Blue States, You're the Problem
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
What do they agree with? Well, not with the Republican, which is why they vote for Democratic candidates for national offices. What they really need, though, is a sane center or center-left party.
Why is the Democratic Party so out of sync with their voters? My guess is too much time inside the Beltway, listening to the national media, but I don't really know.
Does the national media make this look worse than it is, by amplifying the voices of the Democrats who are further left? This would mean that the median position of the Democratic Party officeholders is further right than the average person thinks. (They also may amplify the voices of the Republican Party that are further right, to try to make the Republicans look more insane...)
Or are the Democratic voters really just hypocrites between national and local politics? Do they want to fix homelessness nationally, but protect the value of their houses? Do they want to fix global warming, but not have gas prices go up? Do they want equality in society, but still want their children to be among the elite? I'd like to think better of them than that, but this could be the real explanation.
I think the simple answer is that people, on average, are going to put their interests first.
I don't think political affiliation really plays into this beyond the fact that delivering on the Democratic platform often requires tangible local sacrifices that some people turn out to be unwilling to make when asked to and that the modern Republican platform is basically just for everyone to do nothing at all (or to punish more poor people in ways that are hard to see and in far away places they'll never go).
I think its also often hard for people to connect the outcome of tangible local elections on "Prop # Whatever" to abstract philosophical goals like "more affordable housing". For example, it might be easy for a Chicago parent to think "I don't want my tax dollars to go to schools my kids won't attend" and "I think everyone deserves a good education" without seeing the contradiction because they don't understand the intricacies of how their local schools get their funding or what impact voting on the former will have on the latter.
US Citizens: We'd like Medicare For All!
Republicans: No!
Democrats: No! [pride flag emoji] #BLM #AllLivesMatter
As far as I can tell, the Democrats mainly exist to take 1 step to the left for every 2 steps to the right the Republicans take. It's all still going right-wing and has been for decades. The only current Democrats who are even close to progressive are the Squad and Bernie, and we have seen exactly how much effect they can exert on the Democratic monolith, i.e. not much at all.
So yeah, Democrats often fail to live up to the progressive statements they make and progressive ideologies they claim to hold. While Republicans don't even pretend to care about anyone but the wealthy and corporations. Both sides suck.
#LateStageCapitalism