I can’t help but wonder if the presence of a Democrat in the presidency just sort of pacifies liberal, left, and radical mass movements and mobilization.

Ding ding ding. You got it.

A former friend of mine went from being a budding leftist to spinning into liberalism during 2020. He then started punching left the instant Biden was in office. The real reason liberals hate Trump is because he demonstrates that their ideals don’t work because he can succeed amongst them, and he fires up left wing thought. They were terrified of Trump winning in 2020 because it would have meant the collapse of mainstream liberalism in the Democratic party, which funnily enough I recall them openly admitting this when it was looking like Sanders was actually the front runner.

That said, Sanders also demonstrates why he isn’t a solution. He rolled over to the Democrats and let his movement die. When he was pushed, he caved to capitalism. This is why Stalin said people like this are the moderate wing of fascism because they ultimately don’t combat it and will actually facilitate it in some ways. He isn’t committed to rooting out capital, but he was openly critical of it, which was enough for the Democrats to demonize and destroy him. But he does represent that attitudes changing is possible, and the Democrats were furious that he was able to stay aloft on small donors as opposed to corporate money to fund his campaign. They have relied on that tool to filter out left-ish candidates and he proved it alone isn’t a silver bullet in American electoral politics, they need the media too (which unfortunately they also own).

Americans are very far removed from leftist thought. So much so that Democrats pass as “leftists” if they are “progressives”. Bernie’s campaigns demonstrated a shift that was slightly outside of the political electoral norms in the United States. The Democrats went nuclear, utilizing the press and doing every they could electorally and institutionally to derail the Sanders campaign (including outright cheating in Iowa). It worked, and to their great delight, nobody noticed because Americans are that propagandized.

These two political parties need eachother. Republicans are the real ruling party of the United States, and the Democrats are the seat warmers that co-opt leftist movements and give themselves all kinds of stupid rules so they are excused from doing anything for working class people.

These parties are Bonnie and Clyde stealing from you, but Bonnie has been more upset lately because Clyde is getting abusive, she still loves him though.