electoralism

You guys are not winning, I don't care about you getting 5%, the only thing I care about is utilizing leverage to stop a genocide.
Useless fucks.

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I wonder how incoherent republicans will get with (retirees)+(blue collar)+(zealots)+(racists)

(this is not endorsement of tailism)

Sorry, but this is actually an important story for the Trump campaign. His, let's say, weird relationship with Laura Loomer is actual news.

sad

pic unrelated lol

He's running as an Independent against a Democrat who has been in office since 2012. There is no Republican candidate; Athens County has always been a blue spot amongst the rural red in the southeastern part of Ohio, and it isn't uncommon for Democrats to run for local office unopposed in the primary, general, or both.

My (extremely inexpert) analysis is that this is because the local business elite realized decades ago that it was easier to run Democrats in college towns, and it is difficult for anyone outside this entrenched group to run for office. The number of landlords in local government is too damn high.

The students in the City of Athens and the scattered rural lefties keep the county voting blue, but there's a huge base of support for Trump – his signs and flags have been everywhere since the 2016 campaign.

I think that will work in Jon's favor, because I suspect many Trump supporters are low-information voters who won't know anything about Jon except that he doesn't have (D) next to his name but the other guy does. While I believe that having Jon in government will be a material improvement for everyone, he has flamboyant fashion that is likely turn off the chuds. Introducing the students and rural lefties to Jon looks to my (again, inexpert) eyes like the key, but I don't know how to do that with so little money.

He's trying to get the money together for yard signs. Chipping in $11 will buy 2 signs, but commenting with tips, thoughts, questions, advice, encouragement, and support is also helpful.

He would be great at the job. From the post link:

Athens County is beautiful, but it’s becoming harder and harder to afford to live here. The taxes and rent prices are absurdly high. Even the gasoline prices are 20-40 cents higher per gallon here than they are in the neighboring counties. How can Athens still be the poorest county in Ohio? When I am elected I will comb through every dime spent by the county to ensure that the citizens’ money is being spent wisely and reinvested in our community. Athens County residents deserve to know how OUR money is being spent. There is a lot of revenue coming in to the county. Where is it all going? I plan on total transparency when it comes to spending.

Child hunger and poverty in Athens County are real and tragic issues. Sixty-eight percent of children in the Trimble Township area are below the poverty line. How have we allowed that to happen?! Joe Burrow, just a boy from Southeast Ohio, did more to help hungry kids in Athens County than the commissioners ever have.

If you’re going to represent Athens County, which is the poorest county in the state of Ohio, you should at least understand what it means to struggle. We need somebody in that office with current and first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to try to raise a family in this economic environment. I have a unique perspective because my low wages were set solely by the commissioners’ office. They seem to think it’s okay for first responders to live at or below the federal poverty line, while also risking their safety and well-being in the line of duty. I was a paramedic with Athens County EMS for six years. When I first started, we made $12.50 per hour. When I stepped down two years ago, we were making $15.50 per hour. The only reason we got up to that hourly wage was because we formed a union and fought for a raise. One of the biggest opponents to us forming a union was my opponent, Charlie Adkins. During our first contract negotiation, the vice president for the Ohio Association of Paramedics and Firefighters stated that this was by far the most difficult contract he has ever had to negotiate because the commissioners were fighting tooth and nail to keep our wages low.

I have lived in Athens County for the past 20 years and have had the pleasure of living in Athens, Glouster, Millfield, New Marshfield, and Nelsonville. I have met many of the outstanding people that call these places home. I vow to bring the same amount of attention to the small communities that the current commissioners only seem to give to the city of Athens and Ohio University. Athens County is supposed to be the county of inclusivity, yet we’re excluding the poorest among us.

There’s a cycle of poverty in Athens County, and we need to break it.

We need to attract new businesses and higher-paying jobs to the area, and we also need jobs that offer in-house training.

