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A tweet from the George Takei Twitter account which states:
"A Democrat was in the White House when my family was sent to the internment camps in 1941. It was an egregious violation of our human and civil rights.
It would have been understandable if people like me said they’d never vote for a Democrat again, given what had been done to us.
But being a liberal, being a progressive, means being able to look past my own grievances and concerns and think of the greater good. It means working from within the Democratic party to make it better, even when it has betrayed its values.
I went on to campaign for Adlai Stevenson when I became an adult. I marched for civil rights and had the honor of meeting Dr. Martin Luther King. I fought for redress for my community and have spent my life ensuring that America understood that we could not betray our Constitution in such a way ever again.
Bill Clinton broke my heart when he signed DOMA into law. It was a slap in the face to the LGBTQ community. And I knew that we still had much work to do. But I voted for him again in 1996 despite my misgivings, because the alternative was far worse. And my obligation as a citizen was to help choose the best leader for it, not to check out by not voting out of anger or protest.
There is no leader who will make the decision you want her or him to make 100 percent of the time. Your vote is a tool of hope for a better world. Use it wisely, for it is precious. Use it for others, for they are in need of your support, too."
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The last paragraph I find particularly powerful and something more people really should take into account.
The way to do that is exactly the same way that the tea party and MAGA influenced their parties:
Show up at primaries. Vote for further left primary candidates. Primary centrists.
Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar won after the previous Democrat decided not to seek re-election. AOC successfully primaried a more centrist Democrat.
The Senate and House are really, really important. The president isn’t a dictator, and the median senator honestly has a ton of power. Just look at how e.g. John McCain tanked Trump’s Obamacare repeal, and how Manchin has controlled what went into Build Back Better.
President Bernie Sanders combined with a Republican House, a Republican Senate and our current Republican Supreme Court would get approximately nothing useful done.
The tea party was basically astroturfed into existence by the Koch Brothers and other rich assholes. On the left we basically have rich neoliberal assholes who are desperate to do good while still making sure their capitalist class asses stay as rich and relevant as possible. The “good” they do is also, conveniently, great at keeping them politically powerful while simultaneously lessening their tax burden.
I vote. I research and try to push the most progressive candidates. I still live in a reliably blue district in a relatively blue state. The establishment candidates have always won.
I’m not encouraging people to give up the fight. I’m just venting because I’m just so fucking tired.