This is what all the "vote blue" jabronis forget. One of the foundational pitches of the democratic party is that they are the competent helmsman of empire. The Republicans are stupid and uncouth and willing to do something badly to appeal to their hog base like put saw blades in a river crossing. The democrats, sage and wise, are willing to do bad things but they'll try to be more efficient at it. No saw blades but even more deportations! Progress!

The 2nd Iraq war is a great example of this. Both Kerry and Obama ran on a lot of rhetoric about how the Bush administration had fumbled in Iraq and they were going to go in there and do it right. Now, the actual right thing to do would have been to end the occupation and help rebuild Iraq because time travel doesn't exist so not invading at all was off the table. But they did not do this. They didn't even lie about ending it and kept doing it, ala closing Guantanamo. No, the Republicans were being incompetent, and the democrats were gonna do it right.

The vote blue crowd mocks criticism as bad faith "both sides" bullshit but the reality, as usual, is a lot darker. I bet if you dug deep enough into that crowd you'd find people that think Humphrey could have won in Vietnam but Tricky Dick fucked it all up.