Tuesday, May 2, 2023

We should have primary debates

 So, this is something else the left has been complaining about incessantly lately, but the dems basically decided, hey, we're not having debates this year! We're sticking with Biden, screw you! All while acting like they care so much about democracy. It comes off as hypocritical. ANd that's the sad thing. Technically, the democrats are a private organization. Legally they're not required to have debates. They can pick their candidates in the back room and they've argued as such legally before. It's sickening how much these unelected organizations that are not accountable to the public at all have over our politics. And while normally the answer would be "then let's not support these buttholes", well...then we gotta take into consideration that the alternative is likely to be Trump again. And he tried to incite an insurrection to destroy our democracy altogether. We're screwed. Like, either we cave to this unelected organization that controls the process and bullies us and tells us we better fall in line or else, or we get the fascist who MAKES THINGS WORSE. And they know it, and that's why they can get away with it.

Yes, I know this is a year with a reelection. Yes, I know primaries are not normal. BUT, we're in the middle of a party realignment, and what is normally unthinkable became quite normal, for better or for worse. For better would be "hey, let's have a primary as our current guy is deeply unpopular and most people don't seem to like him", for worse would be donald trump just committing a fascist takeover of the US. 

We are so screwed as a country. Some days I just wanna say "screw politics." 

But yeah, clearly, Im sympathetic to the left on this one. I'd like to see Biden debate both Williamson and "frogman" (RFK Jr, see the comment about how his voice sounds like frogs doing it in the recent post about him).

But let's face it, even if they did, the debates are done by media networks like CNN and MSNBC and have biases. Remember how they gave certain candidates far more speaking time than others and asked loaded questions and didn't allow them to get their points across? Yeah.

Again, the amount of power these media networks and political parties have on our democracy is disgusting. Like, yes, on paper, we have a democracy. We choose who the best guy is and who has the most votes (well, most votes in the electoral college) wins. But...then you got these parties having a chokehold on the process, and the media having a chokehold on the narrative, and in practice the whole process is captured and we basically get an oligarchy. Like these kinds of groups really are like a full fledged 4th branch of government. It's disgusting. 

Anyway, in any other election cycle, I would be passionately telling you guys the best way out of this is to just walk away from the dems and let them fail, but given the GOP literally has a gun at the head of our democracy altogether, that isn't really an option right now. Because under normal circumstances, that IS the answer. The way to fix the problem would be for americans to dump the parties and join third party movements that offer alternatives. Over time, those major parties are forced to either adapt to the electorate, or face their own extinction as people jump ship. People cant like it cant be done since we've had the same two parties since the 1860s, but we've actually had several realignments in that period in which the parties did exactly what I said. 1896, 1932, and 1968-1980 are examples of this. And arguably 2016-present is another 1970sesque period in our politics where we're in an electoral king of the hill for the future of our democracy. And sadly, because we missed the boat in 2016, and in 2020 we went Biden, we kinda screwed ourselves. We're stuck propping up an 82 year old no one really likes, while the GOP gets all of that populist energy that the dems should have had all along IF ONLY THEY FREAKING RAN BERNIE.

Seriously, because 2016 went as it did, everything since has been because of that. We could have had a populist dem coalition with Bernie sanders that would've won, but instead we got Trump and Clinton. This caused the election to be about identity politics and other BS, and trump won. And because trump won, his base got energized and became more radical. And now they're batcrap insane. Meanwhile the dems ended up digging themselves into this whole of mediocrity and learned helplessness, with all of the flaws of these centrist candidates they shove down our throats on display, and the combination of the GOP just becoming more radical, and the dems being so ineffective and milquetoast, are meaning our politics are NOT in a good place.

Honestly, we NEED a left that's worthy of support. One that actually gets people excited, and actively supports making peoples' lives better, but the dems can't help but keep standing in their own way, and the right is just becoming more and more extreme. 

As of right now, I do believe supporting the dems no matter what is the best move. This isnt 2016, or even 2020 any more. We are literally fighting for the future of the left and our democracy, and sadly, we got bigger fish to fry than fighting with the dem party this time.

Again, under normal circumstances I would happy tell you guys to walk away and let the dems burn for this behavior. To some extent, they deserve it. But if we do and the GOP wins, well, that means the GOP might win the entire realignment game. By turning us into a fascist dictatorship. And then America as a free country is done and we'd need a literal freaking revolution to right it again. 

So...yeah. I'm not happy about the dems this time. I'm actually as angry at them as I was in 2016 and 2020, and truly believe their poor treatment of progressives is extremely self sabotaging, but again, this isn't the year to do something about it. I know that people might be disappointed in me saying this. if you think that way, do what you want. I'm not gonna voter shame. We all know that crap doesn't work any way and just inflames people. Do what you want, but I hope that what I'm saying actually sinks in for some.

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