Thank you!!!
It seems like a lot of folks don't know how things work. Voting, lobbying and contributions are the forms of political currency that politicians understand. Just like in regular life, you can't obtain anything or get a return unless you spend or invest said currency.
These folks don't want to vote or have anyone else vote, don't want to lobby anyone but democrats, half-assed at that, and don't want to contribute to candidates or form a superpac to put pressure on folks, yet expect magically get their agenda passed.
All the other groups they talk about getting "tangibles" have lobbyists that keep their issue in the face of elected officials, give money to people who support their agenda, and are very well organized to deliver or withhold votes to sway elections. They will vote for you or against you, but they rarely sit it out.
It wouldn't be so bad, but the tea party gave us the blue print. They sort of started out organically, but they weren't true grassroots, they were astroturfed. They had dark money being funneled to them via Americans for Prosperity and other groups buying them nice tour busses and allowing them to travel and keep discontent going.
When they realized the GOP was just using them to harness their energy to keep opposition to Obama in the headlines, and wasn't really trying to overturn roe vs wade, they showed the eff out. They had been legitimized by the GOP, who winked at their racism, saying they didn't agree with it but oh free speech. They started primarying establishment GOP with true believers, won the seats, and Congress had to kiss their asses for several years and there are still a few left causing problems to this day.
What they DIDN'T do, is sit out. If their candidate lost they still voted GOP because stopping Obama and the democrat agenda was still more important when it came down to a Republican and a dem.
Not showing up does nothing but reinforce the belief that black folks don't participate, aren't engaged, and can't be relied upon.
We have self described non voters suddenly going around here proclaiming they are going to not vote and encouraging others not to vote. It's like folks who proclaim they are boycotting Starbucks, or the most recent offender to black folks, when we don't patronize them in the first place. Your absence can't be noted if you've never shown up in the first place. You can't affect someone's bottom line or effect an outcome by non participation when you weren't participating to begin with.
I'm not against protest or third party voting, it can be very effective if used properly. I didn't advocate for it in 2016 because it was clear to me that Trump was a serious danger, and I don't advocate 3rd party voting now for the same reason. We don't just need our Presidential candidate to win, we need clear majorities in both houses for more than one year, or even one term, to roll back Trumps fuckery and move forward on a progressive agenda.
These are not normal times and it is far too important to get rid of Trump along with Stephen Miller, who is a clear threat to black folks and other PoC. However, I would have a lot more respect for ADOS if they were organizing folks to show up and write in the same name, something like "Reparations Candidate". Names that garner at least 1% of the vote are usually listed on tv by name. Seeing that you are showing up but spending your money elsewhere, gets attention and causes you to be courted to see how they can gain your business. Even picking a GOP or Dem candidate to support and then pulling support because they didn't do XYZ and causing them to lose next cycle will get attention and your vote courted.
All this "we aren't going to do anything but demand what we want" is nonsense. Other groups demand also but they exercise their power to make or break a candidate. Ados, or at least the ones acting as a mouth piece for the movement, aren't serious. All they are doing is sowing discontent and dividing black folks. They have no plan to actually achieve their goal. I've seen no effective strategy at all. Or at least they haven't been able to articulate one. All they seem to want to do is be seen running the Oppression Olympics, telling everyone how shitty black folks have been and still are being treated in comparison to everyone else. Even if we win that race, we still lose.
