Okay, so I've been processing a lot of thoughts tonight. And I just wanted to explain how I went from being so enthusiastic for Harris to being where I am now.
First of all, it should come as no surprise that I DON'T LIKE DEMOCRATS! I never really did. I used to be a republican. I bypassed the "uncanny valley of suck" that centrist democrats are in VERY quickly, and I became a lot further left, especially on economics.
Economics is my big thing. It's what determines most of my passion and voting behavior. I might just be a bog standard democrat mostly on social issues and foreign policy, but on economics, I've always been further left. I also developed my own custom ideology that is now best explained in a nutshell as "see andrew yang's 2020 platform."
This ideology actually puts me at odds with most of the entire political spectrum. And I've been for it since before I made this blog. If anything, as I get older, I just feel more confident in it, and when I see where the dems are, and how they resist even the most basic leftward shifts, I become disappointed.
I didn't vote for democrats in 2016. Hillary Clinton was the nominee, and she sucked. I hated her. She had this entitlement complex to the presidency and she basically killed all of my sacred cows one or another basically telling me none of the ideas i supported would ever come to pass and I better vote for her or else and blah blah blah. And...I didn't. Because F Hillary Clinton. I fricking can't stand her.
I mean, I'm not entirely aligned with Bernie, but at least we agreed on some top proposals. I would have happily voted for him. But Clinton? No. I HATED her with a visceral passion. And if you recall, the DNC in 2016 did not go over with me. It was a flop. Everything was this choreographed event of "isn't she so great?" and blah blah blah identity politics and blah blah blah touching stories about overcoming adversity and blah blah blah. It didn't resonate.
In 2020, the democrats tried to "hello fellow kids" us. They ran Kamala Harris and pushed her hard, where she had these progressive ideas, but wasn't as progressive as Bernie, and it seemed like she was some corporate dem who was masquerading as a progressive, and as such, I didn't trust her. I figured she would run on left wing things, run right, and do nothing in office.
But no one really bought into her because she seemed almost...AI generated at the time, and the centrists pushed Joe Biden. A candidate who was an outright centrist, and who I basically viewed as "white male Hillary." I mean, here's the thing. The Hillbots pushed the idea that people who didn't want to vote for her didn't want to because she was a woman. No, for me, it was always POLICY. I have specific policies I'm for. UBI, Medicare for all, and Free college were the big ones for me. The New New Deal as I called it at the time. And you can't just replace Clinton with another clone of her policy wise, and expect me to bite. And because the dems once again alienated me with their primary process, I voted for Howie Hawkins.
Now, that said, Biden won, and he's actually been...kind of okay. He offered some olive branches to Bernie supporters and pushed some progressive policies that were...better...than I expected. Like given the expectations were in the basement, he did relatively well. And I kind of warmed up to him over his presidency. Part of this was a matter of the options too. The left went insane post 2020, devolving into literal marxism as a purity test, and closer to the 2024 election were all in with palestine. It's just a mismatch to my values and way too extreme. I mean, I'm not that batcrap insane. yang had his own party early on, only to end up abandoning his entire 2020 platform to merge it with two moderate ex republican third parties. And after looking around at the alternatives...Biden's mild, moderate progressivism was looking pretty darned good. I mean, it wasn't something that really swayed me, but it was SOMETHING. My standards were getting lower and lower, and Biden just started looking better and better as the alternatives crumbled.
Part of this was a shift in me too. I've expanded my own "New New Deal" to include other proposals. Climate change, housing, and Biden did a decent job on some of them. On my original proposals he offered some watered down policies. And honestly, given a lot of the intellectual development I worked on between election cycles in terms of policy, where I started delving into the specifics of healthcare policy and the like, I became more open to policies like Biden's 2020 public option, or Harris's 2020 healthcare plan, both of which would, in theory, at least provide SOME form of universal coverage.
If anything, going into this election cycle, I kind of felt more confident in the democrats than the greens. They supported child tax credits, they supported public option healthcare, they supported free community college with $20k in student loan forgiveness, they supported build back better, a $15 minimum wage., etc. Even if the Biden administration didn't fully deliver on everything I wanted, at least some priorities would be addressed where a future candidate could then focus on UBI. And that was the plan. Okay, baby steps now, UBI later.
