Why people don't like democrats

 So, this shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone who has followed this blog for a while, but despite leaning left, I REALLY don't like democrats. I mean, I hate the GOP and see their destruction as a party as a lifelong ambition, but honestly, I REALLY don't like democrats either, to the point that sometimes I really am tempted by "both sides-ism." Watching the democratic response to the SOTU reminded me of that. Kudos to anyone who actually attempted to push back against the right in stark moral terms, but let's face it, that wasn't most of them. And that's part of the problem. Heck, watching that responses reminded me exactly of why Harris lost last year. She didn't show a real stark difference between herself, the previous administration she was part of, or the republicans even in some ways. She was just a weak candidate who was just kind of there and ended up being weak and uninspiring. But what drives this phenomenon. Why do people hate democrats so much? Let's discuss.

1) The complete and utter lack of values on things that people care about

Democrats don't fight for things. They speak in monotone, they ramble on without saying much. They preach conservative values, just in a more tepid and moderate way. And they just don't fight for anything. If anything, they come off as the party of weaponized incompetence. While Obama's slogan in 2008 was "Yes we can", the party leadership is always "no we can't." They don't even try. Everything is "well we don't have the votes" and "I'm a president, not a king", and "we need to be pragmatic and incremental." It's like any time they're told to do something, they resist the pressure and then act insufferable when made to actually do what they're elected to. They have no vision, no real platform that matters, and yes, they have policy on their campaign sites, but its vague and offers no real solutions. Everything is a half ###ed compromise that barely accomplishes anything, and then they expect you to be GRATEFUL for that.

 2) They condescend to and lecture voters

Democrats think they know everything. They are the smart half of the country, but they come off as so insufferable about it. Not only do they ignore what voters want, but they are so condescending about it. Everything with that is "if you knew what was good for you, you'd vote for us" and they'd come up with these weird propagandistic phrases like "most progressive administration ever" and they list all of these accomplishments as if they mean something, but most people don't feel their lives improve. And that's the worst part. People dont feel like liberal policy makes their lives better. You might as well set their tax dollars on fire when you invest so many billions in such and such thing that people don't feel. And then they have the gall to call voters stupid for not feeling the difference in their lives, and not acting like their lives are better. This doesn't win people over. It just makes them look insufferable.

3) They care way too much about issues voters don't

If you ask people what they think of the democrats, a common theme that comes up these days is "too woke." I never liked "wokeness." I always felt like it was a psy op and a distraction from real issues, and it really is. It was pushed by Clinton to attack both those darned bernie bros who cared about universal healthcare, and trumpers who was sociopathically uncouth and offensive in their language and rhetoric. It existed as a form of tone policing and perceived moral superiority, like we're "better" than those trumpers and when they go low, we go high. Well, going high didnt work out for us. Why not? because no one likes you. The right despises you and get off on literally offending you. The left just ends up bullied and scolded for not caring about the "right" issues. Social justice advocates will aggressively lecture disaffected democrats about how their politics is "their rights" and how you need to put their issues above everything else and how DARE you not be more enthusiastic. Meanwhile, this behavior just drives people away. A decade ago, a lot of young men liked bernie because he spoke to the issues on the economy people cared about. We were told to STFU, check our privilege, and now we scratch our heads as the next generation of young men are starting to turn hard right. What does the democrats do for these people? NOTHING. if anything they make their lives worse, and that's the problem. 

Honestly, most of the realignment since 2016, from a voter perspective, is driven by economics. People dont care about wokeness. if anything, they despise wokeness. They hate it. People on the right really hate it and tilt at windmills over it, while apathetic moderates and disaffected voters just end up not seeing much of a point in voting. 

4) Not only are they useless, but they stop others from doing anything

 Democrats are always very quick to remind us that we live in a two party system, and that if we do not vote for them, they get trump. Progressives have been caught in a bind for the past decade. We can't push for the things we want because the democrats actively fight us on it, and win primaries and the like against us. We can't go third party and do our own thing because then we're "helping trump win." So we're stuck in an unhealthy relationship with the democratic party where we're constantly lectured and harassed and scolded for not liking democrats, and pushing for their stuff, and caring about whether they win, and then people dont turn out for them. Because not only are they weak. Not only do they lecture and condescend to voters, not only are their priorities out of alignment with a lot of voters, but then they have the gall to sabotage those who want to offer a different brand of politics, because ultimately, their entire goal is to keep power in their party as the king of the ashes, and they keep us in this corporate duopoly where we have to either vote for them, or republicans win. They dont allow themselves to innovate. They dont allow voter driven initatives to success. They actively sabotage their own base, and their own enthusiasm, where we're left with a party that no one wants, but everyone is forced to vote for, or else we get the alternative. 

5) The uncanny valley of suck

As for what the democrats do stand for, they stand for centrism, they stand for incrementalism, they stand for compromise, and they often reflect a weaker version of conservative values, rather than their own values. How does this work out for them? Well, it alienates the left, who wants a stronger, more working class oriented vision for the party. But then they also dont gain the right, who screams at them that they're communist no matter what they do. And in trying to prove that they're not communist, their solution to everything is to move further right. This creates a situation where their own voter enthusiasm is depressed by their overtures to the center don't really do much either to win people over. So they just can't garner enough voters in order to win elections. 

