The vote-shaming engines have predictably kicked into high gear in America as the presidential election approaches, with shitlib pundits like Bill Maher doing their part to paint third-party voters as the most toxic people in the world.

Which is of course ridiculous. I have no strong opinions about how Americans should vote in November, but it’s obvious that in terms of toxicity third-party voters are not on the list of people who are worthy of criticism. The dire situation humanity now finds itself in under the leadership of the US hegemon is not the fault of a small fringe faction which doesn’t want to support oligarch-coddling ecocidal warmongers, it’s the fault of those who help preserve America’s oligarchic ecocidal warmongering status quo.

Contrary to the stock template lines that establishment spinmeisters are regurgitating to bully the left into submission, here are 21 things which are in fact a lot more crazy, selfish, stupid and privileged than voting third party:

1. Supporting a two-headed one-party system in the most powerful government on earth which has plagued our planet with endless war and ecocide and marched humanity to the brink of extinction.

2. Continuing to support a political system which is wholly owned and operated by the wealthy, leaving zero effective influence over US policy in the hands of ordinary Americans and immense influence in the hands of the very rich.

3. Continuing to support a system which consistently deceives the American people into consenting to oppressive neoliberal exploitation at home and bloodthirsty neoconservative warmongering abroad, both of which always hurt the most impoverished and disadvantaged groups worst.

4. Continuing to support a two-headed one-party system where one head always pushes as far to the right as possible when in power and the other head never moves things back leftward even one iota when it is.

5. Continuing to support a political establishment which rehabilitates war criminals like George W Bush, Bill Kristol, David Frum and John Bolton while demonizing anyone who refused to vote for a warmonger.

6. Supporting a political party which has been consistently attacking Donald Trump from the right on foreign policy, pushing him to escalate cold war tensions with Russia further and further and shrieking hysterically if he makes the slightest move toward deescalation anywhere.

7. Supporting a political party which is designed to co-opt all leftward populism and railroad it into support for an establishment which promotes war and oligarchy while depriving Americans of the same social safety nets afforded to everyone in every other major country on earth.

8. Supporting a party which claims to support press freedoms while cheerleading Trump’s extradition of Julian Assange, a move which if successful will cripple press freedoms around the globe and make it impossible to hold the world’s most powerful government to account.

9. Supporting a political party which has spent Trump’s term galvanizing its base around the psychopathic CIA and J Edgar Hoover’s minority-oppressing, left-punching FBI while doing everything it can to stamp out any leftist zeitgeist within its ranks.

10. Continuing to support a mass media structure which works every day to deceive Americans into supporting their own impoverishment while weapons of war are spread across the planet at massive expense.

11. Supporting a political establishment which promises slow, incremental change and actually delivers no change whatsoever while our species slides off the cliff of extinction, taking out the most impoverished and marginalized first.

12. Pretending foreign policy just doesn’t exist, or if it does exist pretending Joe Biden isn’t a lifelong warmonger who has spent his entire campaign attacking Trump for being insufficiently hawkish in most spheres of international conflict.

13. Ignoring the fact that both parties are working in support of world-threatening cold war escalations against both Russia and China, a multifront campaign whose complexity increases the probability of something going cataclysmically wrong even more than the last cold war.

14. Pretending a party that’s done exactly nothing for America’s disempowered communities isn’t directly responsible for the poverty, police brutality, mass incarceration, exploitation and oppression those communities face today.

15. Pretending a return to how things were before Trump’s presidency wouldn’t just be a return to the conditions which created Trump’s presidency.

16. Pretending Obama, who destroyed Libya, devastated Syria, facilitated the rape of Yemen, intervened in Ukraine, maintained and expanded all of Bush’s most depraved policies and did nothing for the people who elected him, was a good president.

17. Continuing to support a political system where everything keeps getting worse no matter which oligarchic puppet Americans elect.

18. Putting your head in the sand and pretending everything will be fine once a Democrat is in charge, again.

19. Supporting a novelty joke party with fake primaries which are always rigged to ensure victory for the safest oligarchic puppet instead of pushing for something resembling actual democracy.

20. Promoting the lie that if you just keep doing something that has never, ever worked, this time it might produce different results.

21. Lulling people back to sleep when the only thing that can help ordinary people is for them to start waking up and using the power of their numbers to force drastic, revolutionary change.

