- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- brainworms@lemm.ee
- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- brainworms@lemm.ee
Democrats bet on appeals to neoconservatives — including war criminals like Dick Cheney — and touted harsh border policies, bolstering rather than challenging Republican anti-immigrant frameworks.
Kamala Harris may have relied on women to vote for abortion rights, but she promised little more than a potential return to the flawed and insufficient norm of Roe v. Wade, at best. Like President Joe Biden, she supported a genocide and failed to distinguish herself from extremist Zionists like Trump.
For Democrats, appealing to the right has been a disaster of realpolitik, especially in an electoral system that structurally favors Republicans anyway. But what’s worse, Democratic strategies have failed and harmed the most vulnerable communities both in the U.S. and those who suffer under the yoke of U.S.-backed wars.
There is an urgent need for social justice movement organizing, growing unions and union power, antagonism rather than acquiescence to existing power structures, and expansive networks of care and support. The most powerful social movements of the last decades did not primarily build on support from Democratic leadership under Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, or Joe Biden. Nor did they collapse during Trump’s first tenure.
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As a foreigner looking in, I’m worried about how things like widespread protest suppression and union-busting will affect the called-for attempts at change. Some of that stuff was bipartisan, and it’s unlikely to get better now that the far right has control of the Presidency, Senate, SCOTUS, and perhaps the House.
It’s definitely a valid concern. In 2020, Trump had federal police descend on Portland in plain clothes and unmarked vans to literally kidnap protestors off the streets.
Oh it’s 100% going to suck for sure. It will be hard and difficult and painful. But our ancestors fought for unions when unions were illegal, and union busting didn’t just mean saying “stop” or “you’re all fired”, it meant hiring private mercenaries to spray bullets into crowds and beat unarmed people with sticks. Women got the right to vote with protests and were often arrested for vandalism, arson, and all sorts of shit they did during them (and for prohibition, which I know didn’t really work, but hey, they got that amendment in anyway).
And I don’t even mean ancient ancestors, I mean like great grandparents. If they did it, so can we.
Less surveillance and death machines back then. Resistance will be harder.
My GG grandfather was killed when soldiers fired into an unarmed crowd that was protesting for basic human rights. This was in Marineo, Sicily, on 3 January 1894. His widow had to flee to the NYC tenements with their 6 children to start fresh - as progressive sympathizers were not safe.
She was poor in Sicily, she was destitute when she arrived in the US. Like many others, she did garment piece work to get by. Other Sicilian immigrants arrived in a wave and they made a new community.
When the Triangle Fire happened, real labor reform began to happen through the work of the ILGWU and others. They did not stop protesting until they got results.
Yes. Hard times ahead. Hard times behind may show us the way forward. Ad astra per áspera.
Oh it’s 100% going to suck for sure. It will be hard and difficult and painful. But our ancestors fought for unions when unions were illegal, and union busting didn’t just mean saying “stop” or “you’re all fired”, it meant hiring private mercenaries to spray bullets into crowds and beat unarmed people with sticks. Women got the right to vote with protests and were often arrested for vandalism, arson, and all sorts of shit they did during them (and for prohibition, which I know didn’t really work, but hey, they got that amendment in anyway).
And I don’t even mean ancient ancestors, I mean like great grandparents. If they did it, so can we.
Not for nothing but the American voter spoke pretty strongly maybe they want tougher immigration policies.
Also not for nothing but Joe Biden describes himself as a Zionist as well.
We’ll see if any of that comes to fruition, or is allowed to do so by the fascists just put into power, unlike the last thousand times the far-right in a country has won elections.
Need more options. Ranked Choice Voting.
This is the breaking point where the Dems are going to have to collectively realize and commit to learning from their mistakes.
That Trump was successfull is an indictment of their approach that failed with Clinton and failed again with Harris. They need to invert, maybe they need to start campaigning on fear and hate (of fascism and what it does to the average person and how it sows the seeds of the nation’s destruction including gas prices and bread but also the circuses and people we all love that are no less parts of human life itself.
Maybe start getting their hands a little dirtier. This is an existential war at this point, gloves need to come off and the old guard probably needs to fuck off like forever.
They’ve been campaigning on fear. The Democratic party is not going to save you. They never were. Their empty promises are carrots they dangle to get your votes. They haven’t tried hatred yet, but I think that’s reserved for the uneducated.
Aside from the abomination that is the two party system and electoral college, the real problem is that we are trying to set the same rules across a country that is too big and too divisive to possibly work for everybody. I think it’s time for liberal bubbles to actually secede.
CA and NY make up about 21% of GDP and they contain about 18% of population. Other states are welcome to join. They’d be fine on their own and they’d have land on either coast.
That, or implement tariffs between blue and red states.
Liberals could also leave their bubbles and move to swing states.
Hyperbolic, but in actuality it’s the only way to get what you want, else half of the country is always going to be feeling how everybody on Lemmy is feeling today.
I hate to say it, because being together makes us stronger and I’d hate to need a passport to visit my friends in other states, but I think I might be with you. It’s not like we’ve ever done anything good with our united strength anyway except for stomp around the world taking resources and sparking coups (except once in WW2). Our empire needs to crumble, like England, France, Spain, and Portgual’s. It’s too big, too unwieldy, too hard to make change or improve things and get consensus from this wide area. Plus, it’s a lot easier to fight for our rights if we just need to travel a couple hundred miles to a state capital rather than across the country to Washington, DC or to convince Southern and Midwestern rural voters.
Yeah we’re such a young nation. We’re destined to experience the changes that other nations have.
