Lesser of the Two-Evils Voting is Antithetical to Democracy80 min read

Introduction

A. Long Post!!

I was not planning on this post being so large (~13k words and 37 pages). I was expecting it to be a few thousand words at most. I mean, how complicated could Lesser of Two-Evils Voting really make things? This is most likely the second largest post that I have written, although there are quite a few more long quotes here than I normally use, so that might not count because it is not my own writing. Well, take that for what it is and decide for yourself where they stand. =)

My Calendar Reform post is my largest post at 13,500 words (55 printed pages). I have a post on Daylight Saving Time I have been working on which will most likely end up taking first or second place for post length when I finally finish it. Yea, surprisingly, that one is a doozey!

So, strap yourself in and get ready to do some learning, because here… we… go!

B. My Bias

Here are some notes on my bias and background so that you know the political frame of reference with which this post will be written from:

I am a radical leftist (miles may vary on the radical) who has thought of and has written a lot about electoral politics (links below in Background Reading). My first political policy page was on Electoral Reform too (link below in Background Reading). I am a member of the Green Party and supported Bernie Sanders for president in 2016 and 2020, but voted Green in both elections. I am writing this post specifically targeting the pernicious harms of the Vote Blue No Matter Who movement.

If you want to find out more about me you can check my About Me page. There is a A LOT there.

C. Overview

For far too long have the American people been held hostage by the 1% and their ownership of:

• our political process
• our elections
• our candidates
• the media
• and everything else

…while We the People (the 99%) struggle for survival and have zero representation or electoral power in OUR government.

As a byproduct of this control and its propaganda systems, sadly, most of the electorate is completely unaware and politically ignorant (as I was many, many moons ago). They know enough that things are messed up because of the struggle present in their lives and their family’s and neighbors’ lives, as well as from the constant stream of negativity that they see on the news each night, but they do not know why, and don’t know enough to even begin to ask how to fix it all. They even don’t even understand that they keep voting for the problem and against their own interest… each… and every… election. I know I was like this when I started my journey into politics ~15 years ago.

Once you understand this very harmful concept, I hope that it fills you with an unbridled rage for a real democracy and real change, and to have you join the revolution to save America from the 1% by finally voting for a government and policies which actually takes care of and represents the 99%.

In this rather large document I am hoping that once you see how pervasive, insidious, and powerful Lesser of the Two-Evils Voting is within “progressives and liberals” that you will understand how extremely harmful it is to democracy.

Also, think of this post as a primer on controlled opposition which is one of the most insidious and powerful forces in the 1%’s toolbox of social and political control and manipulation that sets us against each other when we should be fighting against them. I will breakdown in detail the psychology and manipulation of these these two phrases, to help lay bare their pernicious harms so we can begin to move beyond them and reclaim our country for the 99%.

D. Controlled opposition

1. What is Controlled Opposition

Here is a definition for controlled opposition as pulled from the Urban Dictionary:

A controlled opposition is a protest movement that is actually being led by government agents. Nearly all governments in history have employed this technique to trick and subdue their adversaries. Notably Vladimir Lenin who said ”The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves.”

Count Mirabeau was part of the controlled opposition, because although everyone thought he was supporting the revolution, in reality he supported the monarchy and was a personal friend of the king. He was a government agent.

Controlled Opposition definition from the Urban Dictionary

The core sentiment of controlled opposition within the context of US Politics is this: The rich and mega-corporations (the 1%) fund and control two seemingly opposed parties (Democrats and Republicans) which serve as a method of controlling the opposing narrative, policy, and power, while helping to push truly dissident and change movements and figures to the powerless fringe (Democrats).

My post Systemic Suppression with America’s Two Party System goes through some of these symptoms and the suppression.

2. The Two Controlled Opposition Phrases

There are two different phrases within this concept of opposition control within US politics which I will cover:

• Lesser of Two-Evils Voting (LTEV) – This is descriptive of the form of controlled opposition as applied to electoral politics.
• Vote Blue No Matter Who! (VBNMW) – This popular command slogan is a specific example of controlled opposition which makes a call to the Lesser of Two-Evils Voting method of manipulation.

…however, for simplicity during this post I will just use the phrase ‘Lesser of the Two-Evils Voting’ to identify this singular ideal, but will specify the use of the slogan when needed.

E. Background Reading

Below are some of my posts and policies to which I will draw from for this post. There are points throughout this post where you will be given background enough to really appreciate my below linked posts and you will be asked to read them then. Read them now or then, either way, but please to do read them.

1. Systemic Suppression with America’s Two Party System
2. Why you need to vote in EVERY ‘Single’ Election!
3. Electoral Reform @ Interstellar New Deal

In the beginning of Systemic Suppression with America’s Two Party System I talk about how the two-party system is a even a thing. Also, in the second post, Why you need to vote in EVERY ‘Single’ Election!, there is a small section on controlled opposition and one on identity politics too which you may find informative as well. You will want to save my Electoral Reform policy until you have finished this post and the other two posts, because they really give you a decent background in order to be able to understand why some of those reforms are needed.

I. The Harms of Lesser of the Two-Evils Voting

Introduction

In this section I will break this down piece-by-piece explaining how and why these two seemingly innocuous electoral phrases are so very destructive to democracy and how they are a powerful part of the 1%’s arsenal to manipulate you and to maintain control of our candidates, our votes, and of our country.

This section will be broken down into 3 sub-sections which should build upon themselves as they go until we come a to a final crescendo towards the end:

1. Emotional Manipulation
2. Reinforces the One Party System
3. Prevents Actual Change

A. Emotional Manipulation

Author’s Note: This section is not as well written and can be a bit hard to follow because of the nebulous nature of the topic – the emotional manipulation of the electorate. I wrote this whole post in about a week, and could have easily spent a whole month on it like I would normally do for a post that is this important. So, make it through this section and glean from it what you can, because it is very important to understand, and then get to the stuff that is better formulated in the following sections.

1. Electorally Useless and Empty Statements

Those two phrases (LTEV & VBNMW), one of which imperiously commands you how to vote, are not arguments or even a discussion about who to vote for or why, and, therefore, they are electorally empty and useless.

2. Emotionally Charged Manipulation

a. Plays on Psychological Need to Please

Because, “Vote Blue No Matter Who” is set forth as an imperious command which taps into Humanity’s evolutionary psychology as social creatures, our instinctual desire to please others and to follow the group, it gives us a subtle and gut level drive to comply, and a level of cognitive dissonance if we consider not complying.

b. Social Censorship

Being a tool of controlled opposition, they are a clever form of emotionally charged censorship using social and fear based psychology that creates an environment which is outright antagonistic towards conversations and questioning of candidates, their values, or their policies (especially any outside of the two corporate parties). No vetting allowed as long as there is a (D) next to their party affiliation.

The visceral level of contempt and disdain generated towards honest vetting effectively shuts down valid conversations and critiques of candidates and policies, especially once nominees have been selected, while also shaming people for wanting to cast an educated and honest vote instead of blindly and ignorantly voting for whichever corporate approved candidate they were told that they had to vote for (or the other party will win).