It’s easy to advocate incrementalism when you’re not living hand to mouth. It’s selfish to think that acting on climate change can be rolled out over many decades so as not to upset the corporate donors of your favorite politicians. It’s the height of entitlement to close the door to progressives inside the Democratic Party and then throw a shit fit when they vote for another party. It’s hypocritical to hyperventilate about election-rigging Russians while secretly, and then openly, rigging primaries against progressives.

Supporting the continued existence of a fake two-party system which advances exploitative agendas hurts the most vulnerable populations in America and in the entire world. Acting self-righteous because you actively support that system while spitting on the people who are trying to change it is selfish, is stupid, is hypocritical, and is a mark of extreme privilege.

________________________

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72 responses to “On Vote Shaming: 21 Ways Supporting The US Establishment Is Worse Than Voting Third Party”

  1. Drop the effing mike, well done

  2. Yesterday another genocide began, hopefully by the end of the week we’ll all see, and realize that even though we may not be the last living human on earth, we will know that this is it and the human species is dead and hopefully permanently extinct. Certainly the filthiest, most disgusting animal that I could possibly imagine to have ever existed.

  3. The worst thing one can do is to pretend that voting matters. Better spoil the ballot sheet to show we are interested but do not support the farce they call “democracy.” Unfortunately electronic voting does not allow spoiled ballot sheets.

    1. There’s no point to spoiling a ballot. There is no minimum quorum of votes needed to win, its first-past-the-post, winner take all.

      Likewise not voting just supports the winner by default of not voting against the winner. The system is set up like a rigged question.

      The only effective action is to vote for the least damaging candidate while advocating for political accountability, like more referendums and proportional representation.

      Or leave, taking your money with you.

  4. Scary stuff!!
    Tomgram: John Feffer, Donald Trump’s Real Mob Connections
    By John Feffer
    http://www.tomdispatch.com/dialogs/print/?id=176755

    1. Not really, unless you’re a really bad person. Trump was also associated with the New York and Atlantic City mobs.

      They got busted. Trump walked away.

      Trump was associated with Jeffrey Epstein. Word is Epstein cast eyes at Trump’s daughter, Ivanka a long time ago. Epstein was busted for good and is now also dead.

      Trump’s associations with really bad guys seem to have satisfactory endings. And its not the pro-gun militias burning businesses and monuments and locking down the economy so poor women and minorities can starve down in poverty.

      Trump also turned his back on Ross Perot’s Reform party in 2000 because it had attracted David Duke’s support, whom Trump referred to as : “… a bigot, a racist, a problem.”

  5. The important thing to remember about political parties, is that they are coalitions of roughly like-minded factions pursuing power, not ideologues pursuing pure ideologies. People vote on an alchemy of conflicting issues, but eventually there is the danger of one natural ruling party.

    Gun control and abortion rights are the only issues truly separating Republican from Democrat, just as they are usually united in exceptionalism and war. Trump more or less saved the ailing Republicans by loosely aligning them against the 9/11 wars.

    Parties that stood alone on a narrow platform got tired of losing and ceased standing alone a long time ago. The Democrats and Republicans are umbrellas organizations reflecting the left-right divide found throughout Western democracies.

    Civil libertarians, have been traditionally Democratic. Economic libertarians and conservatives have traditionally been Republican. The Libertarians, in effect have little to offer; their extremes are unwelcome and become their core programme.

    The Greens are in the same boat; everyone is more or less environmentally conscious; there’s no reason to vote Green, but instead vote for the green policies (or lack thereof) offered by one of the duopoly.

    Partisans may hate the other parties but they really hate nonpartisan, non-committed voters because those votes have to be worked for and where the hard questions , if asked at all, usually come from.

    If it were up to the partisans, we’d all be too cynical to vote, leaving elections entirely for them to hash out.

    1. The Greens have an entire platform, and virtually none of it is represented in any meaningful way by any member of the duopoly. Their only problem is lack of exposure. Their platform is feared by the owners of capital, and therefore Howie Hawkins is not given any access to the MSM. People who stick to the duopoly are engaging in a self fulfilling prophecy. The only moral choice is to vote FOR someone who shares your values.

      https://www.gp.org/platform

  6. Anyone who shows up at the polls and is prepared to vote Dem or Repub should be ashamed of themselves . They are part of the problem not a solution.

