this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2026
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The ratchet effect exists because leftists would rather bitch every general election and allow Republicans to be elected, while simultaneously not participating in the primaries.
The fascists knew the primaries were the secret, and their voters are generally loyal in November. Every member of the GOP that opposes Trump is removed in the primaries, and the party moves further right.
The ratchet effect works because vast swathes of people can't perceive of any way to affect change beyond voting, thus creating a single (recurring) major choke point for going through the 'correct' channels.
If all you do is vote, you can't complain.
Vast swathes of people don’t vote though.
That's fine, there are a great deal of more impactful and meaningful things that people can do instead of voting. My point is that if someone's sole contribution is voting, they haven't actually done anything.
The problem is there is no actual choice for progressive leftism on offer. This is the whole issue. The Dems are just Capitalism with cute decorations vs the depraved capitalism of Republicans. If there were actual parties that outside this framework, they can be very successful. That's why DSA is winning. They are at least acting like another option, whether or not they will significantly change things is to be seen, but they are not centrists like most Dems try to be.
The PSL is on the right track. A disciplined socialist party will get the power to change things, or be an object lesson in the necessity of revolutionary organizing to use other means of change.
Are there any statistics about people who complain about nominees not participating in primaries?
No, but ShitLibs operate on vibes and not facts anyway. If they operated on facts, they'd notice their party has done nothing but help push the Overton Window right for damn near half a century now.
Obamacare was copied directly from the Republicans, originally called Romneycare. The chance for M4A was completely squandered by the Dems at the time. Have some damn object permance like an actual adult.
Obamacare was broken because the Dems had a filibuster-proof majority in the senate for like 1 month at in the 2009 holidays. By the time Al Franken got to take his seat, Kennedy had stopped showing up for work, then he died, then it took time to seat his temporary replacement, then the Tea Party win their special election.
With that, the broken Senate version that was meant to be reconciled with the House version and cleaned up couldn't happen, so the House had to pass the Senate version verbatim to avoid a filibuster by the Dems.