• t3rmit3@beehaw.orgOP
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    We do have the ability to regulate the people in power by not voting for them in the first place.

    This ^ is the assertion I was responding to.

    How many people who are upset about this do anything about it the other ~3.5 years we aren’t about to enter the general?

    If you are asserting that it’s other actions that must be undertaken, and not the general election voting that regulates people in power, then you’re just supporting my point.

    Getting who you want on a ballot and representing you takes work.

    This belies the fact that there is a TON of work being done, constantly, by organizers at all levels. The problem is that you cannot out-raise party-aligned Super PACs with grassroots, individual funding. You can’t reach a wider audience with door-to-door campaigning, than a Super PAC can with TV and internet ads. You can’t meet the primary debate requirements set by the parties (when they don’t just not hold debates altogether), when the parties are intentionally making those requirements impossible for grassroots campaigns to meet.

    There are a ton of elections other than the president as well and you can make a difference in those elections.

    Sure. You can get local and some state-level positions changed through grassroots organizing. But those positions are rarely the people in actual power. I never asserted that voting has no effect, I asserted that it is not the proper means to hold people in power accountable, because voting is a system run by and subject to the rules put in place by, those very people.