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‘They will vote against Harris’: Arab Americans in Michigan desert Democrats over Gaza (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21396125

Stephen Starr in Hamtramck, Michigan
Mon 14 Oct 2024 11.00 EDT

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (29 children)

Context:

I am not an american, so there may be some missing knowledge for me about the american electoral system.
I abhor Israel's genocide in Gaza, and I abhor the biden administration's support of (and Harris' seeming continued support of) the genocide.
My understanding is that Trump is just as, if not more supportive of the genocide in Gaza, and on top of this has his sights on doing some truly terrible things in the US re: minorities, trans rights, etc

So with that context, my question is thus: It seems clear that Trump wouldn't change anything about the genocide in Gaza, and that he would bring more evil than the current status quo. So if you're an american voter, you obviously can't let Trump get in. But, Harris is gross to vote for as well, even if its a "lesser of the two evils" thing. What do you do? As far as I understand its basically one or the other, you dont really have any third party to vote for right?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

they exist, but the electoral system is designed to keep them from gaining power. And since (most) states use first past the post, secondary preferences aren't taken into account, so if you vote third party when you would have voted for Harris otherwise you increase Trumps chance of winning. There's some argument to be made that voting third party or not voting might influence democrats in the future to change their policy to appeal to those voters but I don't know how realistic that is.

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