It’s hard to express my disappointment with the midterms. Even as Democratic victories have swept the nation, Tennessee has mostly elected Republicans.

Given that our state has one of the most impoverished economies in the country after being under Republican control for my entire life, not to mention our abysmal schools, poor job availability, and entrenched inequality, I find the prospect of further Right-Wing descent downright scary. What’s worse is the typical Right-Wing voter’s seeming inability to evaluate Left-Wing ideas at all. On the one hand, it’s rather exciting to see the ongoing rise of genuinely progressive candidates like the now elected El-Sayed in Michigan, and on the other, it strikes me as profoundly strange how many Right-Wing voters don’t see the difference between them and the stale, focus-grouped, often deliberately ineffective, fake-leftist corporate Democrat sludge that’s defined the party for my entire life.

Not only is El-Sayed not a socialist, he’s not even really a democratic socialist. He’s a social democrat. Most Dems are not even really on the left, they’re more on the center. I can’t say to what degree this flawed evaluation contributed to Blackburn’s victory for governor, but I shudder to think how bad things will have to get before we call it quits on the GOP.

The worst you can say about most Democrats is that they don’t do anything. I wish we could at least have that rather than keep electing these Joker-Gang crooks who exist only to make our lives worse for personal profit. For crying out loud, why is it better to elect leaders who make our lives worse on purpose than ones who might make things worse on accident while trying to actually help us? Do we not even want our schools to be good? What is wrong with us?

Persephone Lockhart

Tullahoma