A progressive who stays home on Election Day — or backs Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, or No Labels — is voting for Donald Trump.

"Progressives should not make the same mistake that Ernst Thälmann made in 1932. The leader of the German Communist Party, Thälmann saw mainstream liberals as his enemies, and so the center and left never joined forces against the Nazis. Thälmann famously said that ‘some Nazi trees must not be allowed to overshadow a forest’ of social democrats, whom he sneeringly called ‘social fascists.’

After Adolf Hitler gained power in 1933, Thälmann was arrested. He was shot on Hitler’s orders in Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944."

    • sudoer777@lemmy.ml
      0·
      2 months ago

      Well considering how Dallas is one of the “bluest” parts of the state (aside from Austin) and yet its full of conservatives who are about to successfully defund our barely functional public transit system, I doubt it.

      • littlecolt@lemm.ee
        0·
        2 months ago

        The problem is turnout. If Texans, especially young Texans, just voted, you’d see a big swing. Someone else responding in this thread under my initial comment has left a massive post with statistics about it.

      • ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml
        0·
        2 months ago

        If you’re actually serious, literally just google voter turnout numbers in texas. Also look at how close some races were and compare that to the nonvoting registered voter population. I’ve seen several analyses of that recently

        Here is the TX government record of voter turnout: https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/historical/70-92.shtml

        Here is the TX government reporting of election results: https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/historical/presidential.shtml

        2020 Presidential: 66% turnout, 52% of the VAP (voting age population) voted. Trump won by 600k votes, 4.5M of VAP was not registered.

        2018 Gubernatorial: 53% turnout, 42% of VAP turned out. Abbott won by 1.1M, 4.1M of VAP was not registered.

        2016 Presidential: 59% turnout, 46% of VAP turned out. Trump won by 800k votes, 4.2M of VAP was not registered.

        …

        2004 Presidential: 56% turnout, 47% of VAP turned out. Bush won by 1.7M, 3M of VAP was not registered

        Why people aren'tregistered source 44% do not care, 27% intended to register but didn’t, 11% are paranoid about voter roles, 9% say it isn’t convenient (and Republicans sure have made it inconvenient), and 6% literally don’t know how to register. From that same article and polling data, 35% of unregistered voters do not believe their vote will affect the political process, and 30% don’t think it’ll change election results. AND 40% of these care who wins political races, but don’t vote.

        These races are not close compared to the number of non-registered VAP. Young people are more left-leaning and show up to the polls at shockingly low rates. Minorities are typically more likely to vote Dem, but turn out at lower rates (partially due to disenfranchisement). If the non-voters voted, like 30+ years of political races would’ve been close or Dem.