Trans journalist Erin Reed has published a list of Democratic midterm candidates with anti-trans records, and the question she is forcing is one the party would rather not answer: if trans voters keep rewarding Democrats who harm them, what signal does that send? The calculation is real, the stakes are high, and there is no clean answer.
MLK supported getting less bad segregationists elected during the early stages of the civil rights movement because they were easier to work with, do we still have segregation today? If trans people in sports is the only contention and they agree on everything else, then that’s progress. We can fight on the trans people in sports point next primary. Let’s also not forget that Donald Trump is trying to end Democracy entirely and will oppress more than just trans people.
Enforced by explicit law? No, we don’t have segregation anymore. In schooling, the work force, housing, literally all forms of resource distribution? Pretty much yes.
Or it backfires if enough semi-transphobes get seats in Congress and join forces with the GOP on the issue, and this trans rights will be further set back.
Don’t tolerate the intolerant. If the GOP wins, the anger of the people builds. It should’ve happened years ago, but here we are. Americans have become too distracted and complacent.
Trump and the GOP are merely symptoms of problems within the average American consumeristic voter. And now with the attraction of social media outrage clickbait, Trump and the GOP are leveraging this for even more attention and notoriety.
Fuck off with the “it’s better to elect the GOP so they make people more angry” bullshit logic. That’s just stupid accelerationist thinking.
You probably have the privilege of being cis, so telling someone to fuck off because they’re defending someone who’s vulnerable isn’t very on-brand for a liberal.
Actually, yeah it is. You only care about money and property, like every other American. That supersedes human rights.
Your opportunistic lib candidates will absolutely sell out the queer community to maintain their seat. After all, capitalism is their thing too. They just like to mask it behind platitudes and promises.
I’ve started getting involved with my local Democratic Party. I no longer consider myself a Democrat, but they don’t need to know that, and I figure if I’m able to get more up close and personal, influence people in real time that would be a much better option than just not voting for these anti trans democrats or doing nothing.
One of the best responses I’ve heard was from the Professional Left:
(Starting around the 26:30 mark)
Boils down to: Democrats can be educated, Republicans will destroy you. Quite possibly in the literal sense.
Choosing between the party where every elected official wants to unalive you, vs the party where only a handful want to do the same…
Yeah, that is a tough one. Really difficult decision, there.
In the places where the blue candidate is a transphobe, it’s transphobe vs transphobe
Yes, but if Dems remain in the minority, it’ll still be a Republican majority, giving them more time to dismantle democracy even further.
It’s the bigger picture which is most important. You cannot create lasting local change without removing the autocratic boot from above.
I mean, yes, let’s make these transphobe Dems as uncomfortable as possible. But America needs to roll back the fascism and authoritarianism, first. Without that first step, every other positive action is a house built on sand - it can be blown away from the top with infinite ease. And then it’s 1939 Germany all over again with pink triangles and pogroms aplenty.
And honestly, I see that outcome as the much, much worse one.
Yes, but if Dems remain in the minority, it’ll still be a Republican majority, giving them more time to dismantle democracy even further.
And if the transphobic Dems vote with the Republicans, trans people lose anyway. Democrats don’t do party discipline, so the anti-trans laws get passed anyway under the guise of “concessions”, so heads you’re dead, tails you’re still dead but someone somewhere feels bad about it.
I like how its always a minorities job to vote against their own self interest “for the greater good” and not the job of a Democratic politician to not throw them under the bus. Especially with how seemingly extremely important this one demographic is if a significant portion of said demographic not voting will cause the candidate to lose.
Not for the greater good - for their own good. Even if you only care about one issue (and justifiably so), and both candidates are on the wrong side of that issue, it is likely that one of them is far worse on that issue than the other. It doesn’t have to feel good to vote for the someone who stands in opposition to your interests, but it is better than letting the person who stands in opposition to your existence win.
My issue isn’t whether voting for a democratic candidate or not is better overall as a trans person, I think basically every trans person in the US knows that policy wise a democrat will, at worst, be the same as the republican they’re running against on trans rights specifically, and at least a bit better on some others. (There is a consistent belief on every one of these posts that somehow trans people don’t understand that as well, which is a different issue lol)
The point is that if a politician doesn’t lose support/votes for taking an anti-trans position, then there’s nothing punishing them for taking that position. That’s the argument being made about how voting for an anti-trans democrat is voting against your own good, not because of their policy specifically, but because by voting for them in spite of it you send a signal that their position on trans issues can be the same as a republicans as long as they’re marginally better than one in other ways.
For what its worth, I’m trans and am planning on voting for all Democrats in the midterms, even though I’m disappointed in a few of them. However, there are a couple candidates mentioned in this article specifically (namely cuellar + kaptur and a few others) where I think not voting for them has a very strong argument I’d consider if I lived in those states.
If a an anti-trans Democrat loses to a more anti-trans Republican, the lesson they learn is they should have been more anti-trans to win.
Not voting assists the rightward ratchet. Nobody can hear your silence.
