For me, it highlights how Democratic voters don’t see themselves as Democrats, & the bourgeois disdain for doing politics in general. It’s a service consumer approach, like politics as plumbing—something you hire professionals for, so you don’t get your hands dirty.
It misses on both the participatory politics of citizenship & nationality, & on the participatory politics of entertainment and kayfabe.
I'm just stunned by this level of passivity in the face of fascism. One of my life's preoccupations has been the absurd arrogance of "it can't happen here" self-delusion and and I honestly can't think of when I've ever been more unhappy to be proven correct.
Again, I really think that Americans, even putative leftists, act first through a framing of consumerism, not participation, down to the regular demand that politicians woo them specifically with brands that are relevant to their interests. For me, it's a signal on how far totalitarian capitalism
has penetrated the habits of Americans. This is magnified by how so much of the media, especially that representing "common sense," treats "politics" as something inherently corrupt & frankly icky. Partisan politics are necessary, & the fascists get this instinctively.
For left/libs it aligns with cultural disdain from elites for organized sports, and other examples of group passion — the only similar social structure enjoyed by the left is fandoms, whose politics are often toxic & incoherent bc they're entirely a construction of common imagination with little
material grounding. I don't think that fandoms are bad per se, I do think that they provide awful models for mass organizing, but are the modes that especially the online left are most comfortable on, and they often directly ban overt "politics" (recalling the Tyranny of Structurelessness)
Ditto