this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2024

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Once Again, the Democratic Leadership Has Failed Us All (www.currentaffairs.org)

submitted 1 month ago by return2ozma to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

Voter's have failed us. The Dems have failed us. The justice system has failed us.

Trump has highlighted the fragility of the system. The Dems have had multiple years to fix some of it. They did none. Then they ran a mediocre candidate in the same vein as Hilary, who failed against Trump before.

Voter's need to realise that if they disagree with the Dems, voting for the GOP is not necessarily a better option. Voting third party is worse than voting someone you disagree with.

The Dems need to realise that they won't get Republican voters to vote for them. They should try to excite and plan for the voters based on good policy. Trying to play both sides gets you neither side. Be progressive or leave the Dems and be a Republican. There is no moderates in either side when one side is not negotiating in good faith.

Let the voters choose between two alternative visions. Not one vision, or the same vision with a racist demagogue at the front.

It's scary times ahead. However, it's been scary times for years now, so we are all used to it. Maybe that's the problem. We all want change. Trump promises it. He's just promising disruptive change without a coherent plan. Where is the Dems coherent plan for change?

[–] Anticorp 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

These writers flip-flop all over the place. Just a month or two ago they were falling all over themselves to declare the Biden withdrawal a masterful stroke of tactical expertise. So they were both master tacticians and failures?

[–] freshcow 22 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Harris got a huge spike in popularity initially because she was NOT Biden. She then spent the remainder of her campaign explaining how she would be Biden exactly but less old, as well as trying to reach to the right. Her polling steadily trailed off as people realized it would be more of the same. If she had the courage to differentiate herself publicly in any way, (ESPECIALLY with respect to Gaza) we might be having a different conversation.

[–] Anticorp 5 points 1 month ago

I suspect that the DNC and her donors told her specifically not to do that.

[–] Homescool 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The media complex gushed over her. It was all manufactured.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And those whose brand would be hurt by endorsing her, shut up about her worst qualities (looking at you, John Oliver, you liberal dipshit) instead of highlighting third parties because, of course, the moguls would like very much to keep this managed democracy rather than risk an actual democracy, which can get rather messy to undermine.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You're never going to get meaningful change voting third party under the American voting system. A first past the post voting system will ALWAYS result in a two party system. If we hurt the current parties by voting third party enough to kill one, we'll just replace the dead party. It might be an improvement at first, but eventually, all the same forces push us back into the same end result after a while.

The US needs major reform to the electoral system. Switch from first past the post to something like ranked choice or approval voting. Abolish the fucking electoral college, which some states are attempting with a law to automatically grant all electoral college votes to the popular vote winner if enough states agree to make it guarantee the winner. Expand and guarantee access to mail in voting. And indirectly, reinvest in the fucking education system.

Of course, with full control of the federal government going to Republicans who benefit from all these problems, there's no way any of it gets addressed now.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"The democrats and republicans have made sure you can't elect anybody else, the solution is to vote for them to change it!"

Americans are so fucking cooked lmao

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

Primarily republicans. That's the party that benefits most from voter suppression, gerrymandering, shitty voting systems, etc. Ranked choice voting exists in some capacity in over a dozen states, and it trends heavily towards left leaning states.

The more important fact, however, is that it's an unknown idea that's not interesting enough to attract attention over more immediate problems.

[+] [email protected] -11 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Yeah, having more than half the US population vote for fascism is the Democrats' fault, obviously. They should have changed their strategy so that people that like fascism vote for them instead of a fascist. Damn Democrats forcing Americans to vote for fascism by making the other half apathetic.

If at least the Democrats would have done enough to get the votes of non-fascists Americans, they could have won and spend another 4 years of status quo.

Go ahead and blame the Democrats because half of the US population has voted for fascism. It's partly right. But it also ignores the fact that whatever the Democrats would do, a very significant chunk of the US population is convinced fascist policies is the way to go.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

both parties experienced depressed voter turnout compared to 2020. trump lost about 5m compared to his 2020 numbers, but the Dems lost about 20m compared to 2020. people are not going to get out and vote for a Diet Republican campaign that ignores their concerns to court a mythical moderate conservative population that both does not exist, and would not vote for them if they did. it's the EXACT same unforced error they made in 2016, and it caused a complete collapse of the democrat voter base.

Go ahead and blame the Democrats

I will. they ran an absolute dogshit campaign with no intention of winning, to appease their donors, which cost them the election. everything that happens under trump is on their hands. for a party supposedly fighting against the rise of fascism, they didn't try very hard at all.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Trump got fewer votes than in 2024. Dems ran a pro-genocide empty suit that did not distinguish themselves from a disliked incumbent and got even fewer votes than Clinton in 2016.

And the party itself doesn't really care that they lost aside from how it impacts individuals' careers. They are not your friends or allies. They probably would've won if they just had Harris pander on Gaza and introduce 1 (1) major policy plank people could grab on to. She wouldn't have even followed up on either one of those topics, it would've just been the usual false promises and it probably would've worked. That is how closely they stuck to the donor class: they could not even construct their usual bad faith strategies. So instead you got Liz Cheney constantly on the campaign trail, lmao.

I've asked 4 Harris voters irl to name a single major policy plank and they each just plain went silent for around 10 seconds.

If you want to actually fight for yout causes, it is important to look at this with clear eyes. The failures of the Democrat political class are not your failures. They don't listen to you and you had no input whatsoever on theit policy platform or choice of candidate. You don't need to defend their failures or act like they don't bear responsibility for running historically unlikable campaigns and candidates. Just because there is a dang cheeto does not mean Dems are redeemable for what they do. It has been a year of naked genocide and they demanded your complicity and still lost.

To oppode the right it is necessary to join and build othrt organizations, organizations grounded in working class power.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

So what do you propose should be done to combat the rise of fascism? Nothing? Roll over and die? If the popularity of fascism continues to rise you're saying the democratic party should continue doing the same thing that they've always done? Your defense of fascism is to continue the same political strategy that keeps losing to it?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

It is, actually, when they were running a fascist with a blue pin. A tough on immigration prosecutor hanging around with Liz Cheney and promising to continue the Gaza genocide (with trademark democrat speak to make it sound like that's not quite what she said).

Obama bragged about being good at killing people, Hillary laughed aloud about the torture of Gaddafi for the crime of not selling his people to US corporations, Bill Clinton massively incarcerated black people labeling them super predators.

Half the US did vote for fascists, the other half stayed at home.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah its like a bully beats you up on your way to school every day and another offers to walk you to school but while walking to school the bully knocks him down and manages to grab you before the other kid pulls him off and your all like. You did not do a good enough job as that grab was pretty scary so im going to go back to being straight beat up and its your fault I get beat up.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It is exactly like this except the guy who walks you extorts protection money from you and then you learn they're helping another guy kidnap so you don't want to walk with them. And then when the bully shows up the other guy just watches, and when you agree to walk with that guy he beats you too, now, but says the bully would beat you like, way worse now.

Bur apart from all that, yeah, same.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

yeah and by learning you mean the friend of the guy who beats you up told you that. to think we go to facism just from bs and hyperbole. who know.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

They should have changed their strategy so that people that like fascism vote for them instead of a fascist

That was their strategy.