Seems notable that we don't have a headline with Joe Biden or whoever urging moderates to vote Democratic

Yes. The centrist ass dem I voted for veto'd a pro union bill. I would still vote for her over the alternative.

My primary votes are all left though.

On a practical matter the message is still "both are equally acceptable to me", with a small shade of a slightly louder "I wish there was someone better".

I cannot tell you how many sanctimonious jackasses I've met in my life that think their non-action is "sending a message".

Staying home or doing performative nonsense like not selecting a candidate or voting third party is basically non-action, and virtually no one sees the message or cares.

I thought it rather silly when I was still in university and hearing it from peers. These days, when someone my age tells me they have been doing this for decades I usually ask him them who has gotten their "message" and what was done about it?

There’s always a worse choice of the choices for who to vote for.

Vote for the other one.

you just wrote 'die' on a piece of paper...

"I'm aware."

Democrats have won multiple times since Carter and we're still broke and rent is still insane. You're preaching to the choir, but we didn't operate concentration camps on American soil, or start two-three(who knows!?) wars.

Better, at the moment is all I can get. One italian kid having the balls to shoot a ceo isn't enough for these sheep to actually do what's necessary to fix the disunited states.

My flow chart represents exactly those people recieving my vote first and foremost if available. The Democrats are only viable in the absence of any decent choice.

your best option is to advocate for a different party

Lol.

I still don't know what the right combination of words is to get this through to people like you. Or if that combination even exists. Maybe caps? Let's try caps.

NO 3RD PARTY IS VIABLE ON A NATIONAL SCALE MEANING NO 3RD PARTY EVEN STANDS THE REMOTEST CHANCE OF WINNING THE PRESIDENCY OR CONTROLLING OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

Did that work?

Even if a 3rd party started really putting in the effort (none are) and American voters started taking them seriously, it would still likely take DECADES for that movement to build to the point that it stood a chance of winning a national election. That means that you WILL have Democrats or Republicans in control of the federal government, likely for the remainder of your life.

So if you want to help a 3rd party by voting for their candidates in local/state elections, then I'm with you and I support you. But if you aren't adulting up and voting for Dems in NATIONAL elections to prevent ACTUAL FASCISTS from taking control, then you have failed at life.

Again, for the foreseeable future, Democrats or Republicans will control our federal government and Dems are so unbelievably better than Republicans that if someone can't acknowledge that, I have to believe they have brain damage.

I’m not convinced by that whole theory that “if everyone voted, the elections would turn out different!”.

There's a strong correlation between election turnout and results trending conservative or progressive. It's not the numbers but the percentage of turnout -- and when turnout percentage is higher, the results skew progressive.

If we followed the Law of Large numbers here then we'd be doing garbage statistics and dumb.

That's only correct if the reasons for not voting are similarly distributed across the political spectrum.

They are not: GOP constituencies tend to have easier access to time and resources to vote. Dem constituencies often have less access to polling stations, less ability to vote on election day due to work or life circumstance, and are disproportionately affected by moves for stricter voting requirements like proof of citizenship.

It is almost universally true, when turnout is high it benefits the Left. When it is low, it benefits the Right.

And this:

Open Secrets

😛