I also looked at the political field. Democrats were kind of "low energy" this election cycle as Biden failed to pass a lot of legislation. He was old, he stuttered. Inflation was high. He had no answers. And Trump was just hammering him. And then there was COVID. The dems got attacked for COVID because of lockdowns, they got attacked because they gave money to people during lockdowns, and what are my long term goals? Giving people money so they don't have to work as much any more. My ideas are kind of like COVID era stuff, but more voluntary and less forced. But I never wanted to go back to "normal". I HATE "normal." I hate this busy bodied world of always working and always doing things and I would rather be able to relax and be free from work and blah blah blah. Im the kind of guy who when a snow day comes and stops us from working or going to school, it's like "oh thank god." And it does not elude me that our current busy body way of living is very self imposed, and can be automatically stopped at any time, whether it be for a natural disaster or another reason. Like, we have one mode of doing things where it's everyone working all the time and numbers on chart go up, and then okay, you cant work right now, let's focus on survival and redistribution to those in need.
But of course, the GOP is the ideology of not even shutting down during a disaster, claiming we need to sacrifice old people for the economy, and if they had their way, nothing like what happened during COVID would ever happen again. To them it IS ideological. They dont want people to realize what I ddi, that we can do better. That maybe we dont all have to work all the time. No, they WANT people working all of the time they WANT us to be not just physically, but emotionally dependent on work. THEY are the die hard work fetishists, and I admit, while the democrats are also work fetishists, they're also pretty extreme with it.
And given the polling, it seemed the GOP was winning the argument. They managed to turn people against even basic keynesian economics, and I realize, given the crappy political instincts of the democrats, that if the dems lose here and now, whatever progressive overtures they gave to us would be rolled back, and they would just abandon them and run to the center.
And given trump literally has devolved from merely being an economic populist who is the frontman for the GOP to being a literal threat to democracy, I felt like it was my moral duty to defend the democrats. I mean, what else am I gonna do? The left is all in with palestine. The dems are actually seeming relatively reasonable. I certainly ain't big on Biden, but he's the best we can do, right? Riiiight?
Well, even though Biden was running, there was debate of replacing him, and I did look at Kamala Harris as an alternative. And she's...actually relatively progressive. her healthcare plan was better. She had a public option. hell it was the closest thing to medicare extra for all that I've seen. It was based. I actually looked over Harris's positions in 2020, and due to how much lower the standards have gotten, she actually was a massive upgrade from Biden in some ways.
As such, when she eventually replaced Biden, I was kind of ecstatic from a policy perspective. Hey, we might actually get soemone who fights for my priorities. Who goes BEYOND Biden. Who actually helps shift the democrats to a better path and opens the door for my progressives in the future.
But at the same time, it seemed like this entire thing was an ideological battleground waiting to happen. Harris is the msot progressive democrats they'd allow to run, and she is the kind of democrat who could go one of two ways. To the center or to the left. And I do know there was intense centrist pressure to get Biden out. Not only was it age, but I've noticed a lot of the centrist types hated that he gave ANYTHING to progressives in the first place. And being on the progressive side, I'm trying to ratchet effect this crap and make sure the center doesn't regain control of the party. I hoped Harris would ahve a mind of her own and be more progressive, BUILDING on Biden, CONTINUING AND EXPANDING the shift left. Being MORE progressive. because Harris's record is that of someone...more progressive.
But, there's always been that "well...WILL she go that way?" She didnt announce any policy. And I kind of understood she might acquiesce to the center as well. Abandoning policies, walking things back, running to the center. The first barometer I went by was her VP pick. Walz means progressive for me, Shapiro is neutral, even if it was a finger to the free palestine group, and many of the others I viewed as a shift to the center. Surprisingly, she chose Walz, the best candidate she could have. The candidate we all actually wanted. Of course, looking at her reasons, she did so for Machiavellian reasons.
But still, what about POLICY? Is she going to be as based as I built her up in my head? And that's...where we are now. We finally are getting her policies, and...it's just a Joe Biden second term. No public option, even though Biden was, she completely abandoned that. A few progressive ideas, but nothing that really was ground breaking. She's addressing inflation I guess. but yeah, she's playing it safe.
