electoralism
votesocialist2024.com
hey yall, popping in from my hexbear break to share this map thingy the psl is doing. yes its a big doxing map but you dont have to use your real name or info, it would just be super cool to fill this out and get a map full of moving blurbs about why people want socialism. and if you dont wanna fill it out I thought some of yall would enjoy reading it, some of the statements are very moving.
[she's losing so bad](https://x.com/TheDemocrats/status/1848003150613016929)
I want to learn more about her/Green Party's theory of change & try to understand if they've learned from past campaigns.
::: spoiler Long ass copium article Democrats are sounding the alarm over Green Party candidate Jill Stein as they look to avoid a repeat of the 2016 presidential election, in which Stein was accused of playing spoiler in key swing states. For months, Democrats had trained their ire on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent campaign for the White House, and largely dismissed the impact Stein or other third-party aspirants could have in the battle between Vice President Harris and former President Trump. Now, with Kennedy out of the race and less than three weeks to go before Election Day, the party is warning that Stein could once again have a damaging effect in a match-up where every vote in the swing states will matter. “The threat from Jill Stein’s candidacy is real and growing by the day,” said Doug Gordon, a Democratic election operative and co-founder of UpShift Strategies. “Stein was instrumental to Trump getting a first term and she could be key to giving him a second term.” National Democrats’ anti-third-party crusade was at its peak when President Biden was trailing Trump and Kennedy was seeking to get on every state ballot. After he dropped out, the third-party threat seemed to fade, with more marginal candidates such as Stein and fellow leftist Cornel West becoming afterthoughts. Kennedy, who has become a top surrogate for Trump since dropping out, posed a specific threat to Democrats in that he had a famous name attached to their party but aligned politically with the right on many issues. Stein, however, is to the left of most progressives and, in Democrats’ estimation, comes with her own unique baggage. That lingering, eight-year-old resentment has prompted an uptick of activity across the party, with Harris’s allies strategizing multiple ways to cut off any support she has in states where 1 and 2 percent support could be decisive. “The small number of votes she won in 2016 in key battleground states was the difference between Clinton winning and Trump winning,” Gordon warned. “And with this race looking even closer than 2016, the votes that Stein gets will play an even greater role in helping Trump.” The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is reinvigorating its opposition effort against Stein, tailoring its messaging in battlegrounds to warn voters that she could cost Harris the election. Party officials have launched a series of billboards in Wisconsin and Arizona calling the physician candidate a “spoiler.” One ad, which is currently overlooking West Glendale Avenue in Phoenix, depicts a mock-up image of Stein wearing Trump’s signature red “Make America Great Again” hat. While the former president hasn’t paid too much attention to Stein on the campaign trail, he has briefly lauded her ability to pull support from Democrats. Organizers with the DNC and liberal groups feel increased anxiety this cycle and are working in tandem to remind voters that Trump’s ascent to the White House was made possible partly by Stein. “We’re not leaving anything up to chance and will do whatever it takes to remind Arizona voters Jill Stein is a spoiler candidate who can help send Donald Trump back to the White House. Don’t leave it up to chance,” the DNC’s messaging reads. “The only way to avoid a repeat of 2016 is to cast your vote for Kamala Harris.” The Grand Canyon state ad was “authorized” by Harris’s campaign. Stein is expected to appear on a dozen state ballots, including safe blue California and New Jersey, Republican strongholds Louisiana and West Virginia and GOP-leaning states Florida and Texas. But the majority of states where she’ll compete are the closest watched battlegrounds, including Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Trump’s path to 270 electoral votes doesn’t hinge on those three states as much as Harris’s does, but both candidates are intensely targeting Pennsylvania, which went for Trump in 2016 and swung back for Biden as his home state in 2020. A recent poll shows Stein occupying 1 percent of support in the Keystone State, according to a survey with The New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College. Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver held a slightly lower showing of support among voters surveyed, but analysts widely agree that 1 percent — and even as little as a half of 1 percent — is enough to make a difference in the states with the tightest margins. In Wisconsin, another battleground where the DNC has spent resources to attack Stein, the state Supreme Court shot down an appeal to remove her from the ballot before voters go to the polls. Stein is joined on the Badger State ballot by West, Oliver and even Kennedy, who has encouraged his supporters to vote for Trump but could nonetheless siphon off unknown avenues for support due to his efforts to be removed from the ballot being rejected. While some Democrats see Stein as politically irrelevant, and even go as far as to call her multiple long-shot bids as desperate attempts to get attention, others paint a more alarmist view of her campaign, especially as many expect this race to be even closer than 2020’s. Those who hold that posture argue that Stein’s very presence in the White House contest represents a threat to democracy by proxy. “She’s funded, supported and co-opted by extremist Trump MAGA loyalists who know she cannot win but that she only serves to make it easier for Trump to win,” said Joel Payne, chief communications officer for MoveOn, which along with the DNC has led the effort to squash third parties. “That’s why so many of us who are fighting to keep Trump away from the White House are doing the work to call out Jill Stein, her MAGA backers and her extremist ideas like defending white supremacists and Jan. 6 insurrectionists,” Payne said. Stein’s ideology couldn’t be further from Republicans, but, like others in the third-party lane, including Kennedy prior to his departure, she has gotten a boost from controversial GOP figures who want to see her help defeat Harris in the final weeks. This week, former KKK grand wizard David Duke offered Stein his support in a move that was widely perceived as a bid to prop up Trump. “A racist troll has ‘endorsed’ our campaign to draw attention to himself, and certain smear merchants are happy to platform this troll to attack us,” Stein wrote on the social platform X, denouncing Duke and flipping the script back to Harris for what she considers her unacceptable endorsement from former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney. Establishment Democrats have more help this year than in 2016 from young voters, a portion of whom voted for Stein as a protest against Clinton over differences in foreign policy and war. Generation Z voters, who at this point are largely rallying behind Harris, are aware of their age bracket’s history of voting against the two-party system and have formed a group called “Voters of Tomorrow” to help blunt Stein’s momentum among the youth. On TikTok, the group’s hosts called Stein a “scammer,” seeking to reach their demographic who lives on social media. Most of Democrats’ renewed focus has been on Stein, but some are also warning about West, whose swing-state tally includes Wisconsin, Nevada and North Carolina after recently losing court cases to compete in Pennsylvania and Georgia. North Carolina, where West won his lawsuit to appear on the ballot, has become a bigger electoral unknown as Hurricane Helene has upended the voting process. Harris is currently only slightly ahead of Trump in the Tar Heel State. In the latest Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday, she leads the former president 49 percent to 47 percent. In total, third-party candidates in the state earn 4 percent of support — with West and Stein each occupying 1 percent, and 2 percent backing Oliver. Cynthia Wallace, executive director of the New Rural Project in North Carolina, noted that while there have been “a lot of lawsuits” among third–party candidates vying to play in the state, the focus of the electorate remains on Trump and Harris. And as is true in any cycle, an intriguing — or worrisome — polling presence doesn’t necessarily mean actual votes cast. “I’ve not heard any conversation in my travels in our rural counties or on the doors about anyone other than Kamala Harris and Donald Trump,” Wallace said. ___ :::
I'm not sure whether to fill in the bubble for the Greens or write in PSL. Which one would make libs madder?
Arguing with liberals on the internet this morning, and whenever I make a simple more stance that "I refuse to vote for a genocide facilitator" I'm met by nothing but "what if's". "Ok but what if our choices were XYZ" "But what if trump does this?" It doesn't fuckin matter to me, im not casting my vote for either of them.
