Re: the democrats aren't coming to save us
This is not a political blog. I have no plans or intentions of turning it into a political blog. That said, raising kids in the USA comes with a lot of anxieties and oh man are a chunk of those anxieties political. So here we are.
I think this post by Absurd Pirate gets a lot right. The centrist wing of the Democratic party absolutely believes it is sufficient to just not be Trump. The same way it was sufficient for Clinton to not be Bush 1, and to a lesser degree it was sufficient for Obama to not be Bush 2. They will absolutely try that play again, and the real killer is it may work... for a term. None of the underlying problems will be solved by Gavin Newsom, and we will be right back here in 4 or 8 years facing another tide of rising fascism.
This sentence got me, though:
Let me make it perfectly clear, the Democratic party HATES you just as much as the Republicans, they'll just add a #blm and a pride flag emoji at the end of the "fuck you".
Here's the thing: there is no Democratic party. Certainly not as an entity that can hate. There are people that have more money than anyone can ethically have, and they probably hate you, or at least hold you in absent contempt. The problem is that these people have a far stronger voice than anyone else in the Democratic party.
The kicker is that those same people, literally the very same humans, have too-strong a voice in the Republican party. It's all one big club, a wise man said, and you and I ain't in it.
So what do we do?
The antidote to fascism is ... the people rallying against the machine that has done so much to distract them from the problem with their culture war bullshit.
Facts. Plain and simple facts. But what does that look like? What sledgehammer can we swing into that machine's gears? Protests are great, I've been to many over the last 10 years. They feel good. They feel like rallying, like fighting, but nothing changes.
I propose that we, the people not in of the rich boys' club, have to take over one of the two parties. The way we run elections in this country make a third party impossible. Given that, which of the two parties can we take over? The answer seems obvious.
So show up to primaries and vote. If there's nobody good to vote for in your district then try to talk somebody you like into running (or run yourself!) Show up to committee meetings and make your voice heard. Join the Young Democrats and start talking to people. Organize!
If you're reading this from a deep red state, you've voted Republican your whole life, but you still find what's going on as disgusting as I do, by all means try to take over your local Republican party and drag it back to sanity. I don't envy you the task.
Above all, resist the nihilism that's rampant in our discourse. I'm not saying that Absurd Pirate or his post is nihilist. Like I said, I think his post gets a lot right. I just see an easy path from the "Republicans are fascist" to "the Democrats aren't going to save us" to "everything is fucked and it's not worth trying."
Try. We have to. Our kids are counting on us.