this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2024
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[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 27 points 3 months ago (6 children)

So when democracy was on the line and it was just an old, geriatric white guy, it wasn't exciting enough to vote against fascism? Don't get me wrong, if Kamala wins this and we make it out relatively unscathed, I'll be happy, but it shouldn't have taken just a slight change in aesthetics to get people out to vote. Democrat voters are so unreliable.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 12 points 3 months ago

Black Americans have been on the receiving end of fascism since they were dragged to the New World in a big old boat.

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

slight change in aesthetics? this take is more surface level than actually voting for the color of a candidate's skin.

if democracy is on the line, you better act like it. putting a corpse up as your candidate ain't it.

[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You don't vote for the candidate, you vote for the cause. The people excited to vote for Kamala Harris now were perfectly fine to let democracy die a few weeks ago, and thus far I've seen no substantive difference in her policies as compared to Biden, it's basically a continuation of the status quo. She has a better "argument" to make for abortion rights because she's a woman vs Biden being an old white guy, but he's still done more for workers than Harris can claim to have done. Maybe she'll scold Israel a bit more than Biden did, but she seems more in line with Hilary Clinton than anything. I'm ready to vote against the fascists no matter who the Democrats put up, corpse or not. Even if he had died in office, the presidency still would've gone to Harris anyways, so it shouldn't have mattered his age.

[–] Glytch@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

When everyone is saying democracy is at stake, why would I vote for a near-corpse who doesn't care about the result as long as he "tries his best"?

Pressuring Biden out of the race and replacing him with someone who will actually fight shows that Democrats are finally serious about this election and the threat Trump poses.

[–] andrewth09@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

When Biden was on the ballot, voters didn't see him as someone who could take radical steps to address the number of underlying issues plaguing the country.

A vote for Biden was a vote for the status quo. The status quo is a slow decline into fascism.

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But he was literally one of the best presidents in the past hundred years. He has done a ton of shit with no support from Congress. Dude is out of the race and is still erasing student debt.

[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

Yeah, in my mind Joe Biden was definitely the more liberal/progressive of the two (apart from his dumb unwavering support of Israel). Kamala Harris is probably more in line with Hillary Clinton and probably closer to centrist than progressive. There's just this perception that "old white guy" = more conservative, it's kind of racist tbh, but I guess it's against white people, so that's cool. As long as it keeps Trump and the white racists/fascists from the presidency, that's fine.

[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But I haven't seen any substantive change in policy direction to assume that isn't still the case with Harris. We've got a younger, prettier new face, but otherwise I'm assuming it's going to be all the same people in the administration, maybe Harris will go with B instead of A for some Cabinet positions, but otherwise, it's going to be all the same faces and it's going to be the same status quo that it was before. People expecting Harris to be more progressive/radical than Joe Biden and that she's going to shake up the status quo are going to be in for a rude awakening.

[–] andrewth09@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

But we won't know for sure until after she is elected and that gives voters hope.

[–] Kroxx@lemm.ee 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I think it's more about being sick of an absolute lack of any attempt at representation. I will avoid the topic of race and come at this at a completely different angle because it was my experience.

I decided this would be the first election I would vote in, I have been apathetic for a long time. Cuss me or praise me it was how I exercised my right and I did it with thought. I decided to change that this year and I'll be damned if I'll vote uninformed, so I tuned into the first pres debate I've ever paid attention too.

I fully expected to see Trump lying/ talking out his ass and I had already seen some of the points of project 2025 so I already had an expectation. I hadn't really ever paid Biden attention and was curious, but honestly my vote was well decided. Again though I wanted to know exactly who I was voting for. I was shocked, I felt deceived, but above all I thought " this is the elected official that is supposed to represent my ideals?". Which he already wasn't and I had made so many many small concessions, it was just the straw that broke the camels back. I felt all the anger and frustration that I had quelled resurface with vengeance. Now I recognized even in the moment this was an emotional knee jerk reaction, so I decided to watch every interview after to find genuine motivation to vote for Biden. Never did, it was just Grandpa refusing to even acknowledge giving his license up after ramming into a pharmacy with his car. Biden always spoke of the past when asked about inflation, everyday struggles, his accomplishments, his wealth, his political career, half the shit he referenced happened before the birth of my parents. The entire time I just felt so disconnected from him as a representative of my vote.

Now I'm not trying to justify not voting because of this, you should always vote and I'm trying to be better as well. I'm just saying I can empathize with how hard it is to be motivated to vote when you already don't feel represented whether that's ideologically, physically, racially, gender, region, or whatever it's all going to play into it, consciously or unconsciously. Even when you vote, you still can feel powerless. I suppose I can't say that for sure yet but I am pretty positive I will about that because the broken things I want to see fixed wouldn't start to mend immediately after voting because of how broken they are and how complex the solution probably will be, but I'm trying to have hope long term.

[–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Your mistake is seeing them as Democrat voters. Maybe if the Republicans had a brown candidate they would vote for them instead.

[–] itsgoodtobeawake@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's hilarious, you think Republicans would try that? It's been mask off for the open racists since Obama, they understand their base just fine.

[–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The fact that Republicans wouldn't do that doesn't change the fact that there are undecided voters that would do that. If you think non-whites aren't capable of being as conservative as republicans, you're going to be disappointed time and time again.

[–] itsgoodtobeawake@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Sure, we are all capable of the whole gamut of political opinions, it's foolish to gauge race as the only deciding factor. On that we agree. There is also a whole messaging thing that would need to shift for Republicans to appeal to a wider variety of people, which is what I was trying to point out. How many times has JD Vance spoke in narrow terms about "the white working class" , that's probably not a message that appeals much to a diverse electorate. I don't think the current Republican party would even tolerate Michael Steele at this point.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Thanks to our hyperbolic media, people think voting is something they get excited for every four years; like the Olympics.

Really it's something you have to do every year and requires effort to do research; like your taxes.