I know I've been asking myself if I want to stick around to see what happens, but I dunno if I have the courage to turn the gun on myself. I'd drink myself to death, if I had any booze around.
Long shot here: Donate to charities which help people in need in predominantly Trump held districts.
Less of a long shot: Volunteer for organizations like Vote Forward to try to reach folks. We're all human beings at the end of the day, and appealing to people can't hurt.
I'm very curious how giving money to Trump supporters would hurt Trump? Some people are giving their last dollar to Trump and depend in charity at this point. Wouldn't throwing money at local charities just further enable them?
The vast majority of Americans both already know how they feel about Trump and Biden and live in a solidly red or blue state. If you do want to focus on Biden, volunteer with phone banking or canvassing so that your efforts are directed to where they'll actually matter and be organized in line with their messaging. Personally, I'd say you're better off focusing on local races where you have more of an opportunity to come at it from a different angle and cut through people's fortified positions. And as another user said, focus on mobilization, it's easier to get someone who already agrees with you to register and make a plan than to convince someone to change their whole worldview.
There are also strategies outside of electoralism, such as protests and counter-protests. You can join an organization and form tactics and strategies to subvert the right's actions, and engage with direct action to build trust and community that could be important in the future. Form strategies while being realistic about your goals and capabilities and coordinate with others.
Who's really going to be swayed by a phone bank? My democratic rep keeps robocalling me and sending text messages and I honestly find it more annoying than anything. This does not work in 2024.
If someone canvassing (or a potential solicitor) knocks on my door I'm either not going to answer it or ask them to leave because I'm busy and don't want my time taken up.
Fair, and people in swing states get inundated with ads as it is. Mostly I'd say it's more useful for mobilization than persuasion, like if you get a text reminding you when voting day is maybe someone makes it when they wouldn't have otherwise.
Ideally, volunteers could mean quality over quantity, less automated spam asking for money and instead actual humans responding to concerns and answering questions. Even more ideally, that could be paired with voters' concerns being elevated and the party actually responding to them. The goal is to improve the quality of the campaign's voter outreach, in whatever form that outreach takes.
I'm not a fan of Biden myself but I still think it's worth discussing general electoral strategies.
There are a few types of people that get targeted based on a voter profile, if my tiny amount of phone banking experience matches. There are the people who are probably going to vote for your party, but need a reminder because they are disengaged. Then there are swing voters that actually are on the fence and use a little information about your candidate. Like, most people don't know much about Biden's infrastructure package, so list off some projects nearby.
Biden did continue just about all of Trump's most infamous policies. The border camps are still open, he continued to build the wall, Cop Cities are still built, the 61 political prisoners in Atlanta are still locked up under RICO charges that the Segregationist-In-Chief could've pardoned away... "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"; no matter who wins.
Those 61 prisoners were prosecuted under state law, which the president cannot pardon or commute. It is part of the reason that the business record investigation against Trump has outsized consequences. It was done at the state level, so even if he is reelected there is no question of him pardoning himself.
Likewise with Cop City, it is funded by the Atlanta City Council and private entities. The federal government is not involved from what I can tell.
Roughly speaking. Supposing we see ourselves as a democracy, it comes off as weird anyone would "plot" a candidate's loss. In such a system, the only thing we can do is gain popular opinion. Unless we're implying we don't actually see things that way.
Fairly successful strategy I've been using lately is to out-crazy the red team and feed em their own medicine. No one here needs to be told the libertarian party is just Far Right Lite™, but do you know their selling points? Cuz there is no chance in HELL I'll be able to convince a Trumpanzee to vote for Biden, but I have been able to steer a handful of votes away from Trump and toward Chase Oliver - usually goes down like this: MAGAt will open the conversation by bitching about someone on the blue team - such as Hillary and her emails. I'll AGREE with them, but lump her and Trump into the same category... "Idk how they get away with sending classified data on a private email server or printing it out and hauling boxes of it to their private residence. If I did hundredth of the crime Trump or Hillary committed, I'd spend the rest of my life in jail!". Bitch about how both parties are doing the bare minimum just to stay in power etc; then start pitching 3rd as an alternative option.