And I'm just...disappointed. I mean, Biden was kind of the bare minimum for me at this point. And now, it's like....really Kamala? Really, this is all you got? Don't get me wrong, she wants to bring back the child tax credit, build back better, fix the housing market, but given how passionate i was for that public option, it's all kind of meh. And I just can't get over that as a betrayal. healthcare has always been by #2 policy. And it's made or broke candidacies for me before. Even though I loved Yang 2020, his deevolution on healthcare actually drove me back to Bernie. Because it felt like a betrayal. And this is a similar moment for me. The democrats have all but given up on the issue, they've abandoned it, they wanna push the crappy ACA approach and do more fixes around the edges that barely do anything. And I'm just...underwhelmed.
Also, I've been trying to hang out in pro harris spaces online, and i dont fit in. So many of these centrist dems are so fricking stupid its unbelieveable. Many of them have such low standards they'll cheer for literally ANYTHING. And they get excited over over any table scrap the dems offer. They are just in a totally different world than me. And it just seems so fake.
And then arguments break out. Like, sometimes 2016 comes back up. And They end up acting like Hillary was the best thing since sliced bread. I basically said that I hope it hurts that she has to endorse the first woman president and it isnt her (because you know me with hillary). And I basically got "warned" by a mod telling me not to attack democrats.
I unsubbed. Yeah. I just can't deal with these people. i fricking cant stand them. And because I can't say it there, but I can say it here, I'm gonna say it loud and clear.
SCREW HILLARY CLINTON!
Sorry, not sorry, screw you, and your echo chambers too.
I'm tired of compromising with these people. I'm tired of trying to fit in when I don't. My love for Harris is gone. my hope for the democrats is gone. The DNC night one, I wasn't gonna cover the DNC in its entirety until its over, but it just reminds me of 2016 all over again. yeah, let's push identity politics in our face. Let's go on about "job creation" and the "dignity of work", and even speeches from progressives like AOC were disappointing to me. Because honestly? I can't be the only one, can I? I can't be the only one who wishes people who were formerly minimum wage workers, like Harris and AOC, aren't just praising the concept of working and work. F work. F job creation. Why SHOULD we create jobs? So we can give people a paycheck? Why can't we just give people a paycheck? Because we believe in inalienable property rights and oppose redistribution and see it as communism? Well maybe THAT is what has to change.
But that's a fight the dems aren't willing to have. So they're just gonna go "work good, work great, yay jobs, accept the scraps we give you." And honestly, it just feels mask off at this point. The dems always disappoint with their DNCs, and honestly, the work worship just didn't do anything for me. I was DELIVERANCE. We need like a new Moses to deliver people from fricking wage slavery. I see work as oppressive. i see it as evil. I see it as stealing our lives. And the dems are just leaning hard into this, because they'd rather prove to moderates how not communist they are by leaning into a moderate version of the same BS the right does.
I mean, this is more ideological. When I think about it, it isn't even just policy here. it's their entire outlook on life. It's their entire ideology. Their entire worldview. I just can't get into this mindset. It just comes off as brainwashed option B to the republican's option A.
And honestly, at this point, I'm just disaffected. because I realize, hey, I'm really not one of these people. I dont see the world the same way as them. I dont value the same things, i still have my original policy goals in mind. I've been trying to work with them, but it seems like that's reaching a dead end, and part of me wants to protest vote again.
I mean, I really do. After watching the DNC night one, I go back to the greens and their platform is looking pretty good to me relatively speaking. Not that I agree with them either, not that I can work with them or fit in their box either. I mean, I've tried that before, and I fudnamentally don't share their values either in a lot of ways. But on my big issues, I do align with them, as flawed as they are on everything else.
Honestly, I just don't fit in anyone's box. I make my own box. And I feel lonely. Because very few people are here with me, and almost no one of power is. Everyone is just brainwashed into this crazy work cult we live in, and I hate it. They won't even push for their own freedom and independence. We are truly a society of slaves brainwashed into embracing their servitude.
As such. I'll say this much. I still plan to vote for Harris. but the magic is gone, and this is primarily a vote against Trump and the republicans, not a vote FOR harris. The GOP has gone a bit too far this time with how dangerous they are for the country, and as I've said before, this is a strategic retreat to live and fight another day. My vote for Harris should not be viewed as an endorsement of Harris, but a condemnation of Trump, his authoritarianism, and the batcrap insanity that is the modern Republican movement. I want to make this as crystal clear as possible.
At this point, Stein has earned my vote more on economics at least. But I still feel a moral responsibility to support Harris for other reasons. That is all.
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