Beyond me

One thing which fascinates me is how some voters talk about the political left and right as of it were a winner take all proposition. I don't think in those terms and instead apply critical thinking to ideas and policies to see if they hold up.

For example I don't like cultural conservatism because in the end it always tends to lose out to social progress. I like that women can vote for example but a 19th century conservative would beg to differ. Fiscal conservatism, on the other hand, can make sense only if applied with wisdom but unfortunately under the American oligarchy it has been applied to the detriment of the lowly citizen and to the advantage of the capitalist. America has far too many medically uninsured people and the GOP wants to chip away at Medicare and social security while continuing to bloat the military industrial complex. So much for frugality.

This blog post was prompted by me watching a video by a woman saying why she was leaving the Democratic party back in 2018. The interesting thing is that back then the GOP under Trump had already begun its descent into a cult of personality and had acquired its appetite for totalitarianism and culture war grievance. Using critical thinking would have gone against such a move even if you didn't at all like the centrist and corporatist Dems.

Since 2018 the American right has only become more extreme and has elected candidates which are not even capable of credibly holding public office.

The United States does not even have a significant enough number of representatives from the progressive left and when a milquetoast centrist like Biden is considered communist by a fringe right wing, how you could make such a move to an increasingly fringe party is beyond me.

Sometimes I just shake my head.