Two things can be true. Kamala Harris is the best choice right now to get through this huge push for fascism from a loud minority and she is not an ideal choice for leftists. This lefty will absolutely be behind her because it’s pragmatic and I’m nothing if not that.
It feels (real scientific, I know) that she’s got some sort of shield for the GOP attacks because any low hanging fruit I imagine them trying to hit her with is either hilariously hypocritical for them in a way that won’t play with the dwindling base, or just falls flat. Had the RNC been more of a hit, the air would have been absolutely sicked out of it – but it’s almost funnier that it was a bit of a flop and the dems spring-boarded higher with this. I expected some energy boost, but it really feels like America collectively is trying to move through this fascist bullshit.
So what does that mean that she’s not an ideal choice for leftists? Is this a “perfect being the enemy of good” situation? Not really, and I wanted just a simple post to explain why you see this from some people – many who will vote for her, regardless. But why is there this tension within the democratic party? Well, we don’t have a choice. Check out my first post on Ranked Choice Voting(RCV): Ranked Choice is the Only Choice! for an embedded video showing some basics on solving the two party issue. It’s so simple, but that’s okay because the issue isn’t actually complicated at all, just overlooked until recently in the US. The tents are just too big. The dems have to support neo-liberal centrists and right/center individuals at the worst, and the far leftists on the other side, ostensibly.
When you understand that third parties are ice skating uphill for votes and truly do siphon away from their closest ideological opponent, you have to vote the watered down preference (lesser of two evils, usually) or face the greater of two evils. It’s not hard to understand, but people lose sight of that getting too in the weeds over wedge issues or legitimate, biiiig issues (see: Gaza), and want to do something for action now which I can respect (hence the site name), but I think it’s spinning wheels in the wrong direction for limited results. Not that it’s wrong to do, just that we could do something better (or, again – multiple things could be done at once, but we should all agree on what to do to move forward).
What we don’t have are big end goals that anyone with a progressive mindset who wants to expand and enable greater representation should be fighting for RCV as a point B. Not saying this is a panacea – I need to make that super clear. Parties will need built, but they’ll just have a real shot to win, finally. With that will come coalition governments where we’ll start to see how loud certain voices really are. It just breaks down the representation so there will be less “in-fighting” and more needs to compromise for everyone – progressives will get a bit more progressive. The MAGA minority won’t be able to overpower an entire conservative arm. Again – we know these aren’t cure-alls, but they open the door for greater representation, which is what we’re lacking.
I’m also open to revolutionary talk, but that all seems more pie in the sky and unobtainable (fun to speculate on with some whiskey or weed in hand, for sure).
Also, remember when Trump got shot at a very short time ago and we’re all like:
