Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Progressive Issues

One of the things we have to deal with in this country are people who become fervent about a cause or a candidate without actually having a lot of facts to base that on.

It has a lot to do with short attention spans, disillusionment and media blitzes.

Last election we saw this play out in the election of our current President, who appealed to disgruntled people by promising to roll back the clock.  He couldn't do that and of course hasn't.  However on the other side we saw similar disgruntled people get behind a progressive candidate promising to institute unrealistic policies.

Now politicians make promises and its the job of the voters with help from the media to interpret the validity of those promises.  The first problem is that getting policies passed is a complex process that can't be dictated by a single person.  Even with majorities in both houses, getting legislation passed can be a challenge and then it has to stand up to judicial review.

Still many voters and even more non-voters feel that they are lied to and they have some basis for that.  Unfortunately these over the top promises can poison the water once a nominee is selected who has a more realistic position (i.e. 2016 election).

Perhaps the most significant factor in the last presidential election were the people who decided not to vote because the candidate of their party was going to win anyways, had too many (false) accusations leveled at her, or wasn't progressive enough.  Of course this resulted in a victory for a person that has set back progressive policies by possibly decades, loaded the judicial system with problematic justices, ignore climate change and has bolstered inequality.

Fight for the issues you want in the primaries but then support the candidate who is most likely to help those issues in the general election.

Otherwise watch them wither.

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