In the face of ‘eradication’, one trans activist is preparing to fight – and she’s sick of silence and neglect from her supposed allies. Raquel Willis tells Io Dodds why Republican bathroom bans are everybody’s problem
Of course there is a difference. The Democrats are a lesser evil by a pretty large margin, I don’t dispute that. The point I’m making is that your constant chastisement of anyone who criticizes the Democrats from the left is counter-productive and betrays a deep insecurity in the merits of the party. When a party is unable to withstand criticism from its own base that’s a problem with the party, not the base. You can blame voters all you want for the Democrats’ loss, but it won’t fix the problems the party has that led to this outcome. Criticism - and more importantly an adequate response to that criticism from the party itself - is necessary if the party is ever to recover.
FUD exists as a strategy because it works. All you have to do is criticize to sow apathy and reduce voter turnout.
Yes, the thing about FUD is you can’t stop it, and by fighting it you only make it worse, especially when there are legitimate reasons to doubt. The best response to FUD is to make the criticism look stupid by proving it wrong with action. Trying to shut down criticism makes you look weak, and makes the criticism seem more valid, even when it isn’t.
That doesn’t work in this scenario because democrats need more than the trans community to win elections. So they have to also win over voters that are anti trans.
