There's been a large swath of voters on the left that have been misled into thinking that """fighting"" for something you are never able to achieve is better than incremental progress.

This mindset is why we have been losing elections.

"It is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it."
-Eugene V. Debs

which, weirdly, is the base of "progressive", but today's "progressives" seem more interested in radical change, all or nothing, than making progress.

He'd be a so-far-left-they're-almost-right type JI7 could use as a for-instance.

Not many actual politicians that are like this, 'cept Bernie sometimes walks a fine line.

Some of the people who interrupted Kamala's rallies to yell at her about Palestine would fit into this description, too, i.e. actually are "radical left", and they (have been led to) think Democrats are just as terrible and corrupt as Republicans.

The people the OP describes are out there, for sure, and I've had discussions with some. I believe the OP's account of events as that could totally happen if you stumbled into one of their groups.

He was so far-right he bounced back to the left. Super pro-union, anti NAFTA, anti-war, and anti-Israel.

Cynthia McKinney and Jeremy Corbyn.

These are the same morons who voted for Trump twice because they got their “panties in a bunch.” They are responsible for Dubya getting enough votes to steal the election from Gore and they also brought us Trump twice. They are also responsible for more pollution and climate change.

I'm always disappointed to see how many people encourage primarying incumbent Democrats and voting third party.

as long as you dont vote 3rd party in the general. IMHO there are some dems that need to be primaried.

did in 2016.. "Vote 3rd party in the General".

Supposedly it was "only for the primaries" but in the end, by encouraging people to disengage and not support the party candidate, they end up not showing up to support the actual nominee. They have no "skin-in-the-game" (so to speak) and are not invested in the outcome, emotionally or intellectually. In the end, the "uncommitted" and "leave-it-blank" advocates were hurting Democrats... and I believe it was intentional. It was as idiotic a move as the "Defund-the-Police" insanity.

rather than spending time replacing a Democrat with a Democrat. Or instead of wasting time trying to blood-up and deplete the campaign funds of an incumbent so that they can be more easily defeated by a Republican challenger. Primarying Democrats for vanity and purity purposes is a luxury that we cannot afford.

I don't get it...

Not capable of tinkling for themselves.

Not everything out of every Democrat's mouth is golden all the time.

Democratic Underground has been a successful platform for 25 years because it's a left-wing but realistic forum.

Reflexively hating those we disagree with really isn't our shtick.

That's Facebook's.

People who refused to support Hillary. “The Boys.”

Last edited Fri Jan 2, 2026, 01:04 PM - Edit history (1)

Lots of people like the cache of being a political mover and shaker, but don't really want to do the work or the thinking needed for actual governance.
Throw money and bumper sticker slogans at the problem, and it should fix itself, just like with sports teams and on TV shows...
On edit, WTF spellcheck? Typing this post quickly on my phone while waiting to pick up my spouse, and it corrects a finger slip to a slur?

Last edited Sun Jan 4, 2026, 08:53 PM - Edit history (1)

Russia has a history of trying to become admins to groups on both political parties.

In addition Elon Musk prior to 2024 worked to promote wedge issues to divide Democrats since the Trump campaign realized they won't get many new supporters, only existing ones.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/15/republican-ads-false-flag/

Or non-pay-wall: https://archive.is/k3mKE

One thing I've been realizing is we should do all we can to increase energy and enthusiasm to get more people to vote Democrat. Make people proud and happy to be a Democrat!

I hope you recover from the sting soon! 🙏