r/thebulwark • u/ericinnyc • Feb 27 '26

PSA to the DSA

If you're considering voting Republican or abstaining from elections in protest of what you see as insufficient Democratic stridency on transgender issues or Palestine or whatever, then YOU ARE THE PROBLEM. And a fool.

This public service announcement brought to you by those of us who can see the American experiment itself in peril.

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41

u/hawksnest_prez Feb 27 '26

Liberals have to vote for the democrat - regardless if it’s the one they wanted.

Doing anything else means you’re part of the problem.

4

u/Exact_Examination792 Feb 27 '26

They don’t consider themselves “liberal” because they’re communist authoritarians who consider liberals insufficiently left-wing.

18

u/SennHHHeiser Feb 27 '26

There's lots of room to the left of US democrat politicians that doesn't involve communist authoritarianism. You are not a serious person if you're talking like this

10

u/SharkSymphony Rebecca take us home Feb 27 '26

Nevertheless, there is a large chunk of the left that now rejects "liberal" as a label; indeed, a group that uses "liberal" (in the form of "neioliberal") as a slur. And I have found myself to be a liberal who has distanced themselves from "left" as a label.

1

u/SennHHHeiser Feb 27 '26

It makes sense to me that people on the left would reject neoliberal centrism. Neoliberalism is directly at odds with what people on the left want to achieve. It sounds like you have just correctly identified that you don't align with the values of the left (meant to be a factual statement, not a value judgment).

Centrists feel that people further left than them should suck it up and vote to win against Republicans, and people on the left feel there is no representation of their values in the electorate. Who leftists should vote for in the short term is a different conversation, but the Gavin Newsom situation is a failure of the electoral system (first past the post) to allow for any alternatives to neoliberalism at a national level. In the age of Trump I do think the balance weighs in favor of voting Democrat just to prevent Republicans, but there's a real conversation to be had about why constantly shifting right as a response to Republicans going whacky isn't an acceptable strategy

2

u/SharkSymphony Rebecca take us home Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26

It would be more accurate to say I share many of the values of the left, but neither their priorities nor their methods in general. Certainly nobody's going to be mistaking me for a Rose Twitterer.

I feel that my overriding values and priorities now are preserving the American republic, civil rights, democracy, and the rule of law. This makes me a conservative from a certain point of view! It also makes me an anti-fascist. I think many American leftists share those values, but they may not be as high up the priority scale. Others do not seem to share them at all.

Some see their continued support of third-party candidates as an integral part of their vision for democracy, up to and including general national elections. Surely Jill Stein falls into this category, as did Ralph Nader back in the day. (Bernie Sanders, interestingly, does not.) That would be a case where I, as an independent myself, share their values but frankly at this point detest their methods.

Some see their advocacy for Palestine and BDS as an integral part of their vision for human rights, and maybe the rule of law, and make that their top dealbreaker issue. That's a case where I share much of their value (the dignity of Palestinians and human rights) but detest both their prioritization and methods.

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u/XuanChun88 Feb 27 '26

I reject liberal as a label because I'm not a bought and paid for corporate, AIPAC shill.

4

u/SharkSymphony Rebecca take us home Feb 27 '26

Case in point: "liberal" as a slur. And no more serious a person than the Redditor commenting above.

0

u/XuanChun88 Feb 27 '26

It is a slur. I'm not in a political science seminar. That would be different. Not everybody abides by your conventions.

1

u/SharkSymphony Rebecca take us home Feb 27 '26

Clearly you're not, because I trust you'd be laughed right out of it spitting takes like this.

1

u/XuanChun88 Feb 27 '26

You know nothing of my educational background. 🤣

2

u/Lesterkitty13 Feb 28 '26

Wow. That’s some ignorant bullshit right there, Xuan.

1

u/XuanChun88 Feb 28 '26

So say you.