For the entirety of this century, Democrats have been naive institutionalists while Republicans have been destructionists. Institutions cannot save you if they do not exist. Conservatives are trying to kill us while liberals are still bitching about following the norms.
Democrats are obsessed with letting Republicans break the norms, then pointing at them and being like "AH HAH! I Knew you guys wanted to break the norms! Look everybody!" and then nobody cares because all the Republican voters *like it* when they do that
Might not be what you had in mind, but the number of "but we had primaries!" replies I get when I suggest maybe Biden can't save us from Trump...
Folks can't process the idea that we're not in a normal situation.
I remember I used to be naïve like that, I didn't even know the term "respectability politics" at the time but it was what I preached and practiced. I grew out of that shit and realized that they don't see us as people no matter how we act.
Dems break the norms at will, regularly, by pointing out “We are a private corporation and can do what we want, even if it goes against the charter we presented when we demanded donations.” The same oligarchs control both cheeks of the duopoly ass.
And this is why I believe anarchy is the solution. FUCK the institutions. They're not going to be there to save us anyway. The republicans aren't playing by the rules, why the hell should we? It's time to break things. When tyranny is law revolution is order.
Saw the perfect analogy earlier. Republicans are the Uvalde shooter and Dems are the cops outside standing around doing nothing. That about sums it up.