There is literally 0 chance the area I live in will be blue. Does me going out and voting actually do anything besides add to the popular vote tally?
just under 50% of people voted in Ohio in the 2020 election.
Trump won by 8%.
If just 9% of the people who felt like you (what’s the point of voting) had showed up to vote for Biden, that would have flipped the state.
No single raindrop believes it can make any difference. But together, all those insignificant raindrops can change the course of a river in a single day.
I wish I could nominate your comment to be pinned to the top of responses. Alas, all I have is a single upvote; but you have it.
Each of us upvoted, making this the top comment in the thread. I voted to make a difference.
Team effort. And that’s how we win.
And my ax!
And my Stapler!
This is EXACTLY what was in my head as I wrote the post.
If, and it’s a big IF, the electronic voting system software is legit.
So easy to do. Or, used to be.
Vote anyway. Voter apathy is largely how things got so bad.
I’m in a similarly red state. I know my vote probably isn’t going to matter (thanks,
ObamaElectoral College), but I’m going to do it anyway. And I’m trying to get as many people around me out to vote as well.You should go vote if for no other reason than to keep Sherrod Brown in his seat.
And honestly nobody knows what’s actually going to happen in this election. Ohio is “red” (god I hate that terminology) only by a few points. It’s flippable in the right circumstances. Like if people remember that MAGA wants to force 10 year old rape victims to have their attacker’s baby.
This is a numbers and momentum game. If you vote AND some of your fellow closeted Midwestern Democrats (or at least pro small-d democracy) vote and convince some people who want to have a chance to fix American democracy to vote for the Democratic nominee, Ohio could flip.
They all could. If there were justice in the world, all 50 states would be “blue” on November 5th because of who Trump is, what he’s done in the past, and what he’s telling us he’ll do in the future.
Vote!
I know my vote probably isn’t going to matter (thanks, Obama Electoral College)
Unironically we can assign some blame to Obama…
In 08 he had the opportunity to “save” the DNC. Instead he viewed the entire concept as outdated and ignored the party, instead handling everything internally on his team
If Obama (or more recently Biden) had worked on the DNC and tried to build it up after Hillary’s people burnt it all down (once in 08, again in 16) we wouldnt have had to suffer thru trump and would be seeing the end of a.progressive presidents second term right now.
If he’d have done that and lived up to 08 campaign promises, then there probably wouldn’t be any “red states” left by now.
Obama didn’t break the party, but he had a chance to fix an already broken party and instead just ignored it. We’re still paying for it
Holy mental backflips to change talk about the electoral college to talk about the DNC and act as if they’re the same.
Are you not aware of how since 2016 the DNC has used “victory funds” that “share” donations with state parties and that has lead to Republicans solidifying power in red states and using that power to maintain it thru things like gerrymandering and voter suppression? And that those things exacerbate existing issues with electoral college?
But during the three-month period when the DNC was working to spin the situation, state parties kept less than one half of one percent of the $82 million raised through the arrangement — validating concerns raised by campaign finance watchdogs, state party allies and Bernie Sanders supporters.
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/dnc-leak-clinton-team-deflected-state-cash-concerns-226191
That program is still around. Today it’s known as the Biden Victory Fund.
But there is about a million going to each state and 90 to Joe so far. So it is a little better…
And the backflips continue! That is not the electoral college.
Dude never has any idea what he’s talking about.
This post is kind of like when somebody who doesn’t know anything about cars starts throwing out words like carburator, transmission, and alternator because they know those are car things, but they have no idea how to use them in the context of how they are actually relevant.
It’s hard to begin to know how to tackle correcting anything because the amount of effort it would take to unweave and reconstruct the kernels of truth is like trying to extract an egg out of a fully baked cake.
This is probably overly harsh considering the slant of the post is absolutely in the right spirit, the analysis is just completely broken.
Will you just stop man? Jesus fucking Christ with the “everything is the fault of democrats” bullshit.
Be less obvious.
Remember that the president isn’t the only thing on the ballot.
Don’t give up on fighting fascism from your school board up to your state reps. If you organize/join existing groups, you can make your voice heard.
Your vote is sending a signal to future elections. If Ohio has a 20-point red margin, it’s unlikely to get any attention from blue candidates. If it has a 5% margin, that changes, and suddenly the next campaign considers spending time & money to try and move the needle.
