Some on the Left say that politicians like Bernie Sanders, AOC, and "progressives" among the new crop of Democrats elected in the anti-Trump/anti-inflation "Blue Wave" are just sheepdogs for the Democrats. Keeping left-leaning voters from straying from the flock. Voting for such people means guaranteed betrayals, as both the political party and the wider capitalist system either bring such people to heel or they were always mercenaries to begin with.
Some of those on the Left saying such things are delusional crackpots with decades of failure and non-accomplishment to show for their activism. (Obviously, I'm a different sort of delusional, failed crackpot.) Even so, they might still have a point.
Is it possible that voting for anyone electorally viable is not only a waste of time, but, worse, losing time and energy that could have gone into more genuinely revolutionary endeavours? Voting for people who will betray us siphons energy and creates despair when those betrayals are made manifest.
Or is it possible to vote for such people and mitigate the damage done to ordinary people by the capitalist system, thereby creating breathing space and time to develop and advance a farther reaching agenda?
I suppose it's helpful to figure out if these moderate progressives actually mean what they say. I'd say that most of them do. They don't see revolution as realistic, and they feel that what they're offering is the best that can be expected, given the circumstances (which includes an electorate that is far from possessing a revolutionary consciousness). Fraudulent, self-serving "progressives" should be relatively easy to figure out.
Arguments against voting for genuine moderates will have to be more thorough to really make their case.
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