I don’t know that ‘Conservative’ exists anymore. I’m American, but I think these comments work everywhere else, as Authoritarianism rises.

Growing up, I believed that liberal/conservative was just a difference in approach, but not a difference in end-goal. Both ‘teams’ wanted the country to prosper. In my 40s, now, I clearly see that we have different goals: Liberals want everyone to be prosperous, healthy, fulfilled. Conservatives value the prosperity only of those on top.

You may identify as conservative, little ‘c’, respect tradition and be careful with spending, etc; but I want you to closely evaluate the actions of people using that label across the globe. A vote for a conservative or right-wing candidate is a vote for the top 1% or less of the population of the planet. They may align with you on some topics, such as religion, abortion, fiscal policies, regulations, and more; but that is a ploy and they are absolutely willing to throw you away as soon as they have your vote and will cut everything you depend on once in power in order to pad their own pockets.

There are certainly perverse incentives and systemic issues that make even liberal politicians support bad policies, but the voter bloc that is ‘liberal’ wants to make things better for everyone. The conservative politicians, at least in the US where I’m paying attention, seem to be hell-bent on making things worse instead.

This has less to do with Trump’s actions, and more to do with how the convervatives behaved…

Up-voted, but we only need oil at the moment because the oil industry keeps strangling baby competitors. A quick, non-sourced search shows that Oil got 90-ish Billion (1) in government subsidies in 2020, while Solar got 7. Even if the numbers are 50% of actual, Renewables are not getting the help they need to become/stay viable.

(1): And that might be a waaaaay low-ball estimate: Yale said they got Trillions. Though that may be over several years.

Perhaps lobbyists could be the next class identified as extraneous.

Follow-up. If any of the myriad things that Harris doesn’t do for you (anyone reading this) are that important, what have you done to solve them offline? Have you written to your senators and representatives? Are you canvassing? Are you part of your local democratic organizations and aware of how local offices affect the bigger picture? If you are sitting there going “I don’t like X,” and not DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT and choosing to sit this race out or protest vote for “jill” instead of Kamala, you are doing EVERYONE a disservice. This is not a spectator sport where you can just chime in every 4 years.

Sure, be mad about how Kamala isn’t the perfect choice, but just think for a second about how much worse donald would be for ANY of the things you might want – unless what you want is to be racist and spiteful ¯\(ツ)/¯.

If you think trump would really be a better choice for things like the economy and cost of living, then you need to go back to school for some critical thinking skills – which the Republicans would like to finish cutting from the curriculum.

If any of these issues matter, then get involved on November 6th after you voted for Kamala. Otherwise you might just not have the chance.

Want more progressive leaders? Become them or find them and encourage them to run for office and them help them win. Bitching about how both sides are the same every few years does NOTHING except help the worst side.