6) Their leadership is old and out of touch

The reality of the situation is that 2016 was a realigning year. We are exiting the sixth party system, and now in the seventh, or at least a really horrible transition period between the two. The republicans have taken full advantage of the moment to push a vision for America and claim they have a mandate, even when they do not, while the democrats are literally stuck in the 1990s. A lot of their weakness comes from this. The 6th party system democrats had to cede ideological ground to Reagan to win elections, and these guys have been in office since 1992 and don't realize that their time has passed and that they're losing relevance. Instead they try to maintain relevance in the 21st century by being a weird centrist version of both democrats and reagan republicans. This strategy has been largely unsuccessful, and has given Trump and Trumpism the moral high ground in the eyes of many Americans. Say what you want about the GOP but at least they have a vision and fight for it. Our side just rolls over and plays dead like it's 1992 all over again. 

7) Win or lose, they're insufferable

Democrats are both really terrible winners and really terrible losers. When they win elections, they do push a narrative that no one likes. They go on about how centrism wins while doubling down on lecturing people about how they just don't get it and that elections are won with their brand of milquetoast centrism. This makes people being lectured actively NOT want to support them. Meanwhile if they lose, they will scream at third party voters for not supporting them, and people who stayed home, not realizing that the problem is them. And the fact is, they never learn anything from their defeats. They keep trying the same strategy, and some of the time, it actually works, simply because people hate the republicans so bad that they will vote for anything to get them out of office. But once again, much like the republicans, they will claim this gives them a moral mandate, even when it doesn't, and they will lose the next election as a result, and then the cycle continues. 

8) They're bought out by big money

And finally, let's talk about the real reason why all of this is a problem. The fact is, the democrats seem like they're paid to lose. They are controlled by donors. They pursue that sweet sweet billionaire donation money, and ultimately, it is them who forces them into this predicament. The billionaires want their interests protected, so they insist that democrats go all in on centrism even if it isn't popular, and then redirect people to caring about social issues instead. The focus on wokeness was not organic. It was pushed by the clinton campaign in 2016 and has been the liberal zeitgeist since. And it's toxic. it locks us into culture wars that we can't win because it's not popular. It distracts us from the bread and butter economic issues which voters actually care about, and because voters just aren't into the democrats and their brand, they'd rather vote for MAGA. And that's how we got here. And even in this age of nascent fascism, the mainstream of the democratic party is worthless and refuses to do anything. It's almost as if they're paid to lose. Because they probably are. 

The fact is, America is an oligarchy by and for the rich. Our democracy is essentially a sham, and the rich are licking their lips as they now have the opportunity to push trump as if he has a mandate, while clipping the wings of the democrats who will be forced to run even further to the center. And this is why we are here. This is what the robber barons want. it;s what they've always wanted. Their goal since the inception of the new deal, has been to revert it, and all progress made since then. Phase 1 was Reagan and neoliberal and the shock doctrine politics of the 1980s. The second phase starts now, as we stand at the gates of hell, with the trump administration undermining democracy, and elon musk undermining our safety nets. This has been their goal all along. They want to go back to the pre 1929 world of the gilded age. No, scratch that, pre 1913 world, because obviously the greatest evil ever was the 16th amendment and the implementation of the income tax. And that's what MAGA really is. When was America great? 1870-1913. Why did it stop being great in 1913? Because income tax.

Really, all of this is a scam to make rich people richer. And democrats are just the controlled opposition that is paid to lose. They really work for the same donors, they're just the good cop, to the republicans' bad cop.

Until we get money out of our politics, things are not going to get better, and the democrats are going to be as useless as ever. They're not your friend. They're not our friends. They're just the republican-lite controlled opposition.

Real leaders are the exceptions to the rule, like Bernie and AOC. And we could've had their politics be mainstream in this era, instead of trump, if only the democratic party wasn't so beholden to big money. 

And yes, that concludes my article on why people don't like democrats. This article isn't exhaustive, there are probably more reasons, but this is the big one, and this is where I feel like we are in 2025. And this is where the party needs to change most if it wants to remain relevant in the modern era and not just be a weak party that actually does what the people want. At the end of the day, what matters is what the people want. Billionaires dont decide elections structurally. They need the consent of the people. Billionaires just use their money to control how and whether the parties can reach the people. And it's clear that if the democratic party is going to change for the better, it needs to clean house of its old leadership, and throw the big monied interests overboard. Maybe they'll take a hit if they do financially. But at the end of the day, the politicians should serve the people, not the donors, and perhaps they should learn from the likes of AOC and Bernie if they actually wanna adapt to the current times. it is very much possible to win elections without big money, and through small dollar donations. but the party needs to get out of its own way on that front and let it happen, and stop taking that sweet sweet soros and company campaign cash.