These statements are also condescending and demeaning to those who are serious about democracy, the right to vote, their privilege and duty to cast an honest and educated vote, and to have their voice heard.

c. Turns Off People’s Brains

Because of how powerfully these statements trigger negative emotional responses (fear), their manipulations turn off people’s brains pushing them to vote blindly and fearfully (and to follow the group) which disempowers and undermines the very fundamental core of democracy – the educated voter and their honest vote – without which democracy cannot exist. This weaponization of fear makes each election a referendum about who are you voting against and NOT who are you voting for. The election is a referendum on fear and not on hope or values or policies. An unthinking, fearful, or ignorant vote is a vote that the 1% did not have to earn or defraud. These are the tastiest electoral morsels which powers our self-selected enslavement and exploitation.

d. Coercion

Through stifling real conversations about the candidates, their values, and their policies while railroading people into voting for a candidate that has not truly earned their vote, they are stealing our votes through coercion which is destructively undemocratic.

Voting out of fear is coercion and not choice!

James O’Neill (Why you need to vote in Every ‘Single’ Election!!!, Nov 2018)

Here is my specific experience as an anecdotal example of this electoral coercion. Keep in mind, at this time of this experience (2012) I am still early in my political journey (~7 years staring from completely ignorant), so please do NOT hold this against me! =)

Several years earlier I had taken the I side With test which cast me as a centrist. Now, in 2020, with as far as I have learned and grown since then, I pale to even think that was a thing. =) Anyhow….

In 2012, after having previously voted for Obama in 2008, I had taken the I Side With test again just to see where I stood. I blogged about that experience in 2013. Through taking that test again I found out that my views very closely aligned with the Green Party. I was floored because I had never heard of them which had me saying to myself ˜Who the hell are these people and why did I not know about them?˜; which in-and-of-itself is a crime and had me potentially waste my previous vote to vote for the candidate that really did not really represent my views.

However, in 2012 it was a heated race between Obama and Romney. I remember that night so very well. I voted for Obama out of fear that Mitt Romney would win, even though I really wanted to vote for Green Party. I stayed up until a little after midnight with my stomach upset and in knots, especially because Romney took an early lead. I was pressing F5 over and over again to see the updated election results, just waiting, hoping, that Obama would pull through which eventually happened late into the night.

I will never forget that vote. I voted for Obama out of fear and not because I wanted too. I was a victim of controlled opposition and fear (as well as my own political ignorance). I vowed from that day on to never ever allow my vote to be stolen from me, to never allow my voice to be suppressed.

As a side note, from that election season I found this guilty pleasure which I watch at least once a year now: Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney. Epic Rap Battles Of History (YouTube). This is one of their best ones. Just wait for the eagle!

B. Reinforces the One Party System

1. Entitled to Our Votes

Lesser of THE Two-Evils Voting subtly sets up a social, intellectual, and psychological expectation that the Democratic Party is somehow entitled to our votes because they are NOT the other party (and other parties should NOT be looked at either or you will be punished). This also taps into our evolutionary social psychology and our need to please. The brainwashing of this is especially powerful with a time strapped, ill informed, fearful, and struggling populace. Because of this, the Democratic party is still resting on their previous historical political reputation as being the party of the people which is a fact that has long since gone. We give in and accept that their extreme sense of entitlement to our votes is real, truly earned, and is the way it is supposed to be; otherwise, why would they present themselves as entitled to our vote?

2. Sets the Bar So Very Low

A long history of emotionally charged empty statements which has goaded us to be contemptuous towards questioning their candidates, and their policies, or even considering outside parties and policies has set the bar for the expected quality of candidates very, very, very low by reducing the core candidate requirement to merely be – “Just not as bad as the other guy.“.

Over the decades we have become complacent through accepting such a very, very, very low bar for the quality of our candidates which is severely disempowering and has us making significant and ill informed compromises by NOT fighting for real change or demanding real candidates with real policies bringing real change that has truly earned our vote.

The only voting rule we are allowed to use is:

“Just a smidge to the left of the other guy.“

3. Shifts Each Party to the Political Right

This has resulted in the continuous shifting of each party to the right year after year, decade after decade. Sure, the Democratic candidate is (in some cases) not as bad as the Republican one. But, are they really left leaning? No, not at all, especially after all of those years of shifting to the right. Well, just as long as they are not as bad as the other guy, right?!? =(

This has effectively shifted the political center farther and farther to the right, election after election, decade after decade, so that the political left within the duopoly no longer exists and has been effectively shut out of the conversation and out of political and electoral representation.

This right-ward shifting effect is also referred to as The Ratchet Effect:

Within the Democratic Party, this movement has been powerfully amplified and radically accelerated by Bill Clinton (the Clintons in general) who transformed the party completely into a neo-liberal corporatist 1% party (moderate conservative party) and the people have not still caught on to this betrayal, but are beginning to wake up to it and the significant harms and betrayals inflicted by this new moderate conservative “unDemocratic” Party.

Here are 3 graphics which show real continuum of American parties.

Here is a great ~14 minute video by Second Thought which talks about this: How The United States Ended Up With Two Right-Wing Parties (Sep 2021):

Below are some quotes that talk about this rightward and unifying movement of the parties, especially of the Democratic party:

Eugene V. Debs in 1904 in his speech titled The Socialist Party and the Working Class (1904):

The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles.

Eugene V. Debs (The Socialist Party and the Working Class, 1904)

Author and intellectual Gore Vidal from 1975:

There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party … and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt – until recently … and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.

Gore Vidal (The State of the Union, 1975)

Here is a 27 second quote by leading US intellectual Noam Chomsky in an interview with RT (Oct 2013) that talks about this:

Well, there used to be a kind of a quip that “The United States was a one-party state with a business party that had two factions – the Democrats and Republicans.” and that was pretty accurate. But it’s not anymore. The U.S. is still a one-party state – the business party, but there’s only one faction and it’s not Democrats. It’s moderate Republicans. Today’s Democrats have shifted to the right.

Noam Chomsky (Interview with RT in Oct 2013)

Pulitzer Prize wining journalist Chris Hedges in conversation with Dr. Cornel West (October 2015, 01:07:07)

As you can see, the rightward shift has only gotten worse and is even accelerating as time goes on.

4. Reinforces the Two-Party System

These phrases put the spotlight on and the focus of the conversation on only 2 of the possible plethora of parties and candidates for consideration which reinforces the 1%’s control, and forces third parties and other more progressive policies from being considered through fear of the other party winning. A convenient byproduct of this is that it shifts the conversation away from policies and values and over to just who needs to beat who.

The conversation and “competition” becomes limited to:

• Really Evil Candidate
• Plain Evil Candidate

…instead of the collection of:

• Really Evil Candidate
• Plain Evil Candidate
• Middle of the Road Candidate
• Good’ish Candidate
• Great Candidate

…or, preferably, instead of the collection of:

My values and needs vs the:

• policies, values, voting record, and money trail of the Really Evil Candidate
• policies, values, voting record, and money trail of the Plain Evil Candidate
• policies, values, voting record, and money trail of the Middle of the Road Candidate
• policies, values, voting record, and money trail of the Good’ish Candidate
• policies, values, voting record, and money trail of the Great Candidate

Lesser of the Two-Evils Voting effectively means – “Hold your nose, turn off your brain, and then vote for the party’s corporate approved candidate regardless of how bad they are just because we just need to beat the other party.“.

