Most of Lemmy is doing mental gymnastics just like this to convince themselves that voting for the person doing genocide makes them anti genocide.
I don’t believe they’re speaking in good faith. I think they just don’t give a shit about human lives when they’re brown and across the world.
a vote isn’t an endorsement. Pretending the US system is some kind of idealic democracy where you are presented a platter of issues to vote on and can do those independently is delusional. We live in a perpetual trolley problem. Not pulling the lever is far more evil here.
Politicians view it as an endorsement. When they get elected they say “the people have spoken” and act like they have a mandate. Bush pressed on with his Iraq war and privatizing social security after getting re elected despite those being unpopular and people voting for him in spite of those policies. Trump claimed the people supported him and hence wouldn’t release his tax records etc.
If Harris wins she won’t feel chastised on Gaza. She said she will continue Biden’s plan even though she was given space to say what she would do differently. Even saying something mild like “Knowing what I know now, I would not have said what Biden said about Palestinians lying about death counts,” and it would have mollified many people.
Again this a delusional view. No democrat has ever been like “oh I lost an election, better adopt more leftwing policies”. Because nonvoting is not clear messaging it will never be effective messaging.