cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/54506028
cross-posted from: https://quokk.au/c/politics/p/1270828/iowa-dem-josh-turek-releases-anti-trans-ad-calling-for-a-federal-funding-ban-on-trans-care
On Saturday, Oct. 24, Josh Turek, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Iowa, released a new ad targeting transgender people—perhaps the worst anti-transgender ad of the entire election cycle to come from a Democrat. The ad begins with Turek talking about his disability and the importance of not discriminating, before immediately turning to adopt discriminatory policies toward transgender people. One such policy is a sports ban, a position sadly becoming increasingly common among high-profile Democrats in competitive races, and one that alone would have made this yet another newsworthy anti-trans ad. But Turek then goes further, advocating for a new policy: a proposal to ban federally funded gender-affirming care in the United States, one that would impact a substantial number of transgender people and make their care difficult to impossible to receive.
The primaries are over.
I voted for someone other than Turek but Turek won anyway.
So what happens now?
Turek is horrible in this regard, but I have to vote for him anyway because he wants to TRY to ban transgender care, emphasis on TRY while the other party wants to do worse.
Everyone needs to get this through their heads.
Go talk to american muslims who couldn’t vote for Kamala because she supported Israel.
Not voting perpetuates more harm than voting for the bad guy who is less bad.
Voting third party at this point in the election cycle perpetuates more harm than voting for the bad guy who is less bad.
THE FACTS ARE SIMPLE:
One of two people will win this race. There is no other outcome at this point.
This primary was decided by votes, not anti-bernie-level dnc trickery.
You have to vote for the one who will hurt you less or it will get worse than even this.
I hate everything about it, but this is very simple: at this point anything other than a vote for turek is a vote for escalating harm to trans people to levels even higher than what turek wants.
That is all there is to it.
Go vote.
Do not let this rhetoric stop you from turning out to vote.
That is what the people behind the machine want.
This should be a learned lesson at this point but people like Erin are somehow still getting spun up by propaganda and failing to see the simple, shitty, crushing truth here, which is that an anti-trans democrat who only wants to ban things because his donors tell him to is still more pro-trans than any other option we have at this point in this one race.
Well said. The number of people who seem to think that there’s some magical other option for another, more progressive candidate to pop up on the ballot is frustrating.
“It’s not about supporting only your ideal candidate, it’s about picking the direction you want the country to go”
Fucking both of these roads lead to ruin I’d like to turn around but that’s not a fucking option.