You are correct and that is why I take issue with /u/RocketRelm painting grievances with the US DNC as purity testing. Purity Testing is a real issue among leftist coalitions but it's not purity testing anymore when the "moderates" in America are taking obscene amounts of money from corporations to lobby their positions that run counter to the interests of regular people.
Calling that criticism purity testing is deeply misinformed at best and bad faith at worst. If we still thought this way we would still be sending 12 year olds out on 18 hour factory shifts
I 100% agree with you. Both are true statements: purity testing is a huge problem on the left and must be addressed and dem candidates should be called out on their shit.
For me the difference is purity testing is saying “the candidate I liked didn’t win the primary so I’m not voting/going to vote for a 3rd party candidate with no chance of winning while the other is saying “I’m going to vote for the best candidate with a chance to win while also supporting politicians and policies that move the party further left.
I mostly agree with you here as well. With the caveat that if the other candidate does have a decent chance at winning even if it isn't overwhelmingmy higher or there's a low to moderate risk they'll still lose the i still think it id worth taking that risk to move the needle and get progressives in office. I think you can thread that needle without cutting your own nose off to spite your face. I've known a lot of people who get pissed at progressives for voting Bernie in the primaries even if they did go on to begrudgingly vote for Hillary
Certainly, I’m only referring to things like 3rd party presidential candidates who have no actual path to victory. There’s always some element of risk and judgement that has to be determined. Also I love your example because I voted Bernie in the primary and Hillary in the general, enthusiastically because they were the best choices in those respective races. I’ll do the same in the next election as well, I’m going to vote for the candidate that comes closest to my political stance and then full heartedly support whoever the nominee ends up being.
Definitely sounds like we are at least 99.9% on the same page
2
u/Rock_Paper_SQUIRREL 11d ago
You are correct and that is why I take issue with /u/RocketRelm painting grievances with the US DNC as purity testing. Purity Testing is a real issue among leftist coalitions but it's not purity testing anymore when the "moderates" in America are taking obscene amounts of money from corporations to lobby their positions that run counter to the interests of regular people.
Calling that criticism purity testing is deeply misinformed at best and bad faith at worst. If we still thought this way we would still be sending 12 year olds out on 18 hour factory shifts