This is more just thinking out loud than a serious question to what audience I have. The thing is, I'm not really a democrat these days. I hate the democratic party, and my only role in it is to push through insurgent campaigns trying to propel progressives into government. I don't get along with the establishment of the democratic party. If anything, I hate them and despise them. The only thing keeping me tied to them is the lack of a better option, and the forward party is, quite frankly, the better option.
The problem is, I'm kind of reluctant to give up my role within the democratic party. Being registered as democrat means nothing really, it just means I can vote in primaries. And I really only do this to push through progressives who I like and agree with. And even then, half the time I don't vote for them anyway. In 2020, for example, in retaliation for the democrats removing Howie Hawkins from the ballot here in PA, I refused to vote for any down ballot candidates. There is one progressive candidate I regret not supporting, but otherwise, I really didn't want to support any of them. I did vote for said progressive in the primary by the way.
But that's the thing. The big issue with the party is the primaries. As Andrew Yang pointed out recently, the candidates we choose are chosen by a small number of partisans who dictate their will for the rest of us. Closed primaries lead to a selection bias where those who consider themselves democrats are the most willing and able to vote in primaries, leading to the candidates those types support winning. I register as a democrat primarily to counter that. I want to be the change I want in the world, and I want a say in who gets nominated. Not wanting to be part of the self perpetuating cycle, it makes sense to vote for democrats.
At the same time, it seems abundantly clear, having watched the primaries over the past 5 years, my vote means crap. I'll never have my voice heard over the silent majority of low information voters who simply vote the way the party tells them to. It doesn't matter if I, an intelligent voter living in a rust belt PA clusterfudge, want a progressive, I'll just be outvoted by all of those philly people. And the democrats made a strategic choice not to cater to me in the general, even going so far to say for every working class voter they lose, they'll pick up two more of these moderate dittoheads down there. So really, who am I kidding in voting for democrats?
I also gotta keep in mind the state of the party right now. Biden WON. He won the war for the soul of the party. The progressive movement is DECIMATED. Bernie has no clear successor. The party looks united behind Biden/Harris in 2024. And Bernie, he's batting for these guys, claiming we won and had our voices heard. Uh, no we didn't. No I didn't. Biden did move a bit left, but he's still offering us nothing on most major issues. Even this $3.5 trillion (really $350 billion, I hate how people use 10 year spending to make stuff sound big and scary) is a pathetic watered down compromise. The incrementalism people won, and that incrementalism sucks.
Really, who will succeed Bernie? AOC? She's kind of young to run for president. NIna Turner? She seems to into her TYT gig and seems poised to run again in 2022. Yang? He's the one bringing me to this quandry. He wants to accomplish change on the outside, and I'm tempted to follow him. And even if we had a progressive, is it worth supporting over Yang? Progressives dont even support basic income half the time. Although they do have many other very good policies. But that's in the best case scenario. In the normal case scenario, The Biden/Harris dynasty's grip on the party means progressives are done. Most of them are either becoming mainstream democrats again, having progressive views but with a good dose of stockholm syndrome, and the ones that are leaving are mostly crazy. Really, that's what I've been talking about all year. How you have the moderates on one hand, and then you got the Jimmy Dore types who think AOC is a sellout and a grifter, and Bernie is a grifter, and Yang is a grifter, and Turner is a grifter. I mean, you can't win with those people either. They're becoming this weird mix of communist and trump supporter at the same time. They push anti vaccine BS and conspiracy theories, while claiming that anyone who isn't them isn't pure enough. I admit I can be purity testy, but I'm not that crazy.
Yang on the other hand, represents the middle ground. A sane alternative to both the democratic party and the socialist crazies. His platform actually reflects my values, and while I might have some disagreements with him on stuff like medicare for all and free college, he means well and his positives outweigh these negatives. my intellectual development post 2020 does not push me toward the progressives, but toward the Yang gang.
So idk, all things considered, if the yang gang leaves the party, is there any reason for me to remain a democrat? Their internal politics without that island of sanity is pretty grim indeed. And I'm just not happy there. Even down ballot, I can only think of one person I would support in a primary. And I bet he'll win anyway. I'm talking about John Fetterman, PA's Lieutenant governor who is a Bernie style progressive but with a rough and tumble white working class bend. Other than that, I just feel...done.
That said, is it worth changing my affiliation? For the reference, I dont really get much out of registering as forward, i dont know how their primaries are going to go. And I might not care as much because the ideological divide between them will likely be more minor. it's the sheer ideological differences that cause me to care about democratic primaries. If the choice is between harris and buttigieg i care a lot less than if Bernie or Yang is in the mix. Just the same, will forward have radically different ideologies in its tent? It might have some differences, but I'm not sure.
Still, it would feel good to burn bridges with the democrats for good. As I said, I'm just done. I don't see any future in the party worth having. Maybe in 10-20 years. Maybe. If they dont just flat out roll us off the map with their suburban realignment. But yeah. I'm just done, if that's the future of the party, given its current trajectory.
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