You don’t vote for a political party in the hopes that you might be able to push them to represent your interests, you vote for a party who WILL represent your interests.
In a true democracy, yes. That is what you would do.
In a false democracy, like Russia, you would ignore the rigged elections entirely and focus on agitating for the implementation of democracy.
But in a flawed democracy, you have a system where the elections are not exactly rigged, but where you do not have truly proportional representation.
In such a system, your primary focus should be on fixing the system. The closer to a true democracy this is, the easier it will be to accomplish via reform, although one should not discount direct action. However, when an opportunity to vote arises, you should take it. You can’t afford to spend all your effort on elections, but ignoring your opportunity to do some harm reduction would be ineffective.
Kamala’s presidency was only ever going to, best case scenerio, push off fascism for 4 more years. America was going to become fascist one way or another. She would have continued the neo-liberal project that has been sending Americans further and further into financial distress while giving lip service to minority rights. She would have implemented more minor, corporation friendly social services that don’t actually fix anything rather than just place a band-aid on a bullet wound. There was no reform to be had because the Democrat party leadership had all the power and they worked harder to suppress progressive Democrats than they ever did to suppress regressive Republican policies and even full on fascism.
If there are Democrats in that party who actually want to make real improvements for Americans, and there do seem to be some who do, then you have to make sure that they realize that the only way the party has a way forward, that their vision of America has a way forward, is if they battle for the heart of the party so that those Democrats in leadership positions who are all too happy to fall in line with Trump’s fascism are rejected and real people who actually care take over the reins. The American people are seeing who is actually fighting for them right now and who is standing by and letting Trump run rampant over everything without any kind of push back.
In a true democracy, yes. That is what you would do.
In a false democracy, like Russia, you would ignore the rigged elections entirely and focus on agitating for the implementation of democracy.
But in a flawed democracy, you have a system where the elections are not exactly rigged, but where you do not have truly proportional representation.
In such a system, your primary focus should be on fixing the system. The closer to a true democracy this is, the easier it will be to accomplish via reform, although one should not discount direct action. However, when an opportunity to vote arises, you should take it. You can’t afford to spend all your effort on elections, but ignoring your opportunity to do some harm reduction would be ineffective.
Kamala’s presidency was only ever going to, best case scenerio, push off fascism for 4 more years. America was going to become fascist one way or another. She would have continued the neo-liberal project that has been sending Americans further and further into financial distress while giving lip service to minority rights. She would have implemented more minor, corporation friendly social services that don’t actually fix anything rather than just place a band-aid on a bullet wound. There was no reform to be had because the Democrat party leadership had all the power and they worked harder to suppress progressive Democrats than they ever did to suppress regressive Republican policies and even full on fascism.
If there are Democrats in that party who actually want to make real improvements for Americans, and there do seem to be some who do, then you have to make sure that they realize that the only way the party has a way forward, that their vision of America has a way forward, is if they battle for the heart of the party so that those Democrats in leadership positions who are all too happy to fall in line with Trump’s fascism are rejected and real people who actually care take over the reins. The American people are seeing who is actually fighting for them right now and who is standing by and letting Trump run rampant over everything without any kind of push back.