People who voted Donald Trump into power because "look at how bad the other side is" lack any sense of what's in their political self-interest.
People who are voting in the DSA because "look at how bad Donald Trump is" lack any sense of what's in their political self-interest.
What do I mean by political self-interest?
By political self-interest, I mean the protection of one's self from the actions of others - particularly by means of the government which, by its nature, has unique positioning and power to imprison you, seize your belongings, or otherwise prevent you from being able to act in service of your well-being.
Why is the government's power unique? The same reason it exists: Violence.
Every government (or sovereign ruler) exists because man as a creature has to engage in productive activity (producing food/water/shelter) to live. The product of that productive activity needs to be protected from being taken by force by those who would rather steal than produce.
Every government, every sovereign ruler, every despotic warlord... they are all established because of the fundamental necessity to protect life, liberty, property from theft or destruction by organized bands of human beings willing to destroy, kill, or steal. They may not be willing to protect all lives under their jurisdictions equally, but the fundamental dynamic is there... violence from other human beings is pretty much assured and you need institutions (governments/rulers/warlords) to protect against it.
The founders of the United States wrote down that you have god-given, inherent rights to life liberty, and property and that governments are instituted among men to secure those rights. This is a recognition of the statement above. Governments are instituted to deal with violence.
And how do governments/rulers/warlords deal with violence? The government/ruler/despot has to develop and maintain the means and capacity to deal with internal and external threats with violent force. Armies. Navies. Police. These are the means by which force can be answered with force until the aggressor submits.
Unfortunately, the government/ruler/despot can turn the same means of violent force against its own body politic to seize property or to force people to start or stop doing things or to prevent the free expression of "dangerous" ideas.
And who will you go to for redress of grievances when your government/ruler/despot is abusing you? (Probably the government/ruler/despot - but if you're lucky there's an independent judiciary insulated from political influence)
Government is uniquely positioned to fuck up your life and it's as true in Iran as it is in the United States.
Thanks for the philosophy lesson, but what does this have to do with political self-interest?
As I mentioned above, the United States is uniquely the first country to establish itself as an institutional system where your rights were the source of the system and its justification for existence. Securing the life, liberty, and property of every person is the reason that this government was instituted. They wrote it down.
In the Constitution the founders put limits on what the government is able to do to prevent the government from applying force against citizens for arbitrary or political reasons. They even strictly divided powers among different branches of government.
Most importantly, they tried to ensure there were feedback loops. Government of, by, and for the people means that you elect representatives and your political-self interest is something that you can act to safe-guard by voting out the bums. "No taxation without representation" isn't a mere slogan. It's the feedback principle in action.
All of these things are instituted to limit the power of the government to use its positional power vis-a-vis violence against you.
Voting your political self-interest here is to ensure that this system continues operating on its charter to secure your rights with the safeguards (due process, separation of powers, representational feedback) operating well. It means voting in a way that will balance the crisis of the moment with the long-term integrity of the institution in mind.
Back to my first two sentences: Trump ignores the safeguards, and Socialists ignore the securing of rights.
Voters on the right are far too willing to accept an authoritarian personality who is all too willing to turn the power of the government against his foes and doesn't really care about the government's charter or limits. He's already tried to steal an election once and voters in the center and on the right should have chosen better.
Voters on the left are demonstrating that they are far too willing to pursue an agenda that would have the government seizing more of the fruit of your labor and ultimately treating you as a subject of the state rather than a sovereign individual. Government doesn't exist to safeguard your rights, you exist to serve the collective.
Restating the Obviously True
Have these voters forgotten why our government was instituted?
The problem with truths that we hold to be self-evident is that it's easy to forget that they're still true and relevant. We let ourselves get distracted by marxist arguments that these are rationalizations held by white slave-owners who didn't want to pay their taxes. This is a very sophisticated ad-hominem attack by the way... don't argue against facts when you can smear people with much more ease. There is a lot of sophisticated rhetoric these days that is expressly designed to make you lose the plot.
And Americans have gotten way too good at losing the plot.
I don't even blame us that much for getting here... Life is complex. There's a lot to keep track of. The modern world seems hopelessly incompatible with 250 year old (or older) ideas. But human nature hasn't changed that much in 250 years and we need to find a way back to the plot.
We should start by "touching grass", as the kids say (or used to... who can say, they move on from things very quickly).
I think it's worth working through the things we think we understand about the world and human nature. There's value in restating the things that feel obviously true - out loud, and not just privately, to yourself. It's worth connecting your ideas to facts and observations and then reversing the path to see if there are gaps or leaps.
Then, after establishing that your ideas are well-grounded, it's good to go vote in primaries.