Nothing exemplifies this controlled opposition reality more than this amazing and ill-advised quote by Joe Biden’s wife, Jill Biden, through an interview on MSNBC:

So, yes, you know, your candidate might be better on, I don’t know, healthcare than Joe is, but you’ve got to look at who’s going to win this election, and maybe you have to swallow a little bit and say, ‘OK, I personally like so and so better,’ but your bottom line has to be that we have to beat Trump.

Jill Biden (Aug 2019)

I am hoping by now you are starting to see the Controlled Opposition present through her calls for:

• voting blindly
• compromising your values and your needs to “swallow a little bit”
• vote out of fear for who we tell you to vote for
• just because we just need to be afraid of the other guy
• just because we need to beat the other guy! =O

No mention of policies or values (which is what really matters) while trying to convince us to vote for Biden. Are you beginning to see how we are being manipulated, yet? Are you beginning to see the control and the harm?

5. Radically Limits the Electoral Conversation

This artificial limiting of the conversation and consideration to just the 2 parties and candidates prevents a real conversation and a real vetting of ALL of the potential candidates, issues, and policies by the voter. This prevents an honest discussion and exploration about how good or bad the candidates really are, especially when we are socially and politically forced to disavow comparing them to the candidates, issues, and policies from other parties which harmfully limits voter education, voices, and representation.

The conversation becomes limited to “Which of the two candidates (neither of which I like) is LESS WORSE?” or “Which of the two candidates (that does not at all represent me or my values) is the Lesser of THE TWO-EVILS?“. This severely limited conversation is NOT useful for the voter, for progress, for our country, or for a REAL democracy; verses a conversation such as “Which of the plethora of candidates and parties most closely represents my views and values?” which results in a voter that becomes empowered, educated, and actually feels like they have representation and like their vote actually counts. Can you start to see why the largest voting block in America is non-voters who are 40%+ of the electorate?

A voter’s conversation and the journey towards individually vetting a candidate against their values is required for a real democracy. The 1% does NOT ever want you to have access to that journey, because that would undermine their control over you and the electoral process, and it would be the beginning of a truly representative democracy.

6. Class Warfare (The One-Party System)

a. Class Warfare

Because both parties are controlled by the 1%, Lesser of Two-Evils Voting is also a powerful and clever class warfare tool. It sets the 1% values (Republican flavored – far right – the party of regression) against 1% values (Democrat flavored – moderate right – the party of stagnation) where the values and the needs of 99% (which includes the ENTIRE left – 50%+ of America) never ever enters the policy conversation.

Here is some coverage which talks about how our representatives do not care about public opinion unless you are rich:

• Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy (BBC, Apr 2014)
• Does Democracy Still Work in America? (The Young Turks, Sep 2013).
• Oligarchic tendencies: Study finds only the wealthy get represented in the Senate (Raw Story, Aug 2013)

b. Control Over the Overton Window

The 1%’s control over both parties (Democrats and Republicans) as well as main stream corporate media allows them to control the Overton Window (which policies and ideas are acceptable political discourse), and therefore controls the range of acceptable conversation on political policy to be continuously within the comfort zone of the 1% and corporate interests, while stigmatizing anything outside of that range.

This fact makes control of the Overton Window a powerful tool that allows the 1% to antagonize, shut out, and destroy actual leftists, third parties, or other dissident voices which tend to want progress and change, and therefore makes it very difficult for policies which are good for the people (and therefore NOT 1% friendly) to gain any traction. They can use emotionally charged labels such as crazy, radical, socialist, communist, or pie-in-the sky for policies that fall outside of that carefully placed 1% approved Overton Window. Remember what I said about emotional manipulation and turning off your brain?

This is especially powerful and effective because of the significant bias and vested interest of corporate media which gets to frame the entire election including the conversation of candidates, candidate platforms, and policy viability; and, by virtue, will reinforce, support, and will only provide serious coverage for the corporate chosen candidates and their policies while destroying, not covering, or discrediting other candidates, especially dissident voices that tend to support the people, the 99%.

Lesser of the Two-Evils Voting reinforces and limits the conversation to support their Two-Party System and therefore powerfully reinforces the power and control of the 1% while suppressing all other voices (the true voices of the people).

I write about the symptoms of this very thing in my post Systemic Suppression with America’s Two Party System, so please go ahead and read that now for a larger look into this phenomenon.

Something you may have noticed over the last few election cycles (2016-2020) is that when Bernie Sanders ran for president starting in 2015 he booted that Overton Window far back to the left (from its completely 1% controlled far rightward placement) which had political discourse discussing potential policies (healthcare, minimum wage, environment, education) that have NOT been heard of or seriously suggested in decades. This is one of the most important benefits that Bernie Sanders has had in his run for the Presidency – shifting that Overton Window to the left, which has also empowered others to run for office (like myself) with such polices and ideas on our lips and as a main part of our policies, which also works to maintain the Overton Window’s leftward shift. We will see for how long we can keep it toward the left. With the absolutely corrupt system we have today (as this whole document is trying to show), that without a continuous war to keep it to the left, that it would quickly shift back to the right, year by year, election by election, news cast by new cast, until universal healthcare would be a campaign killer again. I hope with this example you can see how important control over the Overton Window is to political discourse

• Overton Window (Wikipedia)
• Overton Window – Explanation and examples (Conceptually)
• An Introduction to the Overton Window of Political Possibilities (Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Jan 206)

c. The Disease of Centrism

The power of the 1%’s control and reinforcement of the Overton Window can be powerfully seen within the disease of centrism, people who are so radically brainwashed (and/or ignorant) that they become so proudly entrenched in their programmed belief and fear of change that they are willing to fight to prevent real progress and change. They are the 1%’s sleeper agents responsible for manufacturing social complicity in stopping change dead in its tracks and for fomenting the people’s enslavement. Centrists become one the most effective social barriers to real change and progress for themselves and for society at large.

Also, because of the incremental nature of the incremental of change which centrists will programmatically tolerate, any incremental change can be effectively thwarted politically through these 5 methods:

1. placating the masses through rhetorical platitudes and theatrics to delay it, hoping that the movement will lose steam or move on so that no change will be required
2. They can prompt a party member who is under NO electoral pressure to vote against and take a stand against the measure en toto when there is a danger of its passing because it is not the right time or some other bullshit excuse. Some recent examples might be the Parliamentarian or Kyrsten Sinema. These in-party actors are referred to as the Rotating Villain (Urban Dictionary, The Democratic Party’s deceitful game).
3. negotiating and amending it into almost nothing while in Congress (i.e. Bipartisanship)
4. then the resultant barely existent incremental change can be incrementally implemented into ineffectuality by being delayed and/or spread out through many, many years
5. also, later on following it being passed into law, the thread-bare version of desired change can be amended into effectivelessness or be completely removed through policy.

The harms of centrism are considerably compounded because of how very, very, very low the bar has been set for our expectations for potential progress and change which also has the people to be accepting, expectant, and even excited and willing to fight for non-change.

The devastating effect of the disease of centrism results in a subatomic form of pseudo-incremental change which effectively means that real progress and change are essentially impossible which means:

• The 1% wins.
• Conservatives lose.
• Centrists lose.
• Leftists lose.
• The 99% loses.

