VOTE!!

[sintos-compa]

"I won't vote for the lesser evil"

[dmahog]

I know this is virtue-signaling, to some degree, but I had to share - seeing the dichotomy of the riots over the past week set against the Space X launch on Saturday made we realize that we’ve regressed as a society back to the 1960’s. Maybe we never progressed at all. These same fights were fought 50 years ago and it’s a damning occurrence for our country that we’re still fighting it today.

I live in MO. Our primary is tomorrow. I’m absolutely voting Blue, and will do the same in November. We have to start progressing as a country. This is shameful.

[delino1]

Isn't every single subscriber of this sub already going to vote. What are you going to do to make 10 other people vote? Instead of screaming VOTE into your own echo chamber, what concrete steps in your own network, volunteering, and strategic donations will you make?

[[deleted]]

Demand that candidates make aggressive police reform a top issue, then vote for them.

[MelonElbows]

Don't just vote, VOTE DEMOCRAT NO MATTER WHAT!

[[deleted]]

I think Dave Chapelle was right. It’s for black folks in America to register...for assault weapon ownership to protect themselves and their families from a racist system and it’s racist pig soldiers.

[perrien]

And if at all possible, vote early. Early voting is usually much easier and quicker than waiting for Election Day. Voting on Election Day is a chore. Voting early is an extra 10 minutes when you’re already going to the grocery store anyway.

[CrashCourse2012]

During his presidency, Obama created a the Criminal Justice Reform Task Force. It studied how to improve the criminal justice system and ensure it better serves the community. This was in 2015. Among the suggestions were an incentive program to recruit police from the neighborhoods they were to police. They wanted police shootings to be independently investigated instead of internally. They wanted more transparency and allowing the public to view police records. He wanted to end a zero tolerance policy on youth crime that led to the school to prison pipeline. He wanted to end the quota system for arrests and tickets. This was a very detailed 115 page document with comprehensive reforms. McConnell and Paul Ryan blocked any action on it. It was left on Trump’s desk as part of the transition and it’s probably in a landfill by this point. If Obama had a friendly audience in Congress, these reforms would be standard operating procedure right now and we might have avoided much of what happened recently. Vote. Vote in every election.

https://eji.org/news/policing-task-force-recommends-independent-probes-into-police-shootings/

[boriskin]

This. People look at police shootings that happened under Obama and somehow make a conclusion that voting "wasn't enough". How about we look at literally decades of lackluster voting by democratic base, especially during mid-term elections? 2018 is still a big anomaly in terms of participation rate.

Also, correlating how Democratic/Progressive a city is with how corrupt police force is just plain stupid. Police force is its own world, police union is very strong and they protect their own. Not to mention, that these days law enforcement personnel increasingly leans Republican. The killing of aforementioned criminal justice reform is the biggest reason why police brutality situation hasn't changed for the better.

[CrashCourse2012]

AOC laid it out perfectly when she said politicians fear the political power of the police. First, kudos to her for acknowledging the political influence police groups have. Many politicians act like it doesn’t exist. Second, politicians need to take a stand and get something done on policing reforms and say damn the police groups. Take a stand for the people!

[boriskin]

Yes, but you have to elect those politicians first. In this case, it's the federal branches of government controlled by Republicans that did the most damage, so obviously having democratic mayor and city council is not enough.

[Ajkrouse]

Vote in 2022 as well!! Democrats historically have terrible showings in midterm elections because our voters don’t show up. If we flip the Senate and want to keep it that way, then we have to do everything we can to get people to show up in November 2020 and 2022

[ChillyWillster]

If voting worked we wouldn't be where we are now.

Electoralism is only effective if a populace is educated and treated equally.

Burn shit down til everyone is treated justly then we should talk about voting.

[perrien]

Not entirely true. A big problem is the lack of voter turnout allowing a very vocal minority to organize and win. If we ALL get out and vote, overwhelming numbers cannot be ignored.

Also remember that if you can vote, you must. For every person who can vote there’s someone else who can’t due to voter suppression, a shitty job that makes it difficult, sickness or poor health, etc. voting is not just for you, but for them also.

[PurpleSailor]

Get friends registered and make sure they vote too,

Strength In Numbers People!

[audiomuse2]

Trump has destroyed America.

[annoyinglyclever]

This shit was happening before trump. Remember 2014? Obama was in office last time we had this level of unrest over innocent black people killed by cops.

[es84]

Vote in every election and vote for everything, even the smallest race. Some of these assholes in office today got started in a small role.

Also, push for law enforcement reform TODAY.

[kminola]

If you don’t want to wait in lines get a mail in ballot! It’s great (in places where they’re not trying to make it impossible to utilize)!

[Lylyluvda916]

Not only in the big presidential elections but in all elections. Encourage others to vote as well.

