Summary
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned Donald Trump and Elon Musk at a packed Arizona rally, accusing them of harming working-class Americans and promoting oligarchy.
Sanders denounced corporate CEOs as “major criminals” exploiting workers, while Ocasio-Cortez called for stronger Democratic leadership.
Rallygoers urged Ocasio-Cortez to challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer after he supported a Republican funding bill.
The rally, part of Sanders’ “Stop Oligarchy” tour, follows criticism of the Democratic Party’s weak response to Trump’s agenda and features further events in Colorado and Arizona.
I love how Trumps gets some of these folks all riled up and by just acting normally.
Lol, caring about anything but money and power is so cringe, amirite? Imagine caring about libraries, museums, and people living their final years in dignity. Couldn’t be me.
They don’t like being screwed like you do. What has that man done to make your life better?
Jesus, if Trump’s behavior is normal to you, you must have a lot of childhood trauma to unpack. I’m so sorry for whatever you went through. Have you considered therapy?
TBF normal for tmurp is refusing rental applications from people based on race and making unsolicited unwelcome physical advances on women while claiming to be a victim of descrimination.
This is that usual gaslighting rhetoric from the right. Someone reminded of the Sartre quote about anti-semites recently. It’s so applicable to how the right twists facts and makes absurd over-generalizations. It’s the epitome of acting in bad faith.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
AOC 2028
AOC 2025
Fr let’s go. We cant wait until 2028. AOC president and Bernie vice president (or something like that)? Would be a dream come true…
Ehh Bernie is getting too old. He needs to clone himself.
I agree. That’s why I was thinking vice, but 100% we need so many more people like him 😭
I wish there were more Bernies.
This is some actual leadership looks like. It’s not something that commes around every 4 years around election time trying to triangulate a voting block.
No it’s not. They’re not trying to build a third party or engage in electoral reform.
Save your praise until they actually win some victories. Marches and rallies are a good start, but they don’t necessarily translate into political action. Remember the women’s marches in 2017? The largest single day protest in American history and it did exactly two things: jack and shit. People went out, waved signs, went home, and Trump flipped three court seats and ended Roe.
Bernie in particular has always been great at turning out a crowd, but he’s never been able to turn that into political or legislative victories.
Ok so 4 years from now, when the major complaint has been gathering support only happens during election time…
Right. Now is the right time to start.
But it’s too soon to tell if that effort will accomplish anything, because the effort has to be sustained through 2026 and 2028.
And the people showing up waving signs have to become politically active - not just showing up and going home, but writing their congresspeople and boycotting companies and knocking on doors to get out the vote and so on and so forth. Bernie and AOC can stump all they want. If they don’t inspire people to act it means nothing.
The Democrats need a grassroots movement - as angry and passionate and hopeful as the Tea Party was - not just speeches by celebrity pols. It’s too early to tell if liberal citizen voters will accept their responsibility to build that movement.
Drop the quotation marks. They’re quite literally screwing us over.
I really hope this “AOC takes over the Democratic Party and saves America” arc has a happy ending
She’s a young, outspoken woman of color. Old white people would never let it happen, even if half are in a nursing home mainlining Fox News straight into their frontal cortex and can barely walk on their own.
A lot of folk are still recovering from Obama being elected twice.
At least Bernie looks familiar to them, so the hatred will be tampered.
I unfortunately have to agree with you. With how the Harris election results went, i don’t think people are ready for a woman president, let alone a brown one. The median American is too stupid, racist, and sexist.
Maybe, people also didn’t want a neolib candidate who had no populist appeal. She didn’t acknowledge legitimate grievances of the voters. The Democrat party should’ve held primaries, but they just put Harris in at the end. There’s many factors beyond sexism.
I think this is not the right conclusion to draw from Harris and Clinton lost to Trump. They were both right-center Dems with lots of anti-left positions. Clinton voted to attack Iraq even though we all knew there were no WMDs and had been a polarizing figure for decades, she was not a good candidate. Neither was