Primaries are for getting the candidates you want. General elections are for picking the candidate who is closest to your values. If you

The 2026 primaries were over the last few months, progressives made some gains, the DNC turned all their guns on the progressives, their media telling boomers "Yeah, we want and you want , but imagine a conservative suburban woman who hates good policy. You should vote for who the Bailys would vote for in the general."

Since then the incumbents who didn't get primary'd have been either passing ghoulish policy that will decrease their chances in the general election now that they're safe from the left, or complaining about a twitch streamer.

or waste their vote on a third party.

I feel like this isn't understood well enough: Strategic voting in plurality systems means making concessions. Proudly refusing to concede any point at all is worthless it it ends up conceding them all instead.

The system is fucked and needs replacing, but while the MAGAts may abolish it, I have little faith they'll install something better in its place. That alone should be worth the damage control.