Revolution through Dialogue

Can We Talk? DIY Solution: VotePact Strategy Has Potential to Use the Ballot to Shock the System. Instead of Elections Being Movement Killers, They Can Breathe More Life into Them.

“Dialogue” by Santana Miyazaki

The establishment uses elections to solidify its hold on the public. This is largely done by using fear and hate to push people more and more into their partisan boxes.

People focus endlessly on every flaw of “the other candidate” — real or imagined. Principles are pushed aside.

But there's a strategy that may open the door for elections to actually giving voice to the millions of US citizens who are fed up with the establishment. 

The VotePact.org strategy advocates would-be Trump voters pairing up with would-be Harris voters and both voting for other candidates that more align with their beliefs. This way neither voter can be accused of helping the candidate they dislike the most — but both together break with the establishment. 

This involves dialoguing and coordinating with someone you know and trust on the other side of the duopoly divide. It requires work. 

But the payoff could be tremendous. It could free up millions of people —conceivably a majority of the US voting public — from living and voting in fear and hatred. 

It would foster coordination and dialogue that transcends ideological boundaries. It has the potential to be a peaceful, transpartisan revolution from below. 

The third-party candidates in the current election may not be ideal, but they break with Trump and Harris in critical ways. The Greens and Libertarians are openly against Israel's genocide, the US government's perpetual war machine and are critical of the dominance of corporate power, especially Wall Street and Big Tech over the society as a whole. 

Millions of people are highly skeptical of those forms of control, but are planning on reluctantly voting for Trump or Harris because they fear or hate the other. 

The solution is people reaching out to their relatives, neighbors, friends, co-workers, debating partners, etc. to become "vote buddies", to together have the courage to do something that neither might have done individually. 

Now, some people are already planning on voting for third parties. These people can play a critical role, that of challenger and matchmaker. 

If someone approaches you saying "why are you voting for a candidate who is so unlikely to win" — you don't have to say "it's my vote." You can instead say "why are you voting for a candidate who is backing a genocide?" They may respond: "Because the other major candidate is worse." That's when VotePact comes in. 

The pressure is then on the other person to find someone to pair up with. They then reach out to others in their life: "I was planning on voting for Harris to stop Trump. I know you're planning on voting for Trump to stop Harris. Instead of us cancelling out each other's vote, why don't we both vote for other candidates?" 

Once people pair up, they can tell their story to inspire others, posting articles and videos about what they are doing. If more and more people do it, it snowballs and more and more minds are freed. 

This idea (which I came up with years ago, listen to my interview on Democracy Now in 2000) was adopted by a group called "The Balanced Rebellion" backing Gary Johnson in 2016. They had an entertaining video which went viral and set up software to connect people online. This helped lead Johnson to be the most successful third-party candidate since Ross Perot, in spite of the fact that he was a seriously flawed candidate. 

VotePact has not set up such software, instead advocating that people connect with someone in their life. But it clearly could be done. 

There are advantages to making a VotePact with someone you know: You work with someone you might otherwise avoid talking politics with. You are both freed up not only in terms of your vote, but also in terms of your thought patterns since those are more in sync with your vote.

Perhaps most crucially, elections can be movement killers, with so many getting sucked into the partisan machinations. VotePact flips the script, instead of arguing with your “opposite number” — you’re strategizing with them about how to compel both the left and the right to be truer to their better selves.

There are obstacles, but there’s a huge hunger for the rise of an antiestablishment political center: Populists uniting across the political spectrum. A major impediment is fear. VotePact overcomes that problem and could break the logjam and help end the tyrannical rule of the establishment duopoly. 

Thanks for reading. To financially support this work, please go here. But what would be even more valuable to me is this: Make a VotePact and tell me about it.