Lenin said that if he were in Britain, he’d vote Labour. Not because he agrees with them, but to show the British people that yes, moving leftwards does make improvements and no, Labour is not doing enough. To show them that a further-left Socialist party is needed.

Accelerationism is a … choice. It’s easier, in my view, to push further left under ineffective neoliberalism than it is under right-wing authoritarianism. What you may view as a chance to get your ideal from the ashes, the fascists view as their chance to put you down for good.

I’m fortunate to live in a state with ranked-choice, where I can literally make a gradient of my preferences for nearly every contested election I vote in.

What I see most frequently is uncontested elections. Vote for the one registered candidate, or write someone in. Most of those have an R next to their name, and dollars to doughnuts a red armband in their closet.

I live in Boise, Idaho, a blue city in a deep red state. I always vote knowing that our federal reps and state executives will end up Republican, but locally my vote makes a huge difference. MAGA has made a push to get their people in school boards, library boards, highway districts- all the elections most voters overlook and have low turnout. We’re also a state that has seen mass immigration of blue state MAGA treating this place like it’s a white nationalist haven, so even in the city, districts that used to be reliably blue could flip in the state legislature and it’s more important than ever to not lose what little we have. We have a reasonably progressive mayor/city council that is constantly under attack from the state AG and legislature because the Republicans really fucking hate that the state Capitol, their seat of power, is one of the only places that routinely defies their authority. When the state legislature made a move to ban Pride flags from government buildings the city of Boise made it their city flag. When the AG “won” the city took down the flag and painted the flagpoles Pride colors. They’re quite skilled at malicious compliance.

I always vote, local, state, and federal. I would never vote for candidates who specifically are out to destroy things, or do austerity measures. I also don’t vote by party, but by values.

Because few people vote in my area, my votes have enormous impacts on society at large, which feels uniquely powerful.

I love the woods a lot, so I voted for a candidate that wanted to preserve them. My singular vote alone counted as 2% of the entire state, and the pro-Muir candidate won. And that was me alone, I also talked to friends and family about voting, which they did.

I do vote, but mostly car only for local ballot measures. Nothing else matters really and the local stuff barley does.

I’d prefer to vote with a brick if I wasn’t disabled and could run without passing out.

I vote in every election I can. I have never had my vote for president actually matter or count.

My state has a site where I can look up my name and see which elections I’ve voted in.

• My first election was Gore Bush with the hanging chads, my vote had gotten thrown out.

• I was unable to vote in the next 2 elections because I was in jail both times. Not for anything that would remove my voting rights, just illegal botany.

• The second time Obama ran I couldn’t vote because the voting location had been moved the day before and I didn’t get to the new location in time.

• At this point I had become quite jaded with the election system. So for the dumpster fire of 2016 I did a write in and wrote “any bum off the street”.

• Realizing my vote may have helped bring about the worst, for the next election I took great care to ensure I voted correctly. The state voter lookup does not show that I voted that election. I did. It is very infuriating.

• Voted for Harris and liked her before she was cool. The reason? She helped a pedophile get out of jail. Confusing, I know. You see, a man had been sentenced and was serving time then the laws changed, with the new laws setting maximum term limits for certain offenses. The person had already served multiple years more than the maximum sentence allowed but still was on the old laws and had several years left. Harris secured his release. That is why I liked her as a candidate, she was willing to defend a pedophile to ensure justice was served as the law was written. That requires an amount of integrity and courage that few have in my opinion. Then a pedophile got elected instead.

As for other parties, the PSL has been very active around my city lately. I’ve gone to a few of their meetings and protests but am not a member, I just want to protest. Next election I don’t think will matter. Everything will be rigged or the results will be ignored. I’m preparing for that. I’m training in first aid, marksmenship, gardening and I’ve built a secluded underground shelter. The shelter is laughable and will not save anyone but it did build my upper body strength up.

I would sooner vote with a brick than vote for anything even slightly resembling the current CiC.

I vote for progress in primaries and damage control in generals.

I just also do other things when I’m not voting. If voting was actually as useless as many seem to think it is I don’t think we’d see such a concerted effort by those in charge to sequester “good” votes and manage elections. They’re trying to make it irrelevant because right now it still is relevant.

Do any of you, living in the US, vote?

Yup, everyone does. If someone chooses not to vote, they have cast a voted for “I don’t care”. And have decided to let everyone else choose for them. They may not like any of the choices, but politics has always been “the art of the possible”. If they want perfect solutions, they need to start their own dictatorship. If they won’t or can’t do that, voting is the only bit of control they’re going to get. And that means some type of compromise with everyone else in society. It’s a terrible system, but history hasn’t provided a lot of better examples to follow. Don’t like the system, change it. And unless you have the force of arms to do it the violent way (and it’s really unlikely you do), you’re only real option is to do it via the soap box and ballot box.

