To show I’m in this for good faith.
I wish I could beleive the Democratic Party. I just can’t anymore. On paper they sound good. They’re about different kinds of people and stuff. But they don’t like different ideas. Like I said last night, I feel like I’m forced to think one way as a liberal. I feel like I’m not allowed any independence. I’m not sure if that’s a reflection of the times or not.
I feel like liberalism eats itself because by the very definition, it’s about being liberal - going beyond the means and stretching it. And sometimes things don’t need much stretching and fine being the same. That’s okay and should be perfectly fine. I think their tax policies for instance go beyond the means and end up hurting constituencies.m
Also say what you want, I find the personal responsibility ethos of conservatism appealing. Liberals tend to blame problemsnlike white supremacy and racism for all of blacks problems. That’s certainly there and that’s not to undermine its existence but...so what? Liberals tend to pain this idea that there’s no point in trying, that there’s so many barriers for difficulty. That’s there’s oppressive systems working against you. And? So what? Does that mean I shouldn’t try? Ultimately, a lot of people I knew growing up used things like racism for their failures and maybe they did happen. But it’s a self fulfilling prophecy blaming systems that are beyond your control as evidence for being apathetic towards your own personal growth. Maybe it was a different time, but the things black people achieved under Jim Crow should be forever lauded as human resilience in a period of tyranny and second class citizenship. If there’s any lesson to take away from it it’s this: nothing should be an obstacle for pursuing your own personhood and that’s precisely what black folks did. All white people are racist you say? White supremacy? Systemic racism? Who cares? We certainly don’t have it worse than the people of Jim Crow black America and they made shit poppin’. That isn’t to say we have nothing to strive for to make things better, but democrats are far too likely to undervalue personal responsibility to the point where they consider it attacking the victim.
Why should I remain in the Democratic Party? They’re pro-abortion, anti-gun, put band-aids on societal problems rather than try to fix them, place well intentioned legislation that always ends up fucking over black people, consider black voters expendable, insult rule of law while defending people who are here ILLEGALLY, put their groups against each other (poor citizens vs poor immigrants, working class white people vs working class minorities, poor and middle class constituents vs their elite higher ups, value women but not ALL women;etc), and more and more frequently are enemies of free speech.
They have a completely different set of problems than Republicans.
I’d like serious reasons for remain with the party.