    1. Agreed, I’d couldn’t bring myself to vote mainstream in 2016, having been so totally disappointed (I’m being kind here) with both of those parties. As far as Bill Maher goes, however, I would find it quite easy to vote for him as one of the most toxic people in the world as demonstrated by his outright hateful comments on our most recent Supreme Court nominee. Bill’s slime and smarm exemplifies the death of comedy such as I could once enjoy. Who watches that constant drivel such that it still warrants air time?

    2. People who won’t wear masks are intentionally spreading a deadly virus and should be far more ashamed of themselves and are a far greater part of the problem than mere voters.

      1. Masks don’t work. Even in clinical settings, their utility against airborne viruses used to be questioned.

        People have always been at risk of spreading a deadly virus; the seasonal flu.

        https://off-guardian.org/2020/09/23/is-evidence-masks-dont-work-being-purged-from-the-internet/

        1. The virologists agree, masks work. It’s not controversial.

    3. Ideological non-voters are the problem. They’ve abdicated any meaningful attempt to demand political accountability and left the system to mindless partisans.

  7. usually when someone does what is right the feeling that they get is that they feel “alone”. I felt that way when I voted Green Party in 2016. I actually didn’t even want to vote Green Party then, I just knew that I had to do something different. I thought about the people throughtout the world that have suffered by the unjust wars that the Establishment of the US Empire has heaped upon them. At the present moment I think about how it must have felt for those people who have gone before us, MKL, Ghandi and others who felt “alone” in their decisions to do what is right. I guess it goes with the territory…..do what is right and feel “alone”. I will be voting Socialist this year and I know that I will feel “alone”. I won’t be sure if I did the right thing or not, but I do know, that I will feel “alone”. Maybe I should just get used to this……feeling alone…..feeling as if, I don’t “fit in”. Let’s face it, the real enemy is “time”. How much time do we have left??? I am not sure, probably not much. Peace.

    1. I’ve been doing what you’re going to do for every major election since the murder of RFK. But I don’t feel alone; my heart tells me I’m doing what’s right. Why worry about what others do or think?

      1. thank you. The feeling of alone is not one of isolation but rather one of solitude. I just have to get used to this feeling of going against the system of National and Transnational Capitalism and choosing a more life giving spirit for myself and for humanity. My voice is small and it may not have any affect on the over all direction of the present political and social climate. But, it is my voice and I want to use it for good in whatever time I have left on this earth. Peace.

    2. Voting Jill Stein even as a protest vote was not a bad choice in 2016. She was a good quality candidate, just not a serious contender.

      Third parties are valuable for raising issues when they run good quality candidates.

      Although, it would be best to support the coalition (mainstream) party practically closest to your position even while putting time and energy into a third party’s voice.

  8. “2. Continuing to support a political system which is wholly owned and operated by the wealthy, leaving zero effective influence over US policy in the hands of ordinary Americans and immense influence in the hands of the very rich.”

    I often wonder, if, and how much better things were before the the 2010 Citizens United decision? I have to think what little, actual,independence congress may have had, from the robber barons, has since vanished.

    1. For some reason, I am unable to post a comment and link to a website about an investigation into mass scale corruption, since 1999 by international banks. The investigation is about leaks from an organization called FINCEN by a consortium of journalists that includes: BuzzFeed News, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and more than 100 international news organizations.
      `
      The article is “FinCEN Leaks: Who Benefits From the Disclosure?” Published on 9/27/20 by Derrick Broze and can be found The American Vagabond website.

      1. Just tried to post the link again by itself. No can do.

      2. Couldn’t post the link on Naked Capitalism either.

      3. The site is called The Last American Vagabond

    2. You are correct that link is not allowed to be posted on this site.

      1. Thanks for trying, Ron, I was hoping someone else would give it a shot. Like I said, I wasn’t able to post it on Naked Capitalism either. I couldn’t even post a link to their home page. Hmmm. . . curiouser and curiouser. Is it possible that a link to it can’t be posted anywhere? After what they’ve done to Julian Assange, it wouldn’t surprise me.
        `
        Apparently, actual, legitimate journalists Derrick Broze and Whitney Webb are doing their jobs at The Last American Vagabond.
        `
        Is it possible there are still people who can’t be bribed, blackmailed, threatened, smeared or targeted into submission by the global, robber baron, crime syndicate?

