Everyone has a different story about the 2016 debacle. Markos’ mega rant laid out the arguments on all sides. But the reality comes back to the Electoral College, which has stolen three elections from us in the 21st Century. Should we have organized around it to “win?” Maybe, but not if cost us the emerging majority and our bedrock values.
Tim Ryan’s argument about losing the Midwest due to economic issues is BULLSHIT. Anyone who
chose to vote for Trump, or stayed home, consciously voted for white supremacy. If we didn’t have the Electoral College then I might sympathize with their disenfranchisement. But currently their votes overpower residents in our most populated and successful states. You choose to live up with the moose, you pay a price. Nor will I pander to them as “real democrats” from a bygone era.
Similarly, purity progressives don’t win elections despite having the moral high ground. Why? People vote and act on self-interest. I walked away from my ultra-left experiment (which lasted close to 5 years) when I saw how the public turned again the Sandinista's.
Just a decade or earlier, Somoza beheaded any young boy who rose against them. But in less than two decades the people threw them from power. Did Washington interfere? Absolutely. Regardless most people want a life free from politics. Think of the final scenes in 1984 when the protagonist desperately spends a lazy Sunday with his lover while knowing he will soon die.
I will support the eventual DNC chair without picking a candidate. In the interim I will put my limited
energies and income into fights I find important. When the midterms arrive I will pull back from those fights and work to elect Democrats willing to fight. Then I will insist, and hope others join me, on eliminating the Electoral College. Until we do we will remain trapped in endless cycle of catering to political minorities who do not share our pluralistic values.
This is not just personal preference; a society adopting any form of totalitarianism eventually fails (often after eating its members).