[linky](https://xcancel.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1846859483428856266) The simping of uk is legendary
>Harris campaign officials believe that talking about the current landscape of abortion restrictions in the United States is a winning strategy with female voters, particularly liberal and liberal-leaning ones. But Mr. Baier did not bring up the issue, and the vice president did not guide him there. > >Instead, both of them stayed focused on immigration and border security — a topic that, according to recent polls, is near the top of the list of concerns among female voters. > >At several points, Mr. Baier asked the vice president if the families of women killed by undocumented immigrants were owed apologies from Ms. Harris and the Biden administration. He read off their names from a list, one by one, and played a clip from the mother of one of the victims, who blamed the administration’s border policies for the loss of her daughter. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/16/us/politics/kamala-harris-fox-news-interview.html Dog shit political instincts. This is the same person who had to exit the primaries first in 2020. Can't win an election to save her life. It will be amazing if the Dems lose again, the fact that this is even in the cards is frankly fucking insane
great electoral strategy guys, just stupendous five-dimensional chess thinking
[i tell myself i bear witness](https://x.com/dylanewells/status/1845882383511245272)
The Green Party has correctly responded to the anti-democratic "Democratic" Party political machine's ugly propaganda and disinformation smearing Green presidential candidate Jill Stein. Here are some of their responses: *Margaret Elisabeth, co-chair of the National Lavender Green Caucus: "If Kamala Harris is defeated in November, the reason won't be Jill Stein. The Biden-Harris administration continues to send military aid for Israel's ethnic cleansing and extermination of civilians in Gaza, which Trump also supports. Millions of voters can't stomach the idea of voting for pro-genocide candidates."* *Cassandra Lems, co-chair of the Green Party of the US: "The DNC wants Jill Stein off the ballot. They assume that if Dr. Stein dropped out of the race, Stein voters would vote for Harris — which is like believing that Harris voters would vote for Trump if Harris were to drop out."* *Justin Paglino, co-chair of the Green Party of the US: "The DNC wants the public to believe that Jill Stein is siphoning votes from Kamala Harris, which shows that the DNC thinks Harris owns my vote. Harris doesn't own anyone's vote except her own. Candidates have to earn my vote. Stein did, Harris didn't."* *Randall Toler, co-chair of the Florida Green Party: "Democrats scream like banshees when Dr. Stein receives a check from a Republican, while they brag about the flood of endorsements and generous contributions for Harris from Liz Cheney, her war-criminal father, Karl Rove, and other top Republicans."* *Ann Link, Green National Committee delegate from the National Women's Caucus: "In other democratic countries, voters have a choice of more than two parties and two candidates on the ballot with a wide range of political views. Only in the US is the participation of alternative parties treated like an unnatural interference that must be eradicated. It's appalling to see so many in the US media parroting the DNC's talking points."*
So what does Kamala wanting a Republican in her Cabinet mean? All the Cabinet members sit at the same table, right? https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/kamala-harris-pledges-republican-cabinet-member-rcna168879 >“I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion. I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences,” Harris said. “And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.” Is there a 'transitive property of fascism' defined yet?
Her opponent was even more xanned out than her and did a dab at the end of the televised debate
I think some leftist accelerationists believe that electing Trump will galvanize resistance the way it did 2017-2020. The ways that regular folks joined us, marched, and actually paid attention to things besides soccer practice was legit heartening and often helpful. I'm thinking about popular demonstrations against the migrant camps, organizing Covid relief and mutual aid, and generally saying "fuck this guy and his policies." But if Trump returns, none of that shit is going to happen. 1) Those would-be allies might conclude that all that resistance was for nothing, and give up. *Especially* if he wins an outright majority. 2) Trump is pretty open that he intends to use violence against his political opponents, and this time he likely won't be constrained by any sort of deep state. *Especially* if he wins an outright majority. That's my thinking, but any accelerationists want to tell me where I'm wrong?
