Some people out there seem to be confused, but I always vote in every local and every national election for every office and every ballot initiative since I was 18 years old. Some of my greatest civil rights heroes have fought and died so that we can all vote and I honor their memory in the ballot box every single time.
To some of us, especially those of us like myself who have been scheduling secretaries for US senators, it often seems like a morally reprehensible choice between compromised corporate Democrats and fascist-minded Republicans. Where I live in California, I have the luxury of voting my conscience for president for third-party candidates that better align with my ideas of justice and equality.
But in any and every contested race, as my mom Mary Morello always said, we have to fight the fascist every which way we can, recognizing that even if there’s but an inch of difference between two candidates, there are a lot of vulnerable people who could be greatly harmed in that inch. So vote your ass off, but don’t just exercise your right to vote. Exercise your right to fight for, organize for, struggle for, and manifest the kind of world you’d like to really see without compromise and without apologies before, during, and after election day. And let’s stop the fascists every which way we can. Power the people.
if you don’t vote straight blue you’re part of the problem and can get fucked.
He looks like he gets down in late night bath house soirees. He’s about as corporate as you can get regardless if he says he’s not corporate. That alone makes him corporate
Yea, I put blue dicks in my ass, but not blue dicks that I have identified as seperate to my identity manifested from the dick-in-ass-illusion complex the Buddha spoke of.
This is what you people sound like.
This is what your posts read like.
It’s for marketing purposes!
I get the stupidest mother-fuckers to reply to me!
GIGO
Removed by mod
When your opponent is fascism:
YOU VOTE AGAINST FASCISM.
I thought he was smarter than this, but it seems purity tests don’t leave room for raging against machines.
When your opponent is fascism and you vote for a different fascist, don’t be surprised when this does nothing to combat fascism.
“they’re all the same” is ignorant, elitist and privileged
You are reading what you want to see and not what I wrote.
They are not the same, but they are idealogically aligned and working towards the same goals.
That’s just saying they’re the same with extra steps. It’s willfully ignorant and childish, a way to participate in politics while being uninformed. The Dunning-Kruger of political discussion participants.
That’s exactly what you wrote.
wrong
Holy hell, misleading title, JFC.
How so?
For one, he says he doesn’t vote for fascists just as much as he says he doesn’t vote for corporate Democrats. But then he goes on to say while he thinks you should vote for third-party candidates who you really would like to see get elected in some elections, sometimes you need to be practical and vote for a candidate that is not ideal, but better, and could actually be elected, for elections where that matters. Which is also what I’ve always said.
It is technically the truth, but skips the lede.
He does vote that way, but clarifies California is a place where he can, and if your situation is more competitive, you need to vote with that inch in mind.
Thank you, it annoys me greatly when people don’t actually say what they mean. I appreciate the effort you took to point out it. Your comment is much better than just saying something happened without explaining it.
Much better comment than the ones I replied to Eric is pretty useless on its own. It took you and me to make it something worth reading
Dude is my personal hero and he’s showing why again here.
He’s doing exactly the right thing. Voting Democrat when the only alternative is a Repugnican who WILL hurt more people than the Corpocrat, but always, always and with all his power trying to move things to the left of corporate Democrats whenever he can without hurting vulnerable people.
But in any and every contested race, as my mom Mary Morello always said, we have to fight the fascist every which way we can, recognizing that even if there’s but an inch of difference between two candidates, there are a lot of vulnerable people who could be greatly harmed in that inch. So vote your ass off
I think this is reasonable. A “corporate Democrat”, even if bad, can be better than a Republican in many cases. The Democrat might end up being less bad, for lots of disadvantaged people, than a Republican would be. These aren’t ideal choices to make, but you have to deal with reality as it is.
I hate this title - it’s a bit misleading with respect to the point he’s making.
It’s like the exact opposite of the article content.
Ready for a warzone in here?
It honestly seems downright disingenuous, as though the author of the article wanted to make a “both sides” article but then realized Tom isn’t a fucking moron.
A bit? Fuckers.
Tom Morello lives in California.
You don’t.
Vote strategically, dumbasses.
Yeah, he even explicitly makes that clear. It’s a pretty good take.
Vote with your heart in the primary. Vote with your head in the general.
“ if there’s but an inch of difference between two candidates, there are a lot of vulnerable people who could be greatly harmed in that inch.”
Perfectly put and this is all I have been saying.
I can’t square this with his previous statement that he didn’t vote for Kamala. I don’t care if it’s California. He has a platform and in my personal opinion it is irresponsible to use that platform to provide cover for people who could have helped stop this, and found a reason not to.
Sorry if I blasphemed Lord Tom. I eagerly await my downvotes for having done so.
If Dem candidates support zionist racism they will lose.
Dont harp on the voters as if they are the problem here. Harris could have won that election by not taking aipac money, but she chose the money. She chose to shout down student protestors. She also chose to parade around stages with Liz cheney talking about prayer and her glock. She made a lot of odd choices, and then she lost every single swing state and every demographic of the dem voting base declined.