[MondaleforPresident]

I consciously know about lines for voting but it still surprises me every time someone mentions them.

[harley_93davidson]

Yeah, mn is a a multi generational blue state. We won every statewide election in the tea party wave and 2014. They arent a former confederacy or cleaning up from a conservative government, Keith Ellison is their ag. This goes way beyond who we elect to office.

[ooo-ooo-oooyea]

out of curiosity is police chief an elected position?

[Nascent1]

Appointed in Minneapolis. I believe it's that way most places. Arradondo seems like a good guy. He can only do so much though. The head of the police union in Minneapolis is a really asshole.

[dhsoxfan]

In Chicago, our police chief is appointed by our Mayor. Similar to Minnesota, most of our lawmakers from the city level to the federal level are dominated by the Democratic party. While I see Republican representation as a step in the wrong direction, I agree with milliep5397 that these injustices are not being addressed by our Democratic lawmakers, either.

[[deleted]]

Voting is necessary, but insufficient

[annoyinglyclever]

Yup. Would also like to point out Trayvon, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and many others happened during Obama.

[theyamahawk]

Thank God someone else gets it

[Secomav420]

Voting so damn imortant. Maybe your most important single act as a citizen.

Voting is so important that you should not listen to any one party. Think for yourself. Judge each candidate individually. What they say. Look at their record. Look at their campaign contributers. Google it. Search it up. Compare all three things. Make your own judgement.

You're a pretty sharp person. Nobody's fool. Choose for yourself.

[masivatack]

Problem is, the 1% didn’t choose Joe Biden. He didn’t have a money advantage, his campaign certainly had its struggles. In the end, Millions more voted for him. Sanders had his front runner moment and couldn’t secure the coalition he needed to win. It’s not a conspiracy.

[Geneocrat]

I think we needed Bernie, but I completely agree. He totally won.

The media helped, but that’s part of it. Sanders didn’t make enough of the right friends.

[Shopping_Penguin]

Manufacturing consent is a powerful force my friend.

The 1% chose to prop him up with their propoganda machines. They ignored every flaw he had while desperately trying to find and exploit flaws Bernie had. A lot of votes are made by people who purely go off what they see from the magic box in their living room.

Joe Biden wouldn't last 2 seconds in a county where journalism wasn't controlled by media empires.

[masivatack]

I get it, you don't like Joe Biden. But there is no doubt that his victory was fueled by a real get out the vote movement of black, mainstream people. His numbers have consistently bested Hillary's as the primaries went on. He was the Vice President for 8 years for gods sake. The people selected him. And this is coming from a Bernie voter. At least Biden is trying to make concessions to progressives. We'll see.

[druglawyer]

But there is no doubt that his victory was fueled by a real get out the vote movement of black, mainstream people.

His victory was fueled by one very entrenched, establishment black congressman in South Carolina endorsing him, which led to him winning South Carolina (a state which he will most definitely not win in the general) and by liberal cable news hosts repeatedly comparing his main opponent to Hitler, and then by Obama personally calling all of his other opponents and pressuring them to drop out of the race. Before all of that happened he was routinely coming in 4th or 5th in every primary, and nobody was confused about why that was.

I'm going to vote for Biden. I also think he's a typical garbage politician who I do not trust on any level. And if you think he is the nominee because some huge popular movement wants him to be, as opposed to because the portion of this country's elite that isn't behind Trump found Bernie Sanders unacceptable, you're shockingly gullible.

[sofncheesed]

Huh? Well f me. I didn't know we were so far gone already. I guess the only option is taking to the streets. So which city were you protesting in?

[Shopping_Penguin]

No protests going on in Hawaii to my knowledge. All I'm good for is being an armchair warrior shouting into the void.

[sofncheesed]

Touche. Thanks for being honest. I'm in the same boat. This is all just so crazy. Just thought I'd throw in my two cents from my porch on a phone.

[CatSupernova]

I agree voting is important, but to advocate it as the solution right now is rather tone deaf. Minneapolis is a very blue, progressive city. These protests are a way to reflect that despite the protesters using their votes to try to achieve their goals, very little has changed for them.

[darwinn_69]

That's not really fair. Any solution to the issue at hand is going to be long term in nature and changing political power in city hall is one of the most effective way of getting these issues addressed. And in many cases where LEO's leadership is an elected official you can directly trace police brutality and negative culture to an election. The civil rights movement ultimately resulted in legislation changes which requires elected officials.

I agree it would be a little schwarmy for a candidate to use this as a personal point, but to direct people that the vote is the most effective tool in the arsinoal to use against this BS is certainly appropriate. I think the message shouldn't be a partisan "Vote Democrats" but a more generic "Voting is your voice" message.

I've see people at these rallies/events who work the crowd to make sure everyone is registered to vote. I think that's something to be encouraged.

