It seems to me that you just described the route that led to a fascist takeover of the United States government.

No, I voted against these Republicans, who I consider to be the ones leading us into fascism. But more people either sat out elections or voted for the fascists. You win some, you lose some. Actually, I’m in Florida so I don’t really win some. Dems are terrible here but they are the better option.

You repeatedly voted for the lesser of two evils in every election, by your own admission. This has led us to a fascist government in power in the United States. How is that chain of events not linked?

Well, just because I vote for someone doesn’t mean he/she wins. But again, I only have two choices with my vote. Better or worse. I vote better. If better wins, I expect things to be better than if the worse option wins. Not sure what else I can do with my one vote.

I think the cause and effect you’re looking for is, regardless of my single vote, when the worse option wins, things will be worse than if the better option had won.

Harm reduction is logical.

It’s the only option in every election that exists in this country from middle school treasurer to president of the U.S. Ultimately, there are probably just two names on the ballot. I cant install that lady who I know will be great. So, the choice is always better vs. worse. It’s never anything else

Ever ask yourself why that is?

I think I know why it is. Sadly, my family has been very involved in politics on the state, local and federal levels for most of my life. So, unfortunately, I know how it all works better than most. Anyway, I think it’s this way because of the massive amount of money in politics. It used to be that

if you became an elected official, you didn’t necessarily get a big salary, great benefits, a huge pension and all the handouts you could get your hands on. So, politics actually attracted so e people who wanted the job to actually do some good. Now, given the compensation, pensions, bribes,

donations and other benefits that come with elected offices, even at low levels, you get the worst people seeking these jobs. And the people with the most money can install whomever they want. Get insane money out of politics, you get better candidates and politicians. Also, I don’t think this will

ever happen. The incentives aren’t there to disrupt the gravy train.

That's when people give up on electoral politics and turn to revolutionary politics. That changes the incentive. The problem is, they're likely to (attempt to) violently crush any revolution instead of backing away from the gravy train.

Correct.

What harm has been reduced?

An example would be, in Florida, in 2018, we had one of the all time worst Dem candidates going up against DeSantis, maybe the worst human being alive. The Dem candidate was a complete shitshow and would have been a bad governor. But he’d have been better than DeSantis, in my opinion. So I voted for

the Democrat. He lost. And now we have immigrants being abused by government probably worse than any other state. People can’t afford insurance because our governor takes millions from them and lets the insurance industry do what they want. Plus other examples of bad things I don’t think would have

happened had the shitty Dem candidate won. So, I always vote for the better option and against the worse option. Because I’d rather things be better than worse.

So, running a shitty Democrat caused a worse Republican to win the election. Sounds familiar, maybe we should try something different?

Kamala would've reduced harm.

Not my question. I didn’t ask you to speculate on an imagined alternate future. I asked, in the middle of a fascist takeover of my country, what harms have been reduced by constantly voting for the lesser evil?

The better option lost so none. We only get one vote. I get it. Dems need better candidates. No one is saying we shouldn’t try to get better candidates. But at some point, if you vote, you only have two choices - better or worse.

But again, every election is the lesser evil vs the greater evil. At this point, it will never not be that. It sucks, but those will always be your choices. I’m sure that’s a big reason most people don’t vote.

Ah, so we should just take the shitty system because we are creatures with no agency or control over our surroundings. Got it.

Honestly, yes. Not because we should. But because I don’t see a way out. Money wins. Maybe I’ve been involved in and adjacent to politics and politicians too long. So, I’m pretty cynical. But, I think we are stuck with better vs worse. Or no choice at all if the fascists can make that happen.

At this point, Communism would ne an improvement. Something that will be harsh to the moneyed.

Probably. I know so much about how politics and elections work but there’s so much about what’s going on I don’t understand. Everything is so expensive. The poor and middle class are struggling. Wages and salaries are not keeping up and the job market seems to be shifting for the worse. Yet, the

And I am saying that that is the exact path that led to the takeover of the United States to be taken over by a fascist regime.

Dems putting up shitty candidates so that not enough people vote for them so we get the worse Republican candidates which led to our current fucked up predicament. I’m as critical of the Democratic Party is it gets. So I don’t dispute what you’re saying, although the real problem is $$ in politics.