The other is that voting is there to make people *feel* as though they've taken direct action to discourage them from actually doing so, although personally I find that less convincing

I don't necessarily disagree, but the usual counter-argument is that voting legitimizes power. If both candidates in a election support mass deportation, even if one also has some other bad policies, then voting for either legitimizes mass deportation

Oh, any day now the Mueller Report/impeachment/25th ammendment/Epstein files/No Kings rallies will remove the GOP from government, restore the rule of law, and resume America's enlightened guidance over the free world. Then we can all go get brunch 🤗

They're deliberately sabotaging themselves because they have the same socio-economic incentives as the GOP. The prevailing idea that Dems are pursuing some failing, consultant-led strategy is insidious

They don't want to succeed, they know what they're doing

So people are starting to learn this it seems.

Maybe it's still worth it to try, and believe me, I'm not advocating support for Democrats. I'm just increasingly certain that we can't simply vote our way out of this problem. "Just wait for the midterms" is akin to doing nothing

The problems I see with grassroots funding are

1. The candidate has to be a well-known public figure to start with

2. Over half the country is in debt. They literally can't afford a $5 donation. The bottom 75% would struggle to compete with a single billionaire, and would risk considerably more

Potentially divisive opinion, but leftist candidates are largely unelectable

Not because their policies are unpopular, they measurably are, but because any candidate who proposed large-scale redistribution of wealth would not be given the money or airtime to run a successful campaign

They must be aware though, with their position and resources how could they not be? And what does that imply about their continued assistance?

It's crazy how it's always *just* enough defectors isn't it. If it needs 3 votes to pass it's 3 swing districts, if it needs 8 now there's 8 swing districts. But of courese there's no coordination, just individuals voters

And the defectors are never punished, never outcast. Pretty strange!