USA leftists in favor of voting for Biden: What other direct action should we do?
USA leftists in favor of voting for Biden: What other direct action should we do?
A few things that are accessible within the USA include:
- Participating in mutual aid programs
- Campaigning on the local level, including for positions like poll watchers
- Making your voice heard in community events in general
- Joining your local DSA, networking
Lol, this thread is the shitshow you could expect it to be. The fact that the american "left" is so divided will give the victory to Donnie Trumpo. A message from Canada: Please vote for Biden (cant believe I'm saying that), just this time. We know he's a POS, but your other option could break your country for decades, and we dont wish that to you.
Just in general?
Support FOSS as a creation of digital public goods. Even more so aiming with decentralized networks or user facing projects.
Partipate at municple level for sure. At lot of those positions go unchallenged and the meetings tend to have open comment period to influence them. Its also where ~70% of interaction with the state actually happens.
Help out local unions during strikes (boycotts, donations, spread positive awareness, etc).
Garden plant exchanges or anything that can help people avoid HAVING to buy things to live.
I really like volunteering at Habitat for Humanity, only things I feel like I can afford to do to help with the housing crisis. Pushing for laxing of zoneing laws, more human centric urban planning (public transport, bikes, walking routes), and better legal support cooperative housing are great to me, but also all long long term. I also am trying to my funds situated to try and set up a community land trust to try and great a bulwark against investment housing and landlordism, but that's mid term.
I do some volunteering to with our local coopertivly owned maker space too. It really gives people access to tools that many can't get access to otherwise for a very low monthly rate.
I am progressive and over 50 and except for a couple of times in local races, have never had the opportunity to vote FOR anyone, only against people.
So my vote for Biden is only to cancel our someone's vote for Trump. Same as every election. Lesser evil is always the better choice, and always so far the only choice.
Oh I realized I didn't answer the question. I am countering the NIMBY assholes fighting an apartment development in our neighborhood, giving away some of the stuff I grow in the garden, but mostly have influenced our children (and there are a lot of them) so all are quite left leaning, inquisitive and thoughtful.
I keep thinking that left-leaning Americans need to make a shadow party, shadow Democrats. They recruit people to join, they push for more progressive Democrat candidates, and try to push the more conservative candidates out. Then, when all the effort is done, they vote Democrat at the polls. In the current model, there is no way to succeed as a third party until one of the other parties collapses. So the only real options for change are: take over an existing party, wait for a party to collapse, or change the model (which requires a major nationwide effort to implement).
I DO NOT SUPPORT Biden, my vote is not FOR Biden it is for Not Trump. But I know Gaza is why there are MANY people who will refuse to support Biden. I agree with them, but I think these people haven't quite done the math.
You can have an old, out of touch fuck face who represents MUCH of what is wrong with mainstream American culture and wants to double down on a bunch of it, sustain some of it's most toxic parts, while allowing for JUST ENOUGH progressive cultural change (especially the sort that doesn't really change anything) to keep enough of the base engaged with him to keep him (and MOSTLY people like him) in power.
Or you can have a bunch of maniacs who literally want to create Handmaids Tale and are working hard to push us in that exact direction.
Those are the choices. That's it. Don't think of it as "Do I support this one or that one?"
Think of it as:
I can push the button for static, toxic status quo, or I can push the button for Handmaids. Not pushing a button is the same as pushing Handmaids. Also, there are a bunch of little green "Feel Good About Yourself And Win A Participation Trophy By Voting For A Third Party Candidate Who Actually Represents Your Actual Values" buttons, but pushing one of them is the same as pushing Handmaids.
If you're hoping to motivate people to action with the horrifying reality of four more years of Trump (by protest refusing to support Biden)... it's like headbutting a goat. The goat doesn't care, or change it's behavior and it hurts you WAY more than it hurts the goat. In this case, the Right is WAY better organized, unified and prepared to go full fascist then the Left is to get together and demand real change. If you're unfamiliar with Leonard Leo or the 2025 project, I can point you at some podcasts to give you some nightmare fuel. There's nothing like them on the Left, no one throwing that kind of money at being that organized to create political and social change on so many different levels.
tl;dr: I STRONGLY feel like Biden does not deserve my support, and Gaza is a big part of my reasoning, but a non-vote is too close to a vote for Fascist Hellscape.
I'm breaking ground on my second guillotine factory on Tuesday.
Biden is a neoliberal centrist. If leftists vote for him it is because they have no other choice. It is why his support is so weak at the grass roots. And so strong amongst the capitalist elites. His far right opponent is a racist and crook, but runs a strong populist game. Those are our only two choices.
You need to enact Approval Voting and Proportional Representation by referendum. That way you can vote for candidates you like, instead of against those you don't. Get hooked up with Election Science to get started.