Remember the old Roman adage: “you’re not defeated until you admit defeat”. If you don’t vote: you’ve lost. If you vote, you might still lose that election but there’s a better chance to win in the future.
Berthold Brecht:
Anyone who stays at home when the war begins and lets others fight for their cause must be careful: because whoever did not share the fight will share the defeat.
Always vote. Progressives lose elections because 30% of any population votes for the conservative at every single election, no matter what, like it’s a religion. Progressives need a culture that says: ALWAYS VOTE. It doesn’t fucking matter if it doesn’t fucking matter. Vote anyway. Let your kids see you voting like it’s actually important. Make it important.
One of the best comments I’ve seen here. Kudos
Yes because there are more options than just president, and increasing voter turnout is always advantageous to the left. There are more Democrats than Republicans in America, so 100% voter turnout means no more fascists in office.
I live in Nebraska and I feel the same way. I go out and vote in every election because that’s my civic duty, if the majority of people in your area with our same feeling actually went out and vote it is possible to become a swing state.
That being said my personal opinion is if you don’t vote you forfeit your right to complain about politics. You didn’t voice your opinion when it was important, so you shouldn’t voice it when it’s not.
Edit: spelling
Same! I’m in a red state but I have voted in every election since I reached the age to vote (a looong time ago). Yeah, my state always goes red for POTUS but I still vote Dem for POTUS so we don’t look like we’re a total shithole state. We have a Dem governor, a Dem House rep in DC, and my personal State senator and rep are Dems, too–I helped put them there. Dems are still quite outnumbered in the State legislature, but there’s been enough of them to keep the repubs from overriding the governor’s veto of some of their fascist bullshit bills. Every bit helps.
Deep red Ohio here
Still voting.
Fite me, redcoats
It’ll stay red if people don’t vote
The more deeply and unanimously red your local lawmakers consider their electorate, the more confident they will be pushing right and far right legislation and building MAGA cultishness. It won’t change who’s elected, but it can change how your local lawmakers think about what their community wants.
Yes! It’s the total votes statewide that determines the winner (POTUS and Senator), no matter which areas of the state they come from. Besides that, a showing of more blue votes in red areas makes a bigger statement to powers-that-be, campaign analysts, etc. than blue votes in blue areas. Represent!
And as everyone else is saying, vote blue for every office on the ballot. The state, county, and city levels are just as important as the national level if not more so. Vote in every election no matter what, even if no one you voted for wins, it matters how close the races are so Dems know where to concentrate their efforts.
Vote. Try to get others to do the same.
Maybe Democrats don’t stand a chance this round, but put up a fight. And if Trump loses you might get a chance to vote again in four years - a higher turnout to Democrats in this round might make it seem less hopeless at the next crossroads. :)
For president?
Probably not.
But it might for down ballot races which are still important.
Like in 08 when Obama first ran. Dems made lots of gains in state governments because he drove turnout.
Elections aren’t just about the President. That’s arguably the least impactful person on the ballot. Look at your local reps running for state positions, find ones you like, they’ll have much more impact on your daily life.
Plus, it’s a good opportunity to pay a little closer attention to local politics. My town is getting pretty hot the last few years, with some major controversies
- siting for a new high school, with hundreds of millions in state and federal funding at stake, and a huge impact on the community for the next half century. They’re racing to open it in time for the coming school year, but the site is still controversial
- summer closure to vehicles of the shops and restaurant area was a huge hit during COViD period, but now some people want to “go back to normal”
- huge arguments for and against our strong mayor able to get things done
- the town bought contaminated land for Pennies but trying to figure out what to do with it means figuring out how to clean it up
- we have a great sports facility with a large number of astroturfed fields but “the carpet is scuffed and worn”. Can we afford to get it re-carpeted? Is there an advantage to going back to grass?
- were having a lot of population growth and want to encourage higher density housing in the center of town near shops and transit, but how much can/should we try to control that? A neighborhood near me just got a couple of six story apartment blocks thrown down in the middle of much smaller duplexes and three deckers: is that good or bad? Technically it’s still a walk to the town center and it’s on a new trail, so that’s good, but it’s way out of scale for the neighborhood and would be better closer in with other buildings that size, so I’m glad I don’t live there. I see this one house is now abutting a brick wall almost as tall as the house
Getting you to feel like your vote is meaningless is how they win.
