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[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

This from someone who thought China's Covid policy was a good idea?

They are not just white racists. If you think its primarily racism, or are unable to grasp how those who are economically screwed gravitate to racism among a basket of other grievances, you're clueless.

And Grievance Nation is no longer Trumper backers alone, nor is its impact limited to that crowd. It's making inroads all over the place. I'm seeing moderates flip red. I can't vote red this fall because the candidates offered to me are simply unacceptable. Like, really fucking unacceptable. But a lot of independents like me are doing so.

Of course it's mostly economic. People think, wrongly, that changing Congress and possibly the Senate will change gas prices and lower inflation. They're too dumb to realize that high gas prices and inflation tend to cure themselves. You just have to wait a bit.

But it's also cultural. Moderates are sick of people who think like you do. The view that racism is the primary reason for everything is offensive for a number of reasons. To me it's offensive because it's stupid, reductionist, and a narrative fancied by credulous virtue junkies. It's more embarrassing than anything else. But a lot of people of otherwise moderate bent, swing voters, have had some pretty choice words for me when I assert that our justice system is racist, which is true. The inroads made on that front with conservatives, before progressives like you started occupying center stage in these policy debates over the past two years, are now destroyed. I suspect these people hear views like yours and think, "Fuck these progressives." And so the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater. If I say I support Larry Krasner, I don't just take a faceful of shit from law and order troglodytes. Now I take it from the middle. From moderate Democrats as well.

You are not even liked by your own party. Moderate Democrats recognize that doctrinaire, mindless progressives are alienating exactly the voters they need this fall. Joe Biden would be 10 points up if he'd told the progressive wing of his party to fuck itself publicly.

You can tell yourself this is because of the right wing media painting progressives poorly. And some of that may be true. In that regard, you're a useful idiot. But more generally, the things ardent progressives say sound naive, utopian, strident, and silly. People roll their eyes. They're sick of it.

There aren't enough of you to matter this fall, and I think a lot of the middle will stay home. Good luck this November countering the pissed off moderates who do show up and vote what they think is their pocketbooks and the army of right wingers that seems to be expanding.

Some times you say the Rs will kill the D’s in November but other times you say if Roe is overturned then the D’s will win big.

Can you pick one so we proceed well advised?