Political Memes

due to the reality of our voting system absence of a vote is in and of itself a vote

Sure. Although, I might go one step further and argue that due to the reality of our voting system (state-by-state winner-take-all) merely being counted in the census in a given district is what really counts as a "vote". The electoral college doesn't care who you vote for, only who won the majority. One of the fundamental flaws of western disproportional representation is how minority voters are functionally unrepresented.

Problem is the opposition has the same or worse policies on Palestine

This isn't a problem unique to the US. We routinely see elections caged and captured by dominant political parties with overlapping beliefs, from Japan to France to India. When you're being funneled into a single awful policy, there's little point in debating over which party is better on an issue that receives wide bipartisan support.

"You have to vote for Joe Biden to end the holocaust in Palestine" comes across as utterly tone-deaf, given that Biden's Democrats have been actively enabling said holocaust through arms sales, foreign policy, and willful neglect of international law.

I’m not a fan of this “least bad option” we’ve got ourselves into either

Nobody is. But the endless apology for said "bad option" purely on the grounds that "other guy is worse" only reinforces the badness of the first guy. You're cutting your own team a blank check to rob you when you won't even entertain a third option.

That's before we even get into the futility of voting (D) in a state like Ohio or Florida or Texas (or California or New York or Washington) when the outcome of these elections is all but predetermined. The absolute least you can do is to follow the lead of those Arab/Persian communities in the Midwest and spoil some ballots to demonstrate your dissatisfaction.

Say what you will about "least bad options" but as soon as Biden watched 20% of his Minnesota support evaporate in the face of united Muslim dissident, he did actually start to bend on the issue. Had a more serious left-wing contender been on the ticket, perhaps we would have even seen a primary upset in 2024.

On the flip side, I can't help but note how far-right Evangelicals have bent the GOP on issues by throwing their support to a guy like Trump, when more traditional DeSantis / Christie / Hailey hacks insisted on triangulating between business liberal and social conservative issues.

At some level, you can't ignore the success right-wing radicals have achieved by holding their ground and threatening the success of the party by withholding their support. Moderate Republicans - who just vote for anyone with an (R) in their name because they're scared of Democrats - are the ones getting sidelined by the party leadership. Why should progressives fall into the same trap set by conservative Democrats?