cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/42694823

Trump has no power to “decree” that voters must present ID or to end mail-in balloting. But that doesn’t mean he can’t at least try both. Under the Insurrection Act or some other dusty statute, he can declare a state of emergency. Then he can decide that said state permits, nay requires, him to take extraordinary measures. On October 5, say, that might mean outlawing early voting. By October 13, it might mean no mail-in voting. By October 29, a reminder that all voters must present ID to vote. And by Sunday, November 1, two days before the election—an announcement that all these “reasonable” measures have alas failed, and he is now forced, against his will, to postpone the election.

  • bearboiblake@pawb.socialEnglish
    19104·
    2 days ago

    “Trust me”, said pro-genocide candidate Kamala Harris, who shows no interest in reigning in the billionaires and corporations rushing to support fascism. “I’m better than Trump. I support US imperialism politely.”

        • MrVilliam@sh.itjust.works
          564·
          2 days ago

          Harris was imperialist and colonialist, but not fascist. It’s ludicrous to equivocate trump and Harris as both being fascist.

          And in any case, yeah, vote for progressives in primaries. I know that there wasn’t a real primary for 24, but that has more to do with Biden not stepping aside soon enough than anything else. Dem voters are getting tired of establishment enablers, and DNC leadership is no longer interfering to pick favorites (see Mamdani’s victory) so we could actually see progressives taking over the party.

          You’re painting a false equivalency (both sides the same) and pining for other options without actually offering a solution for how to get there, implying that we just stay home and not vote at all. You’re the problem. If you don’t like the fascism, vote against the fascist. If you don’t like the non fascist option, tough shit because there may not be a next time if the fascist wins (and he did and here we are talking about suspending elections). If you actually want better Democrats in the general for the 26 elections, you need to start paying attention now because it’s primary season already, and you can and should be donating/volunteering for who you believe in.

          If you’re being serious about wanting an option outside of the two parties, only one of them is open to things like ranked choice to get rid of first past the post and eliminating the electoral college so that it’s people and not land doing the voting. Spoiler alert: convincing people to withhold their vote helps the other guys win, and they’re thrilled to keep it a two party system. You may not like somebody milquetoast like Biden, but he course corrected and arrested the slip into fascism while getting some progressive stuff through. Not enough, but it’s fucking silly to say that Harris was the same as Biden and also Harris is the same as trump.

          • cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.mlEnglish
            919·
            1 day ago

            Imperialists and colonialists share the same beliefs as fascists. They just disagree on whether or not it’s time to turn the violence of the imperialist machine in on itself. As the decline of America continues, eventually the imperialist are guaranteed to relent and side with the fascists.

            On top of that the DNC no legal obligation to run democratic primaries. Regardless of whatever wins democratic socialists have made, they’re so far from actually wielding enough power to meaningfully reform the American system. If they had any chance of success under the current rules then the DNC would just change them. The obvious conclusion is that voting alone will not stop the rise of fascism. It literally the least you can possible do.

          • flandish@lemmy.world
            1024·
            1 day ago

            They are both capitalists and will therefore both trend toward fascim, albeit at different rates. But that trend toward is a very slippery one way street with entire world wars being necessary to only temporarily revert it and try new ways.

            This is why it’s such a depressing mindfuck that the dems would rather remain the way they are instead of change. They want it. Just in a gaslit “guess we gotta be fasc” manner instead of trump’s “we are” manner.

    • Hapankaali@lemmy.world
      513·
      1 day ago

      “Yes, of course I will choose the pile of rusty nails dipped in horseshit over the stale sandwich for lunch. As the sandwich is not very appealing, this seems like the logical choice,” said the well-balanced, rationally thinking individual.

      • bearboiblake@pawb.socialEnglish
        55·
        1 day ago

        The point isn’t to choose the rusty nails, it’s to settle for better than a stale sandwich. I thought that was obvious. You deserve a candidate who actually represents your interests.

        • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
          3·
          19 hours ago

          “Better than a stale sandwich” wasn’t an option. I thought that was obvious. You had two choices. You refused to pick one, so you got the worst of the two.

          And now everyone who didn’t pick is still screaming at all the people who were going “Just eat the stale sandwich, we’ll work on expanding the menu for next time.”

          The DNC should’ve had a primary, yes. But that’s not how circumstances played out. There will be a primary next time, and that’s the time to make your voice heard on who should be nominated. The general election is a zero-sum competition in which, unfortunately, practically speaking there are only two options and can only be one winner.

