This is the way, at least until we get rid of First Past the Post and other Ordinal voting systems.

Score, STAR, or Approval would all make primaries unnecessary, and also reward people for honestly voting their preferences. Which is sort of why there's so much pushback against them.

The time to argue and complain about candidates is during the primaries. When a candidate for a party has been chosen you vote with the party. Out system is the way it is and no amount of protest votes are going to fix it. Do not vote 3rd party in the general election.

Lemmy users in socialism.ml actually define Putin as progressive (I wish I was joking)

EDIT: look at them all brigading me below. PUTIN SUCKS and North Korea is an authoritarian shithole!

Issue with that tactic is that it's actively being used to justify Chuck Schumer's "for every big city liberal we alienate, we will gain 3 to 4 hillbillies from the rural area" schtick, which is costing democrats elections and us (the world) the real progressive movement.

No, do NOT do this. This just gives a boundary to the left and none to the right of the Democratic Party.

Always vote for "progressives" (or ideally socialists) in the primary. If you're in a red state, consider even voting and running in the GOP primary instead.

If your candidate loses the primary, VOTE AGAINST THE PARTY IN THE GENERAL. Make it apparent that they either move to the left, or they lose.

And - crucially - join and form organizations that publicly state they will do exactly this.

Same strategy in Utah. 100% logical and effective.

Doing gods work. Thank you soldier.

i live in california. back when we had limited/closed primaries (before the joke that's the top two runoff now) everyone would register democrat because republicans didn't have a chance in hell, and they wanted a say in which democrat got in elected.

I've done similar in the past. In my instance, this doesn't necessarily work:

1. All of the R candidates mentioned Trump, directly. However, one of them mentioned Trump's name in the context of opposing some of the more extreme and unpopular Trumpnanigans.

2. The ones who have a focus on healthcare and education have VERY different ideas on what it means to support those. Nearly universally they mean pushing healthcare even further into the private sector, allowing scam plans that cover practically nothing and are "insurance" in name only, or things like that. The ones talking about education want to privatize that that, switch to voucher systems that people can use in private schools, and other nefarious things like forcing Christianity into the schools.

But either way, these folks aren't the ones who ultimately get chosen in the primary because they're never extreme enough.

The crazy part about living in a rural, red district is that even the majority of Democrats on the primary are basically Republican-lite and often "former" Republicans. Go figure.

Which makes sense, but this is all still predicated on side B complying with rules.

The biggest worry I have is that this is pushing the animal of fascism into a corner, as must happen. The rapid buildup of the DoJ into a paramilitary organization at the beginning of Trumps turn indicates to me that he has no plans on relinquishing power, mid-terms be damned.

There's a big fucking difference between expressing this kind of sentiment before the primaries, when it has the possible outcome of changing the nominee from a neoliberal to a progressive or leftist, and expressing it after the primaries, when the only possible outcome is discouraging turnout for Democrats generally and thus helping the pro-genocide fascists.

By all means, yell from the hilltops about AIPAC-tained candidates etc. during the primary. That's a good thing! But once the primary is over, it's time to STFU about it if the nominee isn't your preferred candidate because at that point there is no longer any better alternative.

While that's true, there's a strategic time where it's not the best idea to do so, as your criticism will get weaponized.

Around here there's a political ad featuring someone who lost a loved one to gun violence. He thought he was going to be used in an anti-gun-violence PSA, but instead it was a campaign ad blaming 'the other guy' for the criminal that killed his loved one, which he very much disagreed with.

So between July and election day on election years, it's time to rally behind the best practical option. Conversely, primary season on such years are a critical time to get engaged on the nuance of the party.