There’s a lazy assumption baked into American politics that being “left” automatically means “Democrat.” That shorthand buries an entire chasm of ideology, goals, and what we each mean when we say “change.” I call myself a leftist because I believe in structural transformation. Not kinder capitalism. Not a softer boot on my throat. Not twelve days of vacation a year instead of ten. I want an economy that serves people before profit. I want universal healthcare because life is a human right and we need our health to live. We shouldn’t be dying from cancer, or diabetes or heart disease and ectopic pregnancies. We shouldn’t be sick from micro-plastic buildups in our bodies, or eating overly processed garbage. Especially with all the medical advances available, but juuuust out of reach.
It’s heartbreaking to watch my stepchildren hear about cancer breakthroughs and possible cures seven years too late and always ‘just around the corner’ — now that their mother is dead from glioblastoma that left my husband widowed with five children. It’s especially heartbreaking when they find out that promising treatments exist but they’re locked behind patents, pricing walls, and a system that treats your survival as a revenue stream. Not because the science isn’t there. Because there’s no profit in a cure. Because the pharmaceutical industry gets to decide who can afford to live and who can’t. They get to play God. That’s not conspiracy—it’s just capitalism doing what capitalism does. Instead, healthcare has turned into a for-profit system that preys on your desperation.
That’s fucked up.
I push for labor power because workers shouldn’t need three jobs just to keep the lights on. That’s insane and unsustainable. And Republicans screaming about demographic collapse and demanding more babies while blocking every goddamn policy that would make having a tiny human survivable. How the hell are Millennials, Gen Z and Gen A supposed to have families if they can barely afford taking care of just themselves? Let alone have the time and energy it requires to raise other tiny humans? Explain. And don’t even get me on the abortion train because anytime I’ve ever heard “Save the children” it’s never about the children. It’s all just a load of crap.
Abortion is healthcare. Period. Now go argue with a wall.
Minimum wage is still $7.25. It’s going on 17 years since that last increase. That’s criminal. It’s the longest stretch without an increase in U.S. history. What the hell are we doing, people? Democrats just had a trifecta in 2021 and didn’t deliver whatsoever for the American worker! They talked a big game about student debt relief, the ACA (Obamacare, for those who still think those two are different things), Wall Street accountability, labor protections for the gig economy and after four years didn’t do a fuckin’ thing. But you sure did take care of your corporate donors during that window of time.
Assholes.
I also want climate policy that treats the planet like home—not some huge dumpster fire we just keep pissing and shitting on. A clean planet, with clean water and fertile soil. Instead, humans are killing it and dipshit republicans are screaming, “Drill baby, drill” while performative shithead democrats whack off in the corner with their corporate donor money and turn a blind eye.
My god.
Democrats often echo these values, but that’s about it. They talk a big talk and don’t deliver. They speak in stupid slogans. In performative speeches. In ads timed around primaries. But when the moment comes to actually legislate, they reach for stability over disruption, their corporate donors over unions, and optics over overhaul. Chuck “Strongly Worded Letter” Schumer is a perfect example of a “do nothing democrat” who mistakes holding a microphone for holding power, with Hakeem “Donor Approved” Jeffries as his ventriloquist dummy. They play within the system like a bunch of glorified hall monitors for the ruling class.
That doesn’t mean I hate the party or dismiss their incremental wins for the people and planet—those wins matter, especially to people living on the margin of survival. But I’m tired of the breadcrumbs and I refuse to confuse participation with endorsement. Voting for Democrats is a tactic, not an identity.
There’s a particular kind of gaslighting in American politics that if you criticize the Democratic Party, people assume you’ve gone Republican. The truth is a bit more complicated—and far more exhausting. For leftists, voting Democrat is often a defensive move. Most of us are Independents. It’s pulling the emergency brake—you do it to stop something worse, not because you believe the tracks ahead lead anywhere good. The lesser of two evils in this dumbass matrix. I’m sick of having to choose between a shit sandwich and a shit burrito. Both major parties are rooted in the same soil—a capitalist system that prioritizes corporate profit, military power, and managed reform over anything resembling radical change.
Republicans, bluntly, fight to preserve hierarchy—white supremacy, patriarchal norms, unregulated markets, American exceptionalism gift-wrapped in a flag. Gag me with a spoon. These are the people screaming about government overreach while reaching directly into uteruses, classrooms, and library shelves. They've failed the American people so comprehensively and so fast it's genuinely hard to keep up. Medicaid cuts for people who can't survive without it. Food assistance gutted while billionaires get tax breaks. They’re evil and cruel. The Department of Education—dismantled, because an educated public is apparently a threat. I could write an entire article just on the catastrophic failures of this administration alone. I probably should. But that's a different fire for a different day.
Democrats promise to manage those same hierarchies more humanely. They’ll add ramps to the castle. They just never ask why we built walls around it in the first place. Again… puke.
Then they both fight, like children, about who gets a seat at the table. Personally, I think it’s time the two party system finally dies.
Leftists reject the premise. The goal isn’t to perfect capitalism—it’s to move past it. To build systems where healthcare, housing, and education aren’t commodities. Where democracy isn’t auctioned to corporations or fascists. Where environmental survival outweighs quarterly earnings. Leftists want to redistribute not just wealth but power—the thing both parties quietly hoard and call governance.
The power lies with the people, people. Not government.
And yet here we are, crammed into the narrow hallway of a two-party system. The structure demands binary choices, leaving those of us outside its logic constantly negotiating between harm reduction and hope. Every election becomes moral triage — not “who inspires me?” but “who does the least damage?”
That trap is not accidental.
Exhausted, demobilized, cynical voters are exactly what the status quo needs. As long as people see politics as a ballot box and nothing more, nothing shifts. I don’t know about you, but both parties are fucking exhausting.
For leftists, politics doesn’t just live on Election Day. It lives in mutual aid networks, labor strikes, tenant unions, climate coalitions, solidarity across borders, equality for all. Voting is one tool—pragmatic, limited, imperfect—not the center of who we are or what we’re actually fighting for. The deeper rot is cultural.
Corporate liberalism has consumed the moral vocabulary of the left. And MAGA has consumed the moral vocabulary of the right. Both suck. “Diversity” became a brand and “Equity” became a tagline. The working class—the supposed heart of the Democratic coalition—keeps losing ground while the language of their liberation gets laundered into marketing.
Being a leftist isn’t about purity or elitism. It’s about refusing to accept a system that treats justice as negotiable. We believe power belongs to the people, not corporations or governments. It’s acknowledging that the party you vote for and the politics you actually hold don’t always align—and that tension is not a contradiction. It’s clarity.
I’m not a Democrat. I’m not a Republican. I’m not a Liberal and definitely not MAGA. I want the floor to rise and the ceiling to fall—so we can finally meet, as equals, in the same room.
Tactics change. Identities evolve, but liberation doesn’t.
I have found a home! You express my sentiments exactly. ✌🏼
This was amazing keep it up!