Once we get new jobs in the area, the people in the outskirts of the county need to be able to get to them. I live in Glouster, and on my way into Athens, I pass several individuals on bicycles making a 15+ mile commute. Athens does have a transit system but it only goes as far as Chauncey. This means the hard-working individuals who live in Amesville, Coolville, Guysville, Jacksonville, Millfield, Trimble, and Glouster are unable to get out of their small towns. If they can’t get to a job, how can we expect them to afford a vehicle, registration, insurance, and gasoline?

We need to encourage and support entrepreneurs and local small businesses. As a small business owner myself, I know how hard it is to build something from the ground up.

With the right support system in place, we could make Athens county a hub for innovation and growth.

We need more recreational activities. There aren’t many things to do in Athens County that don’t involve drinking or biking. My family often travels to Columbus in search of fun and adventure that could very well be offered here. We especially need indoor activities for the cooler months. A multi-sport complex that would bring sports teams to the area and encourage teamwork and sportsmanship, an indoor skate park, an inflatable park, a bowling alley...the possibilities are endless. Our kids and teens are isolated, bored, and addicted to screens. They don’t have places to hang out anymore. We can offer them community and excitement outside of social media. This is why I opened Bigfoot Hollow Paintball, Airsoft, and Laser Tag Park in Glouster.

We need to, as a community, figure out a way to curb the bullying that takes place. I have witnessed firsthand, as a paramedic, the devastating consequences of child and teenage bullying. And even as adults, we are not immune to this. Introducing programs and support systems in schools is vitally important to the mental health of our children.

Running for office is more difficult that it should be. As an Independent candidate, I did not have the help of a major party. I had to spend hours pouring over campaign handbooks, deciphering fundraising laws, creating my own committee, appointing my own treasurer, ensuring all my petitions were correct, and completing countless other tasks, figuring it all out along the way. I want to encourage more people to run for public office, and I will use my newfound knowledge to help the next generation of public servants navigate the land mines of running for public office. We need new blood, new ideas, and new enthusiasm in Athens County.

As Athens County Commissioner, I will make the office more accessible to everyone. I will ask people what they need and want from the county, actually listen to what they have to say, and work to make that happen.

The anti-democratic "Democratic" Party political machine has happily leaped into bed together with the most evil Neocon monsters on the planet. Either vote for a left-wing third party presidential candidate or boycott this farcical election.

Snip:

Cheney was a charter signatory to the notorious neoconservative think tank Project for the New American Century, and as vice president played a leading role in the George W Bush administration’s soaring warmongering, militarism and authoritarianism, including most famously the invasion of Iraq. He has the blood of millions of people on his hands, and he should be living out the rest of his miserable life in a cage.

[...]

The Cheneys join a growing list of formerly Republican warmongers who are migrating to the Democratic Party in droves to support Harris. Last month hundreds of staffers who served under Republicans George W Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney signed a letter endorsing Harris, saying that “re-electing President Trump would be a disaster for our nation.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/7/republican-former-vp-dick-cheney-says-he-will-vote-for-kamala-harris

Caitlin Johnstone nailed it. Snip:

The Biden-Harris administration is knowingly helping the Israeli government wage a campaign of extermination in Gaza that has shocked and horrified the entire world, so obviously the real villain we need to focus on here is Jill Stein.

No serious person believes a bunch of socialists and peaceniks are going to vote for a capitalist warmongering party. Democrats don’t bitch about the Green Party because of lost votes, they do it because they hate being reminded that their party’s a lie and their values are fake.

Democrats saying the Green Party steals their votes makes as much sense as Republicans saying the Green Party steals their votes. The Democratic Party is not a left wing party. It’s a warmongering capitalist party that is presently engaged in genocide and nuclear brinkmanship.

All academic since it would never actually happen, but it seems like 3rd parties enjoy more success under parliamentary systems, and super unpopular governments can be tossed out more easily. Would things be any better?

Hello all, leftist who's never voted for a major party beyond the municipal level.