The other option is to dilute swing states with an influx of liberals, but doesn’t solve the problem of half the country feeling unrepresented.
As if they’d let you secede.
Another solution would be liberals leaving their bubbles and moving to swing states.
When you say get our hands dirtier or gloves coming off, what do you mean?
We tried in Oregon. The real problem is that both Democrat establishment and Republican establishment hate RCV because it diminishes their power. It may be time for progressives to separate from Dems a bit more at local and state levels. Look at Osborn in NE
RCV was also on the ballot in Colorado, but for some reason they bundled it with a “jungle primary” for governor and a bunch of other seats, where the four choices on the ballot for governor in the general election would be the top four from the ranked choice primaries, regardless of party (so you could end up with four options from the same party in theory). The latter addition was pretty unpopular with both parties, who put out tons of messaging against it and especially conflated it with RCV. It got voted down with a significant margin.
I’m not opposed to either measure, but I’m really struggling to understand why they rolled the two together into one ballot initiative instead of separating it. Alas, I’m just a lowly voter not privy to such advanced political reasoning. Fortunately most of Colorado’s other ballot initiatives went well, at least according to my preferences.
Some counties in Oregon use RCV or Star for some elections. It’s progress.
But I agree, nobody wants to love power on either side so there’s no support. Dems are not our saviors. Up to the people.
We had it on the ballot here in Oregon, and it got rejected. It probably didn’t help that I didn’t see a single bit of outreach from state Dems who’ve been controlling the state for the past 40 years, but that’s probably because they’re more concerned about retaining power for the party than actually fixing things, so they didn’t want it to pass.
You’re never going to vote on a national level again, what use is ranked at this point?
Why not voting at national level again?
He literally said they’re going to fix the elections.
Reading a lot into that. He didn’t mean it literally and even if he did he says a lot of things he can’t promise
He’s asked all sorts of people to do all sorts of terrible things, and though some stood in his way, usually tendering their resignation in doing so, I think that’s reason enough to take it very seriously. There are supporters of his who absolutely seriously suggest instating him as president permanently, and with control of every branch of government, there’s opportunity to do so.
Maybe. I think we should take his threats seriously.
Yeah he meant it.
Okay. Where do I sign up?
That’s always the question, isn’t it? Like the people on Lemmy who keep calling for revolution. Okay, when and where are we meeting with the torches and pitchforks?
Mutual Aid is far more useful than revolution. In this kind of environment, the act of helping one another is revolutionary.
We are hoping for aid from this group. I’m trying to formulate an email right now.
Do you really wonder why people dont post meetups for revolutionary activity or other incriminating things on a public forum that has an explicit no violence rule?
Not really. I’m sure they happily do their revolution cosplay somewhere else. Wake me up when the revolution actually happens because I’m 47 and I’ve been hearing about it for decades and I’m not getting any younger.
How do you think revolution works? You cannot simply violently take to the streets whenever you feel like it. You need to build up critical amounts of support or you’ll just be considered terrorists at best. A poll a while ago showed more Americans want a party to the right of repiblicans than ones who want one to the left of democrats. There are less leftists in America than any other political group and we have to fight against the entire US medias narrative to build that critical support. I love the open hostility to the smallest political group in America for not being able to save the whole fucking country with violence.
I think revolution works by having people revolt.
Again, this glorious revolution has been coming for my whole life. And before it. Phil Ochs sang a song about it in 1966.
And yet, it never comes. So how many more decades is it going to take?
If it happens after I’m dead, it’s not especially helpful.
So go revolt. You said you’re 47. What do you have to lose? Start. Pick a Target.
What have I got to lose? My daughter, first of all. Also, when has a lone revolutionary picking a random target every accomplished anything they set out to do?
If you think a revolution is a simple as revolting, I encourage you to go do that instead of insisting others make the world better for you. You clearly must know something no other leftist has figured out with how simple your revolution plan is.
I would argue that a small group of people taking actual action would indeed inspire others to do the same. It’s just that nobody wants to take the risk of being that first person carrying the torch.
Well I can’t say nobody, two have tried so far.
I think that if it hasn’t happened in the last 60 years, it’s probably not going to happen in the next 60.
And I’m not the one constantly talking about guillotines.
The answer will depend on what orgs are in your local area. If you’re willing to share a general location and any specific interests I could do some digging.
I don’t know anything about this site but I just found it by searching: https://www.mutualaidhub.org/
Or if you’d rather search on your own, I’d look for things like [your city/region] mutual aid, resist, antifa (the last one going to be about more confrontational action so consider whether that’s your specific niche).
Another approach is to just ask friends who seem politically connected if they’ve heard of any local orgs.
Personally I would be wary of any highly top-down orgs that enforce a particular narrow ideology. Some of these can be a bit cult-like. Also get a feel for how people interact and leadership operates. Are people supportive and kind to one another or is there a lot of tension and fear? Personally I haven’t had any bad experiences yet but it’s something to be aware of if you don’t have the lay of the land in your local area.
In most cities there will be a variety of groups with different approaches and focuses, so shop around a bit and find the one that is a good fit for you.
Wow, finally a news outlet that calls it out like it is. Wait for CNN’s take that blames black people, progressives, and Muslims.
Don’t forget Hispanics!
Cue that Onion video that just came out lol
supported a genocide and failed to distinguish herself from extremist Zionists like Trump.
This is how I know the writer has no concept of political flip-flopping and how it tanks a candidacy.
Can we get someone with a clue to proof-read this drivel, please ?
