I appreciate that you brought up primary elections, as I too often hear people talk about non-voting or third party “protest” voting as a way to “teach Democrats a lesson” and “force Democrats to run better candidates” when it’s
voters who choose each party’s nominees. The Democratic Party
did hold primary elections this year. Vice President Harris was on those ballots.
Under 40 million votes were cast in the 2020 Democratic Primary elections - less than half of the number of votes Biden/Harris received in that year’s General Election.
Those who failed to cast a vote in the 2020 Democratic Primary election are hardly qualified to bemoan candidate quality now.
Similarly,
I’ve yet to hear anyone rationally explain exactly how voting for Jill Stein or Harambe is supposed to improve anything. What is the plan here?
When people voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 to block Al Gore, what did that get us? The “War on Terror” that killed over 4 million people, a generation of climate change denialism, a recession induced by financial deregulation that stripped homeownership from a generation, and a failed John Kerry nomination.
When people sat out in 2016, what did that get us? Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord and the Iran nuclear deal, a US embassy in Jerusalem, three conservative lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court that ended Roe v. Wade and affirmative action, thousands of migrant and refugee families torn apart by a deliberate separation policy,
an executive order that functionally served as a Muslim immigration ban, excessive force deployed against those protesting racist police brutality, over a million dead from a mishandled pandemic, and an economic recession.
Would that have been a worthy price to pay to get Bernie Sanders? We’ll never know, because not enough people showed up in the 2020 Democratic Primary elections to make that happen.
I think we can put to rest this idea that allowing Republicans to win elections somehow forces Democrats to nominate more progressive candidates. It simply doesn’t.
And now, we’re supposed to allow another 2016 to happen…
why?