I’m going to attempt to tell you something that is intended only to educate you and maybe (hopefully) start you on a journey to learn more about things so you can be an effective voter and fix the things you are angry about and work toward progress again like the Decmocrats have done always. This country has moved left almost consistently and we have waged war against the Republicans since the civil war, we beat slavery, got the women’s right to vote, fought a long bloody battle to end segregation, installed unions, regulated polluting disgusting companies that were killing people, brought workers rights to the standards they are today from horrid conditions of the past, passed roe v Wade, took the country from never mentions the word gay to passing LGBTQ rights in my one lifetime, and bent time and space to pass the very first healthcare plan against all odds and so much more. That’s not to say there weren’t set backs and bad presidents and the Republicans did some awful and sneaky things to try and stop the progress movement that was literally slipping right through their fingers. Many of their extensive long term plans that they carried out we are seeing the effects of today, as they finally were able to pull us backwards for the first time in a long time. The history is long and rich and I suggest you study US political history from the 50’s to today to understand it. Now I’m going to be a little blunt:

You could know the answers to these questions you’re asking but it would require you to go research and find out. The problem is you have an incredibly basic understanding of how politics or the government works in this country and no education on the history. The things you are saying make absolutely no sense because you only know what went wrong but have no basic knowledge about why. You seem to not understand how we have progressed from literal slavery to today because you don’t understand the game we have to play to gain every inch. Like it or not we have to share the government with people so far right they gave up even having a platform after Obama (oh yeah and we elected the first black president and the GOP melted down) and run on heavy propaganda, racism, fear mongering, and owning the libs. How the hell do we negotiate passing much needed laws and with the opposition literally refusing to engage in the political system anymore. The fact that since trump we have passed what we have is a freaking miracle and can be attributed to extremely skillful maneuvering by the Democratic Party. Is it the laws that I hope and dream for? Not even close, I’m a Democratic socialist and I want this country to move as left as counties like Finland and Norway and I want to see capitalism reigned back in and the corporate oligarchy smashed. But I also know that we have to play it carefully or we could lose so much of what we fought so hard for and lose the ability to get elected and the Republicans party is waiting there for us to piss off the moderate voters OR piss of the millennials and Gen Z and they will jump in to seize total control and kill any part of democracy that is still standing and working. Then we go all the way back - we go back 50 years. Both moderates and the young progressives (who I side with) have to be carefully navigated, making one happy without losing the other. This is the careful dance we have had to do all along and we know exactly how to make progress and it’s unfortunately an aggravating and painfully slow process. For instance we passed ACA designed to pass not as healthcare goal but because the goal was to implement a healthcare plan and make it very hard to reverse just to hold the place for universal healthcare in the future. The very existence of the ACA is there to help Americans now but ultimately to make it easier to pass M4A or something like it. M4A doesn’t have enough national support thanks to republican misinformation and fear mongering about communism so as much as a great many of us want it, we have to bide our time and strike when the iron is hot.

I’m a staunch progressive but I’m 50 years old and have a long history of being involved in politics so I lived through these times you’re referring to (how the courts got stacked and how we ended up losing our footing on progress and ending up where we are now) and it’s very complicated and a lot of information so just looking at things that went wrong and pointing to the things we haven’t passed and blaming this politician or that one might feel good for a vent but it’s completely ignorant and not the way anything works or happened. The establishment Dems are just a symbol to me of how progress is stalled and it grates me that I know my children’s generation is ready for the progress I’ve always dreamt of and they want changes that we all would benefit from and they are getting out and voting and being involved but they don’t understand the system enough to understand their chance is coming but it’s going to take patience. Right now the most pressing issue is keeping the Republicans from literally seizing power and taking everything away from us, all of the rights people died for so they can give the Evangelicals the theocracy they have dreamt of and been promised by the Republicans for decades if they would vote with them.

That happens and everything we have to critically get done like climate change legislation becomes impossible.

The most important thing for democrats to do right now is to stave off the expected shenanigans from the Republicans because they have their little majority, work our asses off to pass any legislation to make the base happy (has to please both moderates and the youth) and protect the things in danger like maybe codifying Roe v Wade. It will take all of the political capital and energy to get that done so everything else will have to wait.

Welcome to American politics, it’s much more pleasant to engage in once you truly understand what’s going on and why. It also elevates a lot of the anger felt from being disappointed because there are reasons for things that aren’t “the democrats only work for the corporations and they hate progressive measures”. Not to say we don’t have a huge corporation problem where they’ve been given too much power and influence and too many concessions are made to the all mighty dollar but we have to actually get in office as progressives to end that shit and get their money out of politics. But to get there we have to keep playing the game and taking inches of progress at a time while we wait for the boomers to die, the youth to become even more engaged and start filling the offices. It’s our turn but we have to play it right or lose it all.