“Americans need to be more partisan” is a provocative statement, but I would say so under oath. To be specific, I believe Democrats ought to be more partisan. I would prefer Republicans throw down their spears altogether. But today’s youth should be more loyal to the Democratic Party, and it is to our shame they are not.
A partisan is not only a heated C-SPAN enjoyer; it is also a type of polearm. A weapon.
From the Cleveland Museum of Art
Warfare History Network says:
Hell yeah. That is a badass namesake for people who get into shouting matches in Blogger comment sections. I am not embarrassed to say I am a partisan Democrat. I enthusiastically favor the Democratic Party. When I speak of the Democratic Party, I say “we.” and “us.” I call them “my party.” I wear their merchandise, sell my own, and burn campaign fight songs onto mix CDs. It is a whole trip.
This one made my eyes tear up:
Only two political parties in the United States can win elections. All efforts advance the victory of one over the other. There will be no grand revolution where the parties are replaced by better ones run by saints, no day of collective liberation where humanity shakes loose the bonds of corporatism forever. The whole heavenly host could not alter this material reality. Of those two viable parties, Republicans are stupid, evil, or both; they publicly embrace fascism with hardly a wink and represent an existential threat to the well-being of all Americans. Worse, they are irritating. Imperfect as they may be, Democrats are not that. Decimating Donald Trump and his MAGA ideology is a moral imperative, and only the election of Democrats does this. It follows that a man of good character will do everything necessary to secure the victory of the Democratic Party.
Self-styled independents decry partisanship as breeding ignorance, but I applaud the moral clarity it provides. There are many things for which to criticize the Democratic Party, but the energy spent doing so would be better spent defeating the GOP. People who want Republicans to lose ought to put their energies into helping Democrats win. Political coalitions are built of people with sometimes conflicting needs and views working for common goals. The most common ambition we share should be winning elections.
Unfortunately, in 2024, we failed. To America’s great shame, Mr. Trump was—supposedly—elected President of the United States a second time. It was not a landslide, it was the closest election in our history. Represented on pi charts:
The Democratic coalition did not deliver the last 1.55 percent of the votes needed to win. The number of Americans backing fascism has not swelled significantly, but ‘tis enough, ‘tis enough—the loss was catastrophic, humiliating, and preventable. We would easily have had 1.55 percent more voters if everyone’s attitudes were better.
https://www.cookpolitical.com/vote-tracker/2024/electoral-college
This is where my laudanum of partisanship becomes handy. I can comfortably self-identify as a Democrat because I recognize the value of enthusiastic advocacy, but my peers, the youths, and the cool olds are too hip for that. They wear leather jackets, smoke electronic cigarettes, and say, “I hate the Democrats too, but I suppose I have to stop Trump,” or “I’m not happy about it, but I’ll vote for Kamala to stop Trump,” or “I must choose the lesser of two options, but in a better world I would be represented by Cornell West.” Expressing this reticence publicly creates a drag on enthusiasm. Spending time overcoming that friction diverts energy which could be spent courting other voters.
Some calories must be burned to move one’s tongue—use them instead to criticize Republicans. Could that dissatisfaction be an inside thought, at least until we have beaten the clownish orange narcissist with whom we cannot live? Today’s Republicans would disown their children for suggesting that Mr. Trump might be oafish. Vice-President Kamala Harris never demanded that sort of worship, but it might have been nice had everyone put more positivity towards her task.
A well-intentioned person I know kept insisting that “Kamala need[ed] to EARN [her] vote.” No, lady, she did not. All one needs to do to deserve a vote is not be a Republican. I know, I know, for the sainted Marxists in our ranks, how awful it must sound to hear: “You must not only bear it, but you must also grin.” The conventional wisdom among the self-satisfied has been that politicians must earn our support. But no politician needs to do that. Anyone at the top of a presidential ticket will be perfectly wealthy and healthy whether they win or lose. They have an easier life if they lose. We are not so lucky. “Copmala” will ride into the sunset and count money from speaking arrangements for the rest of her life. She did not need to earn our support. We needed to earn her victory.
I learned this way of thinking from the legendary villain himself, radio host Rush Limbaugh, the man with the golden microphone at the Excellence In Broadcasting network. I understand why people joke about pissing on his grave, even if I find that sort of crass disrespect distasteful.
October 10, 2016, in the leadup to that terrible Clinton versus Trump election, America’s Anchorman, Maha Rushie, the Doctor of Democracy, said on his show:
“And for the life of me, I do not understand why—well, sadly, I do. It just really bothers me, and it has for a long time, irritates me, why we, on our side, cannot set aside the things that separate us and unify about one thing. If we cannot even unify around the concept of defeating Democrats, what good are we? What good is a Republican Party if it cannot even unify around the concept of winning?”
