You want to talk about statistics? Lets talk about the studies that have shown all parties in the US are far more likely to suggest to suggest pro-corporate legislation than legislation that helps the people? It's literally over 90% of the time that the corporate interests get chosen. The people who say voting doesn't matter have been right for 20 years. It's only now that we have this MAGA movement there's actually been a difference to the average American.

And this is only possible because of a lack of political engagement. If progressives, leftists, and center-left consistently showed up in the primaries, we'd be able to shift the party. Instead, they don't and thus communicate to the party that they accept the chosen course.

And no, California voted it's ass off because of the senate race. The same people who vote blue there though would happily vote homeless people into concentration and death camps, literal quotes from around town are like, "I just want them to go away, I don't care what the government does with them". And every one of those ballot questions was framed in light of the homeless issue in ads. Homeless people steal, we need to bring back tougher sentences, Homeless people are lazy so once they're in prison we need to teach them to work, rent controls mean the area goes to shit and homeless people move in, medical nonprofits aren't giving the money to homeless people so we need to force them to use the money.

Sadly, not entirely correct. About 1.7M fewer Californians voted than in 2020. That would have been enough to change the results in all but the rent control and mandatory sentencing initiatives. And, I'd suspect that if any amount of the energy that went into trying to convince people not to vote or that the guy who promised more genocide would magically do less went into outreach and education on the initiatives, we would have overcome the corpo influence.

All of it was bullshit, but the very same people who voted for Schiff ate that shit up.

All of that was indeed bullshit and anyone that didn't vote Schiff in the general was either not voting for viable opposition to fascists or actively supported fascists. Dedicating a fraction of the energy spent hating on Dems and repeating foreign influence campaign propaganda would have likely been able to at least educate enough people to make a difference. Instead, the state that is seen as the must progressive state in the country passed measures supporting slumlords and preserving the institution of slavery.