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The right doesn't have a problem with people refusing to vote for right-wing politicians because they want to punish them for not being right-wing enough.
Meanwhile the far-left goes on and on about how voting is pointless and you're a lib if you think voting can effect change, and then expect you to be insulted by that term
I think the far left is too perfectionist. They want some sort of mythical candidate that will check all the boxes and somehow still be electable in a general election, but that person isn’t coming. Meanwhile, the Right usually rallies the wagon around whichever sad sack-of-shit they’ve found. You’re not going to get who you want every time and you’re not going to get the change you want everytime. It’s about setting the conditions for that change to come that’s important, otherwise you’re just handing the initiative to the Right to make the change that they want.
Exactly. It's a matter of complaining that the train is not moving fast enough so why bother putting more coal into the engine.
Well said.
Here you go. Instead of complaining yourself, you can get informed...
Why Liberalism Won't Solve Anything
This is not something you watch to "get informed". It is a video opinion essay, and if your primary source of information is opinion videos, that's deeply concerning. Do not tell people to "get informed" and then link a video where someone just talks about their opinion.
Nonetheless, I've watched this video and I agree with most of what it says. What I don't agree with is that participating in the current electoral system is fruitless. There are such things as primary elections. Right-wing voters have no problem exercising their political will in primary elections, pushing their party further right.
I do not profess that voting Democratic is the ultimate solution to our problems. In fact, my views are very similar to those professed in that video. But what I am saying is that people who tell others that "liberalism won't solve anything" or that merely voting in the general election isn't the solution without in the same breath describing what should be done instead are far more damaging than someone who does just vote in a general election and does nothing else.
In my home state of Oregon, the way that individual citizens can improve our political system is by circulating, signing, and promoting ballot measures, including a measure to replace first-past-the-post voting with ranked-choice voting, which will appear on this year's ballot as a referendum. Is this not a valuable activity?
I think centrists consider any criticism to be perfectionism and expect perfect lockstep behind the candidates that centrists consider perfect already.
what do you mean the far left? the American Solidarity Party? ANTIFA?
The right has been cleaning house in primaries getting rid of 'RINO's in favor of first the tea partiers and now MAGA for years.
This article is from over five years ago: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/12/the-demise-of-the-moderate-republican
The local spending is exactly the cleaning house that you're talking about.
They're just going to keep going further and further right.
Thanks for sharing that. It was terrible and depressing read, 5½ years in the future.
The grass roots apparatus that Bernie built is basically gone at this point.
Because it was never supposed to be about raising money, it was supposed to be about answering the call and running for office in your community to directly impact change, but unfortunately nobody wants to do the work and take on the responsibility of running and holding offices.
And of course to be clear, I say this as somebody who also hasn't answered the call, but nonetheless I feel like we keep forgetting that Bernie was telling all of our to be the architects of our own political destinies
Because it was never supposed to be about raising money, it was supposed to be about answering the call and running for office in your community to directly impact change, but unfortunately nobody wants to do the work and take on the responsibility of running and holding offices.
I don't/ can't entirely agree with that, primarily because what Bernie was doing was working. Progressives were running and winning nationally, largely supported by the apparatus that Bernie had built starting in 2014. More progressives landed state and local positions nationallly through out that time period, and still, because of Bernies leadership and vision that went beyond himself. In terms of seats, Progressive candidates were competitive with the rates at which more rightwing candidates were winning. From 2014-2022, and still, mainstream (read: neolib & neocon corporatism) were getting eaten from the left and the right. The difference is that when the Republicans noticed this happening, they rallied and used it to fight the left and used it to defeat the Democrats. When the Democrats noticed it, they also rallied and fought the left to the defeat the Democrats.
