Some people out there seem to be confused, but I always vote in every local and every national election for every office and every ballot initiative since I was 18 years old. Some of my greatest civil rights heroes have fought and died so that we can all vote and I honor their memory in the ballot box every single time.
To some of us, especially those of us like myself who have been scheduling secretaries for US senators, it often seems like a morally reprehensible choice between compromised corporate Democrats and fascist-minded Republicans. Where I live in California, I have the luxury of voting my conscience for president for third-party candidates that better align with my ideas of justice and equality.
But in any and every contested race, as my mom Mary Morello always said, we have to fight the fascist every which way we can, recognizing that even if there's but an inch of difference between two candidates, there are a lot of vulnerable people who could be greatly harmed in that inch. So vote your ass off, but don't just exercise your right to vote. Exercise your right to fight for, organize for, struggle for, and manifest the kind of world you'd like to really see without compromise and without apologies before, during, and after election day. And let's stop the fascists every which way we can. Power the people.
I’m sick of it in general where there is a certain kind of “leftist” / contrarian “independent” that loves to act like they need to be catered to and they often have a purity test or two.
What kind of privileged-ass take is this? I'm sorry, but if you can't understand why some groups need to have hard red lines about who they'll vote for, then you're a moron. For example, the hard red line for the Muslim community was, "don't support a genocide against Muslims." We're not talking about minor preferences here. People attach red lines to their votes on things that are absolutely essential, sometimes for their very lives.
I'm sorry, but I as a trans person will never vote for a transphobic Democrat, even in the general election. You can fuck right off with the tired "lesser evil" bullshit. I'm thinking 10 elections ahead, not just the one right in front of us. And Democrats turning transphobe represents a much greater direct threat to my life than Republicans winning a Senate seat in Ohio.