I literally do blame the Democrats for Trump, and if you don’t, you weren’t paying attention.
Plenty of us were critiquing Clinton’s campaign on those merits and were consistently talked down to in shocker the same way we’re being talked down to now. Shocker, she lost. I remember saying a few weeks before the election “We’re about to get Brexited.” I put my vote down for Clinton, because Trump is fucking insane, and that was clear before he was President. It was clear in the fucking 1980’s.
Being able to critique our leaders is supposed to be what is the difference between us and conservative voters. They’re the cult who unquestioningly believes all the bullshit that comes out of Trump’s mouth and diapers. I find it weird that people think we should be more like them in regards to our leaders like that would be a good thing.
In primary season it isn’t necessarily and for the presidential election specifically it doesn’t either due to the electoral college.
There are a handful of battleground states and a couple states that do split their electors in some way.
But for everyone else? Their vote is mostly an advisory vote.
There is always the risk of a candidate being so unpopular they actually drive their own party away from voting for them, but that can’t really be on the voters at that point.
You never know* if your state is going to be a swing state until after the election.
* Not literally “never”, CA or NJ aren’t going for Trump, but there are some states that may feel fairly safe that could be up for grabs.
I love to point to WV for an example of this. It’s the reddest of red states now, but if I told you that in the mid 90s you’d have thought I was insane. The first woman they sent to Congress was more notable for being the first Republican they elected to Congress in half a century, which is even longer proportionally for a state that was founded during the Civil War.