One thing that the Right wing in the United States does very well is that they fall in line as a party with whatever their benefactors want. It doesn’t matter how unpopular the policy is, or whether or not it will ultimately be harmful to the constituents of the party. The GOP almost down to a person will toe the line. I find this all to be pretty horrible, but…
On the Left, politicians and candidates are frequently held to nearly stratospheric standards. While the Right is willing to turn a blind eye to members of their party completely ignoring the rule of law and stealing everything that isn’t nailed down, the Left will drum people out of office and the party for bad decisions that were made a decade ago. I am not saying that there shouldn’t be accountability, but when only the Democrats exercise strict accountability, it seems more like self-immolation rather than nobility.
A sizeable group of people didn’t vote at all in the 2024 Presidential election because Kamala Harris wasn’t able to convince them that she fully supported the Palestinians. These people somehow calculated that a potential Trump win would somehow be better than voting for Harris, whom they were far more likely to sway to their side had she won. Right now, Gavin Newsom is a front runner for the 2028 Presidential campaign, and there are people in 2025 already declaring that they won’t vote if he’s the Democratic candidate because they don’t agree with a stance that he took on trans athletes while governor of California. This is incredibly short-sighted.
There’s a saying, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.” and I think that Liberals, Progressives, and Democrats need to embrace this idea if they want to see progress. I think we all as humans sometimes lose site of the fact that incremental progress is still progress. The pursuit of perfection is noble, and even helpful, but “perfect or bust” is a losing strategy in politics and in life.