Would you ever consider voting DSA/Socially democratic[?]

Sure, though not any time soon. One of the things I’d like to change about our system is the First Past the Post nature of elections. But, until that happens, the math just doesn’t work in most elections. I vote in primaries and vote for the options who most closely match my views in those. But, come the general elections (especially at the federal level), third parties are basically DOA. I’d rather vote “not Nazi” than sit on my thumbs and watch “Nazi” coast to victory because I’m stuck letting “perfect” be the enemy of “not a fucking Nazi”. Should the DSA reach a point that they aren’t an “also ran” in an election I’m voting on, sure I’d probably vote for them.

Would you ever vote for someone like Trump just to make things intentionally worse in the hopes of sparking off a revolution?

Well, it hasn’t happened with Trump. And looking at history, I really don’t think revolutions are such the clean and wonderful things people in online forums like to make them out to be. History provides lots of example of revolutions ending up with groups like the Taliban in charge and basically none ending up as egalitarian utopias.

Not sure if I will ever vote again at this point

That’s your choice, but you’ve made the choice to let other people decide your government. You can sit on the sidelines and stew in your own smugness. But, no one cares. And no one will ever care about your opinions if you’re not willing to enter the political milieu and fight for them.

I vote for DSA candidates every time because there is essentially never a better option. If none are running, I vote as far left as I can. I vote in primaries and generals. Here are some current DSA candidates to check out if you’re in any of those districts: https://thedigradio.com/podcast/primary-struggle-w-abdul-el-sayed-and-other-insurgent-candidates/

I am to the left of social democrats, but even DSA has full-on socialist caucuses within it (varying by state/national DSA), see: https://dsa-lsc.org/2025/01/31/a-guide-to-dsa-politics/

I would never vote for the right. It’s a terrible plan because (1) it’s not gonna spark “a revolution”, it’s just going to create a more and more oppressive society without building any power on the left – that’s just some apocalyptic savior narrative that sounds more like anime than real life; (2) it sacrifices others, starting with the most marginalized and vulnerable, in a vain hope of improving my own future, which means I’d be just as much a right winger as any “true believer” would be.

Voting isn’t enough. Act and organize locally. But also vote, especially in local elections.

I am in the top 2% of citizens in my state for voter participation (they include that state with our registration, I didn’t seek it out). I vote as far left as I can in basically every primary and election. I don’t have faith in accelerationism because at this point I truly have no idea what would wake up the American populace to what is happening to them. They all bitch about the same problems but continue to choose the people who create them

Voting every election I knew about where I lived since 2000 (Nader for president!) Always Green party except for Obama in 2008 (we need reparations, but that was closest thing). Voted Kamala, because it was what it was. I was really excited about Andrew Yang, because UBI is brilliant. Now… I’m learning español. 🙁

I vote, and I’m not going to stop but I’m also drowned out living in TN where everything is stacked to keep a Republican super majority.

My most powerful vote is often in the primaries where I can vote for the least evil Republican.

Vote for the most left with one hand, throw your Molotov’s with the other. The right is hitting every avenue, so we do too. But fuck voting in America is always so ass in so many ways. Democracy should be easy, and its fucken impossible to even find information on local election candidates in your area when the time comes. Like how am I supposed to know the details about every candidate running for mayor in my city when theres millions of people, searching their info online doesnt bring anything up, and the pamphlets kind of read more like propaganda fliers than statements and info on the candidates. The entire fucken things needs to be reworked.

I vote in every election. New York has ranked choice for some things now, which is nice. The way judges are picked is pretty bad, though.

I vote in every election. I will always vote for the candidate most aligned with my values. I do not vote by party lines (though frankly with the direction of the one major party has moved it sure looks like I do).

Always vote. Especially in your local elections. They matter and very few people participate.

Voted in my primary this week.

I rarely see any third party in the ballot, and most seem to be some form of Republican but worse.

I don’t know if I could vote for an anti-capitalist in the near future in the system we have now. We aren’t really set up to give a third party capitalist a fair shot, let alone an anti-capitalist. It is near impossible to even form a union and has so far been impossible to gain universal healthcare, so electing an anti-capitalist is going to be harder than that.

If it were a primary and I was fine with the leading Democratic candidate, then I’d be fine showing support for a more radical party if I shared their beliefs.