"Trump told supporters in Indianola on Sunday that even if they were 'sick as a dog,' it was worth braving the chill to vote. If they then passed away, 'it’s worth it,' the former president added."
Andy Levy responds:
“So ‘Vote and Die,’ ... that is the new slogan. If you want anything that sums up Trump perfectly, I mean, this is it. ‘Go out and do this thing for me, and then if you die, it’s fine.’”
@wdlindsy the problem is "vote blue no matter who" is really no different. It is a gun held to your head telling you who to vote for, and so your not permitted to try changing who is in power, and this is true regardless of the circumstances it happened under. Voting in America is just as free as Putin's Russia at that point. Whether it ever resurrects or not, Democracy is already effectively dead in the US right now.
@wdlindsy Biden telling people this is "saving democracy" is gas lighting and purely insulting. Telling people why we are stuck here more honestly, and then how or what you will try to do to prevent this from ever happening again would be a far more decent thing to do. Decency is dead too, it seems.
@gnutelephony So Biden is the problem here? I wonder how the conversation has juddered to blaming Biden in a thread that begins by noting that Trump instructed his followers to out and vote for him even if they risked their health and death by doing so. I only see one gun held to anyone's head here — and Biden's not holding it.
@wdlindsy yes, actually, at some level, he is too. I don't like being a hostage. He could have stepped aside and said let's have a genuine primary, and then made rule changes to assure it too. That would have been saving democracy rather than exploiting the present moment.
@gnutelephony Biden is not the problem. Trump is. For myself, I refuse to waste time arguing with those who pretend that Trump is a deplorable option, but who want to attack Biden and, in doing so, to demonstrate that they are only pretending when they bow to the possibility that Trump is the serious problem confronting us. I don't have time or energy for that going-nowhere "discussion."
@gnutelephony If you are among the privileged and have the option to live elsewhere, good for you. Many of us don't, for a whole gamut of reasons ranging from economic status, age, health, family ties — and those of us who lack options are, many of us, determined to fight.
@wdlindsy I don't, but will do so anyway. I can go back to Indian country, and we will continue to arm ourselves because we have no choice. I'd rather fight and die the deprivations there than live in this shithole.
@wdlindsy I had meant to go 2 years ago since I was not getting any help with anything I was trying to do, before becoming sick and blind. Destitution is not as harsh in Indian country because people help each other rather than watch you suffer and hope to see you die in front of their eyes. While the IHS hospitals have very few resources, they also don't throw sick people too inconveniently unprofitable to treat out on the street like garbage.
@gnutelephony This is good to hear — though I'm very sorry about your health challenges and economic challenges. I have a friend who has for years gotten excellent dental care from a clinic serving people with native American blood (his parents both grew up on reservations, so he has access to this healthcare). What this nation owes to people with native American ancestry is enormous, and what we give is a pittance. It's good that native American people take care of each other.
@wdlindsy at Pine Ridge (where avg male life expectancy is 47 years...yes, you heard that correct) the land is in "trust", and so no new house have been permitted to be built by the US govt since the 1970's. This is why sometimes we have up to 20 people living in a house. Often unrelated families. Because, hard as it is to do, really we will not let our people sleep on the streets.
@wdlindsy other PoC in poor places I have seen who, maybe not to the same degree, seem to understand this, too. Living "white poverty", on the other hand, actually looks and feels much worse to me. I will leave you that to think about, because I think you do understand what is behind that better than many.
@gnutelephony I think that people living on the margins recognize the significance of solidarity, of trying to protect and lift each other up. That's why those in the lowest income brackets give much more to altruistic causes, in proportion to their means, than rich people do. It's also why those on the margins know they don't have the luxury to give in to cynicism or the illusion that things should be perfect — but realize they have to stand together and fight together for a better world.
@wdlindsy vote blue no matter who is being just as much a hostage with a gun to the head. Is it even worse in some ways that other people hold it for Biden since it makes everyone else accomplices, too? I am not sure, but I know this is not democracy, and as much not democracy as Russia or NK. To pretend otherwise is to lie to ourselves, too.