For the past 7 ½ years, the Democrats in Washington, from Obama on down, have been dealing with obstructionist Republicans who REFUSE to do ANYTHING at all. The fact that anything has been accomplished is still amazing to me personally. However, it is evident that in some people’s eyes, the fact that a far left agenda was not accomplished or some may say even attempted is all the Democrats’ fault. Those damn neo-liberals, all of them.
The ACA was passed in spite of the Republicans doing everything they could to prevent it from happening. The ACA did not reach universal coverage. This is true. It is imperfect. And though many of the imperfections are due to what Republicans would even come close to allowing yet still did not vote for, this is somehow all the Democrats’ fault. They were not progressive enough. They are a bunch of sell-outs for compromising to get anything at all passed. Instead, they should have created something that would have been a complete non-starter and stood their ground so that any of the gains made with the ACA would basically be non-existent because nothing would have passed. But I guess according to some (many?) that would be better than having the imperfect ACA that has put 20 million more people on health insurance. A good review of what happened is here: www.theatlantic.com/...
After that, Democratic voters and independent voters that normally would support Democrats did not come out to vote in the midterms and the Republican base came out in force. The Democrats lost a whole host of seats, including Governorships and state legislatures, which assured nothing more would get done legislatively for the rest of Obama’s first term and second term and anything that was already done would be held in limbo, underfunded, and under implemented. Yet this is all the Democrats’ fault.
The Tea Partiers have come out in force over and over again election after election to ensure that Republicans gained and remained in power, even if they were “establishment” Republicans, and eventually created the most ultra-right Congress I have ever seen in my lifetime. They did not refuse to come out to vote or refuse to vote for the establishment candidate because they didn’t get what they wanted the first time around. No, they kept pushing and kept voting and kept pushing and voila, the Freedom Caucus is one of the most influential caucuses in the Republican led Congress and Sam Brownback, Rick Scott, Scott Walker, Rick Snyder and other idiots like them are destroying the states they are governing.
On the left people do not come out in force and make sure the dominant party which most closely supports their agenda gains and retains power. No, instead they hold leftist purity tests and if the candidate doesn’t pass, they sit out or vote third party and either way go around saying that voting for the Democrat is no different than voting for the Republican, so why bother?
All the while the Republicans continue to tear apart our middle class, vilify our poor and PoC, destroy our judiciary system, chip away the rights and safety of everyone but white men, ensure that we have armed warfare in our homes and on our streets and leave millions in the wake of their plunder gasping for breath. And still there is this group on the left who sits in judgement, not of the Republicans, but of the Democrats. Not only do they sit in judgement, they use GOP tactics to try to convince everyone else how horrible the Democrats are.
I don’t get it. I really don’t. Because convincing people that it is not worth voting for the party who might actually do some good will do what in the end? Keep the Republicans in charge. Hopefully the more lefty Democratic and independent voters are starting to catch on and start ignoring the purists and show up to the polls, even during the midterms, and vote even for those whom they may deam an imperfect candidate and then remain engaged to make sure the progressive agenda gets done.
