It is that time of year where idealistic voters and pragmatic voters fight about who's destroying the country Gonna do a thread about it
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The idealistic voter sees their vote as an expression of their convictions. A chance to give the system feedback An idealistic voter may vote for a third party candidate who closely aligns with their views, or not vote at all as a way to express their disapproval
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A pragmatic voters sees their vote as a weapon to be used for larger ends. They may vote for a candidate they despise because they think the other one is worse, or because they think that candidate will move America closer to wherever they think it ought to go
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Viewed through a pragmatic lens, idealistic voting is bad because it doesn't get results But the ideological voter either believes their method will change things long-term, or isn't concerned about results so much as not actively facilitating a revolting candidate/system
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Viewed through an ideological lens, pragmatic voting is bad because it empowers genuinely bad people and denotes hypocrisy: "You say you're a leftist and yet you've voted for this de facto Republican" But the pragmatic voter doesn't vote for a candidate. They vote for results
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I'm a pragmatic voter because, like many leftists, I think we don't fix this shit by voting alone Voting is one tool in a much larger toolbox I use my vote to create as much space as possible for those other tools. It's not some expression of who I am as a person
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In a few days I'm gonna get real drunk and vote for people I don't care for because I'm a single-issue voter this year and the issue is: which options minimize the likelihood that my friends and I will die in a camp or get extrajudicially murdered?
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If that's not you--if you're an ideological voter--that's your prerogative and you have every right to do whatever you want with YOUR vote. It isn't a vote for Trump or Wheeler or whatever. I get it There are no good options We'll all just do our best
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End of conversation
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