The fundamental problem with reaching across the aisle is that the people you’re reaching to aren’t influential in any meaningful capacity.
I’ve got family who voted for Trump. I can visit them, grab dinner, talk politics, reach sensible rational positions that would lead us both to be able to live freely and fairly. And none of it matters. Because neither of us write legislation, enforce the law, or adjudicate disputes.
Meanwhile, I’ve got friends who are working their way up the respective party organs at the local level. And I’ll periodically ask what they think about this or that. They tend to be as annoyed and disgusted as I do (although I’ll often get the “But your team is worse” rejoinder). Then I’ll ask what they are hoping to change. And the simple response I get back is “We just have to be patient until we’re in a better position”. But they’re never in that position. They’re always subservient to some other vulgar asshole. They’re always pandering to some gross freak of a mega-donor. They’re constantly getting hoodwinked by the Elon Musk / Jeff Bezos political turn.
I would not consider any plan viable that heavily relies on trumpists changing their minds.
There are plenty of voters who went from Obama to Trump in 2016 and then from Trump to Biden in 2020 and then from Biden to fucking Jill Stein in 2024 and it didn’t fucking matter. Even when you do get people to change their minds, they don’t get to do anything with the new information.
Vote for Trump or don’t, your district is as gerrymandered as ever. Vote for Beto O’Rourke for Senate or don’t, the SCOTUS isn’t changing hands in our lifetimes because the deck has already been stacked. If Dems retake Congress in 2026, it won’t matter because they’ll still be the same pack of sycophants courting elites in the Tech and Finance Sector that they were back in 2018 and 2006 and 1992. Many of them literally the same people just moldering in office for 40 years or more.
Winning doesn’t mean anything in a system where the outcomes are predetermined. Shaping opinions among the powerless doesn’t mean anything unless you can convince them to actually take back power for themselves.
Right now, its just voting for your favorite politician on American Idol.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 1 week ago
St. Luigi tells me that what we have in common is greater than what differentiates us.