I don't care, I don't look to regular Republicans to do this. I'm not going to reward Democrats for not doing their job. I have lost all sympathy for the "but Republicans" defense. Yes, Republicans are bad. So why are the Democrats trying to be them? I don't want to vote for the same policies in a different color.
They're not actually
the same policies, though, are they? They're on the right of the political spectrum by most reasonable definitions. That doesn't make them
the same, unless you just view it as a binary.
As an example: as proposals stand from the candidates (assuming follow-through), the federal minimum wage under the Republicans would be 7.25 USD, and the federal minimum wage under the Democrats would be 15 USD. Are these the same?
Under the Republicans, the federal contracts with private prisons will be renewed. Under the Democrats, they won't be. Are these the same?
It might seem trite or narrow-visioned to point to individual policies in this way, but it's in support of a wider point. This notion that the two parties are "the same" only ever works when people talk about the parties in broad, sweeping,
really really vague terms. Look at the actual substance of proposed policy in any depth whatsoever and there's a huge difference. The prison reform thing alone is massive.
So, sure. Neither candidate will address the underlying issues of corporatism, lobbying, campaign finance etc etc. Does this mean all of these other fucking massive issues-- affecting millions of lives and livelihoods in drastic ways, and on which the candidates are undeniably miles apart-- get overlooked?
It seems evident that the Democratic Party elite (lobbyists, consultants, think tank lanyards and so on) doesn't really care if a Democrat wins the presidential election, so why should anyone else? If they don't care if their candidate is capable of winning against Trump when 'electability' is their entire pitch, then they're obviously not going to care about doing anything good with power. Indeed, such an organization stands in the way of any remotely necessary progress. The energy with which the Democratic party elite tries to crush the left in comparison to their absolute capitulation before the GOP makes it clear that they are an enemy. Hopefully they fail so continually or even better so spectacularly that people are forced to consider an alternative. I don't particularly care whether that alternative manifests in electoral politics or not so long as it appears.
Make it clear that the Democratic Party can't win by going right as many times as it takes for that message to sink in.
Yes, I'm sure after another eighteen electoral losses for the Democrats, those who died in the intervening decades (from drinking the polluted water, in workplace accidents, or in climate change-aggravated natural disasters-- y'know, many of which deaths could've been avoided had
anybody but a fanatical Republican been in charge escalating them to high heaven) will feel it was worth it when they finally get to see Sanders enter the White House and make a start on sweeping up.
As I've said before, you're gambling, but with other peoples' money.