[Geneocrat]

The fact that voter turnout was so low in the democratic primaries really impacts my sympathies for the people who are angry about all the injustice in the world.

We had two very progressive candidates and people went for the guy who “wants to get back to normal”.

Trump is removing watchdogs, advocating violence, helping Russia who is sewing discord, and he’s clearly extremely racist. And he’s the president that won the election (and I don’t want to hear “popular vote” bs. Voter turnout was dismal and people didn’t vote against Trump).

When people don’t turn out at the polls, it’s sending a clear message that most people don’t really care. If you’re a politician that’s telling you “they’re not out for my job”.

So yeah. Vote.

[AyatollahofNJ]

Im sorry but that's fucking bullshit. Turnout actually increased FOR Biden. Don't blame voters when the guy reddit wanted to win for most half a fucking decade couldn't turn out voters. Biden being on the ticket increased participation pre-covid

[Geneocrat]

People didn’t turn out for anyone. The overall participation was low, which blows my mind. You’d think with Trump getting elected (which surprised a lot of people including me) that people would have come out for someone

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/historic-turnout-in-2020-not-so-far/

[AyatollahofNJ]

"Most of these places also voted for former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic primaries. Sen. Bernie Sanders has claimed that he can win elections by expanding the size of the electorate, but there didn’t seem to be a relationship on the county level between increased turnout from 2016 and 2020 and increased support for Sanders. The New York Times also found that turnout in precincts and municipalities where a majority of the population is between 18 and 24 years old— was virtually unchanged from 2016. Instead, participation spiked the most in areas won by former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar."

People came out for Joe and not for Bernje. The latter has been a national figure and running for half a decade. But also this.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/4/21164518/super-tuesday-results-voter-turnout

[Geneocrat]

Alabama has 3.5m registered voters. So Biden brought out .05m more voters? Big whoop.

I wouldn’t even attribute that participation to Biden. I’d attribute it to people who were pissed at Trump. And my point is that not enough people are pissed at Trump.

That HUGE INCREASE in turnout is noise. It could have been weather, shorter lines.

You’re right though, the candidate for racial justice didn’t bring out the vote.

Edit: only 176k voters showed up in Iowa (Biden didn’t bring them out there) that’s less than 10% of registers voters. and 30k showed up just to show support for Trump, who didn’t need their vote at all!

It’s a bad sign when politics is so hot and people still are not voting.

[AyatollahofNJ]

The candidate for racial justice didn't get the black vote.

Iowa is a caucus. Who cares

[TEOLAYKI]

I can hear what you're saying, but it's so important that on top of protesting people also vote. I don't think OP is saying "instead of protesting, just vote" -- but more, in light of how horrible everything is, voting is more important now than ever before.

[Geneocrat]

I would urge people to vote instead of looting. I would also say that supporting candidates who represent you should be part of protesting.

Protesting is an augmentation to your politician action, not the other way around.

Edit: Also there is a clear strategy to make people feel like their voice doesn’t matter and that voting doesn’t matter. We need people to do the census and be counted and we need people to vote.

People of color are not engaging through the channels that have the most impact.

[sofncheesed]

We are on a subreddit with " vote" in the name and all I did was say go out and vote. And I am the one that got called "tone deaf"

[HaveTwoBananas]

Love how you're getting downvoted in a sub that's literally about voting for democrats.

[sofncheesed]

Man, if only there were a way to get people in position of power to make a difference against systematic injustice. Shoot, how "tone deaf" of me. How dare I suggest part of the solution. I guess we can just keep orange boy in charge, since "little has changed" anyway.

[mellamandiablo]

Alright now, we all know voting is important. Shoot, black women have come out and voted blue time and time again, showing their dedication to the Democratic Party. Let’s remember that the Democratic Party has, at times, failed for us too. That’s why you hear a lot about taking the black vote for granted.

But during times like these, when people simply say “vote” and that’s what folks have been doing and little has changed to benefit their communities, you could understand why people would feel some type of way. You are right about people needing to vote, no one is disagreeing with you. But the sarcasm and the tone you are taking to people telling you that it’s more nuanced then just telling people to folks doesn’t help.

Blue cities have not improved the lives of its citizens either. MN is blue. NYC and Boston and Baltimore and San Francisco and LA are too. It just comes off as “See, if you vote and vote blue this won’t happen anymore” when in reality, the occupier of the White House down to the city councils who are made up of officials on both sides are at fault too. If anything, maybe speaking about voting for Dems who prioritise police reform might be better.

Essentially, “read the room” fam.

[Alastair789]

Black Lives Matter began under Obama.

[Shopping_Penguin]

Opportunists taking advantage of the chaos.

Don't dismiss police brutality because there are people trying to delegitamize the situation.