How “Moderates” Serve The Right (Second Thought, Dec 2021)

The Most Dangerous Thing In The Western Hemisphere (Second Thought, Mar 2024)

d. Extreme Class Privilege

By virtue of Lesser of Two-Evils Voting being a form of Class Warfare, they reinforce the control of the 1% which tends to be white, male, cisgendered, heterosexual, monogamous, and Christian, and therefore, serves to perpetuate the Patriarchal and Christian White Privileged 1%’s power and control to limit, oppress, exploit, and tyrannize various class minorities such as:

• women
• racial and ethnic minorities
• sexual and gender minorities
• religious minorities
• the impoverished
• hell, even the middle class

…in order to to maintain their power, control, and their stable of yachts and private jets. If they keep the 99% divided and distracted, fighting amongst each other, then they keep us from understanding who the real enemy is and from creating a united front against them.

It is a class war! This country has been in a vicious war against the poor since its inception. It created white supremacy to create and uphold a class society. It is a class war with racism at the very core.

Rev. Claudia de la Cruz

Lesser of the Two-Evils Voting reinforces the systemically and structurally racist, sexist, and classist system by forcefully pushing (and socially punishing and ostracizing) the voter into blindly voting out of fear and ignorance for whatever corporate whore they put in front of you. This gives you the illusion of choice through two seemingly opposed parties, but in all reality, they are two wings of the same right leaning party, the party of the 1%.

f. White Privilege

There is also a significant level of middle class white privilege (and ignorance) laid bare for all to see because they believe that their lives will get better, or at least not get worse no matter which Democrat wins. See how low the bar and our expectations have fallen?. This shows a level of privilege and ignorance, not only in NOT being able to discriminate between the various candidates and their policies, but also because they are doing well enough that they do NOT care about the candidates’ platforms, or how their policies could harm themselves or the various minority groups.

This is a privilege that racial, ethnic, and other minorities never have. Those who have this privilege live with it everyday and it is a visceral part of their warped world view. They think that everyone else’s life is this easy (or at least not so difficult), that others are not being held back because they are a racial, sexual, religious, ethic, etc minority. It is hard to imagine or empathize because they have not suffered with it themselves.

g. The Disenfranchised Voiceless Majority

However, in all actuality, for the majority of Americans this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Due to the historical rightward shift and the insidious infection of corporatism within both parties, and the infection of centrism within the populace, there are many, many voiceless demographics to which a Republican candidate and a Democratic candidate are indistinguishable on the issues that matter to them.

Here is an interesting quote from this article titled Vote Blue No Matter Who! (Counter Currents, Mar 2020) to start you off:

Are the people who created and those who advance this slogan unable to discriminate between the various candidates, some of whom are barely indistinguishable from Donald Trump and everything he stands for, and who certainly no better? What this says to me is that they ”the Democratic Parry and its supporters” have no consciousness or awareness about the true state of the Union (U.S.), or the true state of the world, or if they do they just don’t care. There’s the privilege: people of color, poor people, women and children, and many other demographics that have historically and routinely denied that space to exist on this earth don’t have such privileges.

Vote Blue No Matter Who! (Counter Currents, Mar 2020)

And then there is this more pointed quote from an article titled The Ungodly Privilege of ‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ (Jun 2019) which talks about this too:

If my main concern is press freedom for whistleblowers, Donald Trump and Pete Buttigieg are indistinguishable to me. If I care about prison reform, what’s the difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris? The education policy of Cory Booker and Donald Trump are virtually the same. I can’t tell the difference between where Joe Biden and Donald Trump stand on foreign policy. These examples are some of the issues which truly affect the world’s most disadvantaged: the non-American, non-white, non-wealthy human beings around the globe. By ‘voting blue no matter who’, I am telling the Democratic Party that it does not have to worry about such issues (or such people). I am sending the message that as long as one pays lip service to my reproductive rights, puts queer people in a commercial, or says the wall wouldn’t properly keep all those horrible illegal immigrants out, they have done enough. And, as a white person, despite being queer and female, my life would probably not change. It might even get better.

The Ungodly Privilege of ‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ (Jun 2019)

To the majority of Americans, the 99%, there is only one party, the party of the 1% which means that there are NO candidates which really support their values or the policies which could make a real difference in their lives, resulting in the majority of the electorate powerfully feeling:

• disenfranchised
• disillusioned
• voiceless
• powerless
• hopeless
• depressed
• rage filled

This is especially present because the Democratic Party, the 1% party with better marketing, at least deigns to offer theatrics of empty gestures and platitudes to assuage the masses while they rob them blind. However, we must specifically understand that “Theatrics are NOT defiance or representation.“. In addition, the Democratic Party still maintains the deceptive and so very micron-thin veneer of being the party of the people from their history in the decades prior to the Clinton’s corruption. The people still remember and hang on to that hopeful and yet delusional past, and have not yet completely awakened to the reality of the party’s abandonment of them over 30 years ago.

Here is an amazing rage storm from Nour Hantouli, (although I am not sure if this is the original source of this text) which talks about many of the points and feelings of abandonment I am talking about:

“Blue No Matter Who” people are already blaming the Bernie Supporters in advance for not voting for Biden in the general election. They need to sit down and understand something.

We (people like myself) were never Blue No Matter Who. We were never Blue to begin with. Blue has, for decades, been a source of disappointment, neglect, deceit, betrayal, and collusion with the people who actively persecute us. Y’all never had us to begin with, yet you’re acting entitled to our votes and support.

You need to understand this: This election season, you all have been inundated by our generosity as we put our discomfort aside for the off chance of salvaging your shitty Party. Your cup of our compromises runneth the hell over. You are not entitled to a single damn vote, and we sure as hell are not responsible for wrecking your mediocre ass dreams.

I think NOT

There’s people out here committing suicide over the student debt they’re drowning in, debt that they acquired by putting faith in your bullshit promises of work-hard-get-paid. We’re out here GoFundMeing chemo treatments and drinking poison water because your billionaire buddies wanted to save a dollar. And what did y’all do?

Actively and OPENLY sabotaged the only candidate who bothered to care.

I don’t owe you ANYTHING

You want Trump out? Wow. What ambition. Don’t pull a muscle reaching for the stars there. Thank you for really coming through when things finally got bad enough that they started to affect YOU.

Maybe if YOU learn how to compromise we can do that.

Erase crippling debt no matter who. End police brutality no matter who. Abolish ICE no matter who. Free Palestine no matter who. Stop people from dying of preventable fucking illnesses no matter who.

SCREW your Party loyalty. We want People loyalty. When you show up for that, then we can talk about what you can have from us.

Nour Hantouli (Facebook, Mar 4 2020)

h. Harm Perpetuation

Saying that Lesser of THE Two-Evils Voting is “harm reduction” or “harm mitigation” is misleading and is a very, very sad thing to have to say or even think. This is another powerful example showing how very, very, very low the bar has been set, how low the depths of our expectations for our government really are – as in “We know they are going to harm us, just, maybe, can we have a smidge less this time around?“. How many decades of a continuous cycle of inflicted harms and betrayals are required to pass before the people awaken and realized that we are in an abusive relationship or a hostage situation? =(

Harm mitigation is a clever way of reframing the horrors of Lesser of the Two-Evils Voting which softens the blow and emotionally manipulates people into accepting our complete lack of representation and that our sad, sad state of expectations should be to merely be happy to just settle for something less harmful. We are being manipulated into being complicit in supporting and perpetuating our abusers, our hostage takers – the duopoly, the One Party System – and those all too expected harms. In a real democracy Stockholm Syndrome should never be a voter stance or perspective.

