Last week marked the fifth anniversary of Progressives Chat.
This week, I will give my two-cents on where progressives—actual progressives—are at here in 2022.
I will also mention where I am at.
The Democratic Party Establishment succeeded in having defeated the actual progressives electorally and politically. For the time being. Electorally—certainly. Politically—yes, as well, but not in a way which is guaranteed to be permanent. (That cannot be guaranteed.)
Politics, like life, is continuous. All the election cycles one may experience in one’s lifetime—no matter the type of election cycle (presidential; midterm)—is not the last given election that will ever be. Despite the hyperbole, from whomever and from one election cycle to the next, that it is not reality. That is not history. That is not life.
The Democrats have won three of the last four United States presidential elections. The history indicates this is an example of being in a realigning period. That, since 2008, a Democratic pickup year for Barack Obama, we are in a realigning period in which the presidency is with the Democrats. That this will play out for at least 70 percent of this given period, which began in 2008, and will run for 30-plus years. The last four cycles—2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020—have been the inverse of what occurred 40 years prior. The Republicans, with a realignment favoring them beginning in 1968, a Republican pickup year for Richard Nixon, won three of four through 1980. The Democratic win was in 1976 with Jimmy Carter, from that period, as has this period’s Republican win came in 2016 with Donald Trump. And, for another parallel, the nation’s citizens and voting electorate wanted a 1980 Carter out just like they did with a 2020 Trump.
I was born in 1971. Richard Nixon was U.S. president. The Republican Party was dominant especially during my childhood (when they won four of five cycles during the 1970s and 1980s). The Democratic Party was considered the joke. That is, if you think of the presidency of the United States as the measurement of worthiness. The be-all, end-all. (And there are people who do.) Now, 40 years later, it’s the opposite—that the Republican Party is considered the joke.
While it is good to know the score, or at least be able to keep track as best as one can ask of himself, it doesn’t mean much if you are being left behind.
The Democrats, in their current form, are doing just that. In last year’s gubernatorial election in Virginia, the No. 12 most-populous state in the nation, and which realigned to the Democrats for U.S. President beginning in 2008, the electoral outcome was a Republican pickup for Glenn Youngkin. (The Democrats nearly lost the governorship of New Jersey, the nation’s No. 11 most-populous state.) Following that result, in Virginia, Substack’s Shant Mesrobian tweeted the following:
Even with that predictable result, it is (has been) intentional. For example: With the abortion issue, and the Democrats not codifying into law the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision on Roe v. Wade, I noted in a 2022 blog topic, ‘Since 1912’, that this was intended by the Democrats. Meaning: I don’t buy into any attempt by Loyal Democratic Voters to excuse or explain away the Democratic Party, which they predictably do when they respond to criticisms and failures, for what I recognize is (has been) intentional.
The Democrats, in their current form, are now as follows: They rig their primaries; they are McCarthyites; they wanted to force vaccinations; and they are for censorship.
The Loyal Democratic Voters, in their current form, are reminding me of the presidency of a 2000s George W. Bush and that period’s Loyal Republican Voters. Here in the 2020s, the Loyal Democratic Voters have no concern for what is coming out of the Joe Biden presidential administration. They have no concern for what is needed for people and for this country. They simply want to…belong. To belong to their party. And they want everybody to back their party. They are on a team—Team Blue. That whenever an election is coming up—and federal elections are scheduled every year—they want their team to win. They will never tell you precisely what they figure they will win or, if their team prevailed, did win. (They are not able.)
When I think about this blog, Progressives Chat, and that the five-year anniversary of its launch has passed…I want to state what has been forgotten by some. (Not here; but elsewhere.) It calls for going back to…basics.
I voted the 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential nomination to Bernie Sanders not because I personally adore (adored) the man. I voted for him because of the vision he had was one which best-matched with what I recognized is necessary. (I am not alone.)
Leading on policy issues has (had) been Medicare for All. That has (had) been followed by a federal minimum wage of at least $15 per hour. That it is (was) followed by making college tuition free.
Approximately 50 percent of the nation’s people, who have employment, are earning $35,000 or less per year. (Gross income.) We have not only an income problem…we have an insufficient income problem. People are underpaid. It is not just a problem but a crisis.
We also have an infrastructure problem. I am referring to the infrastructure for traveling. For getting around. That our current system is decades behind.
