You don’t even have to join the Democratic Party to vote in their primaries.
That being said, they will absolutely move mountains to block anyone remotely socialist from gaining power. The only reason Mamdani won the primary is because NYC has ranked choice voting.
The Dems are not going to save us because their leadership is profiting from this too much. Organized resistance is the only hope we have.
Actually, Mamdani would’ve won on first past the post as well (he has 43.5% of voters choosing him as first choice). He needs a 50% threshold to advance, which is where ranked choice will come in, but he would’ve won a first past the post anyways.
So even in a first past the post scheme, people should vote in dem primaries. I think we’re all on board with changing the dem party, and it starts in the primaries.
Go vote, or get oppressed. That’s basically the options and people need to understand that. Voting doesn’t guarantee you won’t be oppressed, but not voting guarantees you will.
Would those people have voted for him in a first past the post race? Or would they have been too afraid that someone worse than Cuomo would win, so they stick with him?
Well since he was selected as their first choice, presumably they would still choose their first choice when only given one choice. Ranked choice plays a role for everyone else down ballot and for automatic runoffs. People don’t put someone as their first choice that they don’t actually want as their first choice. So yes, they would have.
Yes they do, all the time. I wanted to vote for Bernie in the 2016 election, but I actually voted for Hillary because I thought that splitting the vote would let Trump win. If we had ranked choice, I could have put Bernie on top while knowing that I wasn’t opening the door tor Trump.
While I understand your statement here in the Hillary v Trump scenario, I don’t think it necessarily applies here, as if anything , I would think that Lander supporters would’ve instead put Mamdani as their first choice if they only had a single choice, given the announcement. The down ballot races would have been less successful.
Well, the entire point of ranked choice is that you can do this. You can put unknown candidates up top without having to be afraid to „waste“ your vote, as you would have, with FPTP.
I am pretty confident that this would not have happened were it not for ranked choice. People would have voted the „safe“ candidate instead.
Right, but the benefit of ranked choice in this election would have been “I’m gonna vote Lander or Michael Blake in 1 but put Mamdani second since I’d be happy with him”. Realistically who is the safe candidate that isn’t Cuomo? The only viable candidate is Mamdani. Cuomo is still going to be in the ballot as an independent, so you really would’ve only voted Cuomo here because you’re staunchly establishment dem, in which case you wouldn’t be putting Mamdani but you also would’ve put Cuomo in first.
But I think this is all ridiculous. If the argument is “don’t vote in primaries unless they’re ranked choice”, that’s a defeating argument and we should absolutely abandon that as wise advice. The argument should be “vote in every primary, especially ranked choice, and vote for the furthest left candidate you can if you don’t want more of the same corporatist democrat melange”. I hope we can agree on that.
Is it really most states? I’m in an extremely conservative state. I refuse to join a political party. I’m allowed to vote in the Democrats’ primary, but not the Republicans’.
If you are in this situation, please vote in the primary after learning about the local candidates.
There is one big thing- You must ask for the Democratic Party Ballot. I was used to getting it by default and was disenfranchised in 2008 by being given the no affiliation ballot. I realized it when I got to the machine and was not allowed to change. I left yelling about it, like that did any good.
With enough pressure from their constituents, the Democrat party will absolutely change into whatever we want it to. Look at the Republican party. They found out their constituents really liked racism and authoritarianism and that party basically became unrecognizable compared to a quarter century ago to give it to them. I’m old enough to remember the Republican party being assholes, but not on this level. When I was younger they would absolutely not have behaved the way they currently behave. But their constituents gave them the thumbs up, so here we are.
Democrat legislators very, very much want to keep their gravy train jobs. They’ll morph into whoever they need to be to keep them.
But that pressure has to start significantly before an election and it has to be big enough that they can’t ignore it.
Establishment Dems never move mountains for anything. They’ll push over molehills. Sometimes that’s all it takes.
And yeah, they only put molehills in front of Bernie. Unfortunately that’s all it took.
One of the big realities is that winning elections right now takes money. I hate every Dem that swears off campaign contributions. It’s partly our fault that if they don’t play the game they’re not gonna win.
Votes still matter more than money. It’s partly our collective fault that money buys votes as effectively as it does.
One method would be an Article V convention to get rid of money in politics, abolish the electoral college, get rid of FPTP in favor of ranked choice voting, and mandate a fair and impartial redistributing system which must be applied nationally before the midterms.
Essentially, our last shot at a “peaceful revolution”.
That’s the point of voting in primaries. To change that. That’s how the republicans got turned into a maga cult. We need to follow that example to uncult our side.
You don’t even have to join the Democratic Party to vote in their primaries.
That being said, they will absolutely move mountains to block anyone remotely socialist from gaining power. The only reason Mamdani won the primary is because NYC has ranked choice voting.
The Dems are not going to save us because their leadership is profiting from this too much. Organized resistance is the only hope we have.
Actually, Mamdani would’ve won on first past the post as well (he has 43.5% of voters choosing him as first choice). He needs a 50% threshold to advance, which is where ranked choice will come in, but he would’ve won a first past the post anyways.