If voting is the democratic participation in our own oppression, voting as harm reduction is a politics that keeps us at the mercy of our oppressors.

Voting is Not Harm Reduction – A Indigenous Perspective (Feb 2020)

Lesser of Two-Evils Voting is NOT really about preventing harm. It is about convincing us to be OK with merely perpetuating the harms from both parties and their 1% owners. Both parties are criminally responsible for perpetuating the vast exploitation and harms inflicted upon the American people (and the world at large), because no true work is being done by either party to truly stop the harm, especially against the various vulnerable minority groups talked about above who have no electoral voice or power. Why is it this way? Because the politicians, their parties, and their 1% owners benefit greatly from sacrificing the poor and innocent for fun and profit.

With all of that being said, lets be real and let’s reclaim and reframe this phrase to actually reflect the true reality of harm and voting for the Lesser of the Two Evils Voting :

“Lesser of the Two-Evils Voting is at Best: harm perpetuation or incremental harm, or at worst: harm maximization.“.

As voters in a supposed democracy, our eternal and unwavering expectation for any candidates we consider should start with ending the harm (putting an end to the harms en toto) and healing the damage done, and nothing less than that.

Lets take a quick look at a quote by Malcom X which encapsulates this idea:

If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there’s no progress. If you pull it all the way out that’s not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they haven’t even pulled the knife out much less heal the wound. They won’t even admit the knife is there.

Malcolm X (TV interview after 90-day moratorium, March 1964)

Here are some interesting perspectives on this:

• Voting is Not Harm Reduction – An Indigenous Perspective (Feb 2020)
• No, Voting Democrat is Not ‘Harm Reduction’ (Medium, Nov 2018)

i. Distracts from the Actual War Going On

Like a master illusionist using subtle redirection, they turn off your brain using emotionally charged language to focus the conversation on the other party – “Look at the big bad orange man!” or “Vote Blue NO Matter Who!” – to distract you from the actual wars that are going on:

• the Class War – inequality, poverty, wage slavery, the debt crisis
• The Race War – the Drug War, White Supremacy, Racism, and police brutality
• the War Against Women, and Gender and Sexual Minorities
• healthcare and education crisis
• climate change
• and, of course, the The US Machine for Global War and Terrorism for corporate profit

…all of which which rages around us, racking up a massive body count of the innocent while destroying our families, our neighbors, the environment, and our futures while the 1% gleefully profits from the devastation.

This is the blood price we pay for the 1% owning and controlling our government and yet we keep voting for it each… and every… election. We must begin to stop being blinded by their obfuscation of the truth, and to see the forest (class warfare) before the trees (Lesser of the Two Evils Voting).

j. Political Commentator Kim Iverson Talking About Vote Blue No Matter Who

Here is a great video by political commentator and radio host Kim Iverson (official site) which covers this well: Don’t Vote “Blue No Matter Who”, Vote Anti-Establishment No Matter Who (Kim Iverson, 4:44; Feb 2020).

Watch the whole thing below or read the transcript below:

Here is the transcript below in case you would rather read it:

I keep hearing over and over that the most important thing is to beat Donald Trump, that we must Vote Blue No Matter Who. The Democratic Party is hyper focused on this. The left-wing media obsesses over it. Candidates start off their speeches with it. This is how it always goes: “Evil will win unless you vote for us. The world’s morals are at risk. The only thing that matters is defending our values.” And you know what? They’re right, but they’re wrong about who we have to defeat.

It is becoming increasingly clearer and clearer that who we have to beat no matter what is the establishment. The establishment on both sides of the aisle have turned their back on American values and have sold us out to billionaires and international corporations. The American values we have cherished for generations, the value of the American Dream is gone. It’s been destroyed by greed. My generation and younger have had to kiss goodbye the idea of owning a home with a white picket fence, having multiple kids, two cars, the college education we were able to pay for by working a summer job, even the idea of having a stay-at-home parent is long gone. Instead, younger generations have had to create a sharing economy where they don’t own a thing, and a gig economy which will leave them with nothing to retire on.

Our political leaders keep us focused on emotional moral issues such as immigration, abortion, racism, misogyny so that our attention isn’t on what’s really happening. The people in Washington and those who fund their campaigns are running off with our money. They are robbing us and stopping them is the only thing that should matter. They don’t represent us. They squabble back and forth with each other saying “Democrats want to destroy us so vote for us!” or “Republicans want to destroy us so vote for us!” meanwhile they’re both destroying us all together. they distract us with things that we do care about but that aren’t really affecting our day to day lives. Communists aren’t coming to get you. Your guns aren’t going to be taken away. And me being a minority female, am not being held back because I’m Vietnamese nor because I’m a woman.

What holds us back is the increasing inflation on basic necessities which is intended to siphon money from us to distribute to the already wealthy. Many of us are riddled in student loans, have to be careful about going to the doctor so we don’t rack up bills, are priced out of the ridiculously high housing market, and the thought of having a kid and paying for daycare? Forget it. The establishment and the rich oligarchs they are in bed with have turned the middle class into serfs in their fiefdom and have completely ignored the poor. Our poor are living on the streets, many are addicted to drugs just to escape their terrible reality, and even more unable to compete with immigrants or automation for jobs. These are real issues yet we hardly hear about them.

There are a few candidates who actually attempt to offer solutions. Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, and Andrew yang all have ideas that are tangible – Medicare for All, end the extremely expensive wars, the freedom dividend. And when they talk about Trump just being a symptom, and when they court voters on the other side of the aisle, they’re smeared as apologists, communists. Yang and Gabbard neither of whom are white actually get confronted about having white supremacist as supporters. It’s all gaslighting in an attempt for you and I to not see what’s really going on.

The establishment is corrupt. They are bought off and We the People need to do everything we can to get them out of office. It can’t be Vote Blue No Matter Who. It’s got to be vote anti-establishment no matter which side of the aisle they come from, because our true American morals and values depend on it. Turn off FoxNews. Turn off MSNBC. Turn off the propaganda that keeps us fighting with one another to the benefit of the ruling class. We need to join together and defeat the establishment. They tell us to put our differences aside and Vote Blue No Matter Who to defeat Republicans, but what I’m saying is if you’re a Republican or a Democrat we need to put some of our differences aside and vote anti-establishment no matter what in order to get our nation back.

I will not vote for an establishment candidate even if it means Trump wins again because the war we are fighting is bigger than that. If an establishment Democrat wins the left becomes complacent, people think “All is well with the world.” and they no longer have to pay attention to the continued corruption that has plagued both parties. People actually think “Trump is gone. Democrats are in control. They’re the noamgood guys.” meanwhile they continue to march us into wars, bail out the banks, keep migrants in detention centers, get their family members multi-million dollar jobs, and somehow make even more millions upon millions while they hold public office.

They want you to Vote Blue No Matter who
So you don’t have a clue
But what we need to do is
Stand up and say “Nope. We’re on to you.”.

