this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/27293783

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 days ago

"The United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them."

I attribute the quote wrong all the time, but today the internet says it's from Julius Nyerere, who was a prime minister in Africa back in the 1960s.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They've had multiple majority governments and you guys still pay an arm and a leg for diabetes medication.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Funnily enough, the last administration made some headway there for Medicare recipients... Unfortunately, it looks like that's now been undone.

[–] surph_ninja 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If they haven’t accepted it yet, I’m not sure they want to. The ones holding the lines seem to be just reactionaries pining for a return to the neoliberal status quo.

[–] cheese_greater 2 points 3 days ago
[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

This is quote from their former member, Huey Long:

"They've got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side, but no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen"

β€” Huey Long, campaign speech for the re-election of Senator Hattie Caraway (D-AR), 1932 (Williams p. 589)

Source

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 5 days ago (9 children)

It's the most anti-communist country on the planet, so there's not much hope. Talk of raising wages or organizing collectively, or not agreeing with US imperialist foreign policy gets you labelled a commie / tankie by its witch-hunting, McCarthyite majority.

If there's a list of countries to next take the communist road, the US would be dead last.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 6 days ago (6 children)

democrats are simply the 'lesser evil', and have been since the 1960s, at least.. and we've needed a viable third party left of the mainstream for longer.

republican administrations drag us down and undo gains made. democrats repair some of the damage--but never quite enough, never push progress enough. they lose. it gets undone again and the cycle repeats.

but now it's all getting destroyed. there may not be a continuation of the cycle. it's hell from here on until 'trumpism' and maga are what is completely destroyed.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

They literally have a donkey (jackass) as mascot.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Step 1: Don't generalize. Don't say "Americans" when you mean "some Americans". As you can see from browsing here and on other media sites, there are a great many vocal people who have voted Democrat for years but are entirely disappointed by decades of failed DNC leadership.

Step 2: Remind people that everyone is on their own side. Politicians might vote the way you want, or not, but their interests will never be exactly the same as yours. Don't ever believe that the two-party system is an accurate description of our values.

Step 3: Share memes of Schumer.

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[–] weeeeum 23 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Cause they aren't, they are just the "better guys".

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago

They're basically "republicans light": still bad but at least not literal nazis

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago (12 children)

The Deprogram podcast, Hakim, and Second Thought YT channels all exist to address this. It's rather obvious to anybody willing to learn

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 days ago (2 children)

We don't have to do anything other then work on passing electoral reform one state at a time. Democrats can be whatever the hell they want, so long as everyone is free to vote how they want with the ability to transfer their vote.

Electoral Reform Videos

First Past The Post voting (What most states use now)

Videos on alternative electoral systems

STAR voting

Alternative vote

Ranked Choice voting

Range Voting

Single Transferable Vote

Mixed Member Proportional representation

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 days ago (29 children)

Historically, that doesn't actually fix systemic issues, though, like the only parties of relevance electorally being pre-approved and backed by the bourgeoisie. Moreover, electoral reform doesn't have a real path to implementation that would make more sense than revolution to begin with.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago

This has never done anything in countries that use it, like SK, Japan, Australia, etc. It might make the candidate stacking a little more expensive, but that's it.

If capital stands above the political system, the method of voting doesn't matter.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (5 children)

I've seen a lot of similar comments lately. People wanting to start 3rd parties etc, because the Democrats suck so bad.

Yes, it's true. They suck, but if you're going to beat the Republicans, you'll need to look at what Trump did. He didn't start a 3rd party. No, he took the existing party and changed it into whatever the fuck it is now.

You need to change the democratic party from within too, because 3rd parties will always lose because of the first past the post. 3rd parties also have a tendency to branch out, because quite frankly, not being Democrat or Republican isn't enough of a politic in itself, and you guys don't get along well on anything else. The Republicans had this issue for a long time until Trump came along providing them with something that united their voters more than the previous politic of simply being not Democrats.

The democratic party already has a framework for running politics and they actually have some kind of democracy within that allows people to change it. Yeah, it will require a lot of work to get enough people engaged in politics to make the change, but it is absolutely much less than what is required to start a successful 3rd party.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago (4 children)

The difference with the Republican party's changes with Trump and the idea of performing entryism in the Democrats to make it a worker party is that Trump's changes to the GOP are already in line with what the Bourgeoisie wants. The DNC cannot be entered and changed into a working class party because they too get their base from the bourgeoisie.

This is why revolution is necessary to gain real change in favor of the working class.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Your problem is that Democrat politicians are also largely rich white dudes, who'd rather be republican than progressive.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

.. that is why you need to join and elect other politicians.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 days ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

Because the real fight is the rich vs the poor. Even rich democrats.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Can’t do it . You must just get labelled a Russian bot and banned

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Stop re-electing these ancient incumbents who are WAY too comfortable being Republican-lite. Vote for younger candidates, preferably someone who was born AFTER the Battle of the Bulge.

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