this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2025
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They're supposed to represent us. Not the other way around.
No. They're supposed to be a means for us to make intelligent decisions that keep the world from being as bad as it possibly could be. They're a means of exerting our influence other than spilling blood.
Is it better when they represent us? Yes. Is it better when we have access to politicians who actually have a substantial moral compass and aren't swayed by money? Absolutely.
But does that mean that if we don't have that we should throw childish fits and sabotage our own world in response? Absolutely not.
Want to know a good way to make sure that politicians actually focus on representing the interests of their electorate?
...Become a politician and do it. Put your money where your mouth is. Instead of having a tantrum and letting the worst possible person literally light the government on fire, go be the change you want to see.
Or, if you're not willing to do that, use your intelligence to make the world as good as you can with the limited power that you have instead of lying on the ground kicking and screaming because nobody's doing it for you.
I could tell you about the mistakes and crimes the Democrats have committed, here, but I don't think that's worthwhile; you probably already know what I'd say. So instead, I'll ask this: How many evil, horrible things do the Democrats have to do before you decide that voting for them alone isn't working?
I suspect the answer is that there is no such point so long as the Republicans are worse. In that, they hold you and those like you hostage, and can operate with impunity; there's no reason to change or improve when they know you'll vote for them regardless. They are not making "intelligent decisions that keep the world from being as bad as it possibly could be," they are enabling the backslide of society into hell because they benefit from it.
If the Democrat establishment wanted to make the world better, Trump would be in prison right now, and barred from holding office. They don't, and he isn't.
Maybe you should be upset at them for that.
Literally none of that changes the self-destructive stupidity of letting Trump get into office.
It isn't about whether the Democrats are exemplary or even decent. It's about the actual result of your actions. Are the Democrats to blame for failing to act, for failing to prevent a second term, and for all the other mistakes and capitulations they're guilty of? Absolutely. Does that absolve voters of responsibility? Not even a little bit.
At the end of the day, voters still decided that they were willing to let others suffer. They decided that Palestinians don't matter, that health care doesn't matter, that trans rights don't matter, that immigrants don't matter, that the environment doesn't matter, that access to food and housing doesn't matter, that reproductive rights don't matter, and on and on and on, because it's more important to send a message that they don't approve of the Democrats.
Everyone who spread the narrative that they're no different is complicit in everything Trump does, because this is what you chose. This is the supposed lack of difference. This is what you said doesn't matter and isn't important.
Nothing you say about the Democrats will wash the blood from your hands.