline my argument for Biden (again), but I want to just really drive home where I stand on this.
Unlike kyle, and his rhetoric in his video, I DO NOT believe in "pragmatic" voting. For the most part. I support voting based on principles. I believe in trying to pressure candidates to go in your direction, rather than trying to give up the farm to vote for a lesser evil. While no one will ever be 100% and you gotta compromise at SOME point, my point is much higher than your typical blue no matter whoer.
On THAT front, let me just say, all candidates kinda sorta pass and fail at the same time. Biden hasnt done NOTHING, and he hasnt tried to do NOTHING. I have evaluated his policy stances and have found he has advanced some of my goals, and that percentage may be enough to translate into a vote. It really depends on the other candidates. And then looking at other candidates, like Williamson, West, etc, while they do score higher by my metrics, due to my own ideological shifts and really carving out my goals in more detail since 2020, I've kind of gone in a direction where "the left" no longer fully represents what I want. And yes, the big driving point there is this obsession with jobs programs and green new deals and socialism over UBI and liberating people from work. Sorry, that's just how I see it. While I align with leftists more than with Biden, it isn't enough where I'm really thinking about voting for them in a principled way this time when Biden is already doing as passable of a job he is. Also, note that I think Biden is more COMPETENT than the alternatives like Williamson, RFK, and West as well. That plays a role too. We're no longer talking bernie sanders, career politician with a 40 year political history, we're talking people who have never been elected before and I question their credentials for president. So that, by some metrics further evens the scores between the likes of williamson, west, and biden. The fact is, I just dont support anyone passionately enough to really do a good protest vote over Biden. And I kind of agree with Kyle, Bernie, and others, that Biden has done a passable enough job to justify a vote himself. I didnt get everything i wanted, but Biden did enough where until 2028, I'm willing to go with the flow on that one.
So, that said, when I survey the field, I dont really have a good alternative who I would passionately support over Biden. Even if i would, in a primary, for example, support williamson over biden, a cornel west run isnt going to enthuse me enough to get me to support him over biden. Sorry, it just ain't.
So, on the principled side of things, yes, I dont really think a third party vote would move things appreciably in my direction. I have developed enough disagreement with leftists, and see enough flaws in the existing candidates to not support a third party run at this time.
On the pragmatic side of things, I admit, I HATE pragmatic voting, and under normal circumstances, I would say that I would rather just vote for a third party candidate even if they can't win, but right now is different.
Let's re-evaluate my arguments for a protest vote here. I believe in party alignments and realignments. I believe that parties win elections through coalitions of voters, and it is up to the parties to keep their coalitions happy. When their coalitions aren't happy, they will break away from their parties, and signal to the two major parties that something is wrong with the current alignment, and that something must change in how they appeal to voters to win people back over again. Then the parties shift their attention to better appeal to voters, and we have a realignment.
Realignments are common in American history. They happen, generally speaking, every 36 years, although in modern times things are a little messier. The new deal coalition broke at the 36 year mark, but the reagan coalition didn't fully replace it until the 48 year mark. I also would argue that 2016 was a realignment year of sorts, and we're still realigning into...whatever we're realigning into.
I thought, in 2016, knowing that that was a realigning year, that if the left refused to vote for hillary, that it would signal to the two major parties there are voters on the table and that they should shift over the next decade or so to better serve people with my kind of politics.
The problem was that because trump and clinton represented a completely new time of moral continuum in which everyone screeches into the void over culture war issues, that we are instead becoming realigned based on that. This isn't due to trump winning, i believe we'd still be experiencing this even if clinton won in 2016, I just believe trump or someone like him wouldve come back in 2020 and won in a landslide. The fact was, the dems suppressing their own populism led to the GOP becoming a populist party, with the dems being this stuffy centrist party, and now we're stuck in the worst timeline it seems. And now the trumpers are becoming increasingly illiberal, authoritarian, and borderline fascist, if not openly fascist.
Generally speaking, my whole strategy kind of relies on the assumption of liberal democracy remaining a thing. It relies on the idea of "oh well, so what if trump is a nut, im not happy with either party so im holding out until you shift my way". It relies on the idea that youre willing to lose a couple elections in the short term, to effect long term change and build a long term coalition capable of both defeating the republicans, and shifting the democrats left.
