Every election always seems to be framed as “the most important of our lifetime”. There will never be a perfect time to change our habits and actually do something different.
Now with another one of these big bogus showdowns looming down on us, I can already pick up the stench of another bummer. I understand, along with a lot of other people, that the big thing this year is Beating Nixon. But that was also the big thing, as I recall, twelve years ago in 1960 – and as far as I can tell, we’ve gone from bad to worse to rotten since then, and the outlook is for more of the same. —Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72 (1973)
So if we don’t attempt to change now, then when? How long do we continue to let perfect be the enemy of good?
I see so many comments leading up to every election talking about needing to flip the system, make big changes, and upset the status quo.
What do we actually see? You all do absolutely nothing, then crawl back into your holes after world democracy slides deeper into hell.
Some of us are out there protesting, and organising, and trying to fix what we can in our community. But we also recognise that we need to work and vote within the system we are trapped in until we can dismantle it.
Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position and party standpoint to public attention. They must not be led astray by the empty phrases of the democrats, who will maintain that the workers’ candidates will split the democratic party and offer the forces of reaction the chance of victory. All such talk means, in the final analysis, that the proletariat is to be swindled. The progress which the proletarian party will make by operating independently in this way is infinitely more important than the disadvantages resulting from the presence of a few reactionaries in the representative body. If the forces of democracy take decisive, terroristic action against the reaction from the very beginning, the reactionary influence in the election will already have been destroyed.
Surprise surprise you immediately go to outdated classroom rhetoric that completely disregards any context of realpolitik. Your solution is outdated classroom theory that has no practical application. Congratulations, you’re a republican, because your solution is literally just let republicans win but be smug about your integrity while me and mine get bussed to camps. Fuck you dude.
Nevermind that even, his solution is literally just protest vote and let the republicans take over. It’s literally surrender with no fight back whatsoever, just smugness at maintaining their principles or some horseshit.
Every election always seems to be framed as “the most important of our lifetime”. There will never be a perfect time to change our habits and actually do something different.
So if we don’t attempt to change now, then when? How long do we continue to let perfect be the enemy of good?
Cool, so what is the plan?
I see so many comments leading up to every election talking about needing to flip the system, make big changes, and upset the status quo. What do we actually see? You all do absolutely nothing, then crawl back into your holes after world democracy slides deeper into hell.
Some of us are out there protesting, and organising, and trying to fix what we can in our community. But we also recognise that we need to work and vote within the system we are trapped in until we can dismantle it.
This:
—Karl Marx “Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League.” London, England. March 1850.
Vote within the system, sure. But make sure you voting for those who represent you, not the lesser evil who keeps you trapped in the system.
Surprise surprise you immediately go to outdated classroom rhetoric that completely disregards any context of realpolitik. Your solution is outdated classroom theory that has no practical application. Congratulations, you’re a republican, because your solution is literally just let republicans win but be smug about your integrity while me and mine get bussed to camps. Fuck you dude.
hmm
Nevermind that even, his solution is literally just protest vote and let the republicans take over. It’s literally surrender with no fight back whatsoever, just smugness at maintaining their principles or some horseshit.