Lol, are you seriously still peddling the “if you don’t vote for Hillary you’re sexist” bullshit? It was pathetically transparent back in 2016, it’s downright delusional now.

Couldn’t have anything to do with her being an unapologetic war hawk. Or a Clinton (the last one helped set up our economy to crash in 2008). Or a weak candidate with weak positions pandering to the middle even during the primary instead of pushing left. Or an entitled narcissist who colluded with the DNC leadership to put their thumb on the scale. Or a petulant child who was too busy smearing her primary opponent even after the general was over to take responsibility for the fact that she and her campaign directly gave us Trump by propping him up as a pied piper.

*Gasp* I told you that in confidence!

New full name: Theophrastus Bombastus

I remember playing Red over and over as a kid. Eventually I stopped being interested in grinding levels and would just rush to Cinnabar Island so I could MissingNo dupe rare candies.

Even then I wouldn’t balance, I’d just throw them all on my favorite Pokemon of that run and get them to 100.

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I agree, that’s why that phrase is salt in the wound. It’s said by neoliberals who themselves are right of center but don’t realize it. They seem to think it’s supposed to make progressives feel better.

And that’s part of the reason the Israel-Palestine conflict is so contentious. Both peoples are indigenous to the region, having strong ancestral ties to the Canaanite peoples that inhabited the area over many periods of external rule and migrations.

That the Jewish people were once forced from the area but retained their identity in new lands doesn’t diminish their right to live in their ancestral home. Nor does it give them the right to treat their distant cousins (who also have ancestral claim) the Palestinians the way the state of Israel has.

I don’t know what the solution is, but many Palestinians and Israelis just want peace, contrary to the rhetoric of their governments.

No, you’re either not understanding my point or being intentionally obtuse. That the Republicans will oppose national health care reform is a given, and has no relevance on internal party policy. My point is that the Democrats failed to keep momentum even within their own party, and attacked anyone who claimed the ACA was insufficient. 2020 was the first election cycle where they finally admitted the ACA was insufficient.

Shifting between attacking positions and throwing the Republicans up as a get-out-of-argument-free card is exactly the same tired rhetoric the Democratic party has been using for decades.

They should have kept pushing for a full single-payer healthcare system as the policy platform instead of demonizing anyone who dared suggest it. Whether or not they could enact it yet, they’ve completely killed the momentum we had from passing the ACA by treating it like it solved everything. So now that’s the best we’ll ever have for the foreseeable future.

Throwing up the Republicans as an excuse is just typical blame-shifting. As you’re clearly aware, they were never going to be part of any solution, so they’re pretty irrelevant to the discussion.

It also gets credit for being the excuse Democrats gave for 10 years about why health care reform wasn’t important anymore. IMO the harm that has come from that momentum halt completely reversed any good the ACA did. If the Democrats treated it like the stepping stone it always was, I would agree it wasn’t “jack shit”.

Neoliberals need to get this through their head: a sizeable minority of us do not like the Democratic Party and don’t believe we are represented by them, regardless of whatever empty rhetoric they spew. Sizeable enough that you can lose elections without us. We are not a long-term reliable voting bloc and you need to learn tactics other than bullying and fear-mongering to get your way.

To abuse a metaphor, Hillary Clinton and her primary shenanigans were the straw that broke my back. Donald Trump and what he represented was bad enough that I managed to muster enough energy to vote for Hillary in 2016 and Biden in 2020. But I’m tired, and if I’m able to muster the energy for 2024 it’ll be the last time. I’m done voting for people that I do not want to be my president. It doesn’t have to be a progressive, but give me someone I can stomach or you can leave me out of your election math.

And the tired refrain of “Biden is the most progressive president ever” isn’t a consolation prize, it’s salt in the wound.