This is literally me with an ex-girlfriend.

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Again, one of the major failures of the Democrats is how shallow their bench is and how they kneecap anyone that isn’t a party right-winger on the public stage. Thus why it is important to look to broader and systemic reform, rather than pick a specific person as the “good candidate” in the next presidential election.

No, it is you that refuse to criticize because you are okay with no solutions.

Do I have to personally do the internal gladhanding to personally choose, out of the 1000s of Democrat politicians of all levels, which one would be the perfect candidate. Honestly, at this point, I think that maybe JD Pritzker might be the best candidate, as he seems vaguely progressive in the decade or two old Democrat mold. And has been standing up to Trump the best a Governor can. Even if I, personally, am far more left than him.

The Democrats offer no solutions and are absolutely not serious in opposing the Republicans. Their job is to use the two party system to take up all space for opposing Republicans, while making their policies bipartisan.

But ultimately, this is why, long term, we need to form coalitions and mechanisms of wielding power outside of the Democratic party. So that there can be opposition to right-wing policies. It is being as unserious as never considering actions outside the Democratic party that shows you aren’t serious about improving the country.

You’re the one that is not serious. Oh, I’ll wait for the party to tell me who the good candidate is. Can’t ask anything of anyone until I am told that that a specific candidate is the right one that shouldn’t be questioned…

I provided examples and evidence as to why the Democrats have been staunchly right-wing for >30 years. Jesus Christ!

Ernst Thälmann, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Greg Grandin, Vincent Bevins, Matt Christmann, Popeye, Olive Oyl, Luke Skywalker, Hasan Piker, Arron Mate…

As much as it is demanding the impossible, anyone with real positions and convictions, that meaningfully disagrees with the Republicans. AOC is trying to take that spot, but how much she sold out everything to support Biden has really undermined her the last year, and the current rallies are desperately trying to walk that back. As much as they are not given support and still hated, Omar and Tlaib have fallen in line with the party, though they would have been good candidates otherwise.

I said 30 years! Neoliberalism started with Carter, but Clinton made Reaganism bipartisan. Literally all of his big “accomplishments” were things seen as too far right for Reagan, since in his terms they would have been too far right. Like NAFTA, the Crime Bill, and even Social Security privatization, which was only derailed by the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

No, it was a rightward drift, as far right as it was then. “Obamacare” was just taking “Romneycare” the Republican healthcare plan, and compromising and moving further right from there. Obama made sure that Wall Street was bailed out post 2008, and Glass-Steagall was repealled under Clinton, even if it wasn’t fully restored after Obama and 2008. Obama escalated the war on terror and continued the Patriot Act.

The main progressive victory was gay marriage, and no elected Democrat wanted to touch LGBTQ issues, they had to wait for the supreme court, as an unelected body, to deal with it, so that no elected official had to show any principles on the issue.

There is no easy answers, but it begins with actually demanding things out of the Democrats if they are to continue to be the only venue to oppose Republicans. They can’t continue to use that as an excuse to be right-wing.

But more importantly, start forming local groups and organizations. The more that you have concrete blocks with resources and numbers, means you can start exerting force. First on local formations, then on representatives of larger areas.

Look, they followed and continued Republican’s escalations for the last 40+ years, but be assured, this time they will stop doing the immoral things once they get office again. It is important to remember that Harris promised a continuation of Trump term 1 and not implementing Trump term 2, if he wasn’t elected. It is weird after 30+ years of Democrats always being the Republicans of 4 years ago, that they don’t always get benefit of the doubt of being opposed to the worst of Republican evils.

Truth hurts sometimes. Maybe demanding more than being gradual polite Republicans from your officials can become necessary, if you actually don’t want fascism.

It’s the voter’s duty to use the power they have, as a voter, in a way that results in the least immoral result

Again, voters should just know innately that Democrats are the transcendent form of virtue and morality. The Democrats should never have to take positions or do things to make voters like them and believe they are better than Republicans. Other than say that they will fill out the paper work to do mass deportations better, or that they will be more competent to build the Wall cheaper. I said this in a different reply but, you can’t just claim to be better on morals and positions and then never follow through once elected, to just, by fiat, continue to get credulity and loyalty from voters.

