You would think it was self evident that democracy is a good thing. After talking to many right wingers, I have found that we are mistaken. Believe me now and hear me later but they literally think democracy is the most dangerous form of government. They think our American Republic is juxtaposed to democracy. In the minds of the founders, that’s true-but it’s overly doctrinaire to suggest that the republic does not require and use a great deal of democracy to function.
The right wing has no idea what the left is, either. They rely on caricatures, and worse yet, fail to understand what constitutes lefty thinking. If you try to tell them that democracy is about having a voice and being able to participate in a system that positively affects your life, they will come back at you with canned phrases like “Democracy is mob rule”. They refuse to engage their noodle no matter what you try to tell them. They are so caught up in originalism and right/left axis thinking that no true facts about our system can emerge.
What most people don’t seem to realize (and this spans across the political spectrum) is that we are about to have a showdown with Christian white supremacist fascism. Democracy itself is literally on the menu. Anyone “different” will be an enemy of the state when they are done. So I’m a little worried that too many smart people on the left are leading a charge to disengage from this system-as if it has any other choices save for civil war or revolution. If disaffected people on the left disenfranchise themselves and think they are going to resist this movement, they had better learn how to shoot a rifle because the right is already armed to the teeth.
That leaves us with the Democratic Party as the only defense against the coming storm of oppression. Are they perfect? Fuck the fuck no. But they do share your values and you can change them from within. We need your voice INSIDE the party. Tell us what we need to hear. Lots of sleepy Democrats need your input. Some of them, like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, simply have to go. And we need your help getting rid of them. Good Democrats want to rein in capitalist excess and corporate overreach just like you, they just don’t have the support or the votes to make it happen.
This is really two posts in one, but these things are on my mind today as I watch the political winds blow from my computer.