I agree with all of this, especially that the left's unpopular social justice politics are a problem in elections. Sometimes the connection feels obvious: I believe "defund the police" did cost seats in 2020, and I was glad that Abigail Spanberger went off on the caucus after she almost lost her seat due to Republicans associating her with it.
AOC making a show of saying "menstruating people" probably won't impact the elections directly, in part because they're over a year away. But every time Democrats talk like this, they alienate people. It all contributes to our image as the party of smug, woke elites. Ordinary people (quite reasonably) view this version of "social justice" politics as hostile to their lives and values, and more importantly, they viscerally dislike the people who promote it.
This makes it emotionally satisfying to align with the other tribe, the one that doesn't call you problematic for saying "pregnant women" or wanting someone to answer when you call 911. Because, fuck those smug annoying kids.
We're losing so many people with this nonsense, and even when some of these fads go away, it's going to be hard to get them back.
Dynamics such as this induce me to view the Democratic Party with severe mistrust on a fundamental level.
There is an dual need for them to secure fundraising to keep themselves in office, and needing to secure actual live humans to cast a ballot for them to stay in office. When there is a conflict between what their donors demand and what their voters demand, push comes to shove, they prioritize the donor class and play political theater to placate their base.
I suspect them of assigning roles to their people to make sure that they will always be but a few votes short of real, permanent, material change in favor of the economic populists. “If only we’d won just six more seats two years ago,” they sigh. “Then we could pass this.” But I would expect that if they’d won TEN more seats, the “moderate” bloc of hold out votes from their own party would ballon up in size and they’d still be lamenting that they just couldn’t pull it off this cycle; congressmen would switch out according to who needed to look stern for their red state constituents and who needed to look radical for their progressive constituents.
Perhaps I am paranoid (spoiler alert, I AM paranoid, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m incorrect), but I do not believe them when the claim to want what they say they want. They are simply telling me what I need to hear to show up- we are so close to final victory, the GOP looms menacingly, you must punch this ballot in the D slot to do your part. And somehow I’ll get the same line ten years from now regardless of who wins and loses.
Don’t forget that the super caring, super amazing and super nice Democrats and joe Biden have decided. “Fuck the poor” by saying that “if you’re a freelance writer, small time Etsy dealer, or sell some crafts on Facebook marketplace then fuck you pay us!”
I can’t think of anything that helps small timers more than making sure that anything they make over 600 dollars is taxable. As we all know the rich like to move really tiny amounts of money around.
It’s estimated to generate an additional 8.4 billion…. You know over 10 years. A truly monumental amount of money.
Assuming the literal physics of the energy spent printing and mailing out all of the notices after notices and the phone calls and the harassment for 19 year olds mowing lawns with their grandfather to “pay their damned taxes” don’t end up costing more.
It just shows how elitist democrats are. They don’t get it. And they don’t care. At all.
I agree with all of this, especially that the left's unpopular social justice politics are a problem in elections. Sometimes the connection feels obvious: I believe "defund the police" did cost seats in 2020, and I was glad that Abigail Spanberger went off on the caucus after she almost lost her seat due to Republicans associating her with it.
AOC making a show of saying "menstruating people" probably won't impact the elections directly, in part because they're over a year away. But every time Democrats talk like this, they alienate people. It all contributes to our image as the party of smug, woke elites. Ordinary people (quite reasonably) view this version of "social justice" politics as hostile to their lives and values, and more importantly, they viscerally dislike the people who promote it.
This makes it emotionally satisfying to align with the other tribe, the one that doesn't call you problematic for saying "pregnant women" or wanting someone to answer when you call 911. Because, fuck those smug annoying kids.
We're losing so many people with this nonsense, and even when some of these fads go away, it's going to be hard to get them back.
Its exhausting that our governance is essentially a giant game of Calvinball. https://calvinandhobbes.fandom.com/wiki/Calvinball
Dynamics such as this induce me to view the Democratic Party with severe mistrust on a fundamental level.
There is an dual need for them to secure fundraising to keep themselves in office, and needing to secure actual live humans to cast a ballot for them to stay in office. When there is a conflict between what their donors demand and what their voters demand, push comes to shove, they prioritize the donor class and play political theater to placate their base.
I suspect them of assigning roles to their people to make sure that they will always be but a few votes short of real, permanent, material change in favor of the economic populists. “If only we’d won just six more seats two years ago,” they sigh. “Then we could pass this.” But I would expect that if they’d won TEN more seats, the “moderate” bloc of hold out votes from their own party would ballon up in size and they’d still be lamenting that they just couldn’t pull it off this cycle; congressmen would switch out according to who needed to look stern for their red state constituents and who needed to look radical for their progressive constituents.
Perhaps I am paranoid (spoiler alert, I AM paranoid, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m incorrect), but I do not believe them when the claim to want what they say they want. They are simply telling me what I need to hear to show up- we are so close to final victory, the GOP looms menacingly, you must punch this ballot in the D slot to do your part. And somehow I’ll get the same line ten years from now regardless of who wins and loses.
Don’t forget that the super caring, super amazing and super nice Democrats and joe Biden have decided. “Fuck the poor” by saying that “if you’re a freelance writer, small time Etsy dealer, or sell some crafts on Facebook marketplace then fuck you pay us!”
I can’t think of anything that helps small timers more than making sure that anything they make over 600 dollars is taxable. As we all know the rich like to move really tiny amounts of money around.
It’s estimated to generate an additional 8.4 billion…. You know over 10 years. A truly monumental amount of money.
Assuming the literal physics of the energy spent printing and mailing out all of the notices after notices and the phone calls and the harassment for 19 year olds mowing lawns with their grandfather to “pay their damned taxes” don’t end up costing more.
It just shows how elitist democrats are. They don’t get it. And they don’t care. At all.