Mass Deportations, like Biden’s increase of deportations from Trump term 1. Destruction of democratic structures like Obama using “terrorism” to extra-judicially assassinate US citizens, or Biden deciding that protesting Israeli genocide is supporting terrorism and should be oppressed?

Increased support for genocide? How has Trump increased it? There was violent suppression of protests to the genocide under Biden and just this week, even though anyone with a brain knew this, Biden staffers admit that there was never any pressure or desire to reign in Israel’s genocide.

Not reinstating the Iranian nuclear deal, and playing hardball with Russia is as much nuclear proliferation as currently. When has the US not been enabling imperialism? Where has Trump been doing imperialism that Biden has not? Actually, by imploding and destroying the US’s world standing and economic power with tariffs, Trump has undermined US imperialism. Even if it is at great costs, and not at all conscious. Just by virtue of him wanting American power, but being supremely incompetent.

It is not that there is no escalation. The use of ICE, which has always been the American Gestapo, to deport and black-bag people for thought crime is an escalation, even if Biden wouldn’t have respected free speech on things like Palestine.

WTF, are there liberals this blind? Biden ramped up ICE deportations from Trump’s first term. Both Biden and Harris campaigned on the fact that they were building the wall, and would continue to do so better since Democrats are better and bureaucracy and filling out paperwork. Trump was really angry and frustrated with his supporters in 2021 since they became anti-vax, because he did operation warp speed and the COVID vaccine was the “Trump Vaccine”. But, because it was rolled out in the early Biden administration, Biden got credit for it, and could be the president to say “COVID is over, ignore it and get back to work”, like Trump wanted. Under the Biden administration the police were encouraged to violently crack down on pro-Palestinian protests, and being investigated for supporting terror, Trump just took it to the logical conclusion.

Not to say that Kamala would have been as bad, just that there was total continuity, rather than Biden or Kamala not being magical angels of the Constitution that would stand athwart history and said “No more Patriot Act, nor Guantanamo Bay, we are revoking the AUMF and War on Terror to return to Constitutional checks and balances”.

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It is pretty funny that more people refrained from voting than voted for Trump. There should be some constant standards and accountability around the fact that Biden/Harris running on being a complete continuity of Trump term 1 wasn’t appealing to voters.

Democrats showing the last few months that they don’t care at all about opposing fascism is darkly funny.

Capitalism is pay for play. Literally, if you have enough money to invest in capital, you don’t have to work and should continue getting wealthier by already having money. Capitalism and markets are not synonymous.

Liberalism and capitalism is pro-oligarchy. By having money and capital, you get to decide how labor is allocated, what society produces, and the ability to discipline the populace through capital strikes, if not much more direct methods like lobbying.

Liberalism is not anti-oligarch, they would just prefer the paperwork is filled out properly, so it is technically lobbying and not bribery. Elon Musk was an oligarch LONG BEFORE DOGE, and liberals loved him before he was vocally pro-Trump. Liberals loved him because he became the wealthiest man on earth by his “innovation”, and only hated him, not because of his weird unhinged bullshit which existed long before, but only after that unhinged weirdness was pro-Trump.

Liberalism is not fully mutually exclusive with regulation, but liberal regulation is to try to maintain capitalist markets against their own failures. Yes, they can be willing to engage in some regulation to try to maximize future markets and capitalism. But they are pro-oligarch and pro-inequality, liberals are trying to maintain it long-term even if the most extreme excesses of oligarchs must be reigned in for the short term.

But most importantly, Oligarchy and monopolies aren’t an “upset” or disruption of markets, but the obvious and natural outcome. Profits are optimized by consolidation and removing competition. And even if competition is maintained, once one company wins the competition there is monopoly, and the fact that most capital intensive industries have a natural barrier to entry (it would take billions of dollars of venture capital to enter and be a very weak competitor with the incumbent) means that markets have oligarchy and monopoly as their natural and necessary outcome.

A homeless guy can’t just immediately become a billionaire by saying that there should be a competitor of genetic testing with 23andMe.

“Reality has a left-wing bias”