George Takei's Based Voting Take [Rule}
George Takei's Based Voting Take [Rule}
Image Transcription:
A tweet from the George Takei Twitter account which states:
"A Democrat was in the White House when my family was sent to the internment camps in 1941. It was an egregious violation of our human and civil rights.
It would have been understandable if people like me said they’d never vote for a Democrat again, given what had been done to us.
But being a liberal, being a progressive, means being able to look past my own grievances and concerns and think of the greater good. It means working from within the Democratic party to make it better, even when it has betrayed its values.
I went on to campaign for Adlai Stevenson when I became an adult. I marched for civil rights and had the honor of meeting Dr. Martin Luther King. I fought for redress for my community and have spent my life ensuring that America understood that we could not betray our Constitution in such a way ever again.
Bill Clinton broke my heart when he signed DOMA into law. It was a slap in the face to the LGBTQ community. And I knew that we still had much work to do. But I voted for him again in 1996 despite my misgivings, because the alternative was far worse. And my obligation as a citizen was to help choose the best leader for it, not to check out by not voting out of anger or protest.
There is no leader who will make the decision you want her or him to make 100 percent of the time. Your vote is a tool of hope for a better world. Use it wisely, for it is precious. Use it for others, for they are in need of your support, too."
End Transcription.
The last paragraph I find particularly powerful and something more people really should take into account.
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Shoo, they’re breaking out the pablum early this time.
Rather than doing your duty to the democrats, why not recognize the weakness their propaganda indicates and use it to force them to take policy positions you want to get your support?
Because only a priv would understand the current situation as an opportunity to force concessions?
You're fucking admitting to all of us that your brain is in the space of leveraging that people will die to make them satisfy your demands, which means you probably expect to be fucking fine and dandy once us Queer folks PoC and Women are done being punished for prioritizing our own survival over reminding you once again that Biden passed the most impactful climate legislation in a generation, the most impactful welfare and infrastructure legislation since the great society, made a strong push to codify roe that died in the Senate, and has used his relatively pro-israel public appearance to get dozens of Palestinians held hostage in Israel freed and won Gaza the ability to access their offshore natural gas once the war is over.
If you feel confident to negotiate, negotiating is an act of betrayal. Show literally an ounce of the solidarity you so often demand of the rest of us.
First things first: I will never vote for joe Biden for any office. Never have and never will. You’re not gonna convince me to.
With that out of the way, you can use the fact that a party which doesn’t line up perfectly with your values needs your support to get them to take action that you want. It’s not cruel or a betrayal. If you think there’s something the democrats can be doing better, now’s the time to get it because they need you.
There’s not a single reason to just vote blue no matter who to use a turn of phrase from years past. If you think Biden and the democrats are doing a good job then push them to go even farther. If you think they’re doing a bad job but better than a different party, push them to do a better job.
What’s great about using elections as a time to try to get concessions is it gives people who feel left out by parties a chance to be brought in. If the party makes good on their promises then they can get voters for life!
Doesn’t a better democrat party with new support sound better than slogging out to the polls to vote against someone?
Imagine being such a priv that you have to make it between for or against a candidate instead of being for all the people who'll be put in life threatening danger when you don't show the solidarity you priv self proclaimed holier thans demand from us lowlies for whom the difference is lived every fucking day.
Does Biden providing aid to Israel suck? Yeah. You know what sucks more? Having TruckNut McGee feel comfortable calling my Palestinian ass that lives here right now a Sand Nigger and socking me in the street before telling me to be grateful he didn't bring a rope.
That's what you support when you don't vote, or when you vote third party. That's not shaming, that's not bullying, that's the mathematical fact that your non vote is the same as voting for what happens without it, and the moral fact that being fine not voting or voting third party is admitting you live where you'll be fine whatever happens to us lowlies you deign to tone police and negotiate with as if we're on equal terms.
MLK wrote the Letter talking about white folks who talk the talk but hesitate or even get hostile when asked to walk the walk and show solidarity, you are the fucking picture of that Ally on Paper ya fuckin' priv.
What is a priv? You’ve called me one about a half dozen times and I don’t know what it means.