Unfortunately, it’s not possible to express this sentiment via election participation. Abstention ends up supporting one candidate more than the other. What seems to be an affirmation of neutrality is not that in practice.
The national election is an exercise in partisanship. Your opportunity to feel represented is what the primary is for. And for once I'm not sneering at the sentiment because basically neither side ran a primary (the Ds managed to not run one twice!)
> Your opportunity to feel represented is what the primary is for
This is why it was a major issue for me that the Democrats did not hold a primary and just decided Kamala would be the candidate. If a major part of your campaign is "vote for us or democracy dies!" it's pretty hard to swallow if you increasingly feel that your voice doesn't matter in your own party.
You misinterpreted the massive disagreement of the population (20M people) with an affirmation of neutrality. One can hope the dems will not misinterpret it (as they often do, unfortunately, and they already started on twitter and the mainstream media). Hopefully they can recognize and acknowledge that a large portion of the left disagrees with their policies and start listening to their base, otherwise they will keep losing more votes every 4 year.
I and another registered democrat neighbor had this exact discussion and conclusion outside of the voting center we live next to on election day. Assuming we're not the only ones.
Some jurisdictions have a "none of the above" option. I think Nevada has one. An early report there show 1+% voted "none of the above", or something similar to that.
It was just a glance on one of the shows during the returns last night, I maybe be completely wrong.
> Unfortunately, it’s not possible to express this sentiment via election participation.
Not just election participation, no.
You do have to use the generally-free-to-use, generally-globally-accessible publishing systems that are available to nearly anyone with a computer to explain why you refused to vote. (This is my big issue with the "Refusing to vote is meaningless, because noone will know why you didn't vote." counterargument.)
Whether your assertions that you didn't vote because -for instance- none of the available candidates were people you wished to see in the positions they were running for get deleted because they are "Election misinformation" or similar is an open question.
pie_flavor|1 year ago
crystal_revenge|1 year ago
This is why it was a major issue for me that the Democrats did not hold a primary and just decided Kamala would be the candidate. If a major part of your campaign is "vote for us or democracy dies!" it's pretty hard to swallow if you increasingly feel that your voice doesn't matter in your own party.
HKH2|1 year ago
ggregoire|1 year ago
elendee|1 year ago
whartung|1 year ago
It was just a glance on one of the shows during the returns last night, I maybe be completely wrong.
simoncion|1 year ago
Not just election participation, no.
You do have to use the generally-free-to-use, generally-globally-accessible publishing systems that are available to nearly anyone with a computer to explain why you refused to vote. (This is my big issue with the "Refusing to vote is meaningless, because noone will know why you didn't vote." counterargument.)
Whether your assertions that you didn't vote because -for instance- none of the available candidates were people you wished to see in the positions they were running for get deleted because they are "Election misinformation" or similar is an open question.