Tina's American moment: Withholding your vote is stupid.

Republicans are going to win by the largest margin in recent history because a bunch of gen-x and millennial leftists decided to score cheap social media points by staying home on Election Day instead of voting.

Republicans WILL deploy US troops to carpet-bomb the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and wherever else Palestinians happen to live. Republicans WILL make it illegal to be gay or transgender in this country. Republicans WILL make it a capital crime to miscarry a pregnancy. Republicans ARE still the worst choice, and republican voters ALWAYS vote.

I don't care if you hate Genocide Joe. So do I. But, when it comes down to it, if the DNC doesn't choose a different nominee, you MUST vote for him. It sucks, I know, but that's the way it is. You MUST vote for democrats in all other offices. There are no Independents. There are no Greens. There are no third-party candidates of any kind, because this is the Corporate Feudal State. The money lies with democrats and republicans ONLY.

As for supporting Palestine? THIS is the time. This is the time to pester the everloving fuck out of your representatives. Ring them up. Send them mail. Send them email. Hold them accountable NOW, while you still can. Don't wait until after the election, because if the republicans have their way, you will never be able to hold another government official accountable for even dropping a gum wrapper ever again.

I don't like the democrats either. But they're a whole fuckin' lot better than the republicans. Holy shit! Why is this still a thing I need to say?

"Oh, yes, the 'Lesser of Two Evils' defence again. You're just gonna stand there parroting 'harm reduction, harm reduction' without thinking, like every other milquetoast Biden supporter."

Mate, have you HEARD of Project 2025? You know, the bit where the United States becomes a pseudo-christian dictatorship where presidents are chosen by a board of the worst kind of pearl-clutching evangelicals you can imagine? How do you think that's going to impact the world economy? Hmm? Like it or not, the US is the central axis of the economy in the entire world, and, if the dollar suddenly tanks in value because every investor slightly left-of-centre suddenly cuts their losses and runs, what do you think is going to happen next? Because, suddenly, there'll be whole continents declaring trade embargoes with the US.

And, remember how Donald Trump started crying about voter fraud, and then suddenly Myanmar, Turkiye, Hungary, and even Italy, the UK, and the Netherlands started doing it, too? Do you think the lesser tyrants in the world aren't going to look at America and go, "hey guys, check it out"?

Yes, Biden's border policy is worst than Trump's. Yes, Biden has been funnelling money into Israel without the Senate's consent or ability to do anything to stop. All of that is BAD. Okay? I get it. However, I also know that, if the republicans get ANY degree of power, even by one single seat in the house or senate, that it won't fucking matter who is in the top post. The Moral Majority will claw its way back up out of the grave. If the democrats could grow a pair and nominate someone OTHER than Joe Biden, great! But they won't. You're absolutely right that Joe Biden is the democrat version of Donald Trump, but, like... do you REMEMBER the Trump administration? Do you REMEMBER how there was headline news every single god-damned day because Trump had shot his mouth off on Twitter and we were in a constant state of "Oh, shit, who's going to nuke us to shut him up?"

If Trump wins, he has so many pending charges against him in federal court that, if he is found guilty of the LEAST of them, he will be removed from office at once. At that point, we're going to have January 6th, Part II. Don't think, like, dudes in flak jackets rocking up on the White House and taking it over; think about how little resistance there was on January 6th, Part I. Just a scattering of police with their sidearms. Also think about how little organisation there was within the riot, itself. People just milling about, knocking things over, stealing laptops and shit without actually doing anything else. That's going to happen again. Plus, whoever Trump gets as his running mate is probably going to be way more pliable than Mike Pence was, possibly even to the point of pardoning Trump and signing an executive order that lets him come back to be the president some more. On the other hand, if Biden wins, nothing will change from its current state. Migrant kids will still die in border concentration camps, Israel will still get its beloved white phosphorus, but there will be no one undercutting the Justice Department and installing a dictator. At this point, we're going to have to rely on other nations to effect change in Palestine and the next ICJ ruling can be about Biden's border kennels. I know I'm being flippant about this, but I am SO TIRED OF HAVING THIS CONVERSATION.

The American system is BROKEN. It's just fucking broken. But the tools to fix it do not lie in giving uncontested control of the country to the John Birch Society. Again, republicans are still the worst choice, and republican voters ALWAYS vote. If you do not exercise your right to vote, get ready to lose it completely.