If you are an American Conservative, you are NOT OPPRESSED. PERIOD. FUCK THAT NOISE.
Our country is ruled by a single neoliberal faction. The US Republican Party represents the right-leaning portion of that faction. The Democratic Party represents the left-leaning portion.
Like the saying goes, two wings, one fucking bird.
Our electoral system is not geared towards deciding which faction will rule. It is geared toward determining how openly homicidal the ruling faction will be.
That is why we argue so much over the subject of electoral politics. It’s a stopgap. It still plays a role in keeping things from being complete hell for actual oppressed groups, but it does not change the fact that our country is run by neoliberals.
Neoliberalism, in American political terms, is basically the fucked up brand of
conservatism that is perfectly fine destroying the world as long as profits
keep rolling in. It is a right of center philosophy that tends to revolve
around centrism (again, in US terms).
This is part of why it takes so long to explain American politics to outsiders.
As a nation, we are so god damned convinced that Republicans are right-wing, and Democrats are left-wing, that we just don’t have a proper frame of reference for discussion with anyone who has lived in a country with an actual left wing.
The last time we had anything resembling left-wing politics in the US was the early 1950s. That ended in fire and we have not held power since.
This is why our left-wing politicians are still asking for basic respect and basic needs to be met in terms of the existing Capitalistic system. This why people like AOC are seen as radical, when she is barely to the left of Sanders, who is only a bit left of the Democratic Party as a whole.
This is why our nations “left-wing” party is literally tying access to candidacy to money and has recently won lawsuits saying that the democratic process is optional.
If you are a “Liberal” or a “Conservative” in the US, you are not oppressed. Your faction rules with an iron fist. They actively killed their opposition at the first expedient opportunity, over sixty years ago. And, at this point in time, as of 2019, it is the wing that calls themselves Conservatives that is actively in charge of the country.