Dumb Things Democrats Do

So, I was trying to think of a good title that would encompass what I will try to talk about today but the current title captures my sentiment pretty nicely, I think. To start off, here’s Hasan Minhaj on Patriot Act talking about how stupidly American politics are set up:

It’s like he said. The Democrats face an uphill battle. Despite some very popular policy positions, Democrats can’t seem to win out. Take this Tuesday’s Senate runoff in Georgia with Loeffler vs Warnock and Perdue vs Ossoff.

The ads I see from Republicans are all negative. For the most part, the content of the ads has to do with losing your guns, losing your rights, getting your taxes raised, illegal immigrants stealing your stuff and included images like your Bible being burned or something else like that. It’s all fear-mongering.

But recently, I’ve also been seeing some ads with some reasonable-looking middle-aged white lady who says things like, “I was conflicted between Trump and Biden but for Senate, I know Perdue and Loeffler is the right choice.” It’s the psychological trick. It’s catering to that mythical moderate voter who is most likely white and financially stable who doesn’t have much stakes in the outcome of the election. When I first saw those types of ads, they sent a shiver down my spine. If I didn’t know about all the gross things going on in America right now, if I didn’t have so much at stake as an LGBT+, young WOC right now, would I have been one of the people to fall for the ad?

Instead of doing any of those things, Democrats have vaguely feel-good stuff in their ads like “For a better future” or “For our children” etc. etc. We see news reports of the $2000 stimulus bill blocked by McConnell in the Senate when it passed in the Democrat-controlled House so why don’t they run ads detailing the real stakes? Something like, “If you vote for Warnock/Ossoff, you’ll get the $2000.” These put into concrete terms the immediate effects of them winning the election the same way the anti-democrat ads put into concrete terms what they say a Democrat victory would mean for them.

Running as an anti-Republican platform is weak and doesn’t generate good policies because it’s reactionary and not proactive; you don’t come up with your positions yourself, you’re just looking to oppose the other side. This is extremely detrimental because few issues are black-and-white like this and this lack of nuance will be reflected in the policies generated by this mindset.

The focus of politicians on being re-elected, like Hasan says, is what drives a lot of the sucking-up politicians do.

AOC says, “Don’t people realize that the most powerful position you can be in is when you’re not materially attached to a position of power? If you’re a one-term Congressmember, so what?” That’s something missing from a politicians. If you’re not worried about getting out-raised at your primary, then you won’t have to cater to corporate donors and lobbyists.

Instead of backing people like AOC or Bernie who have shown to be incredibly popular, they back the guy that’s barely palatable on a platform with no concrete promises other than to be not-Trump.

If you have the time, please watch the episode of Patriot Act above in full. I’m just so tired of not seeing real change. I’m so tired of the slow slide backwards for the rights we thought we won decades ago. So tired.