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this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2026
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politics
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Yeah that presidential primary last election rocked, can't wait for the next one.
Man I remember when Bernie was in the primaries. It was totally normal and he didn't win for totally normal reasons in spite of the very cool democratic party supporting him.
There wasn't one last election. Sure, that sucks and it was wrong, but that's no reason not to vote in this one. That's terrible logic.
And sure, the DNC fucked Bernie and that sucked and was wrong too. But again, that's no reason not to vote in this year's primaries, especially for congressional, state, and local positions (which can help turn the tide at the DNC).
I never said the democratic party is cool or moral or anything like that. I said the republican party is worth opposing, even if we have to hold our noses to do so.
Arguments like yours helped maga get back into power, and are helping them stay in power.
I was with you until that line. The democrats are responsible for being unpopular, not tankies.
Both things can be true. The DNC could court progressives instead of centrists and "moderate republicans." They don't, and that's on them. (But again, that's no reason why leftists shouldn't participate and try to steer the DNC towards the left).
At the same time, the US has a two-party, FPTP system. It's fundamentally broken and we can't expect it to give us perfect candidates. The electoral system itself needs to be drastically reformed before it can truly serve the people's interests rather than the elites, and encourage quality candidates rather than bombastic mudslingers.
In the meantime, leftists shouldn't abandon pragmatism. Sometimes you have to hold your nose and take a harm-reduction approach. Sometimes you can bargain for incremental progress, and absolutely should whenever the opportunity presents itself, but that's not always the case.
But this idea that "I won't settle for anything less than perfect" is really defeatist in addition to being idealistic, and not the mentality we should embrace. It leads to burnout and nihilism, not progress.
We have all interacted with tankies that act like that, but they were never going to vote anyways. For everyone else, not supporting a genocide is not asking for perfection. Characterizing it as such is only going to push those voters towards the tankies.
Characterizing "vote against maga even if you have to hold your nose" as "supporting genocide" has always been a disingenuous take, and it's a large part of the reason we have trump today.
Like, with Dems in office, there would be a chance of restraining Israel at least somewhat, putting conditions on aid, possibly even forcing a diplomatic resolution. With trump, you have the US actively supporting and encouraging it, and even participating in it directly.
Nobody has managed to convince me that that's better.
Yep. This guy could try to characterize people however he wants but it's reductionist and silly. Harris didn't get elected because she refused to stop supporting the genocide. Full stop. The heart of the issue is policy and refusal to represent the American people.
"maybe if you vote in primaries blah blah blah progressives get elected" - paraphrasing
Never claimed to be a tankie.
Made it clear that argument is fucking stupid (historically)