I understand protest votes and I'm not sure they've ever been more important or appropriate but I will also never be able to wrap my mind around the notion that a Trump win will teach the Democrats a lesson and at the expense of... everyone?

Also, given that the alternative will be equally if not more supportive of an expansionist settler movement, I don't see how eliminating women's reproductive rights, making fed employees swear a loyalty oath to Trump, rounding up migrants into camps, and consigning Ukraine to defeat will help.

The lesson will be moot because under Trump there’s a very good chance we will not have any future free and fair elections. That’s what happened in Russia and Trump and his oligarchs wants that here too.

THANK YOU. I have been having trouble articulating this.

These people believe politicians will be reflective and regretful. They most likely do not care and you lose any leverage you might have had.

If Democrats didn't learn that lesson in 2016 a repeat performance is not going to help. Save the protest votes for when the Republicans are back to running sane candidates like John McCain, who we can disagree with but won't entirely destroy the nation.

My thinking as well. And, I'm not impressed.

I'm not a sports gambler, so bear with me if I screw up this analogy, but it's like putting all your money on the 68th seed in a basketball tournament because it's your school. It's perhaps a great payout, but it'll never happen. We're at the championship now and people are stuck in a fantasy.

bsky.app/profile/baym...

It’s the weirdly performative nature and the desire to hurt people you disagree with that kinda lays bear what some people actually mean by “protest vote”.

Have been thinking about this a lot myself. I think a lot of people don’t really grasp what a Trump return to power would actually be like.