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VOTE IN THE PRIMARIES Such a small amount of people decide who ends up on the ballot. And an overwhelming majority of incumbents get reelected due to primaries.
Please please please vote! Even if you like the person in the lead, consider voting for someone who might not win but will send a message to the party that their policies need to be folded into the party platform, etc.
Voting can’t fix this, it’s systemic. The Democratic Party will not allow challengers source to their flow of money. A mass movement is required to clip their wings.
What you just said though contradicts itself. At the end of the day voting en masse for reform is "a mass movement". Things won't change when these politicians feel comfortable. Voting against them and being vocal about this as an issue will scare them. Voting absolutely works and all this rhetoric around "voting can't fix this" is exactly how we end up with this bullshit. Boomers learned decades ago how effective voting can be at changing everything and they have consistently turned out and shaped society around their needs as a result. If young people could get this through their heads then shit would actually change. Especially since millennials and gen z now make up the majority of the voting age population in the US.
People who say “just don’t vote” or advocate abstaining from elections as a method to end the Democrats are entitled and come from a place of privilege.
History says otherwise. I admire the idealism, and wish you were right. But the capitalist will go fascist before they allow a threat to their power. Only a rev0luti0n will work.
US history proves otherwise. Real change has been made in the labor sector without "revolution". And on that front I will even concede that it took more than just voting to change labor laws. It took a concerted effort against the capitalist class itself with strikes and other resistance efforts. But it worked and things changed and it didn't require overthrowing the government and destabilizing everything.
But voting would absolutely work too. At the end of the day, the people in charge are where they are because they were voted into their positions. Wealthy elites do not make up the majority of America. An angry populace would have the power to capsize their machine. "Voting doesn't matter" as a position will only lose you ground. The "revolution" you speak of is pointless if you don't have the majority of politically involved people behind you. At that point it's not a "revolution". It's an "unpopular coup". We see in the way people vote that the problem is that the voting populace has not been convinced by the stances of the left. Before any revolution would be an ethically sound idea, we should be seeing numbers that suggest that the majority of people are on board with radical change. And by the time that happens, those people would have the power to effect that change through voting. If the wealthy elites used underhanded tactics to suppress voting when the majority is clearly in favor of a certain change, then and only then does revolution become the ethical imperative.
In summary, don't bother suggesting revolution if the majority of people aren't behind you on it. Instead focus that energy on convincing people that radical change is necessary. Use the system to your advantage. Only when that fails through corrupt means does revolution become necessary.
The right wing understood this so much 3-4 decades ago and they have reaped the benefits of that understanding so thoroughly that people on the left have been running around like chickens with their heads cut off, calling for things like revolution. No, the playbook is simple. Use every advantage you can within the system. Fight for the SCOTUS and don't be afraid to politicize it in opposition to the right wing fascists. Find wedge issues that you can call the other side on. Take control of the narrative. Be aware of your demographics and create a unifying message that brings the disparate groups together.
I think I need to clarify. Only the threat of revolution can effect change. If your only recourse is reform. The system and structures of institutions will adapt to thwart them. If reforms worked, revolutions would never happen. Rosa Luxembourg found this out a century ago.
Of course the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you--if you don't play, you can't win.
-Robert Heinlein
The only option is to beat them at their own game. There's no reason not to try.
He also said:
“Democracy can survive anything except Democrats” ~ Robert A. Heinlein
He said lots of stuff.
He went from a staunchly conservative military officer to being one of the biggest opponents of the military industrial system and fascism and wrote what was known at the height of the hippie movement as "the hippie bible".
Dudes thinking evolved like neoliberals pretend Biden's have...
Now I want the hippie Bible
Stranger in a Strange Land
It's a fucking trip and is basically about while an older person may not understand progress, that's no reason to stand in the way.
Now keep in mind tho, this shit was written over 60 years ago. Pelosi was in her early 20s, so even really progressive things at the time seem a little outdated.
But it's pretty much one of the most influential pieces of Science Fiction
No, stop playing the game. The world is on fucking fire and we're playing games. We need to take a material approach to this whole thing.
This is what irritates me when people don't get it. Constantly seeing shit about Feinstein like "CaLiFoRniAnS VoTeD foR hER!" But when it comes to national elections, all of a sudden everyone is capable of seeing how imbalanced those are, because if they didn't they would have to hold themselves responsible for 2016 by their own logic.
There won't be a single dollar given to anyone by the dnc to anyone but her. The obstruction power of the controlling party apparatus will get focused like a laser on any opponent who has any chance at all. You're only a Democrat if the money people say you are, and you're only their choice if you can help the oligarchy keep their money.
She'll be the only person with any chance to get on the ticket until she dies.