The reality here is that many Dem voters will just not vote for crimes against humanity, even if you euphamistically call it “strategic” voting. They do not care what you say, and you cant finger wag your way to convincing them to pull the lever for a genocider. I’m afraid thats the reality we live in, so maybe you should concentrate on pressuring Dem candidates to not lose a third of their base to idiocy.
I can’t believe that this era of extreme Trump bullshit, war on Iran, Trump supporting Israel 100, we still have people acting as if being aligned with Israel is the reason to not vote for a Democrat, despite them being far better on three dozen other issues.
Well here he is applying nuance. He can vote that way thanks to the realities of California. He is trusting the audience to understand that nuance of that stance.
It’s a tricky one, since on the one hand he may be overestimating the electorate, but on the other folks inclined to listen to him may internalize the nuance and not get alienated by assumptions that he is selling out. I’m leaning towards the latter since he at least is calling people to vote instead of some blindly anti electoral take, which is fairly prominent in the online discourse.
I’ll be honest, most of the people I see critiquing elections or candidates like Kamala have nuance to their views. Which makes sense, because it takes reflection and thought to break with the normal for most people.
On the other hand, I see tons of binary “any criticism is anti-electoralism and literally fascist” takes online that totally lack nuance. Which also makes sense, because when confronted with a break in normality, most people tend to react emotionally, not logically.
I dont see that at all. Every kamala hater ive seen have nothing but genocide on their minds.
Lol just a couple posts down from yours
Sure, that’s a hard line for many people who vote with their conscious, and probably most protest voters agonized over the decision, knowing that in our system it could help Trump (although, as it turns out, even if every single third party vote went to Kamala, it still would not have been enough for her to win — protest voters are a tiny demographic).
That’s still more nuanced than “Blue no matter who” or “nothing but genocide on their minds.” (As if genocide isn’t a huge fucking thing that should break every politician who supports it, but that’s a separate argument.)
I was downvoted to hell for saying this on the original post.
It is a privilege to be able to “vote with your conscience” when you’re life isn’t literally hanging in the balance of that vote.
Whether we like it or not, we are a two party system at the moment and voting third party in a presidential election is a wasted vote. I don’t care what anyone else says.
As cool as Tom is he still has the privilege of voting as white man, which is a very different experience compared to the rest of us.
he literally talks about not being white in the first post
Toms not white.
This is a pretty good response. I wish there was more focus on that ‘inch of space’ and who gets harmed, and less on the disappointing sock puppet figureheads.
Yes, too often that inch is getting ignored on principle and to that I can only say: if your principles are so rigid that you sacrifice vulnerable people and minorities, then your principles are a part of the problem.
Are you talking about sacrificing vulnerable palestinians syrians and lebanese, or vulnerable groups in the US?
I’m pretty sure Repugnicans are worse for either group?
Most of the Palestinian holocaust happened on Bidens/Harris’s watch. Did you notice people were mad at the dems for that? So you cant really make a case that rethuglicans are worse. On war crimes, they are the same. Both parties are bought by rich zionists, and neither will willingly change. Ever. The only way to redeem the US system is to take it apart and reform it into something that honors basic human rights. Until we do that we are just wasting our time and continuing to support crimes against humanity by delaying the burning. We need to take a longer term view of where we are going.
On war crimes, they are the same.
Soo… even if I would accept that (and I don’t, but let’s say I would) that means in that one regard they are the same, but Republicans are still worse for many other groups.
So voting democrat, only when necessary to prevent a republican in office, is still preventing that more of harm a republican would do.
The only way to redeem the US system is to take it apart and reform it into something that honors basic human rights.
That is the main objective, I agree. And Tom Morello agrees. And I do not see how preventing worse outcomes as secondary objectives, while actively working for that goal is in conflict.
You can work towards dismantling the system while allowing more harm until that goal is reached by not using what little power you have within the system to prevent harm.
Or you can work towards dismantling the system while also using what little power you have in it to reduce harm until your main objective is reached.
There’s no contradiction in it. Because neither voting 3rd party, nor non-voting brings you closer to your main objective.
I think the fundamental disconnect between you and I is that I look down the road whereas you look for more immediate results. From what I see down the road, I despair and you do not. Our system is captured by people who will submit bribes to do … whatever they want. Genocide , pedophilia, oppression, theft, and war crimes for example-- but it really is whatever the hell they want from here on out. Our laws are a joke and our courts are a joke-- Biden didnt really follow them either. Both parties accept those bribes and act loyally on them. Neither party will change that-- they will just play games with you to keep you busy. As citizens we are accountable for the outcomes of our government commensurate with our ability to change that outcome. So when you have an option to destroy this government, its your moral duty to do it, if thats the lesser harm accumulation to humanity long term. To do otherwise would be to go along with the war-crimininality this country is perpetrating for those bribes. I dont want blood on my hands, and I imagine you dont either. I dont want people oppressed. I want civil rights and universal human rights for everyone-- not just Americans, and an actual rule of law, not this bullshit we have now.
I think we are in a structurally captured state and it cant be cured. So make your choice from there. I’m choosing accelerationism and hoping the system can change before it implodes, but we need to be on the path to implode it either way, until the Dems prove to us that they will get back on track.
