Wow. Unusal, but I suppose you can do everything at the same time.

And what is down the ballot? Local governors? You don’t just vote for the president in the presidential election?

You know, they had elections in the soviet union. And you had two options, vote for the candidate(there was only one) and spoil the ballot(not an official option, clearly).

If enough people spoiled the ballot, a new candidate could be indroduced, but this is infrequent and irrelevant.

Riddle me this, why have elections if you have only one candidate on the ballot? What is the point of having mock elections in dictatorships, with fake numbers?

No, I want all that to happen so that I can feel good about myself for not voting.

The government was legitimate then, obviously. Why would you apply our modern view of the matter to that time? It is irrelevant.

I see your point, but I should say that I agree that it would be better for you to have Harriss than Trump. However, that does not mean you should have voted for her. Dependending on the state you are in, your vote either has no effect on the election at all, or it has only a very very very small chance to decide it. And for as long as it does not decide it it is irrelevant. So even if the benefit of not voting is very small, like keeping your moral integrity or embodying democratic principles or not wasting your time, it is still worth it.

Modern states derive their legitimiacy from the will of the people, so an election with low turnout is less legitimate than an election with higher turnout. This can be noticable when a very small amount of people votes. This is why they repeat that you have to vote, no matter for whom, this pro-voting propaganda is meant to legitimise the government.

It is you who are wrong about my position. Democracy is not getting what you want, it is the government following the will of the majority, which it does not because the democratic party has been supporting a largely unpopular genocide, and if you are against it, you have no way to have your view(which is popular) represented in the political system. The democrats don’t give a shit what their voters want, they will vote for them anyway, for as long as they hate the other party more. But if the majority of people hates both parties/candidates, and votes for the one they hate less, this is not democracy.

Also, the democratic party sucks for many reasons, not just the recent Palestine development.

And if I was a US citizen and I did not vote, or voted for Trump, what would change? I will tell you what, nothing. You can vote for whomever you want, and still only one candidate will win, and your vote will likely not matter even if you live in a swing state but you probably don’t, so it doesn’t matter at all. You make it sound like by abstaining you elect Trump, but if your vote is not decisive, it does not have a negative impact on others. So indulging my ego would do no harm. But it would delegitimise the system I am opposed to.

You are complaining about the neo-colonial regime of the US. I am not certain how legitimising the party that supports it is going to change anything in that regard, but please, enlighten me.

Every vote is a vote for the system, it does not matter whether you vote for Trump or not. If you love the right-wing democratic party and don’t want anti-imperialist, leftist and even centre-left views present in your political system, please, do not do anything and just vote for whatever mediocre politician the party appoints while disregarding the popular will. But stop complaining about people that actually want their views represented.

Democracy does not just arise naturally, it has to be maintained. You have to stand your ground, demand what is rightfully yours. If you do not even try to do that, and just defer to the political system, you do not understand what it takes to have a democracy.

Why would anyone vote for a party that they are opposed to ideologically?

Edit: I do understand why, of course, I just diapprove.

Not voting delegitimises the government and puts pressure on the political system. The minor benefits of that are not countered by any drawbacks if you are in the vast majority of states that are not swing states.

But my main point is: you have to develop a solid ideological viewpoint and act on it if you actually want your voice to be represented. If you just vote for the parties that you do not agree with because you feel like you have to you are actually not doing your “democraric duty” and instead are legitimising the government that does not represent your desires, thusly eroding democracy.

You can say, that if a lot of people thought this way and voted for, say, Jill Stein, or not at all, the Democrats would not win. To that I would say, why would I want them to win if I do not agree with their politics? But most importantly, if people were actually willing to stand their ground and at least try to hold politicians accountable and fight for political representation(of their views) you would not have the political fiasco you have now in the first place.

You perform your civic duty by not voting in the same way as you would by voting.

I mean, how was the game? Surely you don’t watch it for the singers.