Why Democrats Fail

It's Partly Hard Wired

We must ask two questions:

1. Why do the Democrats keep losing elections when they have honest articulate candidates with better policy initiatives than the MAGA/GOP?

2. Why do the Democrats keep letting the MAGA/GOP STEAL elections? This characterization is based on the use of institutional rigging, meddling by hostile foreign powers, outright purchase through dark money, or by literal machine tampering, which is, in theory, possible.

I believe most Democrats get into politics because they want to make the world a better place. They come out of Harvard and Yale with big, honest, idealistic dreams. They believe you can do good and still do well. That a rising tide floats all boats. And that their goodness and inclusiveness will always win the day. How could everyone in the world not understand that they are on the side of the angels? Then they wake up in DC and the mirror cracks.

When handed the legislative ball with a big enough majority, they do what their ethos indicates--pass bills that help Americans. This magical situation, where the Democrats hold the executive branch and both houses by broad majorities and are shored up by a liberal court, is vanishingly rare.

And when these mythical conditions are not met, the Democrats always fold. WHY?

Most behavioral issues are overdetermined. Culture, conditioning, institutional norms, philosophical orientation. All of this comes to play when sussing out the reason the Democrats consistently bring a water balloon to an air war.

The MAGA/GOP have an arsenal of cluster bombs and heat seeking missiles and are not at all hesitant to use them. And if they miss a few, like they did with Hunter Biden, what of it? Most of them land.

The Democrats have an entirely different ethos when it comes to ruthless behavior. Though there are gun-owners and veterans among the Democrats, the PLATFORM is anti-gun. This is in part to distinguish themselves from the gun-toting right-wing nut-case who is endangering your children.

A good story, and with the added bonus of being true. And yet, a comprehensive fire-arms bill has never even come close to being passed, despite the rising body count. No, we are going backwards--now you can't go to a Walmart in some locales without being accosted by ordinary citizens packing serious military hardware.

The other part is a general discomfort with violence, or even violent rhetoric. Considering the efficaciousness of violence, this gives the Republican Party a big advantage.

There is also a matter of underlying cultural conditioning. All of us in the United States were raised within the capitalist system, including those who become Democrats. The brutality of capitalism is better represented in the Republican world-view. The Democrats, if they stayed true to their own world-view, would be in the mixed socialist camp. The constituents want universal health care, a better infrastructure, student loan forgiveness, an excellent and FREE educational system 1-16. The space between the capitalist conditioning and the socialist inclination creates cognitive dissonance. Which in turn feeds ineffectiveness.

The Democrats have other strategic problems. These internal weaknesses alone have caused the Democrats to stand by while the country is being remade as a fascist oligarchy before our eyes. The Democrats see themselves as the scrappy champion of the under-dog. Meanwhile, the overton window has shifted further and further to the right.

And the under-dog, who expects MORE from the Democrats, noticed that the Democrats, pulled by the rightward shift, had stopped delivering. Cue the "populist" Donald Trump, who lies as he breathes. But the under-dog did not notice.

The Republicans have controlled the narrative all along. They decide what the questions are, and what language will be used to discuss the issues. The Democrats, on the other hand, are linguistically and symbolically reactive. Think of the word "woke". The way the left jumped in to defend it when the MAGA started using it as a slur. But not just a slur--a mean joke. When you go all in to DEFEND something, it makes you defensive. Defensiveness is never attractive. They could have ignored it as not worth any attention. They could have used other words to describe themselves. But instead there is a steady stream of self-referential memes extolling the woke and pointing out how defective the “anti-woke” is. It is all about “them”, the perceived enemy, either way.

Ask yourself--how much of the chatter on the left all about "him" or "them". The right is literally determining what the left focuses on. The right can be reactive, but more often they are simply vicious. The left wants to make absolutely sure what they are putting out there is true on every level. The right will just lie. A typical meme on their places is an AI image of Kamala drunk at a rally. Or worse.

Individual right-wing voters will hold their nose and vote for the party. Because they lean authoritarian, lock-step is an easier dance. For the left it's more complicated. The far left hates the Democrats more than it hates the Republicans. They generally float a spoiler and help ensure a loss of the Democrat. The right tears into itself almost ritually during primaries, but fall in line without a squeak when the strong man is chosen. Even if one of them called the winner's mother a cheap whore during the primaries, they all go out for a beer and vote as a unit.

On the left, holding a simmering grudge against others on the left that are considered "wrong" in some way is the norm. And that leads to attacking those who believe in the same basic policies as they do. If you have a mixed group politically on Facebook, try posting a photo of Hillary Clinton doing something innocuous. If you have ANY dedicated progressives in your feed, you will soon see the attack comments, featuring terms like "neoliberal" or "war-monger". The fact that she has been a public servant on the Democratic side means nothing. The fact that she is smart, competent, and a champion of women and children on a global scale means nothing. These folks are going to re-litigate 2016, with Bernie as the martyr. And we lose again.

This systemic attachment to the appearance of virtue at all costs also explains why we don't go after the cheaters. Why we let elections stolen in broad daylight. Because we must be beyond reproach at all times. Before we would do such a thing, we must have absolute proof that it happened. Can't chance insulting the perpetrators without proof, which can only be obtained by calling them out. Better to just normalize the results, whatever they may be. Then, put your head down, turn into the wind, and pray.