Kim Iverson (Don’t Vote “Blue No Matter Who”, Vote Anti-Establishment No Matter Who, Feb 2020)

C. Prevents Change and Progress

1. Prevents the Creation of an Educated and Active Electorate

Keep in mind that the whole system (political, social, economic, educational, etc) has a self vested interest in keeping you from being an educated and informed voter who can engage in activism while holding the government accountable. The 1% has engineered the system against you, to enslave your mind, emotions, and your time through such methods as:

• wage slavery
• debt slavery
• attacking education
• attacking healthcare
• voter suppression
• controlled opposition and the duopoly
• racism, sexism
• drug war
• police brutality
• attacking worker’s rights
• and so much more

…so that you do not have the time, emotional energy, or education to understand the issues, and to cast an educated vote. But, this is NOT a bug in the system; this is a feature of the system, the way it is intended to work as a tool of control.

By falling prey to Lesser of THE Two-Evils Voting WE act as the most powerful intellectual, emotional, and conversational barrier which greatly limits our ability to educate ourselves, to have meaningful discussions, and to actually cast an educated vote. We are the most powerful force creating our own enslavement and victimization.

2. No Leverage for Change

a. No Reason to Listen to Us

If we consistently and blindly vote for whoever the two corporate parties put in front of us regardless of how antagonistic, abusive, or deaf to our cries they are, then we have exactly ZERO leverage to demand change because we do not force them to listen to us, there is no credible threat of not voting for them, nor do we give them a reason to listen or to earn our votes.

We suffer in a self-inflicted and ineffectual electoral silence through our blind votes which perpetuates the one-party system, the 1%’s control over our elections, our policies, and our country; as well as our collective enslavement to their system, all for their profit.

Below are some pertinent and powerful quotes from various journalists and media personnel to help underscore this point, so you can see that this is not just me spouting these thoughts:

• Lawrence O’Donnel (former Democratic Party Insider)
• Krystal Ball (Newscaster)
• Glen Greenwald (Journalist)
• Chris Hedges (Journalist)

b. Quote from Democratic Party Insider Lawrence O’Donnel

Here is a quick quote from the first 14 seconds from Lawrence O’Donnell in an interview with William Greider:

If you want to pull the party “the major party that is closest to the way you’re thinking’ to what you’re thinking, You must, you must show them that you’re capable of not voting for them. If you don’t show them you’re capable of not voting for them, they don’t have to listen to you. I promise you that. I worked within the Democratic Party. I didn’t listen, or have to listen, to anything on the left while I was working in the Democratic Party, because the left had nowhere to go.

Lawrence O’Donnell

c. Quote from Newscaster Krystal Ball

Here is a video of Journalist Krystal Ball talking about Vote Blue No Matter Who. The relevant quote is excerpted below which occurs from 1:55 to 3:44.

Krystal: But, if Joe Biden is the nominee I think we’ve also got to realize that this whole Vote Blue No Matter Who thing is a complete con. Because what do we see? Biden’s already on TV with Lawrence O’Donnell saying he’d veto Medicare For All. I mean they spit in the faces of this movement of young people and working class people who believe in these principles. They call them Brown Shirts. They say they’re toxic Bernie-bros.

And then demand that they just all turn around and pledge to vote for Joe no matter what. Well, I don’t think that we should be so easy in giving up our votes like that. Look, these young people have organized around the Green New Deal, were organized around Medicare For All. The moment that they say “You know what Joe? It’s fine. You can spit in our faces. You can promise to veto Medicare For All, but we’re still going to turn out and vote for you.” is the moment that you lose any kind of power in this situation.

And look, it is a grim situation if Joe Biden is the nominee, but the least that this movement can do is hold on to some modicum of power to say “No, you don’t just get our vote. You have to at least try to earn it!” and I think that’s a really important message moving forward.

Cenk: But Krystal, I gotta ask what’s our alternative? I mean, are we are, I don’t think it’s tenable for progressives to threaten to vote for Trump. I think that’s nuts. I would never do that.

Krystal: I would never vote for Donald Trump either, but you can leave it blank. As of today I’m an undecided voter because here’s the thing, Cenk, Donald Trump is awful. The next Republican will be awful, and if they always can say look you’ve got to vote for us no matter what, you’ve got no other choice. Then they’re always going to treat us like this because you have no power in that situation if you’re just going to show up and vote for them anyway. So, I know people aren’t going to want to hear that but i think that is the reality of the situation that we face right now.

Krystal Ball on The Young Turks (Mar 2020)

d. Quote from Journalist Glenn Greenwald

Below is a great (but long) quote from American journalist Glenn Greenwald (Wikipedia, The Intercept, Twitter) about Lesser of Two-Evils Voting in an interview excerpt titled Glenn Greenwald on Noam Chomsky Favouring Biden Over Trump & Voting for Lesser of Two Evils (YouTube, 10:21). You can watch the video of the interview excerpt below or you can read the relevant quoted text below the video.

I think it’s a generational divide now where a lot of people on the left are looking and saying “Wait a minute. We’ve been doing this. We’ve been following this advice for decades, right. We’ve been following this advice. It says “Even though we can’t stand the Democratic leader, the Democratic Party leadership. Even though they believe in things completely anathema of what we believe in, it’s still our duty at the end of the day to pledge our unconditional support to them.” And I think what people are starting to realize – two things:

Number one – when you pledge your unconditional support to politicians, meaning when you say like Chomsky does – no matter who you pick, no matter how adverse he is to my political ideology and my set of policy preferences, I’m going to vote for you. I’m gonna support you. They start to realize that you have no leverage. There’s no reason for them to do anything but ignore you with contempt because you’re basically in the subservient position you put yourself in where you say “I don’t care how much you trample on my values I’m still gonna vote for you”. Why would anybody listen to a group of people who say that and you say “Oh, we want concessions!” Why would I give you concessions if you’ve already told me that at the end of day you’re gonna vote for me anyway. I’m not gonna give you concessions. I’ll give concessions to the people who may not vote for me meaning centrist or Republicans or disaffected suburbanites or whatever. So, that’s one problem with that strategy is it guarantees your own impotence.

And the other problem with it is where does that end? What’s the the exit strategy for that if you continue to empower and support and fortify this neoliberal corporatist militarist wing of a party over and over and over again. You know now we’re supporting Al Gore. Now we’re supporting John Kerry. You know Barack Obama who ran on a different platform than his presidency became. Now we’re supporting Hillary Clinton. Now we’re supporting Joe Biden. What is the point of politics if that’s what you’re doing.

And, I think that a lot of people are now reaching the point where you know they supported Bernie Sanders because he promised a political revolution against the Democratic and Republican establishments, so – now tell those same people it’s time for you to get behind the very establishment who you thought you were launching a revolution against is a message that is not landing well for millions of people who probably all vote for Trump but may just stay at home or vote for a third party.

Glenn Greenwald on Noam Chomsky Favouring Biden Over Trump & Voting for Lesser of Two Evils (Apr 2020).

e. Quote from Journalist Chris Hedges

Here is a great excerpt from an Interview from AcTVism Munich with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges (May 2020) talking about Lesser of Two-Evils Voting:

Zain Raza: There’s a huge debate taking place on the left. Even European viewers are watching this. And it’s between voting for Joe Biden or voting for Donald Trump. Who is a lesser evil? For example, Noam Chomsky has repeatedly stated that small differences in huge power can have large effects. And with that I’m trying to say that he thinks that Joe Biden is the lesser evil because there is more channels available to the public to influence policy under a Biden presidency. Biden signed the Iran deal under Obama, and even things like that Trump did was not done, under the Obama administration which includes arms treaty INF which was signed to limit nuclear weapons with the ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometres, and we also saw the complete dissolution and abolishing of the climate change treaty. How do you see this? Do you think that Biden, given this track record that I mentioned, is a better president than Donald Trump or do you view them as being part of the same point.

