To be clear off the top, I’m on your side in these details. In the world we live in now, universal healthcare, UBI, student loan forgiveness, etc. aren’t just liberal, they’re completely logical and rational. The current system is nuts and falling apart.
But on the conservative talking points, it wasn’t just Ukraine.
For instance: “Please show me where our Democats made a real difference with regard to raising taxes on the rich?”
The answer is, they have a few times, but mostly what they do is prevent the right from getting rid of taxes on the rich entirely. A levee doesn’t do anything positive, it just keeps the town from being flooded. Or doesn’t, if people tear holes in it.
The points are valid, but bringing them up in this way weakens the left and strengthens the right. You are unintentionally doing their work for them. The way I’d phrase it is, the Democrats aren’t perfect, they can be corrupt and stupid because they’re people and people can be corrupt and stupid. What they aren’t is completely insane. Every flaw of those types the Ds have, the GOP has much worse. The lesser of two evils is less evil. And less evil is worth supporting.
I go over this in more detail in Sharing Information is Like Selling a Gun: Take responsibility for what you say, it’s a war zone out there.
“I agree on LGBT, People of color and talk of poor and middle class. Where is student loan forgiveness, extended unemployment, additonal welfare for the poor, workers rights, UBI, and at least a forced vote on national healthcare. I am even happy with a losing effort as long as they make the push.”
I wish they would, but understand why they don’t. The right paints them as dangerous extremists for what they already support, if they started seriously pushing further left, they would lose — and we’d be stuck with conservatism for the rest of our lives. These aren’t normal times.
That being said, I voted Sanders over Clinton in 2016 and Warren over Biden in 2020. I figured if they were going to call us socialists anyway, we might as well go for some socialism. But the political calculus is horrible. I think it’s why Black voters chose Clinton and Biden — they were afraid going too far left might bring about disaster. Given that they have so much more on the line than I do, I weigh their opinions more heavily.
