I’m not gonna give a free pass to the spineless conservative Democratic voters who were so afraid of rocking the boat that they refused to help change its course. Neoliberal ideologues and anti left fear mongering kept the party divided, and it’s not like the left wing of the party were the ones unwilling to compromise. AOC played ball to have influence in the party, voting rights activists endorsed voter ID laws to try to compromise with Republicans, yet it didn’t matter because they were always the ones who were expected to give something up. The right wing of the party used the spectre of needing to compromise with fascists to bend the progressive to heel, and they couldn’t even win over the people on the right they were trying to appeal to.

The sad part is they doomed the party in 2020 when they voted for Biden because they wanted to “return to sanity.” That was the last opportunity to right the ship, but because Bernie was still too radical despite the conservative losing in 2016, people voted for the “safe” picks in droves. It didn’t even matter what the lower levels of the party demanded, as Biden refused to hold an open primary because he saw 1 win as a mandate for 2.

So no, it’s not just the non-voters or third party voters who are responsible, but the rank and file Democrats who fumbled the game. Even the progressives should’ve been more demanding. People were still unaware of how bad things could get; unaware that left wing populism wasn’t just an idealistic dream, but the necessary weapon for defeating right wing populism.