The biggest problem we have is that our government is bought and sold. Everything you can name that is an issue and which is actually solvable—like reallocating the federal budget and allocating to where that money is needed—gets blocked. It gets blocked, for one, in favor of incessant wars. One war followed by the next.
The U.S. has had the money—as it does now—to: end poverty; to bring people’s incomes in line with this current period in history; to deliver a healthcare and health-insurance system (that does not take apart people financially); to make college tuition free; to modernize our traveling infrastructure; and more.
Where we are at, with what I pointed out, and what else may be considered, is (has been) intended.
Now I am going to mention what I am intending:
With the 2022 midterm elections scheduled for next month—on Tuesday, November 8, 2022—I will do the following (before I do anything more or else): I will not vote for any person who is affiliated with the Democratic Party.
My last vote for anyone on Team Blue was with the midterm elections of 2014. It was Year #06 of the presidency of Barack Obama. The primaries were rigged in 2016—not just against Bernie Sanders but also against every person who voted the presidential nomination to Bernie Sanders—and, so, I denied all of Team Blue my general-election votes that year. I followed suit with the midterm elections of 2018. And, in 2020, I did not vote because my father was in the final weeks of his life and, frankly, had the timings occurred separately I would have completely rejected the Democratic Party anyway.
I have written and posted plenty on electoral politics. I follow simply because I like to be aware for as much I can ask of myself. I am also intrigued with the topic of realignment. Not just electoral realignments; but also political realignments.
Realignments involve, among numerous factors, changes in voting patterns. I am aware that my own voting pattern is possibly realigning. That I am realigning away from the Democrats. Given the fact that, post-2014, three consecutive election cycles—two presidential and one midterm—have passed; and that I will also be denying Team Blue in this year’s midterms (which would make it four cycles in a row); it is likely I am (or have) realigning (realigned); that this is accurate—even if I wasn’t always conscious of this.
I do not trust, and I do not respect, the Democratic Party. So, as the general election draws closer, and this week is five weeks out, there will be more people reminding us…they are with Team Blue. The ones who are most interesting, at least to me, are those online content creators who have been leading on their audiences to tell them they are progressives. That group of content creators, in reality, will do what they can to get their viewers to…Vote Blue [No Matter Who; No Matter What]. They are not progressives. They are…Democrats. They will do this while Joe Biden has—and, as a reminder, [‘Since 2012’] it is (has been) intended—not delivered on any policy issue they have claimed is important to them. There will be some humor to that con job, to prop up a so-called political party which is a scam operation, and that can provide someone who generally has a good sense of humor with some entertainment. When it comes to who I am willing to take seriously, I have tuned out those people.
I have strengthened my resolve.
Throughout the majority of 2022, with nine months now having passed, I have received plenty of communications from the Democratic Party. I have responded to none. If anyone tries to contact me by phone, as Election Day approaches, and I do not recognize the number, I will not take that call. (That is, after all, what many do—and it is what many recommend others do—for one’s own sake.) After Election Day has passed, I will refer to text and e-mail messages and block those contacts.
I am rejecting the Democratic Party. The entirety of the Democratic Party. I am doing so for understandable, and even responsible, reasons. (Not that any person is required to explain one’s votes.) While I already stated four key reason, the bottom line is this: The Democratic Party has earned it.
I have not necessarily realigned my voting elsewhere. I don’t feel I have to be voting between the two major U.S. political parties. I also do not feel like I must participate by voting in this year’s midterm elections. At the same time, I don’t want to leave this blog topic with any misunderstanding. I do not want readers to conclude that I am lately perceiving both major U.S. political parties to be totally equal to each other in their current forms. (They are not.) One of the two has: rigged their primaries; does McCarthyism; attempted to force people to become vaccinated; and is for censorship. The other major party did not do any of that.
Five Years Later…
The ball is now in the court for Team Red. I have closed the door on Team Blue. (I dismiss them.) If the Republicans are interested…I will hear and consider them. They will, of course, have to earn my vote (votes). And if they continue losing at the presidential level, because in part we are in a realigning period for the Democrats, and also in part because the GOP are lost, then the Republicans may find themselves experiencing and even facilitating numerous changes that a lot of today’s people—including their current party insiders—may not anticipate or expect. The two major U.S. political parties, both in existence longer than 150 years, have not always remained the same throughout history. My door is open.
