As the title states I am confused on this matter. The way I see it, the USA has a two party system and in the next few weeks they’re either going to have Trump or Harris as president, come inauguration day. With this in mind doesn’t it make sense to vote for the person least likely to escalate the situation even more.

Giving your vote to an independent or worse not voting at all, just gives more of a chance for Trump to win the election and then who knows what crazy stuff he will allow, or encourage, Israel to get away with.

I really don’t get the logic. As sure nobody wants to vote for a party allowing these heinous crimes to be committed, but given you’re getting one of them shouldn’t you be voting for the one that will be the least horrible of the two.

Please don’t come at me with pro-Israeli rhetoric as this isn’t the post for that, I’m asking about why people would make such choices and I’m not up for debate on the Middle East, on this post, you can DM me for that.

Edit: Bedtime here now so will respond to incoming comments in the morning, love starting the day with an inbox full 😊.

Edit 2: This blew up, it’s a little overwhelming right now but I do intent on replying to everybody that took the time to comment. Just need to get in the right headspace.

  • CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    Both candidates will support Israel, so for pro palestine voters it’s a “Would you like to vote for the Shitty Party, or Less Shitty Party” situation, where not voting from these parties is shunned upon because it will help Shitty Party win.

  • Max@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    I think something that contributes to people talking past each other here is a difference in belief in how necessary/desirable revolution/overthrow of the U.S government is. Like many of the people who I’ve talked to online, who advocate not voting and are also highly engaged, believe in revolution as the necessary alternative. Which does make sense. It’s hard to believe that the system is fundamentally genocidal and not worth working within (by voting for the lesser evil) without also believing that the solution is to overthrow that system.

    And in that case, we’re discussing the wrong thing. Like the question isn’t whether you should vote or not . it’s whether the system is worth preserving (and of course what do you do to change it. How much violence in a revolution is necessary/acceptable). Like if you believe it is worth preserving, then clearly you should vote. And if you believe it isn’t, there’s stronger case for not voting and instead working on a revolution.

    Does anyone here believe that revolution isn’t necessary and also that voting for the lesser isn’t necessary?

    The opposite is more plausible to me: believing in the necessity of revolution while also voting

    Personally I believe that revolution or its attempt is unlikely to effective and voting+activism is more effective, and also requires agreement from fewer people in order to progress on its goals. Tragically, this likely means that thousands more people will be murdered, but I don’t know what can actually be effective at stopping that.

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    Democrats are not pro Palestine. They simply don’t care about Genocide when Democrats do it. They are Nazis.

  • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    people dont seem to see the difference between ending up with a party for which a good chunk of their supporters think that what Israel is doing is a genocide vs ending up with a party for which all of their supporters think not only that what Israel is doing justified but should also do the same to all middle eastern countries (together with direct USA involvement).

    I think there are two major subgroups within this group.

    First one is immigrants whose families are from the middle east/Palestine who are rightfully very angry at all the world doing jack shit about Israel committing genocide. What they have to realize is there are unfortunately only two options going ahead: 1- as it is now, maybe somewhat better in future, or 2- much worse. There is no third option that is going to come out of these elections but only one there is potential for change (potential coming from the supporters mentioned above) vs %100 chance of things going for the worse. Note that I am not talking at all about the candidates themselves at all, just the demographic that generally votes for them.

    The second group is probably Chinese or Russian fans who just want to see America suffer by getting Trump elected. These are very short sighted people with whom you cannot really have a coherent conversation with.

  • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    The US needs to fix their voting system before they can start voting third party. It’s probably even more difficult with Trump

  • GhostFaceSkrilla@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    Who are these people and where are they? I don’t know of and haven’t heard of any pro Palestinian voters refusing to vote for her over the alternative.

  • IHave69XiBucks@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    This isnt the first time the whole lesser of two evil bs has been done in an American election. It happens everytime. Biden said hey i may suck but atleast i wont put immigrant kids in cages! Then he kept the kids in cages and now democrats run on mass deportation policies 4 years later. Trump might say worse things but the actual effects of him being in office wont really be different then if Harris wins. If anything Harris winning will show them that being pro-genocide worked and theyll be pro even more genocide going forward.

