I like how people act like not voting is some mega message to people. Like guys, most of the population already doesn’t vote. You’re not sending any message when you don’t vote. You want to move California left of this guy? Go vote for the most left candidate. Vote in the primaries for the most left candidate. You get where you want to go with solutions to the problems you have by voting, not by not voting.

I mean democrats categorically support unions, support reproductive rights, support protecting the environment… They do have a platform that isn’t “not Republican”. It’s just that republicans know their platform (project 2025 really) is so wildly unpopular they have to focus not on that, they have to focus on tearing down the opposing candidate.

In terms of helping the working class: taxing the wealthy and wealthy corporations more will help the working class. Improving access to low cost / affordable healthcare will help the working class. Having strong unions will help the working class.

I was indeed using hyperbole. Med center also has a lot of ground lines. But the vast majority is unmaintained, extremely aged above ground infrastructure. That might be okay if we didn’t live somewhere that gets hurricanes and other severe events, but we do.

Most pro union pro worker president we’ve had recently — that’s about it. He’s not Bernie but wealthy people really hate us poor working class folks.

As a Texan, the problem is we have 0 below ground lines, we don’t stage workers even when we know storms are coming, we don’t require structures to be built in resilient ways (including solar or wind facilities for new builds) and the end result is that our communities aren’t resilient.

Sure we pay less in taxes (note: if you’re wealthy), but you need a generator and an interlock kit to have the electric uptime other places have. You’re still paying a tax to live here, it’s just not going to the government to give you a nicer community, it’s going to businesses so their execs can get wealthier.