Both Sides Are Just As Bad?
This article is the author’s opinion and does not necessarily represent the views of Diversity Wine Club.
Sides Are Just As Bad? What About Project 2025?
I like sounding smart just as much as the next dude, but this phrase just doesn’t sound smart. It’s flagrantly wrong. I mean, sure, on one hand, you have Democrats that want to confiscate your guns, allow kids to dress up as trans cats, and essentially push their communist agenda on good, hard-working Americans. On the other hand, you have Republicans bending over backwards to turn the US into Nazi Germany whilst maintaining their demonstrable track-record of responsible fiscal policy.
While I would personally love a total confiscation of guns in the United States, or for children to have the social freedom to wear whatever clothes (or even to just piss and shit in whatever bathroom) they want to, or have more varied political representation than what currently exists (the US two-party system removes nearly all representation from anybody who has legitimately left-leaning views), Democrats aren’t “just as bad” as Republicans are. Yes, Democrats deserve a hell of a lot of criticism, and the lack of accountability for, and awareness of, the corrupt shit that they’ve done is more than a little unsettling.
Democrats are not as bad as Republicans. That feels like a hard statement to justify given the US funding of Israel, despite Israel having already succeeded in their wipeout of the people in Gaza. It’s hard to justify given that the results of the railway strike in 2022 were a slap in the face to every single person in the working class. It’s hard to justify given that the rallying cry behind the Democratic platform is “We’re not as bad as Republicans.”
It makes me groan to say it, but it’s true. Democrats aren’t as bad as Republicans by a long-shot. One just needs to look at the way that Republicans win elections. As the far-right becomes less and less popular every year, more and more corrupt voting practices are put into place to prevent voter turnout. Gerrymandering becomes more pronounced every ten years in Republican-led states. Frankly, if it weren’t for the electoral college, a Republican would not be able to win the presidency with their current far-right platform.
Democrats have been able to do some things that have actually benefited the citizens of the country. Consider healthcare. Millions of people’s lives have been greatly impacted by the access to healthcare that they’ve received.
Or even look at what can happen when Democrats get a trifecta in government. In 2022, after obtaining control of the legislature and governor’s mansion, Minnesotan Democrats passed a slew of progressive bills, which included restoring voting rights, abortion rights, and education.
What platform are Republicans running on? You only need to look at Project 2025.
What is Project 2025 and Why is it Dangerous?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ_AG6irJ_g
What is Project 2025? | what you should probably know about it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7OlQG9C4zM
Project 2025 is an instruction manual and a declaration of intent by the Republican party. It was created by far-right “think-tanks” (I prefer to call them “brain-drains,” but that’s a different conversation). P2025 outlines the ways in which the Republican party will demolish the current system of government to reshape it into an absolute autocracy. It declares the values held by the Republican party, which includes completely removing gender and queer discrimination protections.
There are a couple of truisms that liberal Americans have believed in the past. One is that once a right is given to the public of the US, the government can’t take it away. And the other is that there are guardrails to prevent an autocrat from claiming the United States.
We all know what the awful situation on reproductive rights is like in the United States (and if you think that any type of healthcare should be at the whims of each individual state, shame on you). The fascist Republican regime has repeatedly run on a platform in the past of total, arbitrary religious freedom and civil liberties for fetuses. And now, physicians can’t legally provide necessary reproductive healthcare to people in vast swaths of the US. Republicans have cleared one of their many hurdles in human rights elimination.
Now, they’re not just focusing on the single-issue of human rights. Their goal has evolved and is an actual restructuring of the federal government to focus all of the power into the presidency and create a dictator without guardrails. Trump already tried to do this with the January 6 insurrection. If he loses through the established voting process that currently exists, Democrats will probably have to deal with another J6.
Republicans recognize that to maintain their decreasingly-popular strangle-hold that they have on the United States, they have to become increasingly corrupt. They’ve been doing it for decades and have been ramping up to the situation we find our country in now. They promised they would end abortion rights. Everybody said they wouldn’t succeed. They did it. Next they’re promising to turn the federal government of the United States into an autocratic regime. Which is even more terrifying. The federal government of the United States is the most powerful organization on Earth. In less than a year, the consequences of a Republican presidency will personally affect every single one of us.
Republicans know that their hold is slipping. If they wait too long, too much of their base will have died and been replaced with the “radical, socialist gen Z.” Instead of letting that happen, they are desperately attempting to make the government theirs. For good.
Go out and vote. Get as many people as you can to vote. Even if it feels like your vote does not matter. Even if you feel like Joe Biden is going to have a sweeping win (which doesn’t look like it will be the case at this point), get everybody you can to vote. Even if you think a convicted felon couldn’t possibly win an election, get everybody you can to vote. Go vote.
If Republicans win this election, you won’t have another chance to vote for another candidate.