    Its just not an accurate assessment to say “Well Harris is slightly better so shouldnt the choice for her be obvious?” Because she isnt better. She just puts a better face on the exact same genocidal policies. The only difference is that Trump doesnt pretend like he feels bad about it when gazan children are slaughtered and openly admits he is a maniac. Biden publically tells Israel dont do this thing then they do it anyway and the media plays it off like Biden is just incompetent and cant stop it. But the reality is its all fake. Hes saying not to do it publically then privately green lighting whatever they want to do. They arent going against him at all hes just putting on an act for people like you. Its what the entire “International Law” that applies to the enemies of the US Empire but never applies to the US or its allies has always been. An act put on by liberals to pretend they arent evil so people who have empathy will still buy in to the system.

    There is no such thing as Democracy in the US. As someone more clever than me once said:

    “America only has 1 political party but in classic American opulence they have 2 of them.”

    The only reason America has election is to give the illusion of consent to the governance of their population. The whole “We the People” thing is nonsense and not real. Its a Myth just like the American Dream is a Myth. Work hard and youll make it! Its all bullshit and it always has been. Vote, dont vote, it doesnt matter. The Empire will still demand blood.

    • davel@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      This isnt the first time the whole lesser of two evil bs has been done in an American election. It happens everytime.

      Every election that I can remember, and I can remember as far back as Carter vs Reagan.

      • IHave69XiBucks@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        3 months ago

        and the amazing part is both the parties do it lol. Kamala is an evil communist whose gonna take your guns and kill babies if your a Republican. And Trump is a dictator lover who is gonna overthrow democracy if your a democrat. Its funny how 2 people who are ideologically alligned in almost every way possible are framed as being the opposite end of the political spectrum in US politics.

        • davel@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          3 months ago

          Every election is also the most important election of our lifetimes.

  • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    Giving your vote to an independent or worse not voting at all, just gives more of a chance for Trump to win the election

    If you don’t live in one of the 7 states that matter in an election then you can vote your morality, safe in the knowledge that the EC will ignore your input, anyway

    Inb4 some dipshit mentions down ballots when we’re talking about the fucking presidential election

  • GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    Why in the world would you make this thread? Almost every single day for at least the last month (and still often beforehand) there have been threads where the liberals and the leftists aggressively talk in circles on this issue. The odds of you hearing anything new are incredibly low, and you might as well just go back to .ml’s c/news threads for the same material.

    I just can’t keep having people yell the same nonsense at me over and over. If you’re really badly in need of leftist takes, I’ll DM you on request, but I don’t really want to talk about it publicly anymore except in more convincingly leftist spaces than .ml has been rendered by its federation.

  • Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    My logic (I don’t live in the us but for the sake of argument, let’s pretend I do) is that if a politician can commit a livestreamed genocide, and they win the election, it signals to politicians that there is no line they can cross that will make their campaign enviable.

    It would be more ideal if the Democrats could have been punished for their war mongering years ago, but you never punish your representatives for crossing even the most egregious possible line, then you truly don’t have any power over them and have fundamentally given up.

    If to.morow, even 10% of the dems indicated in polls that they would not vote for kamala because of gaza, it would force the DNC to take a stronger stance on the issue because the race is too tight. If this had happened many months ago, the Democrats could have been forced in giving concessions. But the Democrat voter base has made sure that the demmocrat party has no need to give concessions. They have used themselves as meat waves to ensure that the genocide can continue smoothly.

  • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    doesn’t it make sense to vote for the person least likely to escalate the situation even more.

    And what if they seem equally likely to escalate the situation?

    Trump says he’ll let Israel finish the job. Kamala says she disapproves of what’s happening in Gaza, but will always support Israel and will always provide them with weapons.

    Same fuckin’ thing.

  • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    This was where I was at 6 months ago. They even had the gall to say, “things will shape up as we get closer.” This is an attack vector and no, it will only go away after the election. People who defend the stance who aren’t foreign actors are useful idiots.

  • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    Obama dropped an average of 60 bombs every day on the middle east and north africa during his presidency.

    The US isn’t a democracy, and it’s elections are nothing but theatre. I recommend asking about this on lemmygrad or hexbear also.