• NutWrench@lemmy.ml
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    7 hours ago

    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.

      • Electric_Druid@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        I think it makes a huge difference- Shapiro is just one person. And to prove the point, look how much influence he, a young guy, is having on our political landscape. Not that they’re the perfect politicians, but look at how much support people like AOC and Tulsi Gabbard drum up. We need people that are energized and that can energize others.

        • The Spectre@lemmy.mlOP
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          25 minutes ago

          It is not about wether someone is young or old, but that the system is rotten and needs to go. Also, we are not getting anything better in this system.

  • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    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.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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            3 hours ago

            Sure, but IRL and outside media I still hear “tankie” more than “commie,” and more importantly the original comment was made in the context of Lemmy.

            • AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee
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              55 minutes ago

              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

              You’re telling me this statement is about Lemmy and not the US in general?

  • ptc075@lemmy.zip
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    10 hours 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.

  • Silent John@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

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

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        Complaining about Marxist-Leninists on a platform made by MLs and the instance maintained by them is a bit silly. There’s nothing “crypto” about support for Communism on Lemmy.

        Moreover, I find that the ones most critical of the USSR, as in the ones best looking at what honestly and truthfully went wrong with the Soviet Union, are MLs. It’s easy to regurgitate “100 gorillion dead no iphone vuvuzela,” but that isn’t particularly critical as it isn’t based in reality, just non-sequitors and gotchas.

        Meanwhile, MLs can usually talk in depth about the issues with Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and even Kruschev’s reforms, or the struggles with planning by hand in a computerized era, discussion on whether or not the NEP should have been modified, extended, or eliminated even earlier or right on time, and more. This is because MLs want to use the Soviet Union as an example, learn from the good and learn from the bad so we can more effectively build a Socialist future.

  • Devanismyname@lemmy.ca
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    4 hours ago

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

  • Commiunism@beehaw.org
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    1 day ago

    Realistically, it’s an impossibility. This view is mostly propagated via liberal news sources, having the main battle be conservatism vs progressivism or left vs right (as opposed to class struggle, the poor vs rich, working class vs capitalists), and since the democrats are more progressive than republicans, they’re the “good guys” who should be supported.

    For it to be destroyed, we’d have to catch up to their level of influence and reach or even surpass it, to show people that they’re a party of capitalists who sometimes are progressive, and not an actual ally of the working or middle classes but only pretending to be one. Maybe going one step further too and influencing progressive movements democrats support to pay attention to economic aspects too, given how their root causes aren’t purely social?

    But again, it’s impossible for us workers to have such reach, given how well funded media is.

  • ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠@midwest.social
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    1 day ago

    Believe you me, I’ve been trying for years. Tribalism runs too deep in the human condition for there to be any obvious fix.

    • badbrainstorm@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Also this. As NOFX says, Americas for sale, and you can get a good deal on it, and make a healthy profit. Fucking Pelosi and her kind gotta go

  • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    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

    • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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      1 day 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.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      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.

      • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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        19 hours ago

        it’s a long road with a lot more steps but simply “destroying” the notion that democrats are the good guys simply gets you republicans and that’s gotta be the worst way to shift left ever

          • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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            19 hours ago

            revolution is easy to say on the internet but at the end of the day a lot of people die

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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              19 hours ago

              People die without revolution, historically revolutionary Socialism has come with dramatic improvements in quality of life for the Working Class. Taking down the US Empire would massively uplift the burden on the Global South as well.

              • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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                18 hours ago

                perhaps, or perhaps it could be replaced by something worse. there are no guarantees

                • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                  12 hours ago

                  Read up on historical revolution, Socialist revolution has a great track record, and if the US Empire didn’t interfere it would be even better.

  • bstix@feddit.dk
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    6 hours ago

    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.

    • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      People wanting to start 3rd parties etc, because the Democrats suck so bad.

      Great way to have Republicans in power for the rest of our lives. I can’t see how anyone who voted 3rd party in November can STILL think it was a smart decision despite immediately finding out it wasn’t.

      One of the most frustrating things in my whole life is how people simply cannot grasp that you cannot cheat code your way to voting a 3rd party presidential candidate into the Oval Office. Like, is it that difficult for people to understand that parties have to start winning locally, then getting representatives in state offices, then in the House and Senate, before a new party could even stand a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning a presidential election?

      These fools need to stop fucking around with presidential election votes and start voting for a 3rd party in their local/state elections. Totally fucking pointless to vote 3rd party for president. You’re literally just ushering in Republican presidents by doing that shit.

      As you said, it’s far more realistic to put pressure on the Democratic party to change than engage in a fantasy scenario where everyone holds hands and votes a 3rd party into power out of literally nowhere.

      But, as you can see by your downvotes, people just want what they want right now. Logic be damned.

      “Logic be damned.”

      That’ll be inscribed on America’s tombstone.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      5 hours ago

      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.

      • bstix@feddit.dk
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        5 hours ago

        So…if that’s your only option… when are you going to start a revolution?

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          5 hours ago

          When the working class is organized enough for that to happen. I suggest joining a party or organization near you so that you can assist with that, wherever you live.

          • bstix@feddit.dk
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            3 hours ago

            I’m not American but I will promise to support you if it comes to that.

            The workers unionisation in my country against land owners in the 1800s would not have succeeded without international support. I’d gladly chip in for anyone attempting to do the same.

      • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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        4 hours ago

        The DNC cannot be entered and changed into a working class party because they too get their base from the bourgeoisie.

        I think this is too pessimistic, especially in light of how bad all other options are for the left. Party bases change – Democrats used to be a lot closer to the working class, and (decades ago) delivered major policy improvements. With a lot of jobs re-proletarianizing, who’s to say the party base can’t shift back?

        The biggest barrier to such a change is campaign donations, of course. But Bernie showed you can fund even a major presidential campaign through small donors, and we’re also at the point where corporate Dems have more money than they can effectively use (see the Harris campaign).

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          3 hours ago

          I haven’t really seen any evidence of this being possible. I maintain optimism, just in the revolutionary direction, not electorally.

          • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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            3 hours ago

            Bernie had plenty of problems, but he would have been a significant step left of the party and he came pretty close to winning the 2020 primary. It’s easy to forget the unique circumstances that allowed Democrats to pull off the fix: a highly popular former president to coordinate the drop out, a Republican opponent with an unprecedented ability to rile up the Democratic base, and Covid hitting right before Super Tuesday. Without any one of those things, I’m not sure they could have slipped in Biden. Imagine if that primary had played out in, say, 2004.

            You can also look at local elections – progressive District Attorneys, for example. They’ve ran (and a number have won) as Democrats, but significantly to the left of the mainstream Democratic candidates in their cities. And they’ve won by specifically appealing to voters who are moving left faster than Democrats on criminal justice issues.

    • ycnz@lemmy.nz
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      2 hours ago

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

  • orcrist@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    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.

    • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      “Some Americans” is still a generalization. Generalizations are extremely useful. We cannot function without them. Perhaps you mean to say, don’t over-generalize.

  • badbrainstorm@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Many Americans don’t like either party at this point. Thus the low voter turnout and apathy. Many vote Democrat as the lesser of two evils. Though, the goalpost keep getting pushed to the right, to the point that Democratic party is well right of center. I understand the apathy at this point. But I wish that people understood that if we want things to come back to the left, then we’re going to have to vote overwhelmingly Democratic for a while. And not just every four years. Everybody whines the Democrats don’t get anything done when they’re elected. But they generally only have two years of majority in the house, Senate, because they can’t be bothered to vote every two years…