Oh yes. By far.

Voting for public offices has become an absolute must: A vote for any GOP candidate is a vote in favor of one-party autocracy and the end of democratic (lower case) features in the US. A vote against the GOP candidate (by voting for the next popular guy, typically the Democrat – uppercase) is a vote to slow down US progress towards this one-party autocracy.

No matter who you are, you’re not going to like one-party autocracy. Here in the states, we established that when we chased off the Brits and established out own constitution. We can also point to countless other examples in which it’s shit. (Iran is providing lots of current instances).

Yes, we want progressive policies. Heck, I want massive reform and in some cases radical abolition of current establishment systems. We’re not going to get those just by voting. Nor are we going to get them simply with violent revolution. We have to actually try again and develop new systems, and then get them ratified by everyone, and all that time autocratic power is going to be tempting whoever has military power.

(The French Revolution, for example, started in 1789, but had to be reconsidered and revisited for nearly a century, with the occasional decade of uneventful constitutional monarchy before the regents started rolling back civil rights, and the guillotines were rolled out yet again. The third republic was established in 1870, and France became secular – established freedom of religion – in 1905. Revolution is long and bloody.)

Support your local mutual aid organizations. Help out when you can. If the federal government shuts down, check in on federal employees and help out as you can if they get in a jam. Don’t cross picket lines, and check in with striking laborers. All this helps the resistance last longer than the autocratic movements until they ouroboros themselves through their own internal corruption.

That’s where we are in the States.