• MrFagtron9000@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    https://youtu.be/FqRNnIMDkUY

    Lawrence O’Donnell:

    If you don’t show them you’re capable of not voting for them they don’t have to listen to you. I promise you that. I worked within the Democratic Party. I didn’t listen or have to listen to anything on the left while I was working in the Democratic Party - because the left had nowhere to go.

    What is the flaw in that reasoning? If I want Medicare for All and a neolib like Mayo Pete or Joe Brandon is the candidate and they don’t want Medicare for All, how does guaranteeing them my vote anyway get me Medicare for All? How do I punish them or otherwise push them my way other than refusing to vote for them?

    Maybe the “moderate” Democrats that are indifferent or opposed to Medicare for All (I’m just using it as an example issue) should keep in mind that if they don’t support a progressive candidate progressives aren’t going to show up to vote and they’ll lose?

    • Motavader@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Unfortunately I feel like we’re reduced to harm-reduction for many votes. Liberal voters may take your hypothetical approach of “if the Democratic presidential candidate doesn’t support Medicare for All then I won’t vote for them”, but that just helps a Republican candidate that will push for much worse policies ON TOP OF not supporting Medicare for All.

      Republican voters (seem to) vote on single issues: guns, God, and/or abortion. Liberal voters seem to expect a much wider array of policy positions from their candidate and such candidates rarely exist.

      2016 - “eh, Hillary doesn’t support Medicare for All so I won’t vote”. So we instead got the shit show we have today.

    • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well, I think O Donnell is an idiot. How much longer does he plan on not voting for them to get them to listen to him?

      Which of these sounds more threatening to you – a consistent voter threatening to withhold their vote from a candidate in a primary, or a never voter threatening to withhold their vote in the general election?

      It’s not the second person. I mean, I’d love their vote, but I’ve never gotten their vote before, and they’re threatening that I won’t get their vote again. There’s no change. If the first person changes though, I’m down a vote. In the primary especially, I want dedicated voters to support me. You have no leverage if you’ve never bothered getting leverage.