Hedges: Look the the ruling elites made it very clear during the election and there were a series of articles in The New York Times where they stated this, that if, primarily Sanders but Warren or Sanders – but primarily Sanders, was the Democratic Party nominee they would vote for Donald Trump. This whole notion of the least worst only applies to us not to them. They ensure that whatever candidate is in there Trump, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama protects the interests of the global oligarchic elites and corporate power. Of course they prefer Biden just as they preferred Clinton.Trump is patently inept and a narcissist and an embarrassment to the Empire. But they know full well that the maintenance of Empire will be carried out whether it is Trump or Biden. 

I, of course, known Chomsky is and I know Noam and like Noam very much. He is our most important intellectual, but he has for you know always repeated this mantra of voting for the least worst. In fact, what that has done in terms of those of us who care about an open society and equality and racial justice has rendered or neutered our effectiveness because the Democratic Party knows full well that it doesn’t matter what they do we will comply. We will surrender whatever values we have. You know the whole anti-war movement which I was part of collapsed once Kerry ran, was the Democratic nominee, because we had to get Kerry elected. 

And so if you don’t pit power against power, if you don’t put pressures on the center of power you just move irrevocably further and further to the right. I mean the Democratic Party in Europe would be considered a far-right party. And this is the problem that I think that the Democratic Party, or those who care about the working-class within the Democratic Party, should have walked out of the party when Bill Clinton signed NAFTA in 1994 which was the greatest betrayal of the American working class since the passage of the 1948 Taft-Hartley Act. So, we didn’t. We didn’t stand with a working class. We betrayed the working class. 

We busied ourselves with a kind of boutique activism, inclusiveness, and multiculturalism. I’m not denying that that’s all important. It is important that people have rights whether that’s gender rights or anything else, but you can’t divorce that from economic justice. And so now you have given rise to these proto-fascist forces gathering around Trump largely comprised of a betrayed white working-class and they have been betrayed, and their vitriol is especially fierce towards the Democratic Party which traditionally had at least taken into account their interests. 

And, so that’s the problem. So, if you look at it in the short-term would Biden be better than then Trump? Yeah, but the fact is the mess we’ve gotten into is because progressives and the left didn’t stand with the working class as it was being decimated and that working class found its voice in a demagogue like Trump. And that isn’t gonna change. I mean Trump is the symptom. Trump is not the disease. I saw that in the former Yugoslavia when we vomited up these figures like Radovan Karadzic, and Slobodan Milosevic, and Franjo Tudjman. That’s what happens when society seizes up and a cabal takes power. You can go back and look at Weimar – exactly the same kind of situation. 

I’m not saying that Trump is Hitler or the Nazis, but there are lessons to be learned from a dysfunctional, decayed society and everybody forgets, which is also true in the United States, that the erosion of the rule of law in Germany was carried out by Ebert because of the negative majorities within the Reichstag, the inability to function, the legislative process didn’t function. Ebert had decree after decree after decree. Well, this also happened in the United States and of course it’s what the Nazis used to consolidate power, but they weren’t the first to use it. It had been normalized. 

So, the problem is that the the political system no longer functions. It’s dominated by corporate money. The legislation is written by corporate lobbyists including the latest “stimulus package” was directed and written by corporate lobbyists. And the whole consent of the governed is a joke. Politicians need such massive amounts of money in order to run and stay in office. Where are they going to get it? It’s just a form of legalized bribery. 

And so the danger, and Noam is not doing this, but the danger with reducing it to who do you vote for is to personalize a dysfunctional political system. And I, you know I have two disagreements with Noam and one is on this mantra of the least worst, which just frankly hasn’t worked. And of course I’m a strong supporter of the BDS movement which he is not. But otherwise I admire him immensely. 

Chris Hedges on Noam Chomsky Favouring Biden Over Trump & Voting for Lesser of Two Evils (AcTVism Muich, May 2020)

3. Forestalls Actual Change

Each time we vote for a Lesser of Two-Evils candidate we forestall change and progress for decade after decade. We keep saying “Just hold your nose and vote for the shitty candidate now, so we can just get that other guy out of office. We can vote for a real candidate next time!“, but strangely, that next time never comes. In a similar fashion to fusion – that technology which is always 20 years away, that mythical “next election” is always one election way, not this election – next election – that elusive and forever moving goal post of unobtainable political change.

This is especially powerful, because it gives false hope that change is always one election way, even though our 1% selected choices are always:

• Really Evil Candidate
• Plain Evil Candidate

…while the 1%’s control over us, the policies, and the electoral process remains unthwarted which was allowed to happen because we do NOT have an educated and principled electorate which demands that the politicians earn our vote, that they have to have our values, that our vote is NOT a guarantee.

At what point do we decide to take a stand? At what point do we finally say “NO! NOW, you have to earn our votes!” after decades and decades of falling in line and Voting Blue No Matter Who out of fear, out of controlled opposition, out of ignorance, which results in us never having a good candidate to choose from because they all get destroyed by the corporate machine, the servants of the 1%. You voted for them to get into power, to get entrenched into the system, and to mold the system to their benefit. You voted for them to ignore you and to serve their corporate masters.

When is that moment where We the People matter and where we start voting as if we are supposed to matter, where we start voting as if our children are supposed to matter, where we vote as if the political systems is supposed to serve We the People and NOT just the 1%?

How do you change the corrupt system that you voted into power year after year, decade after decade? How do you get all of those seats back and filled with people that represent you and your values while the corporate and big money candidates that you voted into office control everything including the electoral process and the media? How long will it take to undo the electoral damage you have inflicted upon yourself through Lesser of THE Two-Evils voting? How long will it take for there to be enough good politicians (that you will never have the chance to vote for) present in Congress, the presidency, and all of those other offices to finally pass something that matters to you?

II. Then How the Hell am I Supposed to Vote?

Great question. =)
Thanks for asking!!

A. We are All Victims

First, do not feel bad because we are all victims of a broken system, a system meant to enslave your mind, emotions, and your vote to the will of the 1%. Even I had to learn this over years and years of studying and research, through the agonizing experience of having my vote stolen from me in 2012, as well as the brutal and blatant slathering of electoral fraud, voter suppression, money laundering, and collusion during the 2016 and 2020 Democratic primaries.

We all have a lot to learn to be able to tear the veil of ignorance and delusion away, and no one can do it for us. We have to have the strength and resolve to do that ourselves. Hopefully, now you are beginning to understand your duty and responsibility to start YOUR journey into democracy so that you may break the chains of the 1%’s manipulation of and their stealing of your vote.

B. The Parties are Supposed to Serve the People.

It is not our job to compromise and vote for whoever the 1% finds acceptable. Why should it always be that the people are the ones who have to compromise and vote for 1%’s chosen candidates and not the other way around? We do NOT serve the party. The party is supposed to serve people. It is the job of the party to put forward candidates that we really want to vote for, a candidate that actually supports the issues we care about and that really inspires us.

Isn’t the government supposed to be “of the people, by the people, for the people“. The government is supposed to be public servants and its about time that they remember that. We the People are NOT supposed to bend the knee to corporate interests. This is something that our system has robbed us of knowing. It is now that we should remember. It is now that we should take the system back, because it IS ours to command.

