That's the problem, though. For years I tried to understand, and for years I watched as they didn't do that. Instead, I watched as conservatives fought every bit of progressive legislation. I heard all the arguments that the Left was becoming more radical, but I saw the Left increasingly fail to enact progressive legislation as conservatives were successfully combating years-old policies. And conservatives have been doing this long, long before I even came around.

I tried to understand their economic and social justifications behind their arguments, but none of them were representative of the US they taught me about. So I'm done trying. I started giving up in 2012, and I should have given up 12 years before that. If more people had quit trying to appeal to conservatives sooner, maybe we wouldn't be dealing with this.