Stop telling trans people they have to vote for anti-trans Democrats. Stop telling them they’ll be responsible for the fall of democracy unless they do.
I’ve been thinking a lot about something @nome.bsky.social posted to Bluesky on Sept. 15: “I do not understand the folks furious at trans people for responding in anguish when the party that they’ve been told would protect them treats their existence as negotiable,” he wrote. “I do not understand thinking trans folks have political power and responsibility where candidates have none.”
In other words, if you’re mad and want to yell at someone, channel your anger toward the campaigns of anti-trans Democrats. Tell them democracy depends on them not being anti-trans.
“>In other words, if you’re mad and want to yell at someone, channel your anger away from the anti-trans republicans.”
I’m so fucking tired of these dumbass takes. You gotta get the pro-trans candidate in the primary. If you wait to look up if your candidates are anti-trans until right before the general then you waited too fucking long.
Waiting until after the primary to realize that both candidates are anti-trans is like waiting until your house is already on fire to consider if you should buy fire extinguishers. Voting for the shitty Democrat is painful but letting the even shittier Republican who also hates immigrants too win is like adding gas so that your neighbor’s house will burn too.
I’m so fucking tired of these dumbass takes tell minorities to throw away their one real lever of power.
The only way a group that represents 1% of the population can have any real political influence is if they strongly support one side, but are willing to pull that support if they are betrayed. These snakes don’t reveal their true vileness in the midterms. And every one of them that’s allowed to win a general just further cements the idea that transphobia is acceptable.
Maybe cis people shouldn’t tell trans people how to vote and advance their own interests. Maybe they should sit down, shut up, and let the minority groups tell them how best to fight for their rights, instead of haughtily telling minorities that the good smart liberals know how to get things done.
Interesting to me is the Democrats appear to think that they need to appear anti-trans to appeal to the largest possible demographic. Are that many people really transphobic?
No. Or at least not so much that it determines their vote. But Democratic centrists see a 70% issue as a toss up and fail to understand that the passionately anti-trans voters were never going to vote for them in the first place. The guy who just sort of feels weird about trans women almost certainly has other issues that actually matter to them that they will prioritize above it.
We saw the same thing with gay marriage. Democratic centrists wouldn’t support it until it was basically a forgone conclusion.
It’s really just the traditional centrist Democrat playbook of pandering to the imagined middle. Caving like this doesn’t actually help you win elections. But a good number of Democrats don’t actually believe in anything or care about anything; they’re just in it for power. They’re just chasing polls.
This is also why you shouldn’t believe any transphobic Democrat when they say they’re going to save democracy.
Notice how they never say how they’re going to save democracy? They don’t because actually preventing another Trump will require leaders with a backbone, and these transphobic democrats are spineless cowards. What really needs to be done to save democracy is to vastly rein in the power of the presidency and to dismantle the post-9/11 security state. Those are the actual threats to our Republic.
But look what it’s going to take to actually tear down the surveillance state. You need politicians who will have the courage to stand up and say, “yes, I realize getting rid of these abusive institutions will likely result in some crimes or terrorist attacks occurring that could otherwise be prevented. But frankly, I don’t care. Our freedom and rights are not worth sacrificing for the sake of safety. I am fully willing to see people die if it means protecting our rights. Freedom is worth dying for.”
That’s the only kind of politician that is ever going to save democracy. Simply opposing Trump means nothing. The man’s going to be dead in a few years no matter who wins the next election. What really matters is how you prevent the next Trump. And that requires politicians that strongly believe in rights and are willing to take unpopular actions to defend them.
In other words, it requires the kind of politician that would also be willing to look voters in the eye and tell them, “this trans panic is irrational bigotry. You’re victims of a moral panic. I will not support taking rights away.”
The kind of politician that would compromise on trans rights is simply not one that is capable of saving democracy.
