I 100% agree with this post. I do believe many of these attackers are sincere, but that it's time to recognize it doesn't matter and the end effect is the same as if they had acted in bad faith.
They give permission to be cynical to the less informed who might otherwise feel guilt to support one candidate or the other. They create an argument that no one needs to pick a side, which a lot of people take comfort in because our politics are so divisive and polarizing that many don't want to wade into them if they can stay above the fray.
The message in the 2024 election should have been "Biden has been great, if you think he was bad you don't realize what he's had to deal with caused by Trump and the pandemic and the not-entirely real Democratic majority in the Senate which includes two turn-coats. His only issue is he's old so let's go with Harris." That's all. But that kind of messaging was never possible because most of the left wanted to always frame things by starting with their laundry-list of all the things they didn't like about Biden to prove their independent thinker bona-fides, and then circle around and say "BUT here's the thing-" which is lousy messaging.
Even today, when it's clear Biden fixed the economy and passed a ton of great legislation we can't frame the discussion as "Biden was great and now Trump has ruined the economy and defunded all these programs that were working" because people still want to start by crapping on the Democrats and sabotaging their own case. It's a great plan if the goal is to have the left perform weaker than they should have in all future debates and elections.
EDIT: This is my first post on this platform, so when I say I see people on the left doing this I'm talking about other places I frequent like Reddit, Mastodon and BlueSky.
I 100% agree with this post. I do believe many of these attackers are sincere, but that it's time to recognize it doesn't matter and the end effect is the same as if they had acted in bad faith.
They give permission to be cynical to the less informed who might otherwise feel guilt to support one candidate or the other. They create an argument that no one needs to pick a side, which a lot of people take comfort in because our politics are so divisive and polarizing that many don't want to wade into them if they can stay above the fray.
The message in the 2024 election should have been "Biden has been great, if you think he was bad you don't realize what he's had to deal with caused by Trump and the pandemic and the not-entirely real Democratic majority in the Senate which includes two turn-coats. His only issue is he's old so let's go with Harris." That's all. But that kind of messaging was never possible because most of the left wanted to always frame things by starting with their laundry-list of all the things they didn't like about Biden to prove their independent thinker bona-fides, and then circle around and say "BUT here's the thing-" which is lousy messaging.
Even today, when it's clear Biden fixed the economy and passed a ton of great legislation we can't frame the discussion as "Biden was great and now Trump has ruined the economy and defunded all these programs that were working" because people still want to start by crapping on the Democrats and sabotaging their own case. It's a great plan if the goal is to have the left perform weaker than they should have in all future debates and elections.
EDIT: This is my first post on this platform, so when I say I see people on the left doing this I'm talking about other places I frequent like Reddit, Mastodon and BlueSky.