    3. Actually, ordinary Americans benefited greatly from Trump gumming up the imperial works and trying to stop some wars.

      As Michael Moore correctly pointed out, it was the greatest political F.U. in history.

  9. “…here are 21 things which are in fact a lot more crazy, selfish, stupid and privileged than voting third party”…
    .
    If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain… so the angelic chorus goes to juice up voter participation in a failed electoral process. But guess what? We voted, so we complained. And NO ONE CARED. Not one single time. Ever.
    .
    Why? We don’t count. Vote all you want if you want, but know that the candidates and the direction of the nation are always purchased by those high above your pay grade and in fancy back rooms that you will never see. The money may not be left on the bed but it may as well should be.
    .
    How about this one: If you vote, you are a big part of the problem. You helped to give the appearance to legitimize a corrupted process. You got what you paid for and have no right to grumble about it. Only those who don’t vote have a right to complain.
    .
    Cancel the elections. Just let the rich and powerful install their puppets. They will anyway.

    1. Wrong. The power elite are not wholly united and have left it to elections to settle differences over leadership figures and lead policies.

      The alternatives to voting are the more ugly and kinetic political options for gaining power. Its the President who arbitrates the policy conflicts between elites.

      Worrying about ‘legitimizing’ the system is meaningless. The system simply is, and, every four years is hostage to the popular vote.

  10. “if you vote, you have no right to complain” – George Carlin

  11. Bill Maher ? Isn’t he a supporter of your view that covid is indeed a global threat ? From his view on Ms Clinton’s bandwagon where he has has a first class seat since 2015 , his Trump Hysteria has reached epic levels of stupidity.. His view that 9/11 was not an inside job but an attack by the Saudis cost him his job during the Bush2 era , since then he has steadily moved to bolster the status quo narrative , starting with the silly notion that Russia stole the POTUS throne from Billary and enthroned Trump ?

  12. Even when a secret ballot prevents consequences for voting a certain way, people still kiss the man’s ass.

    So:
    K-Dog for President

    https://chasingthesquirrel.com/

    Right sidebar, hover and click. This vote is not even real and most of you still won’t take a walk on the wild side and do the right thing. Even the people here who leave comments, which is about 3% of total Caitlin readers; still can’t even click.

    Understand I am not fool enough to think I can win. That I will be ‘discovered’ at the last minute. That is not the point. But understand I do not have a ‘joke’ campaign where I do something like promise everybody a pony to show I am not serious.

    I seriously would implement carbon dividends. Is that something you could get behind?

    And still you won’t click thinking the NSA is watching you or something. Which they are but so what? They can’t put us all in FEMA camps so find the courage to stand for something instead of whining about everything in an otherwise apathetic funk.

    Apathetic funk. How would a space alien see you from 20,000 feet up using an interstellar eyeball. Damn, you look just like a conservative Republican who believes in the innate superiority of their cracker culture, no difference between them and you from the eye in the sky. You may think different but your actions say otherwise.

    You need top fix that. It is time to grow up and become someone who counts for something.

    So hover and click.

    1. 3% is a guess. A reasonable one based on my observation of how many people leave comments on a website vs. how many are reading.

    2. Correction: You need to fix that.

  13. People are not Stepford Wives nor Stepford Husbands, they just vote like them.

  14. I totally agree with this post. I recently lost two long time friends because I see things differently. It now seems that if you don’t agree with someone else’s POV you’re not only wrong, but bad.
    We have one political party in this country, the war party, with a difference in style not substance. I used to vote third party as a way to let the PTB know that someone went through the trouble, but the major candidates weren’t acceptable. I’ve given up on this as well. Bottom line: a country founded on genocide, and which has zero sense of the sacred, is doomed. And, BTW, the acquiescence to the Covid narrative is the final nail in the coffin.
    Welcome to Slavelandia.

  15. Bill Maher is a spoiled child. His arrogance is astounding. And he has scores of latte sippers nodding their heads, just like the ditto heads who follow Rush. In both cases any deep, critical thought is frowned upon.

    It is a real shame that Caitlin’s voice doesn’t reach into the world of those hypnotized by their TV sets. We are stuck screaming in a “sound proof free speech zone.”

    I have to disagree with those who choose not to vote at all. Voting FOR someone who shares your values, and not being sucked into “lesser evil” voting is the only moral choice if you do not want to become part of the evil. Being convinced that you are wasting your vote is what allows the two headed monster to survive. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Violent revolution becomes the only alternative, and that will bring its own evil along with it.

