Political Memes

5510 readers

1880 users here now

Welcome to politcal memes!

These are our rules:

Be civil

Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.

No misinformation

Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.

Posts should be memes

Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.

No bots, spam or self-promotion

Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

269

Single Issue Voters will save the world! (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

421 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 46 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Saw this posted elsewhere and found it poignant

“If Nixon wins again, we’re in real trouble.” He picked up his drink, then saw it was empty and put it down again. “That’s the real issue this time,” he said. “Beating Nixon. It’s hard to even guess how much damage those bastards will do if they get in for another four years.”

I nodded. The argument was familiar. I had even made it myself, here and there, but I was beginning to sense something very depressing about it. How many more of these goddamn elections are we going to have to write off as lame but “regrettably necessary” holding actions? And how many more of these stinking, double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote for something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils?

– Hunter Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

First Past the Post will always result in a lesser of two evils choice.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Sure, but nobody was afraid of Nixon becoming a fascist dictator now were they

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Lol, I mean I get why you feel this moment is unique, but i'm looking through NYT articles from 1972 and if you take out the dated references you could almost mistake them for articles written in 2024:

To the Editor: When a Democrat for Nixon says “I'll vote holding my nose, but McGovern is not a big enough man to be President,” or “I don't like him, but there is no viable alternative,” or an uncommitted Democrat says “McGovern doesn't turn me on,” such remarks are liberalese for “I'm doing alright the way things are, and can't take a risk of any change in the status quo.” - NYT Letter to the Editor 10/19/72

"Lawrence F. O'Brien, the na tional campaign chairman for the McGovern‐Shriver ticket, accused the Nixon Administra tion yesterday of sanctioning tactics of “political espionage” that bordered on those of “a fascist state.” - NYT O'Brien Charges 'Political Espionage'" - 10/14/72

"Deceit, deceit, everywhere deceit—but especially on the political and cultural left, says Arnold Beichman, and most out rageously in the writings of the youth lovers (Marcuse, Slater, Sontag, Roszak, Reich and the rest). They say “America is al ready a fascist country or is on the road to fascism,” that the country “is guilty of genocide,” that “the Bomber Left ... is a moral force” They claim the white “American worker ... is a retrograde, decadent, self ish creature: a honky,” that “our political system is an ut ter fraud, particularly the two‐ party system,” that “American values are wholly materialistic,” that “America is insane,” and that our primary need is for “a violent revolution.” " - NYT, "Nine Lies About America", 10/8/72

I'm having a great time reading through these actually, it's interesting reading the op-eds from back then.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

I think this is a great example of the rachet effect in action. We are now at the point where it has rachet-ed into the Democratic party enabling genocide versus the Republican party enabling genocide and having a plan for turn the US into an overtly fascist nation.

It's important to vote Biden in the general, it's just as important to criticize and protest Biden (plus the Democratic and Republican parties) for their continued support of genocide militarily and on the international stage

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

the point the person above was making was that they're always sick of voting for the lesser of two evils and your response is 'but this one is really evil?'

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 months ago

Uh... Nixon was terrible. He resigned in disgrace. Even Republicans shunned him after he left. It's hard to put into words how much Nixon disappeared from modern society.

Without a second Nixon term, Watergate is probably not as big of a deal. Then Fox News is never created. You can see where I'm going with this.

The point is, yes every election is important. Be grateful you can vote, and that your vote counts. It hasn't been the norm for most of human history.