Not voting is not “punishing” anyone, it’s simply abdicating your own power. Political parties aren’t businesses you can punish by boycotting their products.
Parties represent the views of those who support them by some combination of getting involved, organizing, donating, and most importantly voting in BOTH the primaries (for the one who best represents you) and the general for whoever won the primary even if it wasn’t your primary choice. To wield power you have to win elections. To win you have to please those who will vote for you and if your base won’t vote for you, you have to turn to the middle and right to get votes. If your base would show up for you, you could safely move left and still win (republicans always show up and vote for the R, so their party has moved more and more right).
Look what happened after Dobbs. Dem candidates used to be afraid to alienate moderates/conservatives by even mentioning abortion because they needed to get some of those voters to win, but when democrats got motivated by Dobbs and actually turned out for Dem candidates, they immediately stood up loudly for abortion rights and other rights as well, once they knew their base would show up for them. If the Dem base would continue to show up, the party would move more left on the issues, since they’d know they can win with their base and don’t have to worry about alienating conservatives.
I didn’t say anything about not voting. I think people should vote in a strategic way however. And that means at times you need to vote on the other side or back a different politician.
I do agree that voting in primaries is important. I think there are also things that we can do to help move away from this corrupt system. For example, having ranked choice voting.
I do think that a big problem is that people aren’t willing to sacrifice some comfort in the short term for long term gain. If voting temporarily for red because blue isn’t listening to you or being corrupt then when they lose they’ll learn to listen to you next time. If not them, then someone else. People don’t do this and will vote red or blue no matter what which results in shit politicians.
Not voting is not “punishing” anyone, it’s simply abdicating your own power. Political parties aren’t businesses you can punish by boycotting their products.
Parties represent the views of those who support them by some combination of getting involved, organizing, donating, and most importantly voting in BOTH the primaries (for the one who best represents you) and the general for whoever won the primary even if it wasn’t your primary choice. To wield power you have to win elections. To win you have to please those who will vote for you and if your base won’t vote for you, you have to turn to the middle and right to get votes. If your base would show up for you, you could safely move left and still win (republicans always show up and vote for the R, so their party has moved more and more right).
Look what happened after Dobbs. Dem candidates used to be afraid to alienate moderates/conservatives by even mentioning abortion because they needed to get some of those voters to win, but when democrats got motivated by Dobbs and actually turned out for Dem candidates, they immediately stood up loudly for abortion rights and other rights as well, once they knew their base would show up for them. If the Dem base would continue to show up, the party would move more left on the issues, since they’d know they can win with their base and don’t have to worry about alienating conservatives.
I didn’t say anything about not voting. I think people should vote in a strategic way however. And that means at times you need to vote on the other side or back a different politician.
I do agree that voting in primaries is important. I think there are also things that we can do to help move away from this corrupt system. For example, having ranked choice voting.
I do think that a big problem is that people aren’t willing to sacrifice some comfort in the short term for long term gain. If voting temporarily for red because blue isn’t listening to you or being corrupt then when they lose they’ll learn to listen to you next time. If not them, then someone else. People don’t do this and will vote red or blue no matter what which results in shit politicians.