So, earlier this month I discussed Cenk Uygur going on about how MAGA isnt the enemy, the establishment is the enemy, and I did give some thoughts on that, but now Cenk is going on Turning Point USA and talking with Charlie Kirk, and it was cringe. Kyle Kulinski watched and reacted to it today, and Im reacting to Kyle.
i didnt watch the entire thing because, well, its christmas eve and even I have enough of a life to not be spending all night behind a computer watching political videos. But long story short, I'm reacting to Kyle.
As I said my previous take, the right is the "big bad." What ultimately drives me is opposition to the right. I admit that post 2016 we are going in a direction of the political divide being establishment vs anti establishment, and, well, I think that's bad, very bad. I think the worst thing that could happen to politics is for that to be the future. Why? Well, I'll sum it up. We got two right wing parties. The problem with establishment democrats is they're centrist, corporate democrats who genuflect at the altar of right wing ideology. They're not full on right wingers, but they're diet right wingers. Everything with them is compromise and incrmentalism.
But keep in mind, MAGA is RIGHT WING. They're just a tiny bit to the left of reagan and tea party democrats, if only for the protectionism and language of being against the establishment, but Trump is a demagogue. He offers no solutions. And this weird populist left to alt right pipeline is a TRAP! Just because democrats suck doesnt mean that going full rightoid is the answer. You dont wanna be Jimmy Dore or Tulsi Gabbard or that kind of figure. I get how the dems use the threat of trump to bully us into line, but if youre gonna go against the dems, do it by being neutral and refusing to support either faction. Dont do it by supporting the right.
Because when you support MAGA, you're supporting the right. Full stop.
Like this is why i dont go all in with the "populist" craze despite having populist inclinations myself. Worldview matters, ideology matters, policy goals matter. Populism doesnt mean crap to be if its substanceless, or even worse, if its right wing. Because for me, the right is the real enemy. The problem with democrats is that they're diet right wingers. You dont fix that problem by embracing fricking MAGA. Those guys are the real right wingers.
This is why I never liked Trump. He never had any policies that would actually help people. Do I get the appeal? Sure. But I also need to temporarily lose like 30 IQ points and shut my brain off and imagine what it would be like if I had none of the knowledge I have to get it. Now, does that mean I'm calling MAGA supporters dumb? Well, in a way, yeah, I'll own that. You guys are dumb. Well, ignorant. You dont understand things so you go by vibes, and i understand your typical american doesnt have my level of education, knowledge, or skill in politics. Sorry, not sorry. That makes me a bit elitist, not all that different from your typical craplib, but to be fair, im not on their side either. I'm not financially successful to buy into their upper class bougie worldview either, quite frankly. And I get that the dems are failing mainstream Americans. I just understand MAGA isnt the solution.
This is also why i didnt like RFK. "He was the guy who....will do...the thing...." but no one could actually say what the thing was and how it would help. It was vibes. Pure feelings. It didn't mean ANYTHING.
Believe me, when I liked bernie in 2016, it was for his policies. When I liked yang, it was for his ideology, worldview, and exegesis of the situation, even if I felt his iteration of policies like UBI was flawed. I have GOALS. I have ideas for HOW to fix America, and quite frankly, my goal is to advance my vision. Plain and simple. The support I give candidates is proportional to how much I feel that supporting them will advance my vision.
And we saw the pecking order this time around. No faction was great, but centrist dems were kinda....so so. Not amazing, i wasnt passionate about them, but it was like...is there an alternative? The greens and the like, for every pro they also had a con. Not to mention third party seemed like a really bad idea in 2024 with trump on the ballot. RFK was quite low, and trump was literally in the basement.
That was for a reason. Because I literally weighed candidates on how they reflected my ideology, worldview, and policy positions, and I embraced Biden and Harris because, well, they were the least bad candidates in my estimation. Not that they were great. They were the least bad. Plain and simple.
I dont deny that the establishment is a problem. But always remember, the problem with the establishment is they're right wing. The problem with MAGA is they're even more right wing. Never forget it. The problem is, by and large, right wing worldview, ideology, and policy preferences. Being populist means F all if they're far right. And MAGA is far right.
I have to agree with Kyle that Cenk is making a major tactical error here. I get it, SJWs are annoying, Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland are annoying, blah blah blah. But....playing footsie with charlie kirk isnt gonna do ANYTHING to advance our causes. Because they're literally the anathema to them. They're the exact opposite.
I'm not saying we should just castigate all maga VOTERS. But let's stop playing paddycakes with MAGA and its ideological representatives. They're the FAR RIGHT. They're THE BIG BAD. My beef with the democrats comes down to the fact that at the end of the day, theyre pushing US, the left, and not even the crazy far left, keep in mind I'm not a "leftist" or a far left guy, I'm basically just an extreme "liberal", not a communist, out of the overton window. If we have to fight the democrats to be able to organize and take on the right, so be it. That's why I've been anti democratic party. I believe we need to take on the establishment to force the democratic party to actually move left so we have a vehicle to actually go after the right. But let's not forget the main goal here. We're supposed to fight the right, not join them. Taking on the establishment dems is a means to an end of acquiring the one organizational vehicle capable of taking on the right. Without the democrats, we can't win against the right. Full stop. We're just gonna remain like 1-2% of the population that just ends up being politically homeless. Never forget that. This is why being mindlessly anti establishment without any ideological convictions is so bad. Because you just end up getting swept up by demagogues and joining the right.
Cenk Uygur should know better. I respect Cenk, but some of his shifts and rhetoric post election are kind of playing with fire. So are some of Ana's shifts as well.
Once again, yes, democrats bad. Democrats diet right wing. MAGA even worse though, MAGA hard right wing. If we gotta take a stand of neutrality in order to pressure the dems to move left, so be it. Im not gonna expect anyone to support or defend the dems given their inability and unwillingness to advance our interests. Just dont support the right directly. Support left wing causes outside of the democrats if you must. But dont join MAGA. Dont join the right. Be open to winning some of their most moderate and independent voters, especially the ones who are just mindless populists with no real ideology, but honestly, never forget, about 80% of MAGA voters are a lost cause. They're LITERAL REPUBLICANS and HARD RIGHT. It's just about peeling enough of their coalition away to isolate the rest of them and make them unable to win elections. Any more compromise than that and you're just selling us out.
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