(Comment copied from https://lemmy.ml/post/47291833. Might have gotten kind of buried there, and I was hoping for a few more responses, so I thought I’d give the question its own post . . . )
Would you ever consider voting DSA/Socially democratic, even if your views are to the left of them and you are anti-capitalist? What if voting for the PSL is not an option where you are? Would you ever vote for someone like Trump just to make things intentionally worse in the hopes of sparking off a revolution? Not sure if I will ever vote again at this point…
EDIT: And are there any other anti-capitalist parties besides the PSL? The Greens?
Yup, everyone does. If someone chooses not to vote, they have cast a voted for “I don’t care”. And have decided to let everyone else choose for them. They may not like any of the choices, but politics has always been “the art of the possible”. If they want perfect solutions, they need to start their own dictatorship. If they won’t or can’t do that, voting is the only bit of control they’re going to get. And that means some type of compromise with everyone else in society. It’s a terrible system, but history hasn’t provided a lot of better examples to follow. Don’t like the system, change it. And unless you have the force of arms to do it the violent way (and it’s really unlikely you do), you’re only real option is to do it via the soap box and ballot box.
Sure, though not any time soon. One of the things I’d like to change about our system is the First Past the Post nature of elections. But, until that happens, the math just doesn’t work in most elections. I vote in primaries and vote for the options who most closely match my views in those. But, come the general elections (especially at the federal level), third parties are basically DOA. I’d rather vote “not Nazi” than sit on my thumbs and watch “Nazi” coast to victory because I’m stuck letting “perfect” be the enemy of “not a fucking Nazi”. Should the DSA reach a point that they aren’t an “also ran” in an election I’m voting on, sure I’d probably vote for them.
Well, it hasn’t happened with Trump. And looking at history, I really don’t think revolutions are such the clean and wonderful things people in online forums like to make them out to be. History provides lots of example of revolutions ending up with groups like the Taliban in charge and basically none ending up as egalitarian utopias.
That’s your choice, but you’ve made the choice to let other people decide your government. You can sit on the sidelines and stew in your own smugness. But, no one cares. And no one will ever care about your opinions if you’re not willing to enter the political milieu and fight for them.
It’s good to see that there are sane comments here.
It’s crazy to me when people go through a 10 step logical progression to justify how not voting is somehow the moral thing to do.
It is essentially a trolley problem, and maybe my personal philosophy is too utilitarian, but it’s an easy choice for me to throw the switch that causes the least harm rather than sitting by for maximum harm.
Also, there are a lot of non-voting actions you can do that improve things, but voting doesnt prevent any of those. Anyone who says they do direct action instead is full of crap: do both.
Despite all the attacks on voting rights, voting is still one of the easiest actions to take.