so of course as i grew up, my understanding of US politics went from a very simple Democrats-vs-Republicans idea, to how I currently (sorta) (try to) understand it

and in between, there were times when I understood that there could be several labels for people within one “side” of the conflict…

like, people who’d choose a Democrat over a Republican if they had to make the choice, might be Democrat or liberal or left-wing or leftist or progressive (…as I was growing up I did not encounter many who would claim the words socialist or communist for themselves, but they might be called those things as an insult)

and it took a while to learn just exactly how much distinction there is between the meanings of the words from the viewpoints of those who claim them.

I used to use Democrat and liberal and left-wing as pretty much synonyms for a stupidly long time– despite the fact that my own politics are pretty far toward the leftmost end of that spectrum, and most other people with similar political beliefs to mine would rather distinguish themselves with as specific a word as they can

and… at this point I am not sure how helpful this distinction is. Like. all of us who do not want Republicans in power, are kinda forced to be on the same side to a degree… but what is the right balance, between “fight the toxic elements within our own side” and “reduce infighting so we can unite against those who want all of us dead”

because like. I know that the other side doesn’t care about the distinctions in our side. To them we’re all the same and all just the enemy

but is there similar fighting within their side? Do they get particular over whether you call them Republican, conservative, right-wing, alt-right, fundamentalist, tea-party, etc? (and is there any reason we should care?)

I dunno what my point is here. Brain just rambling.