I support the socialist candidates in my area. And they are running under the Democratic party.
There is something to be said for socialists who attempt to use the Democratic party as an inroads into the system, and some have had varying degree of success but never much. Unfortunately, in nearly every case where they finally attain some proximity to the levers of power, they either have no choice but to change and become milquetoast reformists (who will not actually improve anything) and possibly end up being just as bad as the establishment Democrats they promised they would never be like (see: AOC) or they will reveal themselves to be opportunists who used the movement without any real intent to follow through. See Mamdani's Zionism. They need to be beholden to a principled communist party, but of course they never are. It is fine and good to support socialist candidates. But the point of doing so should be to teach people about socialism and teach people about the fundamental inability of elected officials to bring about socialism within a system that is literally built around preventing exactly that from ever happening. There is a lot more to be said about this, and if you do want to learn more about Marxist-Leninist analysis about these things, I'd encourage you to ask here and on hexbear or lemmygrad.
But the voter suppression is real. I live in a liberal district in the south US.
Indeed. Just because they serve the same masters and are cogs in the same machine does not mean they don't have their own aspirations for wealth and power (and power that will exponentiate their wealth). And there are different degrees to how much they want to suppress the working class and how extreme they want to be, for example, in using racism (one of their greatest tools to divide the working class). Republicans are easily worse in this regard, but Democrats you will find, will always have an excuse for not using their power to fix the things that Republicans did while in office. A great example (but just one of so so many) is the OP image that you got so mad at! Democrats, and even the "left wing of the Democrats," supposed "socialists" like AOC made a show of crying at a fence with children in cages on the other side, butt did jack shit to actually help them, and instead votes right along with the other establishment dems and the Republicans for more funding to the racist and fascist capitalism-enforcers, and more money and aid to the settler-colonial state Entity committing an open genocide.
The ruling party here recently divided up (gerrymandered) my district to dilute the votes. Cheating to win is now openly acceptable. It makes me sick.
Gerrymandering has been happening for decades by both parties. (And I want to be clear, when I say ruling class, I mean the class of people who "own" all the wealth, I am not talking about a political party. I'm not saying you thought that's what I meant, but in case you did, because it's odd to call either the Dems or the Repubs the "ruling party" - but that's beside the point I'm making here). They have always carved out districts in whatever ways best suited them at the time. It was extensively used (by Democrats!) to sequester and basically disenfranchise predominantly black districts and regions. It is sick. And it is yet another tool in their massive toolbox for ensuring they remain in power regardless of the wishes of voters. It is sickening, for sure. But it's not new and it will never stop, so long as we live in a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
Is the Democratic party going to make it better? Probably not anytime soon. But the average Republican is 100x worse than the worst Democrat.
I'm with you on the first part, for sure. But about the average Republican being 100x worse than the worst Democrat... Are they really? Why did you get mad at the OP image, then? It's true. Democrats are just as enthusiastic about breaking up families and deporting people, they just say the right words to make some people think they are against what those mean ol Republicans do! Full support of and active participation in genocide is literally bipartisan. Do you think the kids being murdered by US tech and bombs dropped from planes paid for by the US thought that the Democrats were 100 times better when they were doing it? (And Democrats are still overwhelmingly voting in support of it even when a Republican is on the throne in the white house, though it was a Democrat in the white house when the full on phase of that genocide started). From the perspective of most of the world who are exploited by the US, Democrats are no different than Republicans, it is the US state as a unit and all the citizens who support it, regardless of whether they vote for donkeys or elephants, who are responsible for their immiseration.
Do you live in a perfect society? If so, please let me know. I would love to visit.
Of course not. No one can when the world is dominated by capitalism and imperialism. I'm setting aside the fact that no society will ever be perfect, but I will take that to mean a much better society where everyone is provided with everything necessary to lead a healthy and fulfilling life. That is what we, as anticapitalist leftists (anarchists as well as MLs), are fighting for. Democrats are not fighting for that. Democrats literally fight to prevent that. The Democratic party is a bourgeois party, and as such it is by definition an enemy to those who seek to build a truly just society like the one you and I both want, and they have proven this over and over and over.