Ditto, El Rushbo, mega dittoes. In fact, I feel the same way about conservatives. If we cannot even unify around the concept of defeating Republicans, what good are we?1
Being “loyal to a political party” is the sort of thing that is supposed to happen to other people, in less ambivalent societies. I resent it. I wish there existed Republicans worth voting for, because sometimes it does feel sad to be so doggedly loyal to a coalition of people whose defining mood is “generally disappointed.” But that is the thing about loyalty—its strength is not measured when things are easy. We say we ride or we die because sometimes it is that hard. Sometimes we come away from stories about Senators Joe Manchin and Susan Collins crushing a progressive bill feeling like an antihero. Loyalty is measured by what you will sacrifice. That does include integrity. If it does, great—integrity is not real; it is imaginary and thus, cheap. All you must do is feel good, which is easy to do when you see your foes crushed.
We must fight to ensure the Democratic Party wins, because Republicans are as dangerous as any other organized terror group. Say or do anything, whatever it takes. Who cares? In terms of straight fucking lies and cruelty, why shouldn’t we achieve a level of parity with Fox News? I am not going to do that. I am craven about libel and will typically cite a mainstream publication before making any especially outrageous claims. If I do not, it is because I have heard something so often I assume it is common knowledge, like when I casually call Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) “Gym Jordan,” referencing stories that he did nothing while students on his wrestling team were raped.
My solution: buy merchandise. I have long dreamed of a shirt that would put it right out there that I hate, fucking hate Republicans. Now, I have brought those dreams to life with the Trump is a Bitch t-shirt, available for purchase now.
https://partisanhex.myspreadshop.com/
I caution you that these shirts should only be worn with intentionality. This is inflammatory-as-hell rhetoric, shit that does make people mad and can get you thrown out of shopping malls by rent-a-cops. People might fight you if you wear this in the wrong part of town. But some people want that sort of conflict, and they will make us proud to be Democrats. Indeed, the youth will not be able to help but want to be beside us after they see how hard we can go when we are stronger together.
I have taken the liberty of rewriting this text with the party roles reversed.
What Good Are We If We Can’t Even Unify Around Defeating Republicans?
See, when you get down to the nut-cracking time, here we are. For those of you who are Never Harrisers, those of you who just cannot bring yourself to support Harris, how can you support Trump? How in the world can you do that? And do not tell me you are not. “I am going to sit it out or I may vote third party.” Bullshit. Anything you do besides vote for Harris is essentially electing Trump, and the thing I want to know is, if you are going to suggest that Harris is unsuited, unfit, not qualified, and, if you are remotely sane and saying this is about Harris, then how can you not say it about Trump and his candidacy? If Harris is unfit, why is he not?
On the basis that people are determining Harris is not fit, Trump’s even more unfit, if you ask me. He has got a track record that tells us the damage he wants to do. He has got a track record of the kind of dishonesty and misdirection that tells us exactly what we are headed for. So, if you cannot bring yourself to support Harris on some basis, it is the exact same stuff with Trump, only just as bad, if not worse. I cannot help it that the election manifested itself the way it did, but for me it has always been about one thing: defeating Trump and the Republicans and the Trump agenda.
And for the life of me, I do not understand why—well, sadly, I do. It just really bothers me, and it has for a long time irritated me, why we, on our side, cannot set aside the things that separate us and unify about one thing. If we cannot even unify around the concept of defeating Republicans, what good are we? What good is a Democratic Party if it cannot even unify around the concept of winning? For crying out loud, do you realize the right have factions that hate each other? They have got different coalitions that despise each other. There are all kinds of coalitions, and they are all competing for as much of the federal money as they can get. The Republican Party parcels it out on who knows what basis.
But when it comes to stopping us, they forget all of that and they unify around the singular objective of defeating us. We, on our side, apparently do not have even one thing in common that can unite us, not even the desire to win. It boggles my mind, and I know from where it comes. It comes from political posttraumatic stress disorder. It comes from years and years of fear of what the American voter thinks of you. It comes from a never ending desire to somehow convince the American voter that you are not the reprobate that Republicans have portrayed you to be. A losing proposition.
You got a D by your name; they are going to hate you no matter what you do and what you say and how you do it. Ask Hillary Clinton. Cannot even unify around the concept of winning! And that is what they do. If you cannot see clear to support Harris because—I do not care what it is, the same things exist with Trump.
Trump has a known agenda and track record that any other year would be opposed. So, we have people on our side who know how bad it is, and they know how much they disagree with it, but in this one instance, they would just as soon lose. Somebody explain it to me.