    Those killed by our war machine are just as dead when it is done by the “lesser evil” candidate. Bill Maher should take a trip to Libya or Yemen.

    1. I know Skip—can’t stand Maher’s arrogance (wrapped in stupid). In his own inimitable snide fashion, Maher recently offered a crass “joke” taking a swipe at Jill Stein (shown in referenced video).
      I like what Fiorella is saying:
      https://youtu.be/csw-NBXxxBc

      1. Thanks Gregory. Unfortunately, I can’t access the video. I’m out of high speed data for the month. I could afford the extra $40/month for unlimited, but I choose to feed that beast as little as possible. I live in a rural environment that has yet to catch up with what should be part of our publicly owned infrastructure.

        Maher makes me nauseous anyway. Probably best I don’t puke up my morning coffee.

        1. Good point about “the commons”—or what should be publicly owned anyway. And keep that coffee down man, and be well.

  16. CJ, please don’t post photos of Bill M. if you can avoid it. When I see him I find myself racing to the loo unable to decide if I want to puke or … well, you know. Thanks, love the article.

  17. The ruling class feel safe, secure and smug knowing that the status quo is unassailable.
    The middle class feel nervous knowing that their financial security is tenuous at best.
    The underclass feel numb, lost and grasp at straws in sheer desperation.

    1. Pretty accurate summary. But the zeitgeist is about to suddenly change as it did when I was a young man. I can sense it building behind all the noise. Covid and its repercussions will ignite something new and unexpected that brings us together, although the pandemic right now seems only to be tearing us apart. Believe in the human spirit. That’s the most revolutionary thing you can do right now.

  18. Great article, all true. I am regularly ravaged by friends and family for rejecting the notion that a vote for Biden, regardless of how admittedly corrupt and inept he is, is essential to preserve the United States’ non-existent democracy. As a leftist, a progressive and a real liberal, I wish I could make them understand that today’s Democratic Party, indeed, the Democratic Party since 1992, or perhaps the Democratic Party since William Jennings Bryan, has been anything but those things.

  19. I dare any of my voting obsessed friends to read what Caitlin wrote here. and then tell me if she has said anything untrue in these 21 points.

  20. Correct and basically inarguable on all accounts, however, good ideas which manifest at entry level cognition thereof do not necessarily make for either good governance or benefits to anyone’s human condition. When one guy asks, “What are you gonna do, waive a magic wand?”, the other guy then waives his magic wand and right on cue, the crowd cheers wildly as impetus at least temporarily shifts from globalism to nationalism. Unquestionably the globalists still remain in charge even though it appears the nationalists have managed to crack the whip and twirl the mustache. To digress, the market got pumped up quickly as if on steroids (or perhaps coke) for which Mother Nature and economic reality always demands a correction if not a rectification. Both came by way of literally the most tiny of influences, emphasis on the “flu” part. Any pandemic is by its very definition a global solution for a global economic “problem” depending upon one’s point of view, in this case that being from the top. Blame the “bug” and move along, not forgetting to wear your now mandatory mask. I noticed my first pack of masks were made in China, God bless. Always remember and never forget, rectification and rectal basically bear the same root.

  21. Dear Caitlin,

    With the years I understood 2 main things:
    1. Voting is food for the system, whomever you vote to: 2 headed party, 3rd / 4th / 5th party
    2. While I admire your writing about fear and human psychology effect, I believe that basic psychology is: if you do not want to be used, do not surrender your power. Voting is surrendering one’s power

    1. Voting grants credence to the psychopaths. Your vote is your permission given to continue the charade.
      Once upon a time, I supported the Libertarian Party, until I realized that any change in players is irrelevant as long as the game and its rules remain the same. It’s a crooked, evil game, wherein only the crooked and evil can win.

      1. Agreed! If you play this game you are part of the problem not the solution.

    2. The largest party in the US is not the R-epublicans nor the D-eceivers.
      The largest block of voters are the None-of-the-above voters.

