Here is a fundamental problem with American politics: people don't trust Democrats. They don't trust Republicans either. They don't trust the media. They don't trust corporations. They don't trust any of our institutions.
Why? Because they keep getting fucked and nobody seems to care.
So you can say, "Not voting for Biden and letting Trump win will make everything worse." Because it's true! But it's not persuasive to people who things are just going to keep getting worse anyway.
I think most Americans have deduced, correctly, that government works primarily for the rich. You get the political outcomes you can afford.
We're told the economy is great, for example, while many of us can't afford housing, food, or healthcare because corporate profits are booming.
Red states, corporations, and the SCOTUS are all obviously corrupt but they can do whatever they want. They ruin our lives with the stroke of a pen. There's no oversight. There's minimal pushback.
It's still obviously true that Republicans will make things worse.
Some people have always and will always vote for Democrats for that reason. But you and me voting rationally and pragmatically isn't going to win elections.
Especially when the choice is between a monster and a mediocrity under whom things actually do keep getting worse.
A lot of people feel angry and helpless, and it doesn't help when the mediocrity pretends his own shit doesn't stink.
@Shebeencounter I think the ACA was an improvement, as flawed as it is, but it helps much less than people assume under an already broken healthcare system.
In a lot of cases, the best we've gotten are little, iterative things that were easily undone by the next Republican.
On the important things like abortion rights, we have clearly been losing.
@gwynnion but there's the macro level, too, right? Those iterative, and even objectively positive policies, will be entirely undone as a result of inflationary policy, the long, debilitating march of Covid, or (coming soon!) ongoing ecological/environmental displacement and impending resource scarcity which untouchable bipartisan defense/infrastructure/energy policies are bringing to fruition.
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