For me, some positive news is better than nothing right now. I've already mentioned that I have my own problems with the Democrats right now, but not enough to discourage me. Maybe a little early to celebrate, but still helps to be informed.
I get it. And this is me putting my partisan hat back on, but to me Harris and the Democrats aren't it.
I've been clear about my personal history with the party in this thread. Atop that, you have the fact this is the party which decided the necessary and appropriate response to the definitive civil rights issue of our time was to stage a ridiculous photo op kneeling in kente cloth for nine minutes, while simultaneously (violently) pushing back against every individual policy proposal put forth by BLM activists...and if that wasn't enough, increasing cop funding and expanding police powers especially after January 6th. That was a Sister Souljah moment of a scale heretofore unimaginable in American electoral politics, and to me personally so far beyond the red line I can no longer justify to myself even the pretense of Democratic support.
The party is the rote definition of the white moderate. I just don't have the energy in me any more to pretend otherwise.
Until these Dixiecrats are rode out on a rail back to the Republican party where they belong, there's not a Democrat on the face of the planet who'll get my vote as in my experience they're
all complicit in a corrupt party system for personal gain. It's beyond clear to me at this point participation does nothing more than legitimize it, and I can no longer stomach it. To me the only solution is just to walk away, leave the Democratic party to its fate, and engage in direction action while supporting third-party challenges from the left until the party comes to its senses -- if it ever will at this point, and given what I know of the party I doubt they ever will. They got theirs, and fuck the rest of us.
If people want to call that purity testing and absolutism, I'll gladly own that label -- and wonder how and why others in the year 2024 after the shit we've seen don't. If they're not substantially pushing policy proposals meaningfully distinct from Trump's, and following through on those proposals, there's no purpose to wasting my time voting for them. The Biden administration was a masterclass in bad faith (as I said it would be in 2020), given how many of Trump's most egregious policies weren't just continued, but instead doubled down upon while pressing to manufacture consent for them among the very people who profess opposition.
In part, probably, but I also think that there's a good deal of head in the sand "it can't happen here" mentality.
This is no perfect time to point out the why and how of my position. Between Democrats and Republicans, there's one of them which has made significant headway towards actually achieving this goal by way of eliminating the primary system, and it ain't the Republicans.
At least the Republicans had fucking primaries (for all it mattered) this year.