But if trump is willing to LITERALLY OVERTURN ELECTIONS, and change the balance of power in such a way that it will DESTROY this political system, meaning no change via democratic means in the future, then my strategy WILL NOT WORK. And sadly, the continuum that the 2016 cycle unlocked, between the republicans being authoritarian populists and the democrats being stuffy centrists, has been the realignment so far. The left has just been reduced to a sideshow that screams into the void about how messed up everything is, but not enough people care to change things. The powers that be sabotaged us, and ensured that we remained a fringe vision no one takes seriously.
Despite that, Biden HAS taken some lessons from Bernie's campaign under advisement, and has made some progress on SOME of those issues. Not all of them, and not to the extent that I want, but to some extent the message I sent in 2016 was heard, that if Biden wants the support of lefties, they need to deliver on some positive material change. And Biden himself has tried, he was stalled by congress the courts, what have you, and I still feel a need to reward biden for a vote for trying.
In this sense, voting for Biden is in part the fact that I'm sticking true to my own word, that if the democrats deliver concessions, that I'll vote for them, and it seems like voting to keep the democrats in power and expand their reach in congress would be largely positive.
At the same time, I also dont think the anti democratic party strategy is a wise card to play when dealing with opponents who are as hateful of liberal democracy as they are. Before 2016, the GOP were the constitution humpers. They were always complaining about executive overreach and separation of powers, and while I think they were arguing in bad faith in order to sabotage the left, the thing the right was for was, in principle, small government, and they were still compatible with liberal democracy. But trumpism is BAD NEWS. It's like we went from majin buu under Reagan and Bush, to Super Buu under the tea party, and now we're dealing with that psychopath Kid Buu that is a threat to everything with this trumper movement. This isn't my parents' GOP any more. Nor is it the GOP of my youth, it's something more extreme and darker. And we're past the point of bygones being bygones and if we lose an election, oh well, try harder next time. No, again, pushing this narrative but trump tried to LITERALLY OVERTHROW THE ELECTION RESULTS. HE LITERALLY TRIED IT! And literally incited a riot. Okay? So yeah, let's not screw around with this guy. And honestly, given how DeSantis is running florida, I dont think he's much better. Maybe a little more "lawful" in his approach, but still just as crazy and just as authoritarian. And given these are the kinds of nuts the GOP voters WANT, well...okay. I must concede somewhat this election cycle that yeah, maybe voting blue to keep these nuts out of office is actually a good idea.
But still, let's be clear that this is a special case with special conditions. I have no desire to fetishize the idea of "pragmatic" or "lesser evil" voting. I dont think that this is the end all be all of voting. I think that in NORMAL times, YES, principled voting is better, IF there's a candidate you align with significantly more and IF the two parties arent doing a good enough job to appeal to you. And again, IF we're not dealing with an existential threat to democracy itself.
So, don't get too cozy or complacent, democrats. This is just a temporary alliance to keep the orange one and his followers out of office. I dont actually like you guys, you don't appeal to my values, and despite Biden's alignments with me, let's face it, I STILL want someone MUCH more progressive. And I would, under normal circumstances, just vote for Williamson and probably west in the general.
I just feel like, given the good will attempts of democrats to achieve SOME of my priorities, and the fact that we're dealing with LITERAL FREAKING FASCISTS, that yeah, maybe voting dem is a good idea this time.
Okay? So let's not get so cultish over this. I'm not interesting in morally policing anyone and trying to force them to vote my way. My advice as always is to vote for whom you feel deserves your vote. Vote for the person who represents your values. Vote for the person who tries to achieve the change you want in society. Voting ultimately IS an expression of one's values and will in democracy, and people shouldnt be afraid to vote for what they ACTUALLY want. I do NOT like bullying behavior or moral policing to try to strongarm people into voting a certain way.
So yeah, do what you want, but also respect others for doing what they want. I made my arguments above, whatever your own arguments are yours and yours alone. I do not try to impose my own views on others. While I write this to try to convince people of my point of view, I also know that not everyone is gonna agree, and that that is okay.
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