Whenever I talk to any Democrat supporters, they by-default cheer their Presidents and then I’ve to remind them of their leader’s illegal wars and war crimes. They condemn those acts and they go back to their cheerleading role - Why do they keep forgetting atrocities committed by their leaders? Why do they accept war criminals as their leader?
It’s a thread specifically asking about Democrat leaders, and you name two of the most notorious crooked Republicans to ever hold office (prior to 2016).
in a dipolar political environment you will have two coalitions of the same basic political beliefs form representing more and less extreme versions of the same core beliefs. it is the republicans listed who are associated with the shift rightward in the dipolar political environment, however, the democrats then just… operate in that environment. for example. it was under w bush we got the patriot act, but it wae under obama that all of the government spying edward snowden revealed occurred. the republicans break open some clay pot equivalent of pandora’s box, but then the democrats weild those powers without accountability because no president has been accountable to anyone since the 1970s.
so what do we do about this? to me it seems that the best course is to focus on improving things where you can. generally, that’s going to be locally in your neighborhood. anytime you vote, don’t vote based on one side or the other side being the side for good or the side for evil. they’re ultimately both neo-liberal or neo-conservative wings of the same fascist party. instead ask which candidate is going to make local organizing harder and work to avoid letting them get into office.
Blaming the Republicans for the Democrats is exactly the point the OP is making. Nixon and Reagan didn’t make Clinton rape anyone, order an illegal war, or likely have dissidents murdered. They didn’t make Obama also engage in an illegal war in Libya. Those were choices they decided to make, they had the option to be better.
exactly. both parties fundamentally support and enable eachother. it’s a decision between coke and pepsi. not enough people are aware of ale-8 or are able to get the word out about ale-8 for ale-8 to become viable without fundamental systemic changes to how all of this works. so for the most part, you should be out in the streets normalizing that an annual choice between two cola products is an illusion of choice, and then when you cast your ballot do so with the perspective of what it is on that ballot that gives you more room to have conversations about ginger-ale, orange soda, citrus drink, sassparilla, or even water.
we have a problem in this country where somehow not enough people know the difference between the two parties, and at the same time not enough people know how little that difference truly is. if we want to change this we have to educate people, and if we want to do that we have to focus less on the teams and more on the rules that underlay the sport