this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2025
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I have problems with people who abstained. The hard thing is, how do you change voter behavior?

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[–] frezik@midwest.social 13 points 7 hours ago (6 children)

I advocated for voting for Harris, and did so when the time came. I also don't think this blame game gets us anywhere, and I'm already a little sick of talking about it.

I'm also done defending the Democratic Party as a whole. Individuals, yes, but not the party. I'm realizing through this that I have a certain reflexive need to correct misinformation about Democrats, but I'm clamping down on it.

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[–] sakodak@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I have problems with people who abstained. The hard thing is, how do you change voter behavior?

I didn't abstain. I voted for a candidate that didn't support genocide while living in a solidly oligarch controlled state. What you would probably call "throwing my vote away."

But no voter had a say in this past election. It was a struggle between the corporatist and oligarch branches of the capitalist class, and the oligarchs threw more money at buying the election.

That's it. No need to vote shame, regardless of if someone did or did not vote. It should be blatantly obvious by now that the Office of the President is (well, was) a rental. Now the oligarchs bought it from the corporatist landlords and plan to remodel and reside in it forever.

There is no war but class war. Nobody is coming to save us. We have to save ourselves. Organize. Let's make voting useful again.

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[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 9 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

From my perspective, as someone who didn't have a vote in US politics and wanted you guys to vote to kick the can down the road until next time, but also understood the sentiment of those who didn't bother, it wasn't a belief that Trump would do any better so much as a loss in faith that the Democrats were who they claimed to be.

When hope dies, it might be replaced by despair, anger, and desperation, or it might be replaced by apathy.

And while that was going on, there was also propaganda going on where people were trying to push the idea that Trump would be any better. I don't believe that there were a significant number of voters who voted for Trump or stayed home because they believed that to be true.

Right now, it looks like the main conflicts about this I'm seeing on this platform are those with hope trying to rally the troops, while those with anger are mainly upset at those with apathy.

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Well put. From this framework, Trump didn’t win. Apathy did.

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[–] chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 23 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Ultimately yes, its the fault of the voters (and non voters) who let their emotions cloud their judgement. Thats true whether you like it or not. Especially if Gaza was your main issue; if you saw both candidates and thought Trump was better for the situation, you need to seriously look inward and consider your reasoning abilities.

That being said, the opposition party does not get off the hook so easily here. The fact that Trump could win despite everything he said is a total and utter failure. Their strategy is bad, and they refuse to acknoledge it because to do so means that they need to upend their internal heirarchy. They have buried their heads in the sand when it comes to accepting the playing field of politics right now, and quite frankly as a party they look incredibly weak.

In other words, to not acknoledge that the election was theirs to lose is also denying reality

[–] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 11 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Democrats also have a fair share of blame for refusing to work with the left, and instead siding with war criminal Dick fucking Cheney.

If they had made any effort to inspire people to vote for them they would have gotten more votes.

Honestly I'm surprised they got as many votes as they did seeing as they actively worked to alienate their vote base.

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[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 18 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Portraying abstaining, third party, and trump voters in the same group is pretty lazy, if not intentional.

The electoral college exists: Every person I knew in swing states voted Harris in exchange for someone in CA or WA voting Claudia de la Cruz or otherwise.

But I guess even Harris voters can be made into Trump supporters with enough effort at this stage.

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[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

At least the better part of them are now posting under the hashtag #DonaldOfDeath.

[–] ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world 29 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (20 children)

Okay I'm getting sick of the whole "the dems failed us" bullshit.

WE failed. WE let this happen. WE had the choice between an obvious dictator or continued democracy.

You can shift the blame all you want but at the end of the day it was an obvious choice. You can come up with any other excuse you want. If you didn't vote for Harris you are to blame. Period. End of fucking story.

Edit: The dems should've been able to run a wet paper bag against Trump and win. The fuck is wrong with people to not see that?

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