Every single election is the time to remember this, so that finally we can make the political parties our bitches, to serve as our voice in our government, and NOT just be the mouthpiece for the 1% and the class warfare inflicted upon us. This is even more difficult because of the corporate media framing the election and issues to the benefit of the 1% and the corporations, and against you and against democracy. But the fight is worth it. The fight is necessary, because your vote and your unique voice deserves to be heard, cast, and counted honestly. Without that there is NO democracy.

We the People, the 99%, are losing horribly and that has to change. We have to open our eyes, to look beyond our delusions and our illusions, to see who the real culprits are – both parties which are controlled by the 1%. There is much more at a stake here than just the fear of the other party winning, because there really is only one party. The real war is between those who control both the political parties (the 1%) verses the voices of the people (the 99%), the voices they work so very hard to manipulate and suppress. The war here is much larger than Republican vs Democrat. It is the 1% verse the 99%. Until you realize that nothing will change, nothing will ever get better.

C. How to Vote Honestly and Responsibly

If you want real change then you need to discard your fear and emotional attachments, declare now that you will educate yourself on the issues, and begin to really take a good look at the candidates, their rhetoric, their policies, their records, and, perhaps more importantly, their money trail. You must then compare all of that honestly against your values. Your journey into becoming an educated and informed voter begins now. Democracy succeeds or fails based on the your decision to be an educated voter or not.

I have a large section of a post just on this topic – what to do and NOT to do when voting:

• Power Up Your Electoral Voice – Why you need to vote in EVERY ‘Single’ Election!

Here is the Table of Contents for that section of that post so you can see what you are getting into:

• Make Sure You are Ready and Able to Vote
  • Arm Yourself With Knowledge Before You Start
  • Make Sure You Can Vote
  • Gather Your Voting Support Group
  • Have Your Voice Heard
• What Not To Do When Voting:
  • Never Ever Vote Out of Fear
  • No Lesser-of Two-Evil Voting
  • Do Not Succumb to the Manipulative Force of Identity Politics
  • Do NOT Rely on Debates for Your Analysis
  • Do NOT Allow General Polling OR Exit Polls to Influence You
  • NO, It is NOT Obvious who is Going to Win!!
• What You NEED To Do When Voting:
  • Cast Your Vote Based on Issues
  • Consider All Available Party Options
  • Check the Candidates’ Historical Voting Record
  • Follow the Money

Jump over there and give it an honest read and then join us in taking back our country from the 1%!

If everyone did this then the electoral landscape would change radically, and it would send a massive quake of fear throughout all of the oligarchs who have stolen so much from us all over the decades. We don’t necessarily need guillotines. We need a compassionate, educated, and informed electorate.

D. Policies to Reclaim our Elections?

Yup! I got ya covered there too! =)

So, the next question you might ask is “How do we fix our horribly broken electoral system so that we are not tools of the establishment? How do we break the chains of our electoral enslavement?” First, the most important and effective method honoring your duty to educate yourself and vote honestly.

Beyond that, there is a metric crap-load of things that need to change – everything from constitutional reforms to infrastructure upgrades, and sooo much more. I have a whole page dedicated to electoral reform on my policy site – Interstellar New Deal. Go ahead and check it out:

• Electoral Reform @ Interstellar New Deal

Here is the basic table of contents to give you an overview of what you will find there:

• 1. Constitutional Amendments
• 2. Financing of Elections
• 3. News and Media Reform
• 4. Voting Reform
• 5. Ethical Reform for Parties and Process
• 6. Supporting Electoral Reform
• 7. An Inclusive America
• Documentaries to Learn More

Conclusion

By Voting Blue No Matter Who we become the engines of our own enslavement by virtue of voting out of fear and ignorance. The very first moment the first person voted out of fear is the moment that We the People lost. We cannot change things for the better by voting out of fear. We can only bring change by casting and voting that represents our hopes and our values. Voting out of fear means our leverage and our values are left at the door and therefore we ALL lose and the 1% wins every time.

The symptoms (Trump, Biden, and the corrupt Republican and Democratic Parties) are all really, really bad – just two different shitty flavors of a fascist and oligarchic cancer. This Lesser of the Two Evils Voting is what brought us to this horrible state in the first place. It is what has the Democratic Party being owned by the corporations while it shows no real policy-based or statistical evidence that it cares or listens to us, the 99%, at all.

Voting out of fear and hostage taking for just one… more… election (Vote Blue No Matter Who) is what has been done for waaaay too many decades and which has resulted in the continuous right-ward shift of both parties so that now there is NO major party with any left (or even center) leaning tendencies.

But that is OK, right? Because you have been voting for it. We will vote for who we want next election, right? Because there will be no scary Republican running that will scare you back into the deaf, exploitative, and abusive arms of the Democratic Party. We are the abused electorate going back into the arms of our abusers. That is what we are.

Lesser of the Two Evils voting leads to harm perpetuation and the continuous devastation of the vast numbers of powerless and voiceless minority communities, as well as allowing the controlling power to entrench themselves within the process, system, and into your mind. It never ever leads to any real progress or change, never leads to a candidate that represents you and your interests because you never really had a chance to vote for one. You keep voting for their candidate, the 1% candidate, because the big bad Republican is scary! You are a tool. You are a tool of the 1% and they have you right where they want you. Mindless, fearful, and blindly voting against your interests and your values. What could be sweeter to the 1%? I can’t think of much else.

If we continue the cycle of voting for them even though they never listen to us then we have zero leverage to demand change. If we do not vote our values and principles then they will be nowhere to be found within our candidates, their policies, or within our government. If WE do not stop this vicious cycle then it will never stop, because there is too much money to be made by the politicians their 1% owners by perpetuating it.

The time is now. We have an acceleration of change happening with the massive movements that sprung out from Bernie Sanders, The Squad (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Pramila Jayapal), Black Lives Matter, the Green New Deal, the Sunrise Movement, Justice Democrats, and of the other progressive movements who are demanding real change, real progress for the people. We also have the rise of the Movement for a People’s Party which is spearheaded by the Bernie surrogate, Nina Turner. (2023 edit – so much of this paragraph turned out to be a dud, sadly)

But, now we have no excuse. Now we know better. We know that we have the ability to have our voices heard, to claim our power, to cast the usurpers of our government down from their gold wrought chairs drenched in the blood of the innocent that they have sacrificed for their large corporate paychecks, and to claim our government for our own – for the benefit of everyone and NOT just the 1%.

We can only change the system by voting our values and our hopes, and NOT our fears. Until we break free of the delusion that the two party system presents us with a real choice and that we have a democracy things will not ever change.

Learn More

A. My Content

• Systemic Suppression with America’s Two Party System
• Why you need to vote in EVERY ‘Single’ Election!
• Electoral Reform @ Interstellar New Deal

B. Other Posts

• The Ungodly Privilege of ‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ (Jun 2019)
• Vote Blue No Matter Who! (Counter Currents, Mar 2020)
• “Vote Blue No Matter Who” ignores the fact that not all Democrats are the same (Daily Collegian, Nov 2018)
• Lesser of Two Evils Vote is Counterproductive and Morally Corrupt (Counter Punch, May 2016)
• People worry that ‘moderate’ Democrats like Joe Biden are the same as Republicans. Our study suggests they may be right (The Independent (Sep 2020)