Anyone who describes what just happened as "holding politicians accountable" is not on the same side as me.

I'm actually not angry or anything. I just think empireInDecay is being dishonest, and blindly repeating various talking points and a particular seductive framing for what happened in the election, in a way that makes no attempt to be grounded in any reality. They don't seem to be here for any kind of conversation. They seem to want to broadcast a particular point of view and ignore anyone who says anything different, and hope that the judgement they're broadcasting about what just happened in the election, why it happened, and what to do about it in the future ("hold politicians accountable" some more, presumably) will take hold through sheer repetition, instead of through any kind of reasoned justification of it being accurate.

I'd imagine fair number of Democratic voters are on the side of "progress for the average american". Something that's been sorely lacking for a very long time from both parties. In fact, I would imagine a fair number of voters have to vote "against" a candidate rather than "for" one.

But yea, anyone who abstained from voting is not "on my side" because it was extremely clear which "side" would do active harm to america and would in fact revert progress for the average american.

Trying to take the intellectual high ground of "holding politicians accountable" is silly, especially for the office of president where you only get 1 choice per party. If they really wanted to hold them accountable you should start voting in non-incumbents in offices that allow for multiple choices per party. Or at the very least offices where the power is spread among a group of people instead of in a single role.

They lost didn’t they? That sounds like a win.

Yes, I'm aware that you think this way. Ukrainians, Gazans, people in the West Bank, "illegal" immigrants, legal immigrants, scientists, working people, journalists, and lots and lots of other people have already been sacrificed so that you could get your "win." Good stuff! Have you talked to them about how proud you are of the desired outcome? We're only a couple months in. It's going to get much, much worse for them.

If you want to make the US system better, including the Democrats, that sounds absolutely fucking fantastic. Simply not voting for them until they get better on their own, usually pushes them to the right, not the left. That's pretty much what happened from 1969 to 1993, and what turned the party of JFK, LBJ, and Jimmy Carter into the party of Bill Clinton, and ushered in our current shattered state. If you want to keep going that direction, you are not on the left.

That sounds like a win.

If your a god-fearing white American man, maybe... Nah not even then if you aren't wealthy. But everyone else in the states is unambiguously more boned than we've been since pre-civil rights era, let alone the Biden administration. And outside of the United States, what country other than Russia has found themselves in a better place since the inauguration?

Look you have a point, the Dems are beyond worthless, and now that we're post-election this is the perfect time either get them into shape or replace them "tea party" style. Those fossils need to be gone. But nobody fucking "won" last election, save a privaleged few including Putin and Netanyahu. And Trump & friends obviously, but that goes without sayin.