LogFAQs > #951561604

The political system is NOT fair and equitable, Tony. The Democratic Party has to work twice as hard and be twice as good as the GOP just to achieve equality with the GOP. However, that is from the inherent make-up of the political system. The Senate and the Electoral college are designed to benefit smaller states (who are more likely to vote Republican) by giving them a disproportionate amount of power. And in the House, seats can be assigned by partisan gerrymandering, which again, has a benefit to the GOP.

But clearly that's not what you're referring to. You're referring to internal politics, where a longstanding history of power begets further power (much like how wealth inequality arises as wealth begets wealth). And yeah, it's difficult for an outsider to gain traction when the establishment has in-roads, but that's just why you need to work harder. Unless there is a unilateral disarmament (by which I mean every person in both parties is expelled and both the Democrats and GOP are forced to start from the ground up, which still wouldn't work because there's no way to completely remove outside influence in campaigning), you have to work within the system as it is, not the system as you wish it was.

And it's DOABLE. That's the thing. It's DOABLE to win as an outsider. AOC beat the 4th-in-line ranking Democrat in a primary to take his seat. Barack Obama, a one-term Senator, beat political juggernaut Hillary Clinton. But it just comes across as whenever progressives lose, it's not your fault and the system is broken, and there's nothing you can do to change things. Bernie loses in 2016 to a candidate that Barack Obama was able to overcome, and your takeaway from that was "we'll run the same candidate and the same style of campaign, and THIS time we'll win." And then he loses and the reaction is the same thing. It comes across as arrogant. When I argue with you, that is the attitude you give off. "My ideas are right and therefore the people will reward me for my intelligence if I just keep doing the same thing over and over again to the same, failing result." Just TRY to fucking win for fuck's sake. I WANT you to fucking win and you fucking REFUSE to do so unless it's on your EXACT terms.

And as for why I get angrier at progressives than at Republicans, it's simple. Republicans are fucking morons who support disastrous policies that fuck themselves over in order to fuck "others" over more. But when they vote for their politicians, they get what they THINK they want. The Dems get fucked over and the GOP win. Meanwhile, while progressives sabotage the Democratic Party, you guys don't get ANYTHING you want. And you KNOW this. It's not like the GOP, where they're been convinced that stabbing themselves in the gut is beneficial, so they'll grip the knife themselves. No, you KNOW the GOP fucks you over a helluvalot harder than the Democrats do, if only because they want to actively reverse progress, as opposed to doing nothing. Yet you still regularly come across as though you would rather fuck over the Democrats and accept Republican rule as part of some misguided belief that accelarationism will fix everything. News Flash: the moderates think the same thing about acceleration with progressives, and moderates are hurt a LOT less than progressives under Republican rule.

And when I say nitpicking, let's look at the $15 minimum wage. Massive improvement from $7.25. But then comes the nitpicking. "Why is it incremental, it should be $15 immediately?" Never mind that asking companies to INSTANTLY double their payroll is just asking for workers to get fucked over harder than a gradual increase to a new maximum. "Why is it $15? That was barely good enough back in 2016, but NOW the minimum wage should be $24." Yes, because the $15 that we can't get passed through budget reconciliation would certainly be more palatable if we upped it by 9 dollars. These are the things that, if the minimum wage increase DID pass, progressives would STILL complain about as being not good enough, and the end result is exactly the scenario I described: trying desperately to appease a group that's never satisfied, and alienating your base.

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