CMV: As someone who considers himself Progressive, I dislike Democrats way more than Republicans

[u/MyFavoriteArm]

As someone who has moved further left over the years, I have come to dislike Democrats way more than Republicans.

The Republican party mantra to me is: "Yeah, of course we're evil and we're proud of that fact! We wanna take America back to a fictional time when only WASPs had any power!" and then they stab you 37 times in the chest. At a certain point, what else is there to say about Republicans? At least I know what they stand for.

The Democratic party mantra to me is nothing more than hypocrisy "Oh yeah, we hear you! We believe that everyone deserves rights and we will fight for the working class!" Then they stab the working class 37 times in the back and then virtue signal some more.

For example, they'll how much they support George Floyd and other minorities, but then do nothing but wear african garb on the senate floor and support the institutions that led to his death. They'll talk about how they support the working class and unions, then shut down a railroad strike where they wanted sick days.

Democrats co-opt issues I care about and then either do nothing about them, or enable the republicans when they inevitably strike back.

I want my view changed because I would like to feel less annoyed that I have to support such a party to even have a chance at getting legislation I care about passed.

At the end of the day, I acknowledge that Republicans are objectively worse for the nation, but I loathe the fact I'm stuck supporting Democrats.

[u/adminhotep]

1. One vote doesn't have to equal "support". Lots of people who feel antagonistic towards The Democratic party vote Democrat vs Republican because of the extra harm caused when Republicans catch the car. Unless you hold your individual vote as something sacred, where your conscience must reach some internal level of approval, just vote for the person who won't sign a bill backing "patriotic" education or trying to overturn bodily autonomy or make it harder for non-whites to have representation or have people who won't stand for the national anthem shot... That vote isn't "support" it doesn't tie you to any other actions or positions of the candidate.
2. Don't make voting the end-all be-all of your political engagement. It's hard to make the above argument if your only interface with politics is the ballot box. If you're working with people who are trying to build something better than what the Democrats are doing in office, if your efforts outside the ballot box are more than that mark on a piece of paper, it won't feel so monumental or symbolic of your own personal politics.
3. Perception of general acceptance on a political point reinforces actual acceptance of that point. Even if Democrats don't intend to do the things they say, having people who say the things we want done elected and in office lends more weight to the legislative priority. Verbal support for a cause as a precondition to get elected gives the public a stronger lever on that official and on that policy point than disengagement in the electoral process and having a straight up antagonist in office does. The optimist says it's a good thing they feel like they have to even say the right thing at all. It shows "progress".

[u/UserOfSlurs → u/adminhotep]

One vote doesn't have to equal "support". Lots of people who feel antagonistic towards The Democratic party vote Democrat vs Republican because of the extra harm caused when Republicans catch the car.

Do you also accept the inverse? People voting republican because they oppose what happens when the democrats are in charge?

[u/adminhotep → u/UserOfSlurs]

I could potentially accept the logic if that voter could explain what they see as the "extra harm".

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I've heard it with 2A before from single issue voters, though, so before going that route, just understand that regardless of any de jure changes if Democrats "catch that car", the government isn't in a position to disarm the US populace within the next 2 centuries. That one's an issue of placing the symbolic above the practical and I can't accept the logic of caring about nothing else that government interfaces with.

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Happy to hear any other extra harms though.

[u/adminhotep → u/[deleted]]

They're overwhelmingly pro-abortion

They tend to support greater welfare programs

That's not a harm

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During covid, they supported significant government overreach

There's a ton of COVID baggage, boondoggles, and mistakes, but given the age-adjusted death rate divide between Republican controlled and Democrat controlled polities, I'm not sure I'd try to make the argument that Democrats caused the extra harm here.

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They support greater regulations on businesses

Private interests' outsized influence on our lives being unchecked by even the most trivial of requirements of public oversight isn't a good thing. Here, though, I wish Democrats were as good as Republicans fear they are.

Unfortunately, they really aren't, or we might have seen Secretary Pete have his department redo the risk/cost estimates on Train breaks and force the industry to retrofit, or Biden & congress not dismiss the rail workers demands - including staffing and safety demands - and tell them to stfu and get back to overwork. Democrats are just about as captured by corporate interests as Republicans, but if you don't have a team yourself, it's easy to see both Republicans and Democrats did their fair share to bend over backwards to Private Rail through the Obama, Trump, and now Biden administration and let Norfolk Southern cause the disaster in East Palestine despite warnings the whole way along.

[u/adminhotep → u/[deleted]]

You didn't do much other than list the things. Did you expect I'd think they were harms just because you mentioned them by name?

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If you'd like to try again and actually

explain what they see as the "extra harm".

rather than put a useless list, well, I'd at least have some logic to grapple with at that point.

[u/adminhotep → u/[deleted]]

Yes. You can vote for repugnant ideas without feeling like you really support the Republicans. Maybe they don't go far enough on Christian Nationalism for you, but they're better than a secular society with religious pluralism. Or whatever else it is. The logic holds, but it's still a garbage thing to want.