Politics Liberal hypocrisy, not Republican opposition, is what is fueling inequality in state and local politics, in blue states

[Army of Light]

Your yard sign says Black Lives Matter, your bumper sticker has an equal sign and ☪oe✡is✝, you show up to protest with a pink hat but your letters to your alderman complain about affordable housing messing up your property values, your votes in your local elections were for forming a school district to keep your property taxes from going to Black children, you and your parents moved to the burbs to escape integration, and your calls to the police were to get rid of a homeless encampment. This is what I mean by liberal hypocrisy. Even where Democrats are unopposed, they don't do anything for the working poor and the only affordable housing that gets funded is the prison and the morgue.

What good is it to vote for Democrats when the wealthy still set the agenda? It was Clinton who gutted welfare, passed a mass incarceration bill and said that the era of big government was over. It is the wrong move, but no wonder the working class has turned to right wing populism. And when the governor of California calls for needed strict lockdowns but goes to a fancy fundraiser in a restaurant, people see that and some of them go right wing. Democrats need to knock that stuff off. I voted for Biden, holding my nose in doing so but Democrats must do better. It's obvious to people not part of the party establishment or poisoned by MSNBC brain rot that they work for elites, that they have a political machine that drives away populists in favor of people the donor base prefers. The DSA has some shortcomings but I trust them more than the white moderates Martin Luther King Jr. warned us about.

It creates this feeling of hopelessness, yes we can vote out extremists like Trump, at great cost, but in national politics reactionaries are structurally over represented and in blue states with little opposition you get anti-poor liberals.

I'm trans. I need the Republicans to not be in power. I am also disabled and I have experienced homelessness and have been hassled by police and security over nothing. None of these are abstract issues for me. I am over the moon about culture war related gains that I benefit from but they are a cold comfort when wealthy gays price people out of neighborhoods and feminists raise concerns about homeless people while defending Bill Clinton.

 

[Parthenios]

These problems are still largely caused by Republicans though. Local democrats have to play the hand they're dealt unfortunately.

Ex: Because of GOP gutting of the economy, like union busting leading to wage stagnation and no pensions, most Americans only remaining access to build any wealth at all is through home ownership. No one could be expected to let what is likely their only asset devalue voluntarily.

The actual solution would need to be a national one, taxing the wealthy and having a more robust safety net. It's not local democrats standing in the way of those things.