Establishment democrats. I have little good to say about them these days. They turn their back on the left and scratch their heads wondering why we can't be more like the right. Since the election, a common lamentation I see among the establishment left is the fact that unlike the republicans, they don't have a nice loyal voting base that just turns out, no matter who the candidate is, and no matter how insufferable they are. Republicans are just so great at falling in line, you know? They don't think for themselves, they allow themselves to get screwed by the establishment, and they take one for the team when called upon to do so. They're loyal little foot soldiers who just do what they're told and don't question the big game plan or whether it benefits them. We leftists, we're like herding cats. We have standards. We're fickle. We don't show up every time, because our moral sensibilities are sensitive, and we easily get disillusioned by crap candidates. Republicans show up for crap candidates that don't serve their interests, why can't we? This is why the republicans win, and why the democrats lose. It's those darned voters who are so fickle, and demand their politicians are actually moral and inspiring, that cost the left elections. We should be more like the republicans, who act first and ask questions later, or even better, don't ask questions at all.
....Do these people listen to themselves? Holy crap. And in case if you think I'm making that crap up, no, I've literally heard establishment dems literally say stuff like that, I'm floored. Look, the fact that the left doesn't fall in line, holds their politicians accountable, thinks freely, and has a conscience IS WHAT MAKES THE LEFT GREAT!!! THIS IS WHAT SEPARATES US FROM THE REPUBLICANS!!! This is what gives us the moral high ground. We're generally not an authoritarian group of people. Not to say there aren't authoritarian leftists (tankies, aka apologists for authoritarian communist regimes, for example, scare the crap out of me), but as far as American politics goes, the left's greatest strength is that we're NOT as authoritarian as the right. We're NOT a bunch of mindless automatons who are easily manipulated by the rich. We do think for ourselves. We do hold our politicians accountable.
It's not that the left is hard to please. I mean, run freaking good candidates, that's all we really ask. The problem the democrats have is that they are currently an authoritarian organization that is trying to emulate the republicans in their authoritarianism. Instead of embracing free thinkers and trying to attract them to the party by actually appealing to us, they're telling us we better fall in line or else, and settle for whatever crap they're willing to give us, and just be good little party lapdogs that don't question what the democrats are doing. The problem with the left is one of the establishment refusing to appeal to their own electorate.
Say we did fall in line. Say we gave Clinton the presidency, and the democrats the senate (not holding my breath on the house). What would they do with it? Nothing. That's what. Even if they had the house, they would still be cracking skulls open in North Dakota. Flint's drinking water would still be poisoned. We would still be bombing the middle east. The rich would still get richer, and the poor would get poorer. Yes, we would see some benefits on social issues, but even then I don't feel like Clinton and Kaine full throatedly endorsed them, and I almost feel like they had to apologize to conservatives for being freaking liberal. At the end of the day, what would we get for our service and our loyalty? Not much. The democrats would just be another republican party. That's IT. We wouldn't be anything at all. We would have no identity, no morals, nothing would really get done. We might be more moderate, but at the end of the day, it's the same crap we saw under the Bush administration.
The establishment is going to have to learn to do these things our way. The fact that we are free thinkers, the fact that we have a conscience, the fact that we don't fall in line, this is our greatest asset. This is what separates us from the republicans on a moral level. Instead of trying to be like the republicans, we should be trying to put forward an actual freaking ALTERNATIVE TO THEM. We should take the moral high ground, so we can say, hey, look at those republicans and their anti intellectualism and their disdain for the working class, and their servitude to the financial elite. We work for the people, we don't work for Wall Street. This is how they freaking won 2012. But the democrats don't do that this time. They're trying to turn the democratic party into republican party 2.0. And this is why they lose elections. It's not us, for being too fickle and "entitled" and free thinking, it's them for turning the opposition party of the republicans into another flavor of the same freaking thing. Why vote for the alternative when we can have the real freaking thing? And we lose any incentive to vote, and then they lose the election.
I will never apologize for thinking for myself, for having morals, for having standards, and expecting my politicians to represent me. Meanwhile, I think the democratic party owes the left half of the country a huge apology for making such a jerk out of themselves this year. We don't need another republican party. We need a real left wing party to take on the republicans an offer an unapologetic alternative to them, not another flavor of the same freaking thing. It's not the voters who are at fault, it's the freaking party. They're the ones who screwed up, and they're the ones that need to change. Our greatest weakness is the fact that the establishment dems are trying to turn us into the republican lite party, and refuses to actually embrace progressive values that we need to actually fix the country. The fact that we are free thinkers who don't just fall into line isn't a weakness. It's what makes us better.
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