I'm picking up everything you're putting down, and while I don't want to fall into the "realpolitik" rabbit hole, I do think young progressives need to become a much more reliable voting bloc before the spineless Dems will make any substantive shifts on policy.
I hate that, and I think it's cowardly for the party, but there's a cynical rationality to assuming it's easier to pluck off an old person who's only slightly racist and only scared of most things than banking on a 22-year-old to show up at the polls.
I'm in my mid-forties now but I only started voting reliably in my late twenties. Obviously I wish had I been more engaged when I was younger, but it's hard to convince young voters to give a shit when the neoliberal consensus is doing backroom deals and pork barrel politics like the days of yesteryear while the world burns.
I don't have any answers, but I do hope young voters and progressives show up big for Kamala and then stay politically engaged. The Dems have no moral compass and will shift with the winds to hold power. Hopefully the progressive voting bloc will emerge and force them, kicking and screaming, in that direction.
Yeah, I agree with what you're saying. I don't care to be the voting police. My goal was for anyone in my audience that feels like they're in a moral bind or working their way through their logic to hopefully help them think things through and assure them that they're not alone in being disappointed with where the Dems are heading.
I also see the other side that if the Democrats can assume young progressives are baked into the coalition and they have nowhere to go, they can continue to pursue neoliberal policies with no consequence. But losing to Trump the first time showed me that they won't do any internal reflection anyway, so might as well do harm reduction since Trump would be more horrific on Gaza and be awful domestically.
What it really came down to for me was that if America is going to make any further social progress, this MAGA culture war shit needs to die. And that will only be accomplished if they keep losing enough elections where it becomes undeniable that this is a liability. So, I cast the vote for the coconut lady. I don't feel great about it, but I really don't want another four years of Trump.
Agree, especially with your last point. The culture war shit needs to go away, and there needs to be real, substantive policy discussions on how to make the society more equitable: socially, financially, economically, etc.
My hope is, if Harris wins, the reactionary MAGA dipshits will get disenfranchised and go back into hiding. We need to prove, as a society, there's no place for hate/exclusion as policy.
All this said, I'm increasingly fearful Don's gonna win again. The 2016 vibes are everywhere, as you mentioned in this post, and I suspect there will be many young, progressive voters who sit out. Worse still, the media and the neoliberal class don't grasp just how appealing mass deportation of non-Whites is as a policy anchor for the MAGA crowd.
Thanks for sharing how you voted and your thoughts on it all, fr. it's pretty hard to do the math for project 2025 + ongoing genocide and knowing where my cohorts land is genuinely helpful. (literally last night i was laying in bed thinking, THIS IS SUCH A MESS, WHAT THE HELL IS OUR PLAN?)
It's depressing. I'm not the voting police by any means, just getting shit off my chest. What's happening in Gaza is repulsive to me, but I'm under no illusion that Trump or the GOP would be any more humane. I'm also under no illusion that Kamala will usher in a new era of progressive altruism and she will continue corporate-friendly center-right policies. Sure, this is preferable than MAGA fascism, but the gap between the two is getting much closer than a lot of liberals would want to admit.
I'm picking up everything you're putting down, and while I don't want to fall into the "realpolitik" rabbit hole, I do think young progressives need to become a much more reliable voting bloc before the spineless Dems will make any substantive shifts on policy.
I hate that, and I think it's cowardly for the party, but there's a cynical rationality to assuming it's easier to pluck off an old person who's only slightly racist and only scared of most things than banking on a 22-year-old to show up at the polls.
I'm in my mid-forties now but I only started voting reliably in my late twenties. Obviously I wish had I been more engaged when I was younger, but it's hard to convince young voters to give a shit when the neoliberal consensus is doing backroom deals and pork barrel politics like the days of yesteryear while the world burns.
I don't have any answers, but I do hope young voters and progressives show up big for Kamala and then stay politically engaged. The Dems have no moral compass and will shift with the winds to hold power. Hopefully the progressive voting bloc will emerge and force them, kicking and screaming, in that direction.
Yeah, I agree with what you're saying. I don't care to be the voting police. My goal was for anyone in my audience that feels like they're in a moral bind or working their way through their logic to hopefully help them think things through and assure them that they're not alone in being disappointed with where the Dems are heading.
I also see the other side that if the Democrats can assume young progressives are baked into the coalition and they have nowhere to go, they can continue to pursue neoliberal policies with no consequence. But losing to Trump the first time showed me that they won't do any internal reflection anyway, so might as well do harm reduction since Trump would be more horrific on Gaza and be awful domestically.
What it really came down to for me was that if America is going to make any further social progress, this MAGA culture war shit needs to die. And that will only be accomplished if they keep losing enough elections where it becomes undeniable that this is a liability. So, I cast the vote for the coconut lady. I don't feel great about it, but I really don't want another four years of Trump.
Agree, especially with your last point. The culture war shit needs to go away, and there needs to be real, substantive policy discussions on how to make the society more equitable: socially, financially, economically, etc.
My hope is, if Harris wins, the reactionary MAGA dipshits will get disenfranchised and go back into hiding. We need to prove, as a society, there's no place for hate/exclusion as policy.
All this said, I'm increasingly fearful Don's gonna win again. The 2016 vibes are everywhere, as you mentioned in this post, and I suspect there will be many young, progressive voters who sit out. Worse still, the media and the neoliberal class don't grasp just how appealing mass deportation of non-Whites is as a policy anchor for the MAGA crowd.
And we haven't even had an October surprise yet!
As for the October surprise, the Mets aren't out yet!
Thanks for sharing how you voted and your thoughts on it all, fr. it's pretty hard to do the math for project 2025 + ongoing genocide and knowing where my cohorts land is genuinely helpful. (literally last night i was laying in bed thinking, THIS IS SUCH A MESS, WHAT THE HELL IS OUR PLAN?)
It's depressing. I'm not the voting police by any means, just getting shit off my chest. What's happening in Gaza is repulsive to me, but I'm under no illusion that Trump or the GOP would be any more humane. I'm also under no illusion that Kamala will usher in a new era of progressive altruism and she will continue corporate-friendly center-right policies. Sure, this is preferable than MAGA fascism, but the gap between the two is getting much closer than a lot of liberals would want to admit.
I guess kamala is not getting all the misogynist voters
Oh well
https://marlowe1.substack.com/p/job-chapter-17