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yearly reminder rule
(lemmy.nz)
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this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2026
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Most compelling argument I've seen for voting mattering is that rich people are spending a ton on advertising / campaign funds / etc. Follow the money, and if Musk is dropping half a billion to get more shitty republicans elected, then clearly it matters and both sides are not the same.
Who mints money anyways?
If voting didn’t matter, they wouldn’t try so hard to stop folks from doing it. There are different forms of corruption. Traditionally in the US for example, the actual counting of votes (prior to e-voting) is very accurate and voter fraud is very low but alot of effort is spent on preventing people from voting: laws that bar felons from voting coupled with law enforcement efforts that disproportionately target black people for felony arrests and prosecution is a good example. Other tactics are to limit the options people actually have when voting for and to sideline politicians who slip past gatekeepers either by sabotaging their campaigns in the news cycle or minimizing their effectiveness in congress if actually elected: committee appointments have incredible outsized power within the US congress.
rich people spend a lot on Dems as well though. If your issue is corporate interests, then you likely don't have any candidate to vote for.
Think for a second. Do you want Trump and Steven Miller, the little Nazi fuck face to hold all the power or not.
Don't pout. Don't whine. Think!
Yes, that's exactly what he wants, that's what he's being paid for.
At the end of the day, it's monied interests that are pulling their strings too. Do you just dislike how crass these particular puppets are, or do you hate all puppets? If we're talking about the groups holding power, none of them are in the US govt.
I do dislike how crass how these puppets are. I have a few other other words to describe them.
I mean, sure, but those monied interests are in favor of secret police and mass surveillance. The other monied interests seem at least moderately sane. Like, I'm not gonna dome Mark Cuban or anything, but he's a significantly less shitty person than Musk or Zuck. Andrew Carnegie built a shit-ton of libraries. I'd rather have us all involved in making those decisions, but I'll take a barely-benevolent billionaire over the a sadistic dystopian nightmare one any day.
Andrew Carnegie was a massive asshole who paid for union busters to kill people. Cuban will also gladly lead you to a sadistic dystopian nightmare.
Jfc honestly I sometimes think this country deserves everything that's happening to it. You're seriously sitting here trying to tell me "Oh but it's okay because it's the good billionaires that are buying my politicians!" There are no good billionaires. It is fundamentally impossible to be a good person and obtain a billion dollars.
I didn't say Carnegie wasn't a massive asshole. You're purposefully misreading my statements here.
It takes all of maybe an hour to go vote. The current administration is literally secret policing people off the streets and letting them rot and die in horrendous conditions. That's likely very likely to stop now, but we'll see.
The reality is that you're just too intellectually lazy to investigate the differences between the parties. It's not great that the choices are center-right and far-right, but center-right is objectively better than far-right if you're a left-winger and not an accelerationist. Your lack of voting has a measurable, negative impact on the lives of other people, and you know it.
But Republicans are way blatant on their road to fascism. Every Republican winning term will achieve like 4 terms worth of Democrat wins of policies that benefits them.
okay, but is your issue the path to fascism, or how blatant certain parties are with their embrace of it? because in reality, many of the Democrats who will win today will still fall in line with their Republican colleagues when it comes to issues like healthcare access for trans people, as well as funding for ICE and wars in the middle east. They'll just be less rude than their colleagues while they do it.
So what do you want people to do?
for one, people shouldn't be assuming that any critique of their oligarchy is the result of foreign agents. treating a problem first requires recognition. Part of that recognition is realizing that the US fell to fascism a long time ago, and that both major parties maintain an illusion of democracy.
for two, people should keep working to support political outsiders who are genuinely interested in doing good. I'm watching El-Sayed's Michigan race very closely, for example, and would certainly recommend anyone living in Michigan to vote in that race.
and for three, people should still work to demonstrate when a candidate is unacceptable. Josh Turek is currently running for senate in Iowa, and he fucking sucks. If he is elected, it will show the Democratic party at large that throwing trans lives under the bus is an effective electoral strategy, and the party will shift further right. You absolutely should not "Vote Blue No Matter Who," because electing someone like him is honestly even worse than electing a Republican. Having him lose sends the opposite message to the Dems, that selling out trans people will not win elections. Same with anyone accepting AIPAC money, don't vote for them. If you want to see change within a party, part of that is hammering home that they will not get to win elections unless they start meeting your demands.
