Can't really like that , but I do acknowledge it's truth
I know, right?
Both-sides-ism gets a bad rap. When *I* say "both sides" are guilty of this crap... I don't mean both sides are the same. Sometimes one side is demonstrably worse than the other... so I kind of get the lesser-of-two-evils argument that some pose. The problem, though, is that the more we the people support that lesser-of-two-evils concept, the more we just get two evils.
Like abortion... forget for a moment what side you might be on that issue. Just think of it as an issue that has been used as a wedge for decades now and consider the following. Pretty much since the original Roe v Wade decision, Republicans have campaigned on wanting to reverse that decision and ban abortions, while Democrats run on campaigns to fortify and formally legalize abortion. But what actually happened?
Democrats literally never took advantage of any opportunities they have had over decades to actually protect the right to abortion through legislation. Zero efforts. Republicans, however, in Trump's first term took advantage and got a Supreme Court reversal (for the most part) and have been leveraging that since then in various States.
But here's the thing... Democrat voters don't blame Democrat politicians for being ineffective... most blame Republicans for taking something away from them... but the reality is, Republicans promised that shit for decades and Democrats did nothing to support what Democratic voters wanted. Meanwhile, Republicans are the dog that finally caught the car... I don't think politicians meant to succeed here, because they too had chances over the years and failed... but they kind of stumbled across the finish line with this and realized it wasn't as popular as they thought it would be. Also, abortion has kind of been lost as a wedge issue as a result because it's "done" politically speaking for the moment.
Current horrible policies are bad, and may only get worse... but what is the other side doing? What will the other side do next time they are in power? What has the other side done in the past? At the end of the day, honest realistic people have to admit that our government does very little with us in mind. We the people have power that we never exercise. Also, to be fair, a lot of the American people actually benefit by many of the bad policies that hurt others... so there is a lot of support in both major political parties for that party's bad policies. Neither side will admit it, but the people in power know that they kind of agree on more than they don't at the end of the day... and the stuff they disagree on is about 50/50 as to serious disagreement vs posturing for the political game.
IF both sides didn't keep up the charade of opposition, the American people would not be able to unsee it. Each side brags about getting more than 50% of the vote in an election... but this obscures truth a bit. Most elections get less than 50% by a long shot of eligible voters participation. Presidential elections sometimes sneak over the 50% bar, but most others rarely do. So, when you get 50% of the vote, you're really getting 50% of 50% of the legal voters... which means you really get 25-30% of the vote.
So, like... when the Democrat-favoring media comes on and says Trump's "favorability" is at 35%... think for a moment... they want you to think that is bad, and it sort of is... but it's also right at or slightly above the margin of actual support he had when elected to office! Because favorability is measured against the total population of the Country...
There's about half the country at most of the time who either actively dislikes BOTH parties but feels like they have no viable option, or they are apathetic because neither party does anything to win them over. There's so much untapped potential in this country that has been discouraged for generations. This is why both parties run the "3rd party vote is a waste of your vote" campaigns... Neither Democrats or Republicans want you to even think you could have another option. That scares the FUCK out of them.
I like to point out that the original Republican party came from nothing to having a few Senators to having their first President (Lincoln) in less than 10 years... and this was back in the mid 1800s with no TV, no radio, no Internet, no Phones... they came from nothing to major offices with not much to spread their word and they displaced an entire party into oblivion. Whenever people say that in today's modern technology and communications age where you can practically for free spread your message across the country AND the world in seconds... that a third party is impossible? It's a lie. It's what the powers-that-be want you to believe because it threatens their stranglehold.
We could change everything... maybe not in a single election... maybe we'd need 5-10 years to stake that claim to control... but if the other half of the country can't band together and do this like people in the 1800s could... what the fuck are we good for?
