I've been shushing people who say there won't be free #elections in the #USA anymore

[gpumoto@mastodon.social]

@benroyce @jawarajabbi Yes, a person people wanted to vote for...

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@gpumoto @jawarajabbi

a person people wanted to vote for *because they voted for him*

Mamdani is elected because people showed the fuck up, not because the democrat org offered him to us

you have cause and effect backwards

we show up, we get 50 Mamdanis

we complain the dem org isn't serving us what we want: stupid lazy excuse making = no Mamdanis

we just show the fuck up

that's it

we're in charge

fuck establishment dems, they're a red herring

Mamdani proves they don't matter, we matter

[apostateenglishman@mastodon.world]

@StarkRG @benroyce @afewbugs Yeah. I was part of a team of 18 volunteers who dropped around 13,000 leaflets across two campaigns - an unofficial one against Reform UK, and an official one in support of the independent candidate - in the run-up to a local by-election. Sadly Reform still narrowly won, but we did manage to shave a few percentile points off their vote share.

Yet most of us think the electoral system is beyond repair. Allowing cynicism to become inaction is, as Ben says, juvenile. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[gpumoto@mastodon.social]

@benroyce @jawarajabbi Yeah, and Clinton was the right choice in 2016...

Berni would have been a much better choice but Clinton was business as usual.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@gpumoto @jawarajabbi

what are you saying

[afewbugs@social.coop]

@StarkRG @benroyce @ApostateEnglishman it's a commitment to personal purity, never sullying yourself by touching a system that's less than 100% perfect, over actually attempting to make things a bit better in the world

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@afewbugs @StarkRG @ApostateEnglishman

yup

and this toxic idealism is selfish, self-serving navel gazing ineffectuality

nonvoters don't have political positions, they have psychological positions

it's a form of coping. it has nothing to do with making the world a better place

[gpumoto@mastodon.social]

@benroyce @jawarajabbi You want votes, you put up candidates that people want to vote for...

The other way around doesn't work.

It will save you guys now because voting blue no matter who will get MAGA out.

Again the whole system in the USA is broken.

[afewbugs@social.coop]

@StarkRG @benroyce @ApostateEnglishman and I do think the first past the post system is irredeemable and needs replacing, but in the meantime I'll work within it as much as I can, try to help spread the South Devon Primary model (https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-peoples-primary---the-book-1) AND campaign for electoral reform #UKpol

[moira@mastodon.murkworks.net]

@benroyce @afewbugs @StarkRG @ApostateEnglishman It's also a great way of not having to take responsibility for any decisions you make except OOPS it's not. But I'm convinced a lot of people - on some level, maybe not top level but it's in there - think it is.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@gpumoto @jawarajabbi

i don't know why you don't get the point

the dem establishment served us cuomo in nyc

the people said "fuck that" and so we got mamdani

this notion "the establishment didn't serve us what we want so i'm not voting" means cuomo would be mayor now

new yorkers showed us who has the real power

we can spread this across the country

but first we have to lose your ridiculous mentality of blaming our own lazy inaction on others rather than just fucking showing up and voting

[unkx@icosahedron.website]

@Asbestos @benroyce All of those who didn’t vote for Kamala are responsible for the current shitshow.

[gpumoto@mastodon.social]

@benroyce @jawarajabbi Oh, I get it... I was an American and voted many years.

I know what it is like to go to the polls and not like both candidates. People don't vote because they don't feel represented.

Nothing changes for the better so my vote doesn't count.

This is the real problem.

This is the system... The broken system, that doesn't represent "The People".