Wanted to ask if there's been any downballot races you've been watching this cycle. I feel like there's been some decent enough candidates who've slipped in during previous cycles, but I haven't heard much talk about anything this year. Obviously not putting much hope into anything, just curious if there's anything to look out for.

linky to tweet, has a poll as well

A polling app for the 2024 elections with a familiar logo

The bar is below ground so maybe. 🤷

(from a MoveOn mailer)

Remember when the dems controlled all 3 houses

I figure I'll vote PSL again like I did last time since they seem to be among the most principled leftist parties we have in this hellscape. I've seen a lot of support for Jill Stein but iirc she has some very weird reactionary conspiracy-brained views. How we feeling? Is running this time around?

edit: to be clear I assume most of the based parties will not be on the ballot in most states, I've written in my picks before and I'll do it again KKKopmala

I'm just going to outline some stuff that's been floating around in my head since observing the monstrosity that was the DNC this week.

• The uncommitted movement caused the Democratic Party to flinch and push for Biden's removal. This seems clear to me.
• Piggy backing on the Uncommitted Movement were disillusioned liberals who were convinced Biden was not going to win a second term. They were Uncommitted based on that belief and nothing more.
• The resolution of this tension, through Biden dropping out and Kamala taking the rains, caused those disillusioned liberals who voted uncommitted to finally be set free. They have fully embraced Kamala as the new candidate uncritically.
• After several weeks of strong polling numbers, it becomes clear that the number of uncommitted voters has now been shrunk dramatically. Only those whose original position was centered on Gaza remain. For those now freed liberals, Gaza came to become a conditional issue instead of a primary issue.
• Harris lets the mask slip at a rally, telling the remaining uncommitted movement "I'm speaking now", which grants a license to the Islamophobic members of the party to go mask off. Turning the phrase into a shibboleth of sorts, signaling their disdain for Muslims at large.
• This mask off moment comes into full bloom at the DNC. Shouting down fellow Palestinian members. Physically accosting them with their "I ♥ Joe" signs. The complete absence of their mention by anyone on stage. The blatant lies about the efforts towards a ceasefire. These Islamophobes have been here the whole time, waiting for their license to finally free themselves from the performance art that is their care for the minority.

In this group of liberals, there exists two kinds:

1. The Islamophobic majority, ready and willing to perform a transfer of suffering out of the empirical core and to Palestinians and Muslims abroad.
2. The abused minority, who know their only survival is to plug their ears and walk fast so that their conscious does not catch them. They know, because the Democrats tell them so, that if they vote any other way, they will be the ones who suffer as well. So they too hope to cast their suffering abroad onto others to save themselves.

It's clear to both these groups that the Democrats will be moving on with their plans regardless. This is also apparent in the spectacle that was the DNC and the Kamala campaign at large. A distinct lack of detailed policy talk, and a very apparent parade of circus members to keep the vibes high and the thoughts empty.

One thing that I think people should take away from this is that the uncommitted movement was effective. It played chicken with the Democratic Party and the party flinched. They made moves that ultimately satisfied, quenched the fear and uncertainty that was festering among some of the movement members.

However, it leads me to some speculation:

Should this next 4 years result in a larger movement, where those abused minorities realize they were always going to be abused regardless, it likely means that any real pushback against the Democratic Party and its goals will lead to the party loosing in congressional elections and even the presidential elections. Republicans often win when voter turnout for the Democratic Party is low. They have to make serious moves to win when turnout is high. Weaponizing the Electoral Collage and the Supreme Court as a couple of examples.

Any truly progressive movement, I think, will result in some of the strongest wins for the Republican Party, if only because of the stubbornness of the Democratic Party at large.

There could be other ways these contradictions will eventually resolve, but based on the motions of the Democratic Party so far this cycle, I feel they've become emboldened to be their full selves, and will believe that if they can achieve victory again this time around, they can continue the same platform of empire with little pushback. This has been historically true, but what isn't historically true is the unprecedented visibility of the atrocities being committed by the party and the global disdain for the empire's actions.

I think their stubborn commitment to this project of empire, and the broadcasting of its disastrous results, could begin to chip away at the "Progressive Left", and push them even further left. However, in doing so, it is going to lead to several years of suffering at the hands of Republican rule. This could create a cycle of awakening, leading to a broader mass movement, but there is no way to know for sure.