    3. Untrue read JWKs post

    4. So what is your better idea? I can’t respect your criticism without an alternative.

      1. Your whining didn’t seem to work and/or I guess he doesn’t respect your opinion.

  22. Yeah, but it’s so very much WORSE, than that? It’s cynically believing that DNC™ LCC would actually RUN with Biden & Harris, were they trying to “win?” That this entire blatant rerun of Debbie, John & Robby’s installation of Trump (where Bernie did 40 some rallies for Hillary, after WE were obviously stomped down in Philly) wouldn’t result in righteous anger, massive protest; civil suites against Tio Thomas exposing hundreds-of-thousands of vulnerable primary voters to COVID, shuffling in icy rain for hours in forlorn attempt to have some say (in our tag-team kleptocracy). NYC went from 105 to 121 billionaires & hundreds of new millionaires as ~35K excess Black, Hispanic & refugee “essentials” deaths. Cui bono among slumlord superdelegates, $10.5 million monopoly media mouthpieces & cynically craven Creative Class?

  23. Bravo Caitlin and Tim! Your latest creation is IMO right up there with your John McWar articles. At least up until the upcoming election, you should place this article on your site where first-time visitors will be likely to click on it. Maybe you could put a “before you vote, please read this” message to emphasize it.
     
    However, even as great and logical as your message of today is, it still cannot penetrate the brainwashing of vast numbers of people who still believe that if one is not going to vote for an R or a D, it is better to not vote at all than to vote for a third-party canididate that “can not win”; behavior which creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. The poltical reality is that In order for third-party candidates to be elected, people have to vote for them, even if those voters absolutely believe that they are “wasting their vote”. There is literally no other way that third party candidates can take the reigns of power. For example, there is not going to be a divine intervention that’s going to miraculously put third-party candidates into office. Picking a candiate for whom to vote is/should NOT be like betting on which horse is going to win a horse race. Prior to voting, one should determine the best candidate or party and then march into the voting booth and vote for that person or party, regardless of what OTEC’s MSM and polls “predict” about an upcoming election. The MSM and polling businesses are not being paid by OTEC to predict the behavior of voters. They’re being paid by OTEC to DIRECT the behavior of voters to an R or a D; it doesn’t matter which. Once again with feeling, the resaon that third party candidates have not won elections is not that they were/are incompetent or unworthy. It is that voters are, essentially, brainwashed by OTEC’s employees into thinking that they can not “win”.

    1. I should add that not all voters are brainwashed into voting the way they do (for Rs or Ds; makes not difference which). The tens of millions of voters who are directly or, just as importantly, indirectly employed by the MIC will very deliberately vote for Rs or Ds because either of those parties’ candidates/robots will expand the war budget forever, which ensures that their livelihoods will also continue until they retire and are replaced by the next generation of war-enablers/addicts. Those tens of millions are “just looking out for No. 1”. Can’t fault them for that, right?

  24. Michael P Goldenberg Avatar
    Michael P Goldenberg

    The nonsense assumption that Biden is the lesser evil here creeps into commentary even here. It’s like people are so beaten down that it never occurs to them to question the official narrative for a nanosecond, even having (ostensibly) just read a cogent list of reasons that could inspire a tree stump to wonder about the wisdom of voting Democratic for POTUS.

    Democrats have been selling this same swill since at least the 1964 election when we HAD to vote for Lyndon Johnson lest Goldwater start WW III. So we did vote for the Texas warmonger and got Vietnam for our sins. And learned nothing from the experience either in terms of American politics or international relations. Fifty-six years later, what’s changed?

  25. Much of what you say is true, if exagerated, but there is to be an election, and you slide over the horrible excesses of Trump and his allies, including foreign policy issues against Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Syria, Yemen, China, and even Russia with U.S. weaponry moving to the latter’s borders. I tend to believe that the danger of a nuclear conflict is much greater with Trump, Pompeo and company then with Biden and whom he associates with. As for Isreal-Palestine, there may not be much difference between the two. As to the crucifixion of Assange, I don’t know whether Biden would carry on as has the Trump gang for extradition an invoking the Espionage act of 1918(?). As far as domestic policies are concerned, Biden will not be as reactionary on fossil fuels or the elimination of regulations governing green house gasses. He will be better for the environment. He may even e better on tax questions. The racial tensions will be less under Biden. Facism will be less probable. The essential point is that either one will win, and the world cannot withstand another four years with Trump. A mass movement via some third party (or not) is not in the offfing now. I will not vote for Biden, as I regard him as largely responsible for the murderous destruction of Iraq (and putting Thomas on the supreme Court), but yet I have to say that I hope that Trump et al lose the election, and with him the republican control of the Senate.

