Yeah I know, it’s still a ***ing big facepalm for me, to not show up in one of if not probably the most important election, “just because” the democrats don’t follow a great agenda. As left-leaning as I am and as much as I disagree with (most) democrats, the alternative is, as we currently see sooo much worse.
I wouldn’t vote because I support what the democrats are doing, I just try to choose the lesser evil.
I’m European, and my vote is basically always strategic, I never really vote for the party that I’m really agreeing with, just the party that I’m in least disagreement with.
Yes I think the democratic system in the USA (if it’s still alive) is flawed (as are basically all democracies to some degree), it’s bad, sure, but rolling out the red carpet for Trump by not voting (for the democrats) is… sorry… just dumb.
It’s sad that people rather don’t vote, and accept the fact that the states drift towards an autocratic system, than just vote for the lesser evil (or engage themselves politically).
It’s sad that people rather don’t vote, and accept the fact that the states drift towards an autocratic system, than just vote for the lesser evil (or engage themselves politically).
Maybe it’s sad, sure, but it’s far from unusual. In the US, average eligible voter turnout fluctuates between 50-65%. In 2020 it was 65.3% (the highest ever recorded), and in 2024 it was 63.5%, the second-highest. Eligible voters end up not voting for a bunch of reasons, but the biggest reason is usually because they (rightly) feel like the choice has little actual impact on their day-to-day life. Even if you’re relying on the ‘most important election of our lifetime’ motivation (the same rhetoric that’s been used for the last 5-6 elections at least), many of those people are white middle-lower-class adults - those people don’t believe they’d be the ones targeted by mass deportations or political imprisonment anyway. Granted, that’s a short-sided reason not to vote, but let’s not act surprised by low-income americans having a bit of an optimism bias (since they are consistently the largest pool of eligible voters).
You simply cannot expect every eligible voter to turnout for you if you aren’t giving them compelling reasons to do so. But even in relative terms, the 2024 election was still only 1.7% behind the highest-ever turnout for a presidential election in our lifetime - american voters certainly did turn out, and many who abstained from voting were engaged. The problem is that they no longer believe the democrats actually represent their interests, and so went shopping elsewhere or didn’t vote at all (or split their ticket). Blaming those voters without asking yourself why there were more of them this election is nothing more than political masturbation.
And just a reminder that the democratic party does actually have members in its caucus that have a higher than 60% approval rating nationwide, but for some reason they chose not to run those candidates
Yeah I know, it’s still a ***ing big facepalm for me, to not show up in one of if not probably the most important election, “just because” the democrats don’t follow a great agenda. As left-leaning as I am and as much as I disagree with (most) democrats, the alternative is, as we currently see sooo much worse.
I wouldn’t vote because I support what the democrats are doing, I just try to choose the lesser evil.
I’m European, and my vote is basically always strategic, I never really vote for the party that I’m really agreeing with, just the party that I’m in least disagreement with. Yes I think the democratic system in the USA (if it’s still alive) is flawed (as are basically all democracies to some degree), it’s bad, sure, but rolling out the red carpet for Trump by not voting (for the democrats) is… sorry… just dumb.
It’s sad that people rather don’t vote, and accept the fact that the states drift towards an autocratic system, than just vote for the lesser evil (or engage themselves politically).
Maybe it’s sad, sure, but it’s far from unusual. In the US, average eligible voter turnout fluctuates between 50-65%. In 2020 it was 65.3% (the highest ever recorded), and in 2024 it was 63.5%, the second-highest. Eligible voters end up not voting for a bunch of reasons, but the biggest reason is usually because they (rightly) feel like the choice has little actual impact on their day-to-day life. Even if you’re relying on the ‘most important election of our lifetime’ motivation (the same rhetoric that’s been used for the last 5-6 elections at least), many of those people are white middle-lower-class adults - those people don’t believe they’d be the ones targeted by mass deportations or political imprisonment anyway. Granted, that’s a short-sided reason not to vote, but let’s not act surprised by low-income americans having a bit of an optimism bias (since they are consistently the largest pool of eligible voters).
You simply cannot expect every eligible voter to turnout for you if you aren’t giving them compelling reasons to do so. But even in relative terms, the 2024 election was still only 1.7% behind the highest-ever turnout for a presidential election in our lifetime - american voters certainly did turn out, and many who abstained from voting were engaged. The problem is that they no longer believe the democrats actually represent their interests, and so went shopping elsewhere or didn’t vote at all (or split their ticket). Blaming those voters without asking yourself why there were more of them this election is nothing more than political masturbation.
And just a reminder that the democratic party does actually have members in its caucus that have a higher than 60% approval rating nationwide, but for some reason they chose not to run those candidates