In the leadup to an election is when there is maximum ability to influence the policies of the candidates. At no time before or after this period will any individual voter have more influence. Libs could have joined in with the uncommitted movement months ago and continually demanded an arms embargo on israel as a precondition for their votes. They could even have fucking lied and in their cowardly little hearts known that they were going to vote for the dems anyway. But no, even that small amount of effort was too much. Instead they immediately en masse announced their unconditional support for the dems and spent all their effort viciously attacking anybody who even mildly criticized their candidate. Absolutely useless dumb fucking crackers. I will not forgive them.
[he win election](https://dailyboulder.com/what-was-that-sound-trump-accused-of-farting-possibly-soiling-himself-on-stage-during-detroit-speech/)
I think one significant part of the low turnout among US overseas citizens is quite simply the typical voter suppression associated with postal voting in general, including people simply not being told their own rights, exacerbated by some added bureaucracy from being situated outside of the USA and the ballot needing to pass through different postal systems. There might also be some demographics overrepresented among overseas citizens that have their own obstacles to voting, too. This is all a neat explanation of why my own family has generally not voted, however I don't think this is the full story. Another US overseas citizen on Hexbear remarked when I brought up the low turnout yesterday, >I'm an overseas American and I am not voting because it would be a bizarre waste of time. Not only would I be voting by mail in a solidly blue state but if votes by mail ever determined an election there would be a coup. Indeed it seems to be in the "battleground states" where postal voting rights are most challenged. So it would seem that the states where it is easier to vote from abroad, are also the states where there's nothing "competitive" about the elections to begin with. What stood out to me more in that reply, however, was the remark that "there would be a coup" if postal ballots ever determined an election — essentially that the fact that postal ballots are already treated as inherently suspect, would in itself demotivate people from voting in the first place. Otherwise there are probably many US overseas citizens who think of the elections as fundamentally illegitimate for other reasons, or who see both wings of the Capitalist Party as roughly the same — for better and for worse — and so they just wouldn't bother voting even for a "third" party. Or there could be other reasons! Like maybe there might be a stigma against voting in US elections from some countries, because this might make the voter look "disloyal" to their new country, I don't know. This is just speculation. So I'm hoping someone might have more insight into this topic, or might be able to even say the relative prevalence of different reasons why US overseas citizens don't vote.
https://fxtwitter.com/NewsWire_US/status/1844012151759134896
[linky](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/14/silicon-valley-the-new-lobbying-monster)
**Intro** Pic related. It's me. I have to come clean. I'm a lib-for-hire. I need income, and what do you know, it's campaign season and I know how this works... so here I am getting paid to "get out the vote" for this year's elections. I'm not going to provide details, and I'm not going to say anything that can pinpoint who I work for or where I work, for obvious reasons. I'm also not going to divulge any "trade secrets" or screenshots of things like VAN, again because I need to keep this job... I'm writing this partly to clear my head, partly to reckon with the lib job I have, and partly to help educate my comrades on some lessons they can learn from this part of electoralism. Some of this will be disjointed because that's how my brain works. If you have any questions about campaigns drop them in the comments and I'll answer to the best of my ability. **Why care about this?** The Democratic (and I assume to a smaller extent, GOP) "industry" makes up a decent chunk of economic activity in a handful of states every two to four years. A huge chunk of groups with millions in funding swoop in, hire up hundreds to thousands of people at a time for temp work, then lets them all go in November. As leftists, we should understand how this niche within Capitalism exists. This can help explain why some people in this world act the way they do: *because their paycheck depends on it*. There are material realities behind "having high, high hopes for a living". These are not GREAT jobs, but for a lot of people they are better jobs than what they have access to during off years. I know of someone who was thankful for their Field Organizer role because it helped them cover the bills in the way their fast food jobs didn't. There's also a psychological factor at play with these campaign jobs. A lot of Field Organizers are coming into swing states from out of state. They are