this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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The problem is, and why Reagan made a rule to not do it, is that when you call out your own side you give your enemy a fucktonne of ammo to use against you and sway moderates.
Look what happened to Al Franken and we've DESPERATELY needed him these last few years.
I love Jon Stewart and I really enjoyed his most recent segment where he calls out both sides, making it CLEAR that trumpty dumpty is the worst offender, but it's already being used to make the moderates think that dems are abandoning Biden.
Look what happens when you refuse to call out your own side, the GOP has become a complete clown show because of it.
The other guy is downvoted, but I think you're both right. There's a time and place for both though. Biden needs critics, but the public face still needs to be behind him. I do think this is what's happening however, because Biden has the most boring liberal policies, but his administration hasn't been exactly that. It hasn't been great, but it's been far better than I expected, which I expected just pure pro-business liberal agenda stuff.
The critics need to work moving politics left, but we still need to get voters to elect democrats (not just for president) until there's a realistic alternative. If people just don't vote they aren't just not voting for Biden. They're going to hand the house and senate to Republicans too, which they'll use to probably make the judicial brand even more conservative as well. We really can't have that.
And look what happens when we give ammo to the other side, we lose Al Fucking Franken when we needed him most. The GOP is a hell of a lot more infested with rot than the dems to a degree it is almost an order of magnitude. We can afford to turtle up for a presidency or two.
What we CANNOT afford to do, is the opposite of that.
I am sorry, but in the US there is no moderates between the Dems and Reps. The Dems are representing far right neoliberalism and imperialist warmongering. The Reps are representing far right neoliberalism, imperialist warmongering and on top social values from the 50s, now sprinkled with a lot of fascism.
What would be considered moderate, by the standard of other western democracies is distinctively left of the Dems. And Dems are getting away with moving further and further to the right, as they can always say "see the other guy is worse". If a sizeable part of the people unhappy with the Dems would vote a third party, it would actually threaten their power basis and force them to become a real alternative to the Reps.
You're right that moderate in the US has different politics than the rest of the world. However, there are obviously moderates in the US and it's weird to consider what it even means to say there isn't. We all know there isn't a leftist party in the US, but that's not saying the same thing. Moderates are people who haven't chosen a side to vote between Democrat and Republican, wherever they lie politically.