This was a beautiful, convincing essay. I've voted for Stein in the past and am old enough to have voted for Nader (luckily I've never lived in a swing state). But I have come to believe that if the Green party was serious about a victory, they would organize at the local level, with people like Jill Stein running for city and state offices that could be won with relative ease. Their strategy no longer sits well with me. That we must choose our *opponents* is a helpful reframing, especially as someone who doesn't have much faith in electoral politics. Thanks for this.
While I have no faith in electoral politics myself, I also understand that is because we have been taught to not use critical thinking skills. I really appreciate the article and your critical thinking, but it's been crazy making to hear all the supposed progressives shame those who refuse to vote for KH, with arguments such as "that's a vote for trump" or "stein is putin backed" or whatever other propaganda they choose to bite with. So i an wondering why not (those of us with any platforms for progressive movements) tell those in swing states to vote outside the 2 parties with the hopes of some type of incremental change?
Every vote for those who oppose genocide is a vote making a statement. We only got four Greens in as MPs in the UK this year because people kept voting Green, not red or blue. You only change a two party system by voting for a party outside of it.
Of course I agree that a movement of labor/poor united across race/gender is to be prized.
I think where I get stuck is the following: As a father, I opposed the vaccine mandates and lockdowns and watched helplessly as the left - less in support of common sense policies than out of petty vindictiveness - championed horrific policies of censorship and group “othering” that have only served to divide this country further and force people into these camps we are now stuck with. How can I support the very people who demand I jab my son, the ones who censor my ability to oppose that, and when I do, reflexively brand me “right wing conspiracy theorist” for simply speaking for choice and debate? The left is not the left anymore. I am abandoned to my despair, along with millions of voters. We must have free speech, however littered it is with hate, if we want movements like the one you (and I) support. But I can’t vote for Harris. I don’t agree that she can be trusted. She would be a vessel for the complete corporate/AI/top-down takeover of our fair and honest public debate, along with the tech companies she would instantly regulate. (BTW I could offer the same grim case against Trump.) Like endangered species, our faltering climate, and our long suffering earth, I’m not sure there is a vote in any direction that will give us the “best shot” at anything other than offering the illusion of delaying the bitter goodbye to our brothers and sisters in Gaza. It’s all so awful, I’m trying to remember that quote that goes something like the worst among us are full of rage and purpose and the best are on the fence. I fall back to my farm and the words of Wendell Berry “what I stand for is what I stand on.” The grieving earth, waiting for us to turn away from these control-games, these fever-dreams, this hopium. Let us turn, together, back down the dark mountain.
This was a beautiful, convincing essay. I've voted for Stein in the past and am old enough to have voted for Nader (luckily I've never lived in a swing state). But I have come to believe that if the Green party was serious about a victory, they would organize at the local level, with people like Jill Stein running for city and state offices that could be won with relative ease. Their strategy no longer sits well with me. That we must choose our *opponents* is a helpful reframing, especially as someone who doesn't have much faith in electoral politics. Thanks for this.
While I have no faith in electoral politics myself, I also understand that is because we have been taught to not use critical thinking skills. I really appreciate the article and your critical thinking, but it's been crazy making to hear all the supposed progressives shame those who refuse to vote for KH, with arguments such as "that's a vote for trump" or "stein is putin backed" or whatever other propaganda they choose to bite with. So i an wondering why not (those of us with any platforms for progressive movements) tell those in swing states to vote outside the 2 parties with the hopes of some type of incremental change?
Yeah!
Correction: I meant those OUTSIDE of swing states to vote outside the 2 parties.
Every vote for those who oppose genocide is a vote making a statement. We only got four Greens in as MPs in the UK this year because people kept voting Green, not red or blue. You only change a two party system by voting for a party outside of it.
Sober analysts. Thanks.
Why do you suppose unions are breaking for Trump this year?
*Analysis
Of course I agree that a movement of labor/poor united across race/gender is to be prized.
I think where I get stuck is the following: As a father, I opposed the vaccine mandates and lockdowns and watched helplessly as the left - less in support of common sense policies than out of petty vindictiveness - championed horrific policies of censorship and group “othering” that have only served to divide this country further and force people into these camps we are now stuck with. How can I support the very people who demand I jab my son, the ones who censor my ability to oppose that, and when I do, reflexively brand me “right wing conspiracy theorist” for simply speaking for choice and debate? The left is not the left anymore. I am abandoned to my despair, along with millions of voters. We must have free speech, however littered it is with hate, if we want movements like the one you (and I) support. But I can’t vote for Harris. I don’t agree that she can be trusted. She would be a vessel for the complete corporate/AI/top-down takeover of our fair and honest public debate, along with the tech companies she would instantly regulate. (BTW I could offer the same grim case against Trump.) Like endangered species, our faltering climate, and our long suffering earth, I’m not sure there is a vote in any direction that will give us the “best shot” at anything other than offering the illusion of delaying the bitter goodbye to our brothers and sisters in Gaza. It’s all so awful, I’m trying to remember that quote that goes something like the worst among us are full of rage and purpose and the best are on the fence. I fall back to my farm and the words of Wendell Berry “what I stand for is what I stand on.” The grieving earth, waiting for us to turn away from these control-games, these fever-dreams, this hopium. Let us turn, together, back down the dark mountain.