The left is maybe a little whiny
I watched the first 15 minutes or so of Some More News's new video about the GOP making it harder to vote.
First of all, Illinois Democrats gerrymandered the hell out of our state. It's anti-democratic regardless how I feel about the outcome.
The left (commentary & media) often seems so focused on the GOP that the bad shit from Dems just isn't in our collective knowledge. (Democrats/Liberals are hardly leftists, but I'm counting them together right now.)
To my point: Most of the things making it harder to vote is, like, a little bit of paperwork? And "the left" has been bitching about voter suppression for years, probably longer than I've been politically aware.
(Some of the measures are not "just a bit of paperwork". Some of the measures, such as the fake elector scheme, are not what I'm talking about here)
The criticisms seem valid, and I probably don't agree with most of these GOP measures.
But how much time should we really focus on criticizing them? Yes, such-and-such policy makes it harder to vote.
But we're not weak little babies who can't handle some challenges in the world. Like when you move, you have to tell the post office, your power company, water supplier, internet company, bank, and others. But it's the end of democracy if you also have to tell the voter registration people?
(He didn't say it was the "end of democracy" but that's the vibe/tone. I'm being hyperbolic, but I think he is too.)
Come on. I'm not saying it's good to make it harder to register & vote. It's probably bad in most these cases.
What I am saying is that we need to do better about lifting people up & encouraging them to have the strength to overcome these challenges. Conservatives have us beat on this through-and-through.
Pull yourself up by the bootstraps? Yeah it's a dumb phrase that is sometimes used in a demeaning and shitty way. But also? Like, you can do it bud. We're here to support you. Yeah, it's hard, but you can do it.
Yeah the economy is tough, but you can have some quality of life if you live frugally, and you can still find joy in so many things. Yeah, your boss is a fucking asshole, but you can advocate for yourself, you can learn how to deal with the stress, and you can organize with your coworkers to unionize.
Yes, we should call out the bad actors. But also, we maybe need to be strong and overcome the bad actors, not just rely on our politicians to pass better policies to protect us.