this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2026
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Some people out there seem to be confused, but I always vote in every local and every national election for every office and every ballot initiative since I was 18 years old. Some of my greatest civil rights heroes have fought and died so that we can all vote and I honor their memory in the ballot box every single time. 

To some of us, especially those of us like myself who have been scheduling secretaries for US senators, it often seems like a morally reprehensible choice between compromised corporate Democrats and fascist-minded Republicans. Where I live in California, I have the luxury of voting my conscience for president for third-party candidates that better align with my ideas of justice and equality. 

But in any and every contested race, as my mom Mary Morello always said, we have to fight the fascist every which way we can, recognizing that even if there's but an inch of difference between two candidates, there are a lot of vulnerable people who could be greatly harmed in that inch. So vote your ass off, but don't just exercise your right to vote. Exercise your right to fight for, organize for, struggle for, and manifest the kind of world you'd like to really see without compromise and without apologies before, during, and after election day. And let's stop the fascists every which way we can. Power the people.

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[–] cattywampas@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Fetterman votes with Democrats 90% of the time. Dr. Oz would have voted with Democrats 0% of the time. That's a big difference.

[–] KatakiY@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The context here being that John fetterman votes against his party more often than any other senator, Democrat or Republican. And he breaks with them on larger issues. He breaks with the party pretty often in big ways when it comes to nominations too.

That 90% is including a lot of procedural votes. But still the point sorta stands and he voted in line with the Democrats more often than my gut reaction expected.

That's also not to say that I think dr oz would be better than fetterman but the fact is fetterman being in office is a failure of the dnc.

[–] Lyrl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 days ago

My understanding is people who followed Fetterman's career judge that he dramatically changed after his stroke, which happened after the primary. The party voters chose his pre-stroke self. The dnc has a lot of failures under their belt, but I don't think not trying to invalidate the primary voter's choice because the guy had a stroke was one of them.

[–] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Is it? Because they still haven't passed or blocked anything meaningful. It's really easy to "Vote with the party" when you know they're going to lose regardless. Your metric may be true, but it's ultimately meaningless.

[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You could say that about anyone in the minority party at any time. You're assuming Fetterman would change his voting pattern with Democrats in the majority, with no data to back up that assertion.

I don't like Fetterman either, but the time to fight him is in the primary. In the general election you pick the lesser evil, and the lesser evil is never the Republican.

[–] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm sorry, no evidence except every word that comes out of his mouth.

[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That's self-contradictory. If he's sneakily voting with Democrats now just to flip when they're in the majority, why would he say that stuff and blow his cover? Is he being sneaky or not? Make up your mind.

I think it's far more likely that he disagrees with Democrats on some high profile stuff, but still agrees and votes with the Democrats for a bunch of other stuff. That's still better than having Dr. Oz, who would vote in lockstep with Republicans on absolutely everything.

[–] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

How. Name one vote he made a difference on. Just one. I'll wait.

[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Name one vote any of the other Democrats made a difference on. They're in the minority, none of their votes can do shit!

I have to assume you're arguing in bad faith at this point. I'm going to disengage from this conversation.

[–] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So then how exactly would Oz be worse? If Fetterman can safely vote with Democrats, except when it really counts, knowing his vote doesn't change anything at all, meanwhile getting a platform to slander and tarnish the whole democratic party with impunity, and even make headlines sending video love notes to the RNC while doing it, how is he materially worse than Oz? Oz literally could not do more damage to the country than Fetterman already is doing, and he couldn't drag every Democrat in Congress through the mud with him while doing it.

You won't reply because you can't. There is no defense for his behaviour. Period.

[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

That whole premise doesn't make sense. At the time of voting, you do not know what party would be in the majority. With slightly different results nationwide, Fetterman could have been the tipping point in the Senate. If he voted with Democrats even just a single time in those conditions, that would be better than Oz.

If we're looking at his current impact given the results we got, it's probably better to consider what he voted against. Democrats obviously can't pass anything right now, but which Republican bills have failed? Not a lot, Republicans mostly vote in lockstep, but there have been a couple of budget bills, and most importantly the SAVE act failed by a single vote. Fetterman voted against it. With Oz in that seat it would almost certainly have passed, making it a lot easier for Republicans to ratfuck the midterms.

Regarding your comments on Fetterman reflecting poorly on Democrats, I have never seen anyone make this claim before. In general, people understand that Democrats don't control Fetterman, and whatever he says only reflects poorly on himself. This is a lot like how we felt about Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. The sentiment I'm seeing is to primary them next time and move on.

I also find it cute that you announce preemptive victory if I don't respond to your comment, considering I already said I was going to disengage. This time around I'm actually dropping the thread, though, so feel free to lay the logical fallacies on thick in your inevitable reply.