    1. Hey, we get this every four years. Vote for whomever or whatever you like. The chances that you will do any serious harm are less than microscopic. Knock yourself out.

      1. Thats the truth. Convince yourself you are making a difference. Try something fresh and new for once. Opt out and dont vote.

    2. I thought Biden is a supporter of fracking ? You know, the fracking that creates ecological dead zones and poisons tap water, people and animals?. Didn’t he reassure Wall Street that ‘nothing will change ‘?

    3. I think most people who read Caitlin’s work would agree that getting Biden elected is not going to fix any extant problems in the world. In fact, it may create some new ones. But at this point, getting Trump out of office is looking fairly critical, especially with his armed mobs gearing up for Civil War II. I hope Trump loses, but at this point, with Creepy Uncle Joe hiding in his basement, I have my doubts that will happen. I am in a blue state, and can vote for the Green Party without affecting the outcome. I want to help keep them on the ballot. If I were in one of the key battleground states, I would probably vote against Trump by voting for Biden, but I would really have trouble doing it. I know I would be rewarding the ultra-corrupt Dems get back into power so they can continue the Empire’s projects. But at this point, I really do want Trump to lose, even if I don’t want Biden and the Obama team back in the WH.

  26. Ms Johnstone, your writing truly astounds me. This article is like a rocket to the ends of the universe. It deserves to be read around this planet. I guess every day Donald Trump is going to have to ward off another scandal or embarassment. His tax revelations are followed by this:
    https://www.channel4.com/news/revealed-trump-campaign-strategy-to-deter-millions-of-black-americans-from-voting-in-2016
    I am sure many more stories about Donald Trump and Joe Biden are going to see the light of day before November. I am wondering if this country is going to survive intact or be split up into many parts.

  27. I needed this tonight. Everyone I know is slurping hard on Biden’s nuts and it’s exhausting. It’s as if everything is fine. The world isn’t really dying. Bombs aren’t falling. Animals aren’t going extinct. Biden will save us but I know he won’t. It’s so depressing. Your truth telling fuels me. Thank you.

  28. I both agree with most of what you said,and disagree that its better to vote for a good alternative that has NO chance of winning and at the same time compromises the chances of the lesser of two evils to prevail. I have no illusions about Biden being a benevolent politician, and was a strong Bernie supporter. But the many Bernie voters who supported trump instead in 2016 are partly responsible for the great damage he has done.
    I think we should vote for biden,and then stay on his case to demand he truly support the green new deal,and other things that are important to us. It would be a total waste of time to try to get trump to do that. And we must support left leaning members of congress!

    1. I am sorry but that is delusional. People refuse to open their eyes to what Caitlin is saying. It is a two headed single beast. An evil soul sucking beast. Stop voting. Turn your back on the monster we call government. Dont participate in the sham of voting. When you can admit Biden is just as evil as Trump you will finally understand what Caitlin is trying to say. If you must vote go third party.

  29. great. now make a list of all the things you would change if you were Chief like:
    end electoral college.
    terminate senate.
    add 4 new supremes each year until they ran out of room. make them all 6 year terms.
    or 12.
    cut DOD 20% a year.
    end DEA FBI, DIA, NSA, And any others thtat waste money or coverup insider criminals.
    kill income tax
    give birth to ASSET TAX: to finally make those who won this evil game pay for it.
    end the FED. kill the World Bank IMF and EXPORT-IMPORT BANK
    go back to Glass-Steagal
    pull out all troops overseas, and close al bases.
    close all gas stations by 2024.
    prohibit Coal burning except for steel mills to make coke.
    prohibit zoning laws as to height or # of units.
    end child deduction because only tax is assets no expenses needbe mentioned
    legalize abortions and al things women wan to do with their own bodies.
    invent a nano vacuum to gather up tire dust.
    and
    you can add to this list what matters to you…i’m sure i forgot some stuff.

    1. Maybe we could nationalize the finance industry. If we can grab Venezuela’s wealth, we should be able to grab our own.

  30. Thank you for your unrelenting eloquent truth-telling.

  31. I sometimes wonder though, that Americans have benefitted from the barbaric extraction of third world countries, and how they actually protect their privilege by seeming to vote against their own best interests.

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