So...yeah. I'm sitting here, looking at Harris running around acting like a moderate republican, and wondering "what have I done?" I really kind of hate the fact that I just voted for her. In 2016, I voted my conscience and voted green. In 2020. I did the same. I might have gotten a lot of crap for my vote, but I never really regretted it. But this time, I voted for Harris, and looking at Harris now, and how she's acting, I just feel like I betrayed some core value in myself.
In a sense, reality is sinking in for all of us. Everywhere I'm suddenly seeing dooming as Harris tanks in the polls in part because she says she won't differentiate herself from Biden other than putting a republican in her administration, and running around with fricking Liz Cheney. This is hell. And this is the democratic party I was fighting to prevent. The dems have been eying triangulation like this since 2016. They actively eschewed the Obama coalition in order to win over these McCain and Romney voting suburbanites, and as we close on the last weeks of the campaign, it's clear that's who Harris is appealing to. The energy surrounding Harris is crashing, we're feeling deflated, and we're kinda feeling like we're back with Biden again. Harris started out with a strong campaign, but then the DNC and their army of consultants got to it and ruined it. No more "we're not going back", no more "republicans are weird." Now it's "we have to run to the center to win over suburbanites, and screw everyone else but they better vote for us anyway." Do they wanna lose? Does the democratic party have a death wish? Sometimes I feel like they can't get out of their own way. And I just voted for them. 2016 or 2020 me never would've done this.
At the same time, thinking it through, I guess it was the right decision. First of all, if not Harris, who? Jill Stein? I admit she's better on my core economic issues. But she's a crackpot. She's an extremely unserious candidate. I held my nose for her in 2016 and mostly voted for her out of spite of the democrats. I don't actually LIKE her. Her economic vision still diverges from mine in significant ways. Her foreign policy views are terrible, like "this would end the USA" level bad, and the greens seem aligned with Russia and Putin in general. Quite frankly, I couldn't vote for her in this modern context where we're actively aiding Ukraine in their fight against the russians and feel good about it. She doesn't represent me any better than harris does in net, and if anything, she feels worse.
Cornel West is fundamentally not any different on policy, and if anything he came off as worse on UBI, although he was better on character and doesn't seem like he's actively aiding russia (at least he ain't accepting help from them). Still, no fundamental difference there.
Gloria La Riva is a fricking Tankie, so she's out.
So...when I think about it, despite Harris's flaws, would I have better off voting for another candidate? Probably not. The third party candidates were crap this election cycle. I also know forward ran some lower office candidates and I googled them when I got my ballot and they were pushing the same "we need bipartisanship and compromise and blah blah blah" nonsense. So they suck too.
It seems like, even if I consider third party candidates, they all end up crapping the bed so hard I'm left unsatisfied with all candidates, and Harris actually comes back around to not looking terrible. So I end up just justifying my Harris vote...again.
Not to mention Donald Trump really is dangerous, so dangerous voting democrat seems justified on that alone, but I also kinda realize that was the primary motivator of my vote. harris kinda...sucks. She actually does. She kinda does some good things sometimes, but then she basically just ends up going full milquetoast and making all the wrong decisions and blah blah blah.
Still, I guess if Trump wins and it does come down to PA, I would feel kinda bad if I didn't vote for Harris there. As meh as Harris is, at least she isn't Trump and his rank authoritarianism.
Ugh. This election cycle just sucks. It feels like hell. And somehow, even though I don't feel satisfied voting for the democrat, even if I did anything differently, the other options were all worse. I hope 2028 is better than this cycle is. Probably won't be.
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