How manybtimes do people have to butch about it before voting in the fucking primaries to move the party left?
Primaries have been hot this year precisely because lots of people are invested in seeding the next round of general elections with ideologically aligned candidates.
The problem is that it’s not just progressives wrangling for control. Quite a few conservative/corporate democrats are also heavily invested in winning these races. They’ve got a ton of money behind them, in anticipation of Dems retaking the House in 2027. And there are a number of foreign governments all putting their own fingers on the scales to make sure their interests are represented in our World Police State run out of DC.
The bad news is that even with the incredible relative growth, we’re looking at about 10% of registered voters engaging in the primaries.
I’ve seen estimates much closer to 20-30%, depending on state. Even then, a lot of these races are very localized and not well understood thanks to the geographic and population size of the districts in question. Look at the Texas statewide races. The only candidates that got any meaningful attention were the Senate primary between Talarico (a person you probably never heard of until Colbert had him on) and Crockett (a Congresswoman largely popularized through her appearances on the Congressional investigatory committee on UAFs). The gubernatorial race - arguably the most important statewide race on the ballot - went straight under the radar. A bunch of (heavily gerrymandered) US House seats got even less attention thanks to the expensive media markets and expansive voting districts. Literally who do you vote for in the TX-35 US House race? Do you recognize any of these people? Then you’ve got the outright uncontested positions - Texas AG, Texas Land Commissioner, Comptroller, a bunch of judges.
I’m friends with the guy running for the railroad commissioner down in Texas, and he’s an incredible progressive politician. He’s got my vote 1000x over. But this is arguably the third most powerful position in the state. Rosenthal took it totally uncontested. If he wins statewide in November, it won’t be thanks to an enormous campaign war chest or high name recognition. He’ll ride in on a Vote Blue No Matter Who landslide.
You need large party structures to introduce people to these candidates and advocate on their behalf. In much of the US, this party structure has been neglected if not outright dismantled. This isn’t a voter problem, it is a party problem. And it is one progressives/socialists can exploit, if they can rally the numbers and the financials to do it.
Primaries have been hot this year precisely because lots of people are invested in seeding the next round of general elections with ideologically aligned candidates.
The problem is that it’s not just progressives wrangling for control. Quite a few conservative/corporate democrats are also heavily invested in winning these races. They’ve got a ton of money behind them, in anticipation of Dems retaking the House in 2027. And there are a number of foreign governments all putting their own fingers on the scales to make sure their interests are represented in our World Police State run out of DC.
I’ve seen estimates much closer to 20-30%, depending on state. Even then, a lot of these races are very localized and not well understood thanks to the geographic and population size of the districts in question. Look at the Texas statewide races. The only candidates that got any meaningful attention were the Senate primary between Talarico (a person you probably never heard of until Colbert had him on) and Crockett (a Congresswoman largely popularized through her appearances on the Congressional investigatory committee on UAFs). The gubernatorial race - arguably the most important statewide race on the ballot - went straight under the radar. A bunch of (heavily gerrymandered) US House seats got even less attention thanks to the expensive media markets and expansive voting districts. Literally who do you vote for in the TX-35 US House race? Do you recognize any of these people? Then you’ve got the outright uncontested positions - Texas AG, Texas Land Commissioner, Comptroller, a bunch of judges.
I’m friends with the guy running for the railroad commissioner down in Texas, and he’s an incredible progressive politician. He’s got my vote 1000x over. But this is arguably the third most powerful position in the state. Rosenthal took it totally uncontested. If he wins statewide in November, it won’t be thanks to an enormous campaign war chest or high name recognition. He’ll ride in on a Vote Blue No Matter Who landslide.
You need large party structures to introduce people to these candidates and advocate on their behalf. In much of the US, this party structure has been neglected if not outright dismantled. This isn’t a voter problem, it is a party problem. And it is one progressives/socialists can exploit, if they can rally the numbers and the financials to do it.