If an anti trans Dem loses to a more anti trans Rep, the lesson they will learn from this is that they should be more anti trans to sway even just a single republican voter. Democrats don’t care about you or your interests they just want money from their overlords, and those overlords love it when the proletariat is mauling itself
If someone said “I want to kill you humanely” and their opponent just said “I want to kill you”, I think the rest of us wouldn’t be chastising you for refusing to vote for either. This is an issue easy for cis people to counsel a cost-benefit analysis on, but it’s deeply personal for the victims.
If these politicians think throwing them under the bus will net them votes that’s on the politician to prove, not for their victims to support.
I’m cis myself, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a very personal stake in this fight. I have yet to hear of a Democrat politician that thinks trans people should die - I wish I could say the same about republican politicians.
Doing nothing while bloodthirsty bigots march into power unopposed is still ‘voting against self interest’. The consequences are simply far more immediate and far harder to counter.
believe it or not, also guillotine.
What’s a pro trans voter anyway? Anti biggotry would be more accurate
I’m against bigotry in general. However, since transgender people seem to be getting tread on a lot right now, I also make a point of saying I’m pro-transgender. It’s a more specific form of anti-bigotry. Also, there are people who claim to be anti-bigotry and still have transphobic views.
Thats more broad encompassing, whilst anti trans agenda is dangerously high right now, so specific reference is important here.
Vote for them and then get them to have pro-trans rights views. Like we did with Obama and gay marriage.
That’s one way to do it. Sounds like throwing in the towel at first, but if their strategy was to shift the Overton Window, it might not be a bad plan to shift it right back.
I’m so tired of these people touching kids and then fucking with trans folks.
I mean it’s pretty shit, but what are we gonna do, vote in the Republicans? I’m sure that will help trans people even more /s
Every year I understand more why some old people welcome death. Fuck this place. Humanity is a blight
There’s a concept in psychodynamic psychology referred to as Thanatos, which is a subconscious death wish. Humans often work against their own best interests to accelerate their mortality.
There’s a whole death cult based on that. They’re called MAGA and they want everyone to die so they can be raptured.
You vote for them because they are more likely to change their tune than a republican.
Plus you do everything to make their life miserable until he changes his mind.
I disagree strongly with the Democratic party. I despise a good deal of their platform, and am disgusted with about 90% of those that are elected. To me, they are an insult and an embarrassment.
… and I still voted for them in the last national election. Nobody likes them.
I don’t know, seems transgender people are gonna be fucked no matter which party wins
If we don’t turn things around, literally everyone everywhere loses. Trans will go first, but then the rest of us lgbt, racial minorities, etc.
When all the toothless hillbillies have killed all lgbt, immigrants, religious/social minorities, they’ll be left standing with empty magazines in their precious AR-15s wondering why everything still sucks.
The one tooth in front of the mouth still dangles and their finger-pointing pattern unrecognized. “Them white Christians are the wrong kind of Christians. Git 'em!”
Military is already doing it with Mormons. Nobody is safe.
I don’t know why some humans have such an intrinsic need to hate other groups of humans but I wish they’d turn that hate unto billionaires
Removed by mod
Vote third party. This is a good place for winning as third party. Local and state elections hell even in Congress independents can win and we should be pushing out more Democrats and Republicans as possible.
Only time to vote for a Democrat is in a primary and only for progressives. Also unfortunately during presidential runs. At least until Democracy fails or we do revolution.
Ranked choice voting so we stop having to pick terrible Democrats. Gaining prevalence in local elections!
We had that in Washington State but both parties worked to abolish it, saying that we were somehow too stupid to understand it.
I hate them both sooooo much.
They do not want ranked choice voting because that would make them lose power
Democrats can only maintain their position as controlled opposition if they control the party and can override primaries. If the people actually get a choice, then they become the people’s party and stand in opposition to the billionaire class.
We would have class war and eventually develop a strong state, similar to China, where billionaires get life sentences for bribery and can be fined and jailed for trying to undermine the state. China is so strict that it treats corrupt billionaires and government officials like we treat terrorists. There’s no legal maneuvering. They freeze your legal rights to conduct the investigation and trial, so that you cannot continue your corruption. China is a true state where leaders run the government, not businesses, whereas the United States is an oligarchy devolving into a system where private business owners run the government (fascism).
Hell. China has executed sixteen billionaires.
Private business owners have always run the government. From the founding to today
So make them fucking stop. “We’ve always done it this way” is the worst possible excuse for maintaining status quo. Just because things have always been shit doesn’t mean they are cursed to always remain shit. They are, but only unless and until people do something about it.
Voting for them doesn’t make them stop.
Best evidence here to support how important it’s established nationally
Pro corpo Dems run WA state and likely will for a very long time. The latest evidence of corruption and ethics violations that are just swept under the rug and ignored are a really bad sign.
Seems to be getting worse as many Democrats from red states migrate here as they are just happy to vote for anyone with a DNC endorsement. They’ll completely ignore the other dem candidates who want change in this state.