The biggest threat to progressive populism/ social democracy in this country has never been the Republicans or right. The biggest threat has always been the Democrats, as gate-keepers of the party apparatus and access to national elections. The Democrats preferred a Trump presidency in 2016 over a running popular leftwing candidate. The Democratic party is more invested in the maintenance of the status quo than it is the will of its voting base. To the Democrats, their voters are an inconvenience they occasionally have to service. Seeing as the Democrats are working to lose another election right now with their insistence on running rightwing candidates that don't appeal broadly to their base, it might be time to start worrying about the next fight. Because unless something drastically changes, the DNC has thrown yet another election.
But about that next fight.. Bernie gave us the blueprint. He's shown us how to run successful leftwing campaigns at all levels of government. I'm going to run eventually. Maybe just for dogcatcher, but something. Probably not next cycle but maybe the one after that. I wont be running as a Democrat. I'll be running as an independent but I can assure you my platform will be left af. And just like Bernie, I'm going to speak directly to issues people are experiencing in their every day god damned lives.
*when I say Democrats, I mean party leadership Democrats/ figurehead Democrats, not Democratic voters.
I think the biggest flaw with Bernie is he turns into a cheerleader for the democratic nominee after he loses the primaries. He did it for Hillary and he does it with Biden. I understand he is doing it because he thinks trump would be worse, but at the same time it kinda hurts the progressive movement and messaging. It feels like we are giving up our progressive goals just to elect Biden, or else suffer an even worse option. It kills the enthusiasm when both the options suck and it feels inevitable that the one we actually want will lose or has lost already.
Don't get me wrong tho I love Bernie, but this is my biggest gripe with him.
I mean he tucked his head down and got to work. I think he does recognize the kind of existential thread Trump represents to even being able to fix the system.
This looks more like evidence of red State governments becoming more red or rather, the wealthy interest groups trying harder to keep it red. I think the majority of Americans are not brainwashed conservatives. Churches are losing membership. Spirituality is falling, as well. With a proven economic gain from rational science based reasonings it's a lot less likely there will be any regression unless society is destroyed. And I think, in the end, Republicans and conservative groups at large are just going to cheat to win. Consistently. They will rig votes and do all the things they accuse the Democrats of. Democrats really need to expose that for what it is. Give it the ol' Conservative media spin like they do. Stop focusing on trump but keep talking about conservatives at large. Expose more churches and private schools and sensationalize the shit out of them.
Who could have imagined that doing what your base wants would bring in more donations than ordering your base to be happy while you do what the other party's base wants.
b i l l i o n a i r e s
Both teams have their billionaires. There's something else going on here.
Foreign oligarchs?
I would suspect that Republicans see a lot of losers at the top of the ticket and want to start a fresh new crop. Politics start at the local level - something Democrats should work on.
Both "teams" have well meaning people who aren't insane conspiracy theorists, too, but its not an accident one side has more of those too.
Liberals rarely seem all that interested in state and local elections. Maybe liberals don't feel connected to their state or to a community. I think liberals move around more than conservatives, maybe that has something to do with it. You're less likely to be involved in local politics if you never put down roots anywhere.
No. Liberals are just as invested in local politics.
I don't think that's true. As the article points out, during Obama's first term the Republicans built their tea party movement at the state and local levels, while Democrats were primarily focused on Washington. As a result, a majority of state legislatures became Republican controlled, which, I believe, is still the case today.
Democratic party is not equal to liberals. It's the party with power closest to liberal ideas.
I just read an article two days ago claiming the opposite. I don't buy anything in election years.
Biden is outraising Trump by a lot but this isn’t about that or other federal races
The problem with democrats in my view is they have a diverse constituency. You have your liberals, your socialist, democrat nationalist, progressives, and even conservative democrats that span different racial groups, classes, and cultures. You vote democrat for government help such as welfare, minimum wage, basically the cynic against corporations and the rich. Conservative democrats who believe in aggressive American foreign policy don't resonate with young voters. You can tell Joe Biden tries to encourage American people to support the foreign policy, saying his foreign policy is every American's foreign policy.