Edging myself to both sideisms. I'm almost there...

No. I agree that liberal "democracy" is a sham. But the so-called "ratchet effect" is a useless meme. Democrats push us into reactionary politics too; they don't just "keep us from going left". The current head of the Democratic Party, occupying the most powerful political position in the world—more powerful than any king throughout the history of human kind—is the one of the most devout supporters of zionist genocide you'll find, chose to crush the rialroad strike, largely architected our system of mass incarceration and mass surveillance (he boasts of having authored the Patriot Act, and he actually pushed Ronald Reagan to go harder on the "Drug War" than the latter was inclined to do on his own), led the charge on indebting generations of college students, and is now on the brink of starting WW3 in the Middle East (after risking it in Ukraine).

Genocide is a non-starter, period. It is not, and can never seriously be construed as, harm reduction. Don't vote for fascists. Those actively enabling genocide against Palestine are fascists. Thankfully, there's no debating the genocide now if you have any honesty whatsoever. Liberals advocating for voting for genocidal candidates of either/any party can fuck right off and [redacted].