Too many commenters here do not understand anything about how any of it works, especially how first past the post voting works. Progressives do not seem to understand that the system has not rejected them, but the voters have.

It is mostly relentless propaganda for the oligarchs that has captured the country. That’s the problem, and it is not fixed by any of the suggestions here.

SQL does pair well with getting drunk…

No, he’s accusing them of being what he is, a time-honored tactic that Trump also utilizes.

The side that lost in 2020 is the side that likes to resort to violence to solve what they see as the problems in society.

The side that lost in 2024 believes the things they say about civil behavior, adherence to the rule of law, and fucking democracy.

There was nothing successful about this cycle. We live in a post-truth world, and it may be unfixable.

But pleasing the bulk of progressives (meaning idiot hippies who have nothing going on but attention for temporary media outrage) is not going to repair the Democrats. The Democrats can only succeed if there is a consensus reality, and there is no longer one.

You’re thinking like one level deep, but the real issues are much more difficult.

Everything the GOP does makes them stronger, and everything the Democrats do makes them weaker. This is because exploiting things makes money, and defending things costs money. There’s almost nothing the Democrats can do about any progressive issue that doesn’t also create huge numbers of Republicans, so pleasing progressives is generally not the winning strategy you think it is.

I’m more interested in solving these problems than I could adequately explain, but you, like most progressives, think about goals and not strategies or ancillary outcomes.

So full of shit. The Dems have been robustly defending your civil rights this whole fucking time. Go check the ACLU’s legislative scorecards: you’ll find virtually every Dem rep and senator with a 100% voting record aligned with the ACLU, and almost zero GOP pols with a 100% grade (I found one senator on the 2020 scorecard at 100%). Some GOP pols, like Josh Hawley, score 0%.

The Dems do the damned work, quietly and diligently. Unions saw their biggest gains in decades under Biden. Real wages rose under Biden, more than inflation, and rose highest for the bottom quintile. There hasn’t been an administration in my lifetime (I’m 56) that has come close.

Young progressives are, for the most part, self-important shits that care more about posturing than actually knowing who is doing the most good for the most people, without conducting destructive purity tests on them. Young Progs don’t show up for midterm votes, and didn’t show up on Tuesday. Thanks for showing up in 2020, but what have you done for the world lately? Old fucks like me show up every goddamned time. Voting is a fucking duty, a bare minimum of effort that young progressives have to be wooed with flowers and candy into exerting. Go skip classes in a tent on the school quad without resulting in ANY CHANGE AT ALL, and preen for your Insta friends.

Personal dignity?

Some of us learn better lessons.

I have become aggressively more anti-capitalist as I’ve grown older. At 56, with a nice professional career mostly behind me, I am vigorously ANTIFA EAT THE RICH ACAB.

What happened in Twoteen Twooty Two?