Gwen

its the springtime of an election year in the US, which means there's a lot of sanctimonializing about how important it is to vote. obnoxious. every year the same but worse.

i wrote a bunch of thoughts, idk, whatever

regarding federal voting in the US -
list of feelings and opinions and whatever:

0. some morals and beliefs.
   a. the natural drive for comfort can become greed, and greed can lead people to do some evil shit
   b. humans have a responsibility to make the world around themselves better for their neighbors, within the scope of their ability
   c. humans need that maslow's hierarchy shit
   d. humans thrive on confidence, nature, friends, extended community, and a breadth/depth of: emotional interiority, learning, challenge, hurt/healing, and worldly experiences
   e. humans who actively work against the needs and thrives of their neighbors and peers suck, and the more often/more intensely that they do it, the more that suck compounds, until it becomes evil
   f. as reference here are some things that are evil: war, genocide, eviction, colonisation, the extinction of animal species and the devastation of natural habitats, a bunch of other stuff.
   g. people should confront, resist, sabotage, and dismantle works of evil; failing that, people shouldn't enable works of evil
   h. in order to facilitiate 0g, people's efforts should be judged by outcomes, not by intents. its very easy to "do" a lot and accomplish nothing.

1. there are many systems of voting more democratic, representational, and secure than first-past-the-post (FPTP)
   a. some less-sophisticated of these are a hundred+ years old, e.g Single Transferable Votes
   b. more modern, better options are in use extensively across the world, e.g Mixed Member Proportional Votes
   c. FPTP systemically forces two-party polarization across time
   d. a good system of voting should let you realistically vote for an option you trust in order to enact policy that you agree with; FPTP forces people that fundamentally disagree with each other to vote for people they hate, because they hate the Other Party more.
   e. as a result of 1d, the actual relationship of [your trust > your vote > your candidate's policy] is rarely or never formed for most people.
   f. it is an ongoing act of evil that FPTP endures.

2. America is captured and driven by corporate interests
   a. the wealthy and powerful in the US bribe federal politicians directly and indirectly in a number of ways, e.g. PACs, lobbying, illegal gifts, so on
   b. the two-party system that arises from 1c is desirable to corporate interests, in the same way that duopolies are desirable to corporate interests
   c. the us is an effective oligarchy
   d. as a colonial power and an oligarchy, US politicians work on behalf of corporate interests -e.g: cheap, weak labor; cheap, plentiful materials; plentiful demand.
   e. the electoral college as an institution exists to control for anomalous election results, and is evil.
   f. gerrymandering, which is the intentional redistricting of voter segments to stabilize and control the outcomes of elections, reflects the non-compete nature of duopolies. it is abundant in the US, and is evil.
   g. voter suppression tactics (e.g. second-class citizenship for felons and colony-born citizens, intimidation at polls, voter registration shenanigans) are widely used to control elections, and are evil
   h. where workers have weak protections, they are tired and politically disenfranchised, which controls elections, which compounds with 2d, and is evil.

3. politicians are humans (and theyre all old as shit (and theyve all been old as shit since the beginning))
   a. politicians, like many humans are comfort-driven
   b. politicians, like many humans are susceptible to incentives that induce greed and the flaws that accompany greed: defensiveness, short-sightedness, lack of empathy, and so on
   c. politicians will only act against corporate interests if they become uncomfortable enough to do so; here are several examples
   c-1. the politician has not yet been captured by corporate interest, and does not yet know the seductive succor of raytheon money
   c-2. the politician has lost corporate interest (through demotion/scandal/etc.)
   c-3. the politician faces more discomfort from intrusions into their daily life than they face from defying corporate interest (protests/riots/etc.)
   d. the only threat to a politician's comfort that can arise from voting is to remove them from office prior to the conclusion of their term limit - this fucks with their money and the prestige that they use to acquire more money

4. the ratchet effect is real
   a. democrats and republicans are not competitors, they are collaborators and coworkers
   b. the republican apparatus (operating as the party of business & pragmatism) has aligned their constituency with their corporate interest - as such, they can make tangible gains toward party platforms
   b-1. this is a political party that explicitly condones and encourages xenophobia, hate crimes, the christofascist lifestyle, et cetera. like. that's part of their whole deal.
   c. the democrat apparatus (operating as the party of people & compassion) cannot align their corporate interest with their constituency, and instead must balance and compromise between the two - as such, they cannot make gains toward party platforms, they can only stall. this is a clear case of dishonesty
   c-1. this party bombs and kills people overseas just as much as the republicans do, but a Dem president does confer an emotional shield upon, for example, a trans teen in a red state.

5. federal elections are (mostly) a circus
   a. in the land of bread and circuses (Lobac), a circus is a tool meant to distract.
   b. a federal election is more than just voting day.
   c. a federal election is a full year of fundraisers, tv and online ads, debates and memes about the debates, phonebanks and canvassers, flyers and posters, countdowns, live-to-the-minute graphs, demands for a recount, and public conversation between leftists and white supremacists and vote-scolds and your friends who are prefty reasonable and so on and so on.
   d. an election year is mentally and materially consuming for those who participate. even those who willfully skirt the circus will have regular run-ins with it.
   d-1. hate crimes spike during election seasons, as does hate speech.
   d-2. suicides spike for politically isolated/socially dis-integrated people in the aftermath of a presidential election.
   d-3. you'd think for how fucked and unhealthy our elections are, more people would consider not having them.
   e. the results of a federal election will be either 4b or 4c.
   e-1. 4b will be bad for most people as rights and safety regulations are eroded, hate crimes increase, businesses pillage, and war is waged
   e-2. 4c will be bad for most people as businesses pillage, and war is waged, and standards of living don't improve much from whatever most recent republican erosion on social safety nets.
   f. the federal election is propped up as the most important political event for a D-voter, not because advancements will be made toward the D-voter's ideals (4c), but purely as defensive posturing (1d and 4c-1).
   g. participation by D-voters in this process legitimizes and entrenches it, even as it's made necessary by the threats raised by the republican party.
   g-1. some D-voters may think the only way to affect change through voting is to vote hard enough and long enough that the government becomes permanently blue, and the Democrat apparatus will be unable to help but incrementally make things a little better over a period of forty to fifty years.
   g-2. some D-voters may think that the way to impact the democrat apparatus would be to make them uncomfortable in various ways. electorally this would mean by not voting for established candidates that have party backing (throwing away your vote in the process), in an effort to affect the apparatus's bottom line. however because there are only two parties, weakening one just strengthens the other, and now you're a collaborator with the opposing side.
   h. idk dude, that's(5g, 5g-1 & 5g-2) one i can't really reduce down to a solvable problem. personally, i think they're all evil collaborators, and i don't want to participate, legitimize, or enable any of them. fuck the feds. but i live in a blue state, so it doesnt really matter what i do. go vote if you want, dont let me stress you out.

6. better uses of the political brain power, imo.
   a. be weird and have a nice day, somewhere in public, where other people can see you being weird and having a nice day.
   b. join a community org doing something you care about.
   c. get to know your next door neighbors by name.
   d. go for a walk, look at a cool rock in a puddle, share skills and resources with a mutual aid group if youve got one. idk dual power seems cool.
   e. work on your hangups, learn how to make friends, ask for things that you need, blah blah blah, idk its just basics. eat food, acquire shelter, get to know yourself and what makes you feel confident probably.
   f. figure out what the offices in your local elections are, and make one of those offices into your own personal presidential election year, if youre feelin obsessive.