Spent last night arguing with my liberal friends about Dems failing to pass min wage. Argued from the center left. Said Dem leadership needs to get its shit together and start getting the party in line. Otherwise theyre getting bodied in 2022 and never getting back in. They flipped out on me. Saying I was advocating for them to be just like Trump and the republicans.

Ive genuinely given up on them. I just dont get it. I dont know what to do. We're all queer and disabled. One of them constantly goes to protests and participates in her community. This wasn't even one of my hard left points. Like how the Dems are all psychos. Or the entire system is rigged. It was a genuine good faith argument about how the Dems need to change or we're gonna die. Im at a loss. How can you fix this?

  • MolotovHalfEmpty [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Honestly, and I'm sure this isn't the answer anyone wants, but I don't think you can, not with any kind of logical argument anyway.

    It's an emotional pathology I recognise around me too, people who consciously or unconsciously have realised that the political system has nothing to offer them so to make the situation tolerable have decided to simply root for a team.

    A lot of other working class people I know here in the UK have basically done that. They don't actually like the Tories but are so sick of everything in life kicking the shit out them that they just want to feel like they're on the winning team for once. It's basically sports team glory supporting for people who are basically black-pilled on politics of any kind.

    I'll say this though; as much as I find it stupid and repugnant when people seem to support the Tories for that reason I understand it on some level. Why you'd do it for the consistently losing team like the Democrats is genuinely beyond me.

    But to get back to the original point, I think the only way those people break from that pathology is either in their own time when it makes them feel worse rather than better or if you give them some sort of alternative and in a two party system that's incredibly difficult. It might be better to just let them be stupidly blue no matter who while trying to subtly divert as much of their energy away from electoral politics entirely on community and single issue stuff outside the party political spectrum entirely.

    • tim [he/him,they/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      so to make the situation tolerable have decided to simply root for a team.

      Ideology as a team sport is liberalism. This doesn’t only apply when we’re talking about leftists. Literal liberals do this as well. One could call it the Party Personality