'Both sides' em, and change their vote to "not trump" by pitching whichever 3rd most closely aligns with their impressionability (which is pretty much always the LP). Put the spoiler effect to good use.
And be weary of folks doing the same to you, especially here on Lemmy with all the 'genocide Joe' shit or encouraging apathy because of the shit debate.
What else do you call someone complicit in the genocide of a sovereign nation for the sole purpose of furthering a blatantly-supremacist regime? Other than Amerikan, I mean?
And be weary of folks doing the same to you, especially here on Lemmy with all the 'genocide Joe' shit or encouraging apathy because of the shit debate.
I'm already quite weary of that!
("Weary" means tired; you probably meant "wary" which means cautious)
Poor you. You think Biden's victims are weary? He's killed up to one hundred thousand innocent people in agonising ways, and you're weary of him being described as what he is.
And be weary of folks doing the same to you, especially here on Lemmy with all the ‘genocide Joe’ shit
You've seen the broken, burnt, limbless and decapitated bodies of twenty-thousand plus dead children, live-tweeted into your living room for nine months and it isn’t enough for you to stop supporting the man principally responsible for it.
You’re not "defeating fascism", you are a fascist.
Yep, I've seen them, and out of the 2 candidates chosen by those in power, one certainly does better than the other in regards to Gaza. Biden is a shit candidate, and I hate him, but at least I'm not a Russian rent boy.
I honestly have no idea what the logic is supposed to be here?
Are we supposed to be so virtuous that we allow Republicans to kill all of us just so we die with the Palestinians that no matter who we elect will die!? It makes absolutely no sense.
We can talk in 2028 when we actually have a say again in who is running, but as it stands now we're stuck with who is up there now.
Finally, the logic is simple. Biden is a genocidal fascist. If you're afraid that we will live in a fascist state if Trump is elected, then my answer is we already do.
If Trump is elected and goes full fascist, what do you plan on doing? Whatever it is, you should already be doing it.
Are we supposed to be so virtuous that we allow Republicans to kill all of us just so we die with the Palestinians that no matter who we elect will die!? It makes absolutely no sense.
Resisting fascism and genocide isn't about virtue. It's about survival. You've been conned into believing that if you just vote for the lesser genocidal fascist, then you or whatever oppressed group you identify with will be fine. You will not.
This well known poem
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Are we supposed to be so virtuous that we allow Republicans to kill all of us just so we die with the Palestinians that no matter who we elect will die!?
Translation: "I've already acquiesced to the idea that one way or the other, the flag I eagerly uplift is going to literally inflict genocide upon a sovereign nation for natural gas resources and the allowance of an illegitimate, blatantly-supremacist nationstate to build itself atop those sovereign bodies the exact same way Amerika did to the natives, and I see nothing wrong with that so long as my comfort is preserved"
You and everyone like you fucking disgust me. Death to the settler empire, worse to those who uplift it.
We can talk in 2028 when we actually have a say again in who is running,
"just one more genocider guys I swear, just one more mass murderer; just four more years of settler bullshit" y'all run this exact same play every four fucking years like clockwork you disgust me. I can smell the compatibility on you you dog
Do you organize with an actual party with revolutionary (not reformist) politics? Have you ever cut a check for a political prisoner's bond, bail, or commissary? Perform any kind of community mutual aid? If not, this "oh fuck off" is petulance as impotent as the only thing you claim you do, and deeply unserious as far as any real response could be considered.
So you recognise that the system is the problem. You even think there's a gun to your head forcing you to participate. You don't need to take part in it. Taking part of choosing complicity.
Become one of Biden's close personal advisors and remind him of his obligation to protect the constitution from insurrectionists using official acts? Sorry I'm hella salty today.
Btw, your cope that it has to be the President specifically doing the acts is disagreed with by Sonya Sotomayor in her dissent where she states outright that this decision makes political assassination legal.
But you'd know the implications better than a SC Justice who works with the fascist members of the Court, right?
