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Who said electoral victories translate into pressure for a given policy? Voting them into office gets them to where they have power and can then be pressured to wield it for our benefit, which is a different type of political action than an election. Voting in elections is how you try to get people who are closest to the values you're looking for into office--and the primaries are as important as the general for that.
Organizing around an issue, speaking out with meetings, in the media, with protests, etc., calling attention and building up support for a cause--all those things exert pressure on elected officials. Read about movements in American history -- the civil rights movement, women's liberation, etc. and BTW you want to know a movement that was very effective? The fucking Tea Party movement, which led to the maga takeover of the republican party.
For some reason (lack of proper civics education in schools is part of the problem), people have this simplistic idea that all they have to do is go vote for a president every four years, get pissed that they don't like the choices, and assume that the POTUS is supposed to somehow magically fix everything, not understanding the other branches of government involved, and when it doesn't happen fast enough or at all, they get pissed and either vote for someone else or give up and don't vote or fall for a populist conman or get violent or whatever. That's not how it works!
No wonder we're where we are today. I'm sick of even talking about it any more. If people refuse to educate themselves about how our system of government is supposed to work and act accordingly then it's over, and we as a country deserve to fall into the fascism brought to us by the people who did make the effort to figure out how to achieve their agenda and went out and did it.
I guess what I mean is uncritical votes for Democrats across the House and Senate doesn't guarantee any pressure. Shit that is probably the most viable arena for third party candidates or at least candidates caucusing on a specific policy issue that people get behind, especially during primaries for each and every cycle.
Maybe I'm just being salty because my entire downballot this year is all Democrats running on working with Republicans and Republicans running on working against the Democrats.
One democrat in my old district is literally running on opposing Biden and helping Republicans with the southern border. My state borders Canada.