
Originally Posted by
Endus
Mazlowe's Hierarchy of Needs applies to political partisanship as much as it applies to anything else.
In a setting where the Republicans are challenging the capacity for broad swathes of people to legitimately exist in American society at all, with deeper rhetoric stating those positions are merely first steps towards broader attacks and restrictions, you don't get to deal with the fancier levels of the Hierarchy. I'm not American, but take myself as an example. I'm outspokenly a market socialist, ideologically; if I wanted to achieve my "political actualization", I'd definitely not be supporting the Democrats. But I can't worry about that level, because the Republicans are directly attacking all other levels. I can't rely on individual esteem and respect being recognized, let alone basic senses of belonging to a society that, led by Republicans, would be actively hostile, nor safety needs as their rhetoric fosters violence against myself and myriad others, not even physiological needs for those in poverty (not me, at this point, but at the political level we're talking societal scales rather than individual).
As with the psychological approach Mazlowe originally envisioned, you can't worry about actualizing your ideal political framework when you're still challenged to maintain all those more-basic needs, actively, by directly opposing Republicans. Literally, until Republicans are politically irrelevant or become reasonable and progressive (the former being more likely, IMO), people cannot risk voting for a third party. They have to stick with the Democrats because they can't take the risks of Republican victory, because any such is going to involve monstrous leaps backwards. The other way to break that cycle, of course, is for the Democrats to become "just as bad", but that's not where we're at either.
It's not really "partisanship", when you have to vote for the only party that currently has A> a chance at actually winning, and B> is the only such party that respects your basic right to exist as a person. Any other choice is a form of suicide. And I don't mean that as hyperbole; for many, it's literally going to mean they die.