it's not that trump would have been better, it's that we shouldn't be using trump or republicans as the bar we measure politicians against. it's a really low fucking bar.

these democrats are occupying the position of opposition, but since they're ineffective and corporate, the republicans are allowed to push further and further right with every election. And since democrats are occupying said position (and actively attack anything that threatens said position) it's difficult for any other person or institution or party to arise that can represent actual, effective opposition to republicans.

So in each individual vote we are trapped in an impossible-to-win game theory problem in which choosing the lesser of two evils is the strictly rational choice, no matter how bad it is, as long as it's technically better. And thus democratic politicians can assume any "rational" dem voter is going to vote blue no matter who, so they (the democratic politicians) can spend their time/energy catering to other demographics (or more often, their major donors).

It's only the actual threat of a withheld vote that keeps dems in line, as the only thing more materially impactful to their interests than donor money is losing their seat (and thus the power that the donors are paying for). So despite the fact that the rational choice within a single vote is to choose the technically better option no matter what, when acting in a series of votes it may become rational to abstain when our interests aren't being represented.

And even so, all of this electoralism is very effectively acting as the circus of bread and circuses. We need to be out and organizing outside of controlled political institutions.