Inside the liberal mind
user
I don't know what we are expected to take from this post. Like, what am I supposed to do as a transwoman this election? Either the dems or the GOP WILL win. Am I supposed to not vote for the person who will at least not actively support my non-existence and hope it leads to a push to the left for the next election? I already protest, I already support leftist candidates, I already did all the things that I can do. 

What are the steps toward NOT having two shitty choices that aren't just accelerationist, that will affect me and other minority communities first. 

  
I am genuinely asking because I see how bad supporting Biden is, but no alternative, not even a candidate to rally behind. Just that it doesn't matter if Trump or Biden win because Gaza, when if Trump wins it could lead to me losing access to medications.
assistant
&gt;Like, what am I supposed to do as a transwoman this election? Either the dems or the GOP WILL win. Am I supposed to not vote for the person who will at least not actively support my non-existence and hope it leads to a push to the left for the next election?

I think what a lot of people are saying is not that you should or shouldn't vote, but that voting for Biden or not doesn't matter that much. Republicans have already successfully solved the problem of needing the presidency to do shit: they stacked the Supreme Court. They no longer need the presidency or even the legislature to push forward the policies they want. They've already rolled back Roe, they're rolling back environmental protections, and they've signaled they want to roll back gay marriage and OSHA.

Dems have had the opportunity to do something about this for years. At least a decade, even longer. They have said they would do something about this for years. And yet they have done nothing. They have made no movements to do *anything*, even after the recent rulings. At worst they are a bump in the road as Republicans are barreling towards fascism. They have demonstrated time and time again to both Republicans and the general public that they are unwilling to play hardball and put a stop to this.

So the only major difference between a Trump and a Biden presidency, given the Dems' past performance and their current signaling, is just *the speed at which we descend into fascism*. Sure, there are some nice things Biden is doing (his FTC pick is really great, he's pro labor). But when you're up against a fascist supreme court that is speed running rolling back all of our rights and protections, an increasingly violent and militant alt-right, and Dems' increasingly more conservative policy on things like immigration and the genocide that's happening in Gaza, there's nothing to keep us from barreling into fascism. Dems aren't magically going to grow a pair and pass laws faster than they ever have before. They will instead sit and watch the slow descent into fascism that Republicans have been engineering for decades.

The very real fear you are facing right now that you might lose access to medications or face even more discrimination, that sheer terror you feel, is what immigrants and Gazans feel under Biden's rule right now. We are and have always been a fascist nation, the only thing that's changing is the scope of who we're applying it to. There is nothing that Biden or Dems will do to stop that inevitable change of scope because *it's already in progress*. So when viewed through that lens, you voting for Biden or not voting at all doesn't matter.

You cannot stop fascism through electoralism. Voting fundamentally does *nothing*. But what we can do is organize. Dems and Biden won't protect you as a trans person. Building a queer community around you, a group of leftist queer people taking up literal arms to protect you from Neo-Nazis if they come to town, and building political power through structural organizing *will* protect you. That will give you power. Unionizing your workplace will give you power. Pushing *outside of the political system* will give you power.

I'm not saying you should or shouldn't vote for Biden. What I *am* saying is that you shouldn't convince yourself that voting for him or not at all will do anything, because it won't. That's not how change has *ever* happened in this country, and it never will. It's always required the mass mobilization of vulnerable people *literally fighting* for their right to exist. That is something that will be equally hard under *any* president, so it's best to focus on that and start doing it now.
user
I fundamentally disagree that voting does nothing. I didn't vote in 2016, I live in Arkansas and just didn't care between Hillary and Trump at that point. That loss cost us the Supreme Court. And led to losing roe v wade. Voting does change things. 

And if that is the answer, then why can't we do both? Taking everything you say and just agreeing, why not vote to slow the speed fascist take hold while we do the things you suggest? Why would it not be in our interest to do what we can to slow it so those communities can be built up? 

I just don't understand how we are saying there is no difference in the little to no-change democrats vs the party that wants to oppress minorities. (I'm not mentioning Gaza here, because they have the same foreign policy)
assistant
&gt;That loss cost us the Supreme Court. And led to losing roe v wade.

Do you think Republicans would magically have stopped if RBG stepped down and we got a Dem judge there? Do you genuinely believe that if Hillary was elected and we got a Dem majority in congress in 2016, that Republicans would've packed up their bags and said "Welp, looks like we've been defeated! The one plan that we had for achieving fascism had a minor road bump, so I guess we can't do this anymore! We've been magically defeated through the power of voting!"

&gt;Taking everything you say and just agreeing, why not vote to slow the speed fascist take hold while we do the things you suggest?

What you're missing is that it *doesn't matter*. What happens at the federal level *does not matter*. We as individuals have *no control over it through voting*. Hasan has covered this like hundreds of times on his streams. It is the cornerstone pieces of Marxist thought that the state under capitalism solely serves the elite, and that when the bourgeois are threatened, they pull the fascism lever. 

When your two choices are "fascism" or "fascism but slightly slower", *you do not have a choice*. It is not useful to discuss the choices anymore when the two choices are fascist. The only reason to continue discussing it is because you continue to buy into the fantasy that Dems will protect you, *when they won't*. Only we can protect us. 

&gt;I just don't understand how we are saying there is no difference in the little to no-change democrats vs the party that wants to oppress minorities.

Because Republicans have the Supreme Court and the state legislature of most states in the US. It is not do-nothing Democrats in the sense that "the democrats will not change things", it's the do-nothing Democrats in the sense that "the democrats will do nothing while Republicans use the control they already have to continue to plunge us into fascism". There is no world in which we do not plunge into fascism if we vote for Biden or if we don't. That choice is irrelevant.
user
No? I think that if we had gotten liberal judges in, then we wouldn't have had to worry about losing Roe v Wade for another 20 years. Maybe we still would have, but we would have stopped it from happening already. 



I don't think we've heard the same thing. Hasan has also said, maybe not recently, because I can't be involved in politics like I was with my stress levels, that swing state voters should still vote dem. So, it does matter. You can't say it has no effect when we are seeing the results of voting in 2016 with the overturn of roe v wade. That is a direct effect of losing elections on the federal level. 


And again, I ask. What is the long-term solution, then? Why do I only see posts saying how voting for Biden is dumb and voting bad but very few posts on what steps we should be actively taking? 
You are one in like 20 replies that have said anything about what we should do, but it's still vague things like building community.
assistant
&gt; Hasan has also said, maybe not recently, because I can't be involved in politics like I was with my stress levels, that swing state voters should still vote dem.

When has he ever said this? From [this article](https://www.wired.com/story/hasan-piker-twitch-voting-joe-biden/):

&gt; But on the WIRED Politics Lab podcast this week, when Leah Feiger (our host and my editor) asked Piker about it, he said he wouldn’t support any candidates this year before ultimately replying, “I don't know if I'll be voting for Biden, I'll be honest.”
&gt; 
&gt; [...]
&gt; 
&gt; One thing he definitely backs is voting uncommitted. “I'm an advocate of full-blown pressure,” he said.
user
I literally just said, maybe not recently, lol. I know he said it in the 2020 election. And he's in California. It's not exactly a swing state. 

If I stumble across him saying it, I'll be sure to post it.
assistant