So even in a first past the post scheme, people should vote in dem primaries. I think we’re all on board with changing the dem party, and it starts in the primaries.
Go vote, or get oppressed. That’s basically the options and people need to understand that. Voting doesn’t guarantee you won’t be oppressed, but not voting guarantees you will.
Would those people have voted for him in a first past the post race? Or would they have been too afraid that someone worse than Cuomo would win, so they stick with him?
Well since he was selected as their first choice, presumably they would still choose their first choice when only given one choice. Ranked choice plays a role for everyone else down ballot and for automatic runoffs. People don’t put someone as their first choice that they don’t actually want as their first choice. So yes, they would have.
Yes they do, all the time. I wanted to vote for Bernie in the 2016 election, but I actually voted for Hillary because I thought that splitting the vote would let Trump win. If we had ranked choice, I could have put Bernie on top while knowing that I wasn’t opening the door tor Trump.
While I understand your statement here in the Hillary v Trump scenario, I don’t think it necessarily applies here, as if anything , I would think that Lander supporters would’ve instead put Mamdani as their first choice if they only had a single choice, given the announcement. The down ballot races would have been less successful.
Well, the entire point of ranked choice is that you can do this. You can put unknown candidates up top without having to be afraid to „waste“ your vote, as you would have, with FPTP.
I am pretty confident that this would not have happened were it not for ranked choice. People would have voted the „safe“ candidate instead.
Right, but the benefit of ranked choice in this election would have been “I’m gonna vote Lander or Michael Blake in 1 but put Mamdani second since I’d be happy with him”. Realistically who is the safe candidate that isn’t Cuomo? The only viable candidate is Mamdani. Cuomo is still going to be in the ballot as an independent, so you really would’ve only voted Cuomo here because you’re staunchly establishment dem, in which case you wouldn’t be putting Mamdani but you also would’ve put Cuomo in first.
But I think this is all ridiculous. If the argument is “don’t vote in primaries unless they’re ranked choice”, that’s a defeating argument and we should absolutely abandon that as wise advice. The argument should be “vote in every primary, especially ranked choice, and vote for the furthest left candidate you can if you don’t want more of the same corporatist democrat melange”. I hope we can agree on that.
This depends on the state and in most states you have to be a member of the party to vote in primaries
Is it really most states? I’m in an extremely conservative state. I refuse to join a political party. I’m allowed to vote in the Democrats’ primary, but not the Republicans’.
If you are in this situation, please vote in the primary after learning about the local candidates.
There is one big thing- You must ask for the Democratic Party Ballot. I was used to getting it by default and was disenfranchised in 2008 by being given the no affiliation ballot. I realized it when I got to the machine and was not allowed to change. I left yelling about it, like that did any good.
With enough pressure from their constituents, the Democrat party will absolutely change into whatever we want it to. Look at the Republican party. They found out their constituents really liked racism and authoritarianism and that party basically became unrecognizable compared to a quarter century ago to give it to them. I’m old enough to remember the Republican party being assholes, but not on this level. When I was younger they would absolutely not have behaved the way they currently behave. But their constituents gave them the thumbs up, so here we are.
Democrat legislators very, very much want to keep their gravy train jobs. They’ll morph into whoever they need to be to keep them.
But that pressure has to start significantly before an election and it has to be big enough that they can’t ignore it.
Establishment Dems never move mountains for anything. They’ll push over molehills. Sometimes that’s all it takes.
And yeah, they only put molehills in front of Bernie. Unfortunately that’s all it took.
One of the big realities is that winning elections right now takes money. I hate every Dem that swears off campaign contributions. It’s partly our fault that if they don’t play the game they’re not gonna win.
Votes still matter more than money. It’s partly our collective fault that money buys votes as effectively as it does.
If you live in a closed state primary like Florida, you do have to join to vote in the primaries of your party.
And then they proceed to do nothing revolutionary, don’t forget.
Is there because people used their political power to make them leaders, to achieve that goals. It’s a democratic process, albeit convoluted one.
You guys can’t even be bothered to get off the couch and vote against fascism. You guys ain’t starting no resistance or Revolution
100% - the Dems are a fundraising organization, not a political party.
Sure it will benefit us to be more politically active, but we need to put that energy into a new party. The Dems will not save us.
Please leave a detailed message explaining exactly how you propose to come up with a viable 3rd Party when the 2026 midterms are in sight?
Please provide a detailed message explaining how you plan to escape the repeated cycle of voting in fascists and then voting in fascist collaborators.
One method would be an Article V convention to get rid of money in politics, abolish the electoral college, get rid of FPTP in favor of ranked choice voting, and mandate a fair and impartial redistributing system which must be applied nationally before the midterms.
Essentially, our last shot at a “peaceful revolution”.
Hold on.
First line “One method”
Last line “our last shot.”
Pretty quick self contradiction.
Besides, the 2026 are about 17 months away. There’s no way you could convene an Article V convention in that time.
Sounds like you just don’t want to admit you haven’t got anything practical to suggest.
That’s the point of voting in primaries. To change that. That’s how the republicans got turned into a maga cult. We need to follow that example to uncult our side.