college-aged, idealistic, and taking a semester off school to do a job that is often 6-7 days per week and stretching to 70+ hours per week when it's time for "GOTV". Imagine being told the thing you just spent your entire October working for is a sham  **We act like a c3 during VR, then switch to c4 work for GOTV** Like most industries, the campaign industry comes with it's own unique insider vocabulary. c3/c4 - This is a legal status for IRS purposes. Long story short, c3 groups can only do non-partisan work, while c4s can do more partisan type campaigning. c3 work might look like issues campaigns, nonpartisan voter registration drives, or general voter education mailings. They can't talk about candidates and can't take stances on issues in a partisan manner. c4s can do those things. Some big orgs have both c3 and c4 organizations. Planned Parenthood is the one that comes to mind immediately. VR - Voter Registration. By law some states require this work to be non-partisan, so a lot of orgs tend to do this regardless of their tax status. This typically boils down to running tables in public spaces or walking around with a clipboard in busy areas to find people to fill our a voter registration form. The forms are collected, details are then copied into VAN for contacting these people later, and then they are counted up and sent to the local boards of elections. GOTV - Get Out The Vote. This is what you're about to see all over the country, but really in just a handful states (PA, WI, MI, NC, GA, NV, AZ). People are going out door-to-door, or making phone calls, or doing "relational organizing", or a few other ways to basically get you to talk to them about "making a plan to vote". There's some studies showing that doing these things increases voter turnout by enough to be worth pouring Scrooge McDuck swimming pools of money into doing every election. Talking to a voter in person and getting them to create a "plan to vote" is considered the most effective form of GOTV and is the one you'll see starting anywhere from 1-3 weeks from now depending on the election calendar in your area. Note these are NOT persuasion attempts. They don't work. There's some mild talking points that canvassers have to read off, but they're told to move on if there's any resistance to the script. Turns out you can't change someone's ideology based on their life experience by knocking on their door...
All the libs gonna blame me when Kamala loses. It wasn't the genocide it was the spoilers from the green party lol
Ultimately even with an absentee ballot I would be voting from stolen land, so this is why I am hesitant.
The week before the election, we go into fash forums and start posting our "Election Day Fits" and it's all just pics of people in head-to-toe Trump gear, trying to convince fash to wear all their Trump stuff to the polls. Then, on Election Day, they get there and find that they're not allowed to enter the polling place bc they're wearing campaign gear. Is this anything?
Curious how the ballot access laws become so strict in swing states 
>The ongoing slaughter in Gaza and now the carpet bombing of Lebanon has at its backdrop the US elections. Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have clearly stated their intentions to back Israel, and it is hard sometimes to place a cigarette paper between them. Some have sought to characterise Harris as a better candidate, suggesting she will be ready to restrain Israel, although with little evidence, and others have conceded her stance to be not dissimilar to Biden – but the other side, Trump, would be worse. They evoke the ‘lesser of the two evils’ argument to suggest that for Muslims, holding your nose and voting is better than not voting. >Not withstanding the fact that those using the lesser of the two evils argument previously asked American Muslims to vote for Clinton, Bush, Obama and Biden – all of whom seem to compete with Shaytan on how much evil they could dispense. But the height of evilness has been the execution of this genocide, which has been on the watch of the Democrats. So how should American Muslims respond to the genocide. Should they abandon Harris? I am planning to visit the US very soon inshallah and will be meeting with American Muslim leaders and others as I attempt to piece together an answer to these crucial questions. But to begin the conversation, I have invited back onto the show Sami Hamdi to share his thoughts.
I have this weird plan to dissuade fascists from voting. It's totally legal and I kinda think it could work. 1) we buy rolls of "I Voted" stickers off Amazon 2) On Election Day, we go to polling places in swing states. Pick a district that's heavily fash, and with long lines. 3) As people line up outside, go down the line and hand out the stickers. People in line get frustrated by the wait, but they figure "I already have the sticker. I can post on social. Good enough." They go home without voting. 4) The fascists lose. I don't think this is totally nuts. And as long as it's just a generic "I Voted" sticker it's totally legal. What do y'all think?
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3587039
