Primaries are the real elections now

AL.com · @aldotcom · 11:51 AM · Apr 9, 2022

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey claimed the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump by “the fake news, Big Tech and blue state liberals” in a campaign ad released this week.

The @GOP only support elections when they win. Trump said it in 2016, he said it again in 2020, and the entire Republican Party is saying it now.

It is profoundly un-small-d-democratic and everyone (particularly @TheDemocrats) needs to get a goddamn grip and admit what it is.

So what do you do about it?

What I've been saying: Participate in Democratic primaries, because PRIMARIES ARE THE REAL ELECTIONS NOW.

Get the best candidate you can onto the (D) ballot. Our primary elections here are in August, but it's by state. Then in November, just vote (D). Always.

The local Democratic incumbent not [whatever] enough for you? PRIMARY THEM. It's not punishment, it's what primary elections are FOR. It's how you do this. You probably won't win, but if you make any kind of showing at all, you will push them in your direction.

Don't win, or don't like the winner? Doesn't matter. Until the GOP walk away from authoritarianism, they can't hold power. You put on our big girl panties and vote Democratic in November.

Then next election, you primary again.

Because why?

BECAUSE PRIMARIES ARE THE REAL ELECTIONS NOW.

Look: the only thing the GOP cares about is having power. Not having power is the only punishment they care about. And it's up to us to mete out that punishment.

That takes time, money, and work - and participating in the PRIMARY elections, in the summer, because those are the real elections now. And that's just reality, at least for the time being. I'm sorry, but it's true.

If you're waiting for them to have some kind of "come to Jesus" moment, for fuck's sake, stop. They won't. Anything that gets them power, they'll do more of, not less.

All the abuse, all the torture, all the punishment-in-law they're handing out now? If they win elections doing it, they'll do more of it. Because power.

So here's how it works:

PRIMARY ELECTIONS - in the summer, where the parties choose their candidates - are where you vote for the candidate you WANT. It's also where you work before the election to boost their chances. Money, time. Volunteering.

GENERAL ELECTIONS - in November - are where you cast a vote to deny fascists elected power, no matter how shitty the Democrat. (Well, unless you're somewhere like here where you can get two Ds on the final ballot, or even vote someone third party polling enough to have a shot.)

That's just how it has to go.

I want to make it clear - I'm no (D) partisan. I have a long distaste/hate relationship with the Democratic Party, and I've put in a lot of time in a lot of 3rd-party shit. I want preference-stacked voting so much it makes my teeth bleed. I think the Senate should be proportional by party, not gerrymandered bullshit.

But that's not the system we have. And just as importantly, it's not the system we can get. Not from here. It CANNOT. HAPPEN.

You want to get to a place where we can get shit like that, you have to take over the less-horrible party and make it better. Then earn enough power that your faction can get shit done.

And don't come at me about "good," or "right," or "should be." I don't give a fuck because none of those apply here. We're dealing with the stark reality of a two-party system where only one of the two parties accepts election results.

We're down to pure power politics.

That's the reality, and you gotta deal with it.

Just like I have to deal with it.

It's do or die time, folks.

And "dying" is certainly their plan for people like me.

it's always, without fail, a cishet white dude

Patrick Sharkey · @patrick_sharkey · 5:09 PM · Apr 10, 2022
possibly unpopular opinion: finding a way to create a new coalition to uphold American democracy, even if it means explicitly sacrificing most priorities of the left and advancing a few key goals of the right, should be the primary focus of elected officials from @potus on down.

Do you think you're being clever?

Do you think better than you haven't offered us up as trade before?

Do you think this hasn't been tossed out over, and over, and over again, men who think they're the ones who really count, offering to throw us overboard to save themselves?

Do you think this hasn't been done?

Do you think this is somehow an innovation, somehow not the same as what you and yours do over, and over, and over again, as you pretend somehow it'll work this time?

When sacrificing us doesn't work, who will you sacrifice next?

How many rights, how many people, how many of us do you rule out, do you toss away, only to see them demanding more, because to them, your willingness to give up some means you'll give up even more?

And the answer, typically, is all of us.

All of us, until there's no one left to give up.

And they win anyway. Because by then, they've already won.

Without a fight.

Because you handed them the win.

It's always the same, it never changes, and yet, there's always...

...always...

...another you.

If you want to know why it is so. hard. for us to have to work you Democrats, even as we do it anyway?

Look in the goddamn mirror.

That's why.