this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2024
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I didn't like the false equivalency that was oozing from this episode.
This is why liberals lose. Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line. Democrats take a tiny issue and use it as an excuse to not vote. Republicans vote to a fault.
When a fuckhead who tried to incite an insurrection, fan the flames to murder the VP, steal boxes and boxes of classified documents, leak classified information that got CIA agents killed, along with the 150 other high crimes, is still trying to run for president, it isn't a matter of whether "your guy" loses.
This is a question of whether democracy dies in America.
If Jon has lost sight of that, he doesn't deserve an audience.
If the people in charge have the ability to end democracy, how can democracy be claimed to exist in the first place? Democracy is supposed to be our capability as individual citizens to regulate the people in power, but if they can turn that switch on or off, we don't actually have that capability except as they choose to allow us to.
The power of democracy is vested with the citizenry. It is up to us whether it lives or dies. Only we, through inaction, can determine if any given leader is allowed to take or remain in office. Currently we have a duopoly that plays at being enemies, casting back and forth between the dictator and the 'stalwart defender of democracy' (whose selection by the DNC must always be respected one more time, lest the dictator take hold again).
Useless and false platitude.
Republicans literally have been splitting in half ever since Trump lost in 2020. They ousted their own Speaker, and are now trying to oust McConnell via public opinion. They had 2 primary candidates (DeSantis and Haley) who actually got national attention, and a decent-ish number of votes. What part of that is "in line"?
If the bar for "in-line" is the party forcefully backing one candidate, the DNC is far more aligned behind Biden.
If you look in conservative political spaces, they literally say the same thing about Democrats being the ones who "fall in line". In both cases, it's just a means to quash democratic discussion of candidates.
My opposition to Biden is not about "falling in love" with someone else, it's about my belief that Biden is going to lose us the election and put Trump back in office. Perhaps you shouldn't be dismissive and condescending towards other people's choices when you know nothing about them? Perhaps they're actually trying to save the US from Trump as well?
Or you can just write them off as being silly people who "lose" for "falling in love".
Thank you for taking the time to write out such a well reasoned rebuttal. I'm always on mobile and simply don't have the stamina, but I appreciate all the points you've laid out.
I am always sad when I see the left wing criticisms of the "both sides" argument on Lemmy. Like, I don't necessarily disagree, but I find the whole premise of one side vs another as some of the worst tendencies in democracy at work. I refuse to equate left vs. right == democracy. It's bigger than that.
And speaking of democracy, I think it's really important that everyone be unbiased around what constitutes a threat to democracy. Yes, J6 was objectively bad, and I don't trust Trump to put his big boy pants on in round two. But I'm also alarmed at the lengths to which this legitimate fear is used as a justification for antidemocratic strategy from the DNC.
No matter their political ideology, when people start letting fear inform every decision - and justify their worse impulses - I get reeaaaalll nervous, as should we all.