AOC

Any evidence that it was actually progressives staying home out of a protest vote that cost Kamala the election? This seems like wishful thinking on the part of liberals. The polling I've seen and the progressives I know all held their nose and voted for Kamala. Kamala lost because she couldn't convince enough low-engagement voters to come to the polls. They didn't vote not because of genocide, but because they didn't feel Kamala was going do anything to improve their lives. Biden won by adopting a lot of Bernie's social welfare programs, and Kamala walked away from most of that. Obviously the concerns for democracy was real, but people value democracy a hell of a lot less than you might think. People have lost faith in democracy from cycle after cycle of their votes not mattering. They can either vote for a Republican that will help the rich or a Democrat that will help the rich a bit less.

Remember, the US doesn't actually have any kind of meaningful mass democracy, and it never has. It is only the opinions of the top 5-10% wealthiest of the people that have any influence at all on actual policies that are passed. The poorest 90% of US citizens have never lived in a democracy. That's why running on preserving democracy failed. Only the upper middle class and rich get democracy, so the working class saw no reason to fight for it.