I don't have a horse in this race but this
seems to have stopped working at large. The idea is correct, but the result would most likely not be an expected one
Pay attention in the lead-up to the primaries as well, perhaps?
I don't trust a single word out of anyone's mouth. Most of my pre-vote research is done by finding previous actions of the people on the list and choosing the one that pisses me off less.
I ended up voting for a non-aligned county exec over my incumbent aligned exec because the incumbent has done nothing but fondle the corporate interests, and the crusty white guy has been all over zoning, fighting to keep industrial interests out of residential areas.
I hope you're not a troll depicted in the post. The difference this time is there is now a lot more progressives running and gaining support and popularity to usurp corporate Democrats. Besides, the Republicans did themselves a nice job shooting their own foot with how blatantly corrupt and incompetent they have been.
"A lot more" is pure copium lmao. There are a handful, and their races have been fun to watch! I'm personally very excited for the results of El-Sayed's Michigan race. There are still plenty of corporate Dems running this year though, hoping that because the Republicans have been so blatant in their corruption, people will vote for anyone else. Iowa's Turek, for example, is a corporatist piece of shit who will gladly work with Republicans to kill trans people. If you live in Michigan, you absolutely should vote for El-Sayed. If you live in Iowa, you absolutely should not vote for Turek.
Anyway you've already called me a foreign actor so w/e, don't listen to sane and rational talking points because they deconstruct the simple view of American "democracy" you have.
Mate, it's easy to look up how much the parties received by donations from billionaires in this election. Honestly, I thought Lemmy of all people would know this. It's even all over social media how much Elon Musk alone spent in this election than George Soros did in his lifetime.
You weren't initially clear about what you're comment is about. The cynicism of your first post did not distinguish this time that there is now more progressive Dems that ran and won than corporate Dems that remain. That should be a cause for optimism than scepticism.
a lot... 100k is a lot.
the question is: how much goes here and how much goes there.
Edit: according to this it's 2:1 for Republicans. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-50-biggest-donors-to-the-2026-u-s-midterm-elections/
well for a group like AIPAC, most of their millions actually end up going to pro-Israel Democrats during the primary season. Apparently crypto and AI are also surprisingly big supporters of Dems this season, although this is likely just monied interests trying to build new puppets. Those groups are also spending in the millions.
It is likely that more money will end up spent on Republican campaigns than Democrat ones; having the world's wealthiest man-baby putting his thumb on the scale will just kinda do that. but it's predicted that this midterm election will end up having a total price tag over ten billion dollars. Those billions are coming with strings attached, for both parties.
Not true in a lot of primaries. At other times you will have to organize a candidate which is part of doing more than just voting.
A lot but not a lot when compared how much is going towards Republicans.
billions are going to both parties. if you're able to meaningfully differentiate between five billion and six billion dollars, I'm certain you live in a different tax bracket than I do.
Statistically, the Republican party receive way more donations from billionaires. You're just a troll at this stage. I'm sure the handler of your handler is among those donors.
Anything's possible when you make shit up
It's easy to Google how much donations both parties received from billionaires in this election.
Jesus, sometimes Lemmy is brain dead. It is though there is incentive to malign the Democrats...
Musk is a gigantic Nazi POS. I can't say this about the CEO of Target or whatever.
you can't? did you just miss the part where Target tried to sell multiple different racist costumes this Halloween?
If you think any of the multibillionaire CEOs who are bribing your elected officials aren't the scum of the fucking earth, I have a bridge to sell you. Musk is the loudest. That doesn't mean he's the biggest piece of shit.
Target was probably a bad example, I stopped paying any attention to Target when they caved instantly on DEI back in like Jan 2025.
And I used to buy from there like 2-3 times a week, easy.
I mean, it doesn't really matter what example was picked. There are no good billionaires.