        • Hapankaali@lemmy.world
          8·
          1 day ago

          Okay sure, definitely a good idea to change the menu, and make it so that there can be more than just 2 options.

          But you still have to choose something to eat today.

    • beelzebum@lemmy.world
      315·
      2 days ago

      Ive noticed that these guys are trying to start the same moral panic shit among Democratic voters to demotivate them this time around. For example, with Talarico - a key senate seat flip.

      • Optional@lemmy.world
        144·
        1 day ago

        It’s definitely going to happen again. So-called moderate trump voters and our own LemLeft have learned nothing.

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
        1135·
        2 days ago

        Shove it up your ass. We tried to save the Democrats from themselves in 2024 and people like you ran static interference so that the Dems could run on “more of the same” and ultimately lose the election.

        • null@piefed.nullspace.lolEnglish
          236·
          1 day ago

          Funny, I don’t remember seeing you promoting any progressive candidate for the the primaries.

          Saw you wokescolding Kamala voters a lot though…

          Must just be that you do the first part in communities I’m not in.

          • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
            811·
            1 day ago

            Funny, I don’t remember seeing you promoting any progressive candidate for the the primaries.

            My entire comment history is right there buddy. Its all in there. Go take a look instead of relying on your clearly faulty memory.

            Saw you wokescolding Kamala voters a lot though…

            I love that word. I’m going to take that word.

            And again, instead of reacting to your impression of what you think I said, go through my comment history and find examples of that. If you need tools to better access them, I can provide that to you. I’ve got my entire comment history also available in JSON format, if that makes it easier for you, and you also have no excuse. In other words, put the fuck up or shut the fuck up, because I know precisely what I’ve said this entire time, and you are responding to your emotional impression of what I’ve said, not actually what I’ve said.

            My criticisms have been explicitly focused on the maneuvers of the party, the Biden campaign, the Harris campaign, and those who shield the parties or the campaigns from criticism

            All of this is based on the central thesis I offer, which is:

            • That its functionally and practically impossible to move an electorate over the course of a campaign which only lasts a couple of months. There are no mechanisms or tools available to campaigns to do so. Focusing critiques on individual voters when there is no function mechanism to change the minds of millions of voters is counter productive and loses you voters. The Harris campaign lost 6 million votes while not understanding this.

            • The only path to winning an election is to move a candidate to a set of popular enough policy positions they win the majority of factions necessary to capture the electoral college.

            • Any one saying that voters just need to “do better” while defending or apologizing for Candidates or campaigns with unelectable policy positions is a dangerous provocateur who, by shielding campaigns or politicians from criticism is operating on behalf of the opposition.

            If a candidate holds a policy position which will prevent them from winning the election, voting for them isn’t “strategic”; its irrelevant. The only options you have is to move politicians to electable positions. There is no other way to win.

            • null@piefed.nullspace.lolEnglish
              134·
              1 day ago

              Hit me with some keywords I can use to find the candidate who’s campaign you vocally and regularly supported through the DNC primaries in that JSON dump.

          • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
            65·
            1 day ago

            Yes. We gave the Democrats a straight-forward path to winning. They simply needed to shift their policy on Gaza. We communicated that here, there, everywhere. We got kicked out of the DNC convention saying it. We said it before Biden stepped down, after. We wrote articles about it. We did podcasts. We wrote editorials. We made it so incredibly clear, that there is really no excuse for not knowing that it was a choice on the part of the campaign to maintain an electable position.

            • beelzebum@lemmy.world
              22·
              17 hours ago

              Yeah, dude, you made a lot of people sit at home so that they lost. You have the mentality of an early adolescent - selfish and with little wisdom or perspective.

              • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
                31·
                17 hours ago

                No it’s that I actually wanted to win the election and I appreciate that I don’t control the behavior of others. I have to live in reality, where you need to to motivate voters to show up.

                Instead of you, living in fantastic delusion of your own creation, where you some how expect to just guilt and shame voters into doing what you want them to do. And to be clear, the exact strategy you are advocating for is what the Harris campaign did do in 2024, and what the Clinton campaign did in 2016. They simply expected voters to show up, and tried to use same or guilt as the motivater.

                It. Doesn’t. Work.

                You lose elections doing that.

                Also, if I’m some how so fucking powerful and have such masterful control of millions of voters, why wouldn’t you just listen to me and advocate that the candidate change their policy?

                If you can’t win the election without meeting my demand, shouldn’t that be your priority? This is obvious, since, you won’t win the election without doing so.