You’re absolutely correct. This is the part that has been left out of every news article I’ve read, and is undoubtedly the most concerning:
And some Presidential conduct-for example, speaking to and on behalf of the American people, see Trump v. Hawaii, 585 U. S. 667, 701 (2018) - certainly can qualify as official even when not obviously connected to a particular constitutional or statutory provision. For those reasons, the immunity we have recognized extends to the "outer perimeter" of the President's official responsibilities, covering actions so long as they are "not manifestly or palpably beyond [his] authority."
So it’s not just acts committed by the President, but also ordered by the President.
It’s also vague enough that charges can get bounced around lower courts indefinitely.
Thank you again for the link. I didn’t see it when I first searched.
Yes, exactly. "They were insurrectionists bent on overthrowing our government, and it was a tough, but necessary, decision to protect the nation, which is my duty as President."
But Biden himself came out and spoke about the ruling (paraphrasing) "we need presidents to use their power with caution and respect the (self imposed) limitations of it. I'll continue to do just that. The next guy might not do so and that's concerning."
Just a big ol' shrug from Biden... "I won't do it, but he sure as hell will."
Thanks Mr.Virtue... where is all that virtue when it comes to Palestinians?
He can’t. His only power over SCOTUS is nominating Justices in the event of a vacancy.
This is wrong. He can pack the courts RIGHT NOW. The Democratic party still holds the Senate. There is no requirement for there to only be nine justices.
Edit: This does require the house changing the number of justices. So the above is incorrect.
The Constitution does not stipulate the number of Supreme Court Justices; the number is set instead by Congress. There have been as few as six, but since 1869 there have been nine Justices, including one Chief Justice.
With every House seat up for election, as well as 33 Senate seats, Democrats need to vote hard this fall for congressional majority if we want to put SCOTUS in check.
They say your time is much better spent guaranteeing people who already will vote blue show up to polls than trying to change the opinion of people who will vote red.
So that looks like asking people "do you have a plan to vote?" And perhaps in a less nosy phrasing: "When will you vote?" "How will you get there?"
People verbalizing a plan makes them more likely to follow through.
There are many places you can sign up to go canvassing, which is great. I would suggest in addition to and maybe before that, make a list of everyone you know and would feel comfortable talking to, and talk to them about voting. You will get much more mileage from existing relationships. (It's like how sales differentiates a warm lead and a cold lead)
Once you've exhausted that list then every little bit still helps. I do think high density events like farmers markets, community gatherings, concerts, games, etc have better rate of contact than door to door.
I realize I just essentially said to tell people to vote while you were asking for something more. I wanted to share that because some people think that posting "vote" is the same as having a conversation about voting. Posting is not nearly as effective.
Another thing that might help is directly asking elected officials to intervene. Staffers for politicians keep a tally of calls and letters they receive for/against a given issue. So while your words may not move an elected, you and some friends can get them to act on an issue. If you have a group you can also request a meeting to discuss your issue which is even more effective. Politicians take notice of organized groups of constituents since that's a block of votes for/against them and possible a group knocking doors for/against them.
The trouble is I don't know what the ask is. There should be a specific action you're demanding: "introduce this bill" "cosponsor this bill" "vote for/against this bill". And it has to be something they're able to do. I don't know what that thing would be.
Pack the supreme court (but there's not time for that or majority in the house).
Long term I think building true power means growing communities, joining unions and cooperatives. Most of us aren't rich or powerful enough to be heard, which is why organizing is so important. None of this is fair or easy to do.
Convince Biden to drop out of the race about a week before the Democratic National Convention, citing health reasons, and name a millennial candidate who grew up on a farm with wind turbines and solar panels, before enlisting for 2+ terms, and moving to a middle-class area of a blue state after separating. Turn the convention into a media frenzy, energizing the Democratic base.
Undercuts Trump among rural Americans and veterans. Reverses all of Trump's old and senile attacks against Biden, as he suddenly becomes the geriatric candidate. Keeps all of Biden's supporters, while stepping away from the "genocide" criticism.
Basically, if Biden backs out a week before the convention and names someone in their 40's, they can run on a platform of "Ok, boomer" and reach 270.