Of course we should question our political beliefs, I would never advocate for anything else. I like to employ a rhetorical device against myself sometimes to q

Of course we should question our political beliefs, I would never advocate for anything else. I like to employ a rhetorical device against myself sometimes to question my more hard-line stances: I ask myself "What evidence would convince me that I'm wrong?". It's quite an interesting question to ask, I think it helps you come to a better understand of your beliefs. I disagree with your dismissal of my point, with your saying that " Those are a lot of big conceptual ideas". These are big, but _important_ ideas. Abstract as they may be, they describe tangible concepts that have a lot of importance. "I think at the end of the day people just want to know what will make their lives better" - Yes, therein lies the unfortunate complexity of politics. As I said in my original post ( way up there ), I don't defend democracy because I believe that it best serves me ( I've felt for a long time that it serves other people's needs far better than mine ). I defend it because it's the best system I'm aware of for egalitarianism at scale.