So, I'm going to be honest, I'm kind of mixed over this. On the one hand, I think we need all of the help we can get. On the other, I REALLY dont like republicans joining up with us. Because they're gonna pull Harris to the center in office where she's afraid to do anything too progressive. As I've been saying for the past decade, I didn't leave the GOP just for these McCain/Romney people to join the democrats and water them down. When I left the GOP, I abandoned the entire ideology. I realized it wasnt just the current iteration of conservatism that was bad, it was conservatism as an ideology itself. Most of these guys coming over now, don't have the same intellectual journey. I mean, maybe socially they track similarly, opposing the religious fundamentalism of the right, but economically, they still old the same kinds of ideals I held as a republican around 2008 where I'm fairly moderate and pragmatic but still conservative. These guys are gonna fundamentally oppose my vision of economic progress in the long term.
I recognize that 2024 is a unique election with unique challenges. Regardless of the outcome after, Trump NEEDS to be defeated, period. But i do worry about the future of the democratic party. i dont want it to be a moderate centrist party. I want it to be a progressive one. Right now, harris is trying to be both. And she's KIND OF making it work. But she's also avoided actually putting forward a solid policy platform. I'm hoping we have more specifics for what her second term looks like when the DNC in 1.5 weeks, but yeah, I'm kind of leery of the Harris coalition here, and again, Harris is weird where she can run to the left, she could run to the center. We don't know what we're going to get, she's schrodinger's candidate, in a state of superposition and we dont know what we get until the box is opened. I do think she's trying to win progressives over, I dont think she's abandoning them at all. But yeah, I'm not sure about her. And I really dont like the idea of moderate republicans being part of our coalition. Yes, help us defeat trump this time, but long term, go back to your party and bring sanity back to it. You need to do that for this alignment to go well. Otherwise, we're just gonna be facing more trumps, with us having to make the some bitter lesser evil choice just to avoid democracy being destroyed.
I do have high hopes of the Harris administration. I think choosing Walz really does bring the party in the direction I WANT it to go. But yeah. I'm still leery of the future here. I want the 7th party system to look more like a combination of the 5th and 6th party system, with the democratic party being progressive, and the republicans being moderate, boring, and stuffy. What we seem to be heading toward, because of 2016 and the choices that were made back then, is something more akin to the second party system with the republicans being the jacksonian democrats but worse, and the democrats being whigs. And that sucks. That was BY FAR, the worst alignment in american history. Almost every president of that era sucked. The issues sucked. The parties were worthless. And it ended in a fricking civil war. And that's kind of how I see the future if the GOP remains maga long term, and the dems are a modern iteration of the whig party. The democrats try to keep stability, the republicans are uncouth populists with a virulent anti democracy streak, and it's the same bitter choice every election until the public just fricking throws their hands up in the air, let the GOP win, and then boom, we descend into fascism. That's dismal.
I understand right now defeating donald trump is priority #1. But I hope in 2028 and 2032, we end up shifting in a more progressive direction. I think with Walz on the ticket, we COULD shift that way. That's why I was so excited about him. But then I see "republicans for Harris" and I just can't help but cringe....I don't really want these people in the party long term. If they are, they're gonna hold us back.
Not that we have much of a choice with congress. I mean, if we win the house, it's gonna be narrow. If we win the senate its gonna be 50-50. harris might literally accomplish nothing and in 2028 people are as fed up with her as they were of Biden this time around. I mean, that's not outside of the realm of possibilities. Yeah. I mean we seemed to have lucked into something with harris/walz where at least the dems have a shot at winning and progressives have a fighting chance of pushing the country left, but there's no guarantees and we're pulling the party in the opposite direction of where the corporate donors and moderate wing want it to go.
Still, given that it seems that they've been wanting to go full coup mode and harris has averted that to give us the best possible outcome at this current state of time, I cant complain too much. I mean, really. If it wasnt harris, we wouldve had someone more moderate. if we had walz, we would've had someone more moderate. Bernie doesnt have the luster he had, we have no successor. Again, the sins of 2016 are just everywhere. But Harris is, all things considered, the best outcome for now. So I plan on supporting it, but I really wonder if long term we have a shot at the 7th party system being progressive at all. Or if the party is doomed to take that centrist path I've been fearing.
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