TestCaseInSpace

That's all fair, to your point about the imposition of martial law however I think that's a critical point to emphasize. If the executive branch can't find a plausible excuse to start rounding up its enemies they'll fabricate one.

I think the expectation of a fair election in 2028 or even 2026 is very presumptive. I don't disagree with your premise that those voters would be critical to a Democratic victory in a fair election, I fear we're past that point now.

Either way my central concern remains the same, Harris was a mediocre candidate with a terrible strategy. Many less engaged voters didn't find her or her policies appealing, and among energized and enthusiastic voters on the left side of the aisle many saw swallowing their misgivings and voting for Harris anyway as a form of practical and strategic harm reduction, it was. Others found her support for Israel to be entirely incompatible with their own conscience, which I may not like but I can absolutely understand. That said the continuing and endless bickering every single time Trump does anything remotely harmful "I hope those lefties/protest voters/third party/enlightened liberals/tankies/rad libs/socdems/whomever are happy" as they did at the top of this thread is counterproductive when ICE is about two months away from throwing anyone they want in the back of a van. If you think I'm being hyperbolic there were already off the street kidnappings by DHS during the protests in Portland back in this administration's first term in office. That was a pilot program, and once they've built up their numbers we'll see a nationwide rollout. I'd advise you and anyone reading this to prepare themselves accordingly.

As for the elections, by all means organize, do voter drives, monitor your state's rolls to blunt the impact of their disenfranchisement; but don't focus on blaming a subgroup of people who are otherwise on your side for making a bad call. That election is over, now we have to deal with the consequences. This shit doesn't get better until we fix it and pointing fingers about a race we already lost does nothing but waste time we don't have

Also, love me some Zildjans

Certainly in the long term FPTP needs to go, along with the Electoral College, the practice of Gerrymandering, the Democrats ridiculous system of Super Delegates, and the cap on the number of representatives in the House. None of which is to mention the overturn of Citizen's United, the long overdue process of campaign finance reform, reigning in the power of lobbyists, breaking up the conglomerates that have formed in the wake of the Regan era kneecapping of the FTC and a ban on Congressional trading of stocks and securities. While we quibble about that though the far right have managed to turn their culture war into a full blown Crusade complete with a neo-geshtapo with a larger budget than the militaries of several countries, and before you've managed to agree on a root cause for the decay of the institutional protections we used to take for granted a bunch of masked fascists have thrown you in a camp. Heart disease isn't a huge concern when the same patent is bleeding out from a gunshot wound. The cause of this clusterfuck is bigger than one election, or one bloc of voters, it's a complex interplay of multiple contradictions and flaws in the foundation of the American State dating back centuries. Yes, it is important to repair the damage, to improve and learn from our failures but that does not matter in the immediate term. The left will not get the chance to reform and repair once a full blown purge of dissidents and thought criminals is being carried out, we're six months to a year away from camps for Citizens critical of the regime, and two to three years out from outright death camps. We are in deep shit, anyone in the US' borders or sphere of direct influence is in deep shit. People who voted third party or abstained absolutely fucked up. I can't stress enough how much that no longer matters as fascist tyrants continue to tighten the noose

Truth be told I don't know either, I'm just exhausted by seeing commentors online screeching the same tired screeds "if only the other leftists voted for Kamala" "Kamala supports Israel!!!". Who cares how we got here at this point? If you're not licking the regime's boot they're coming for you eventually. If people are outraged then good, swallow it for now and organize in your communities, get active, coordinate. We'll have plenty of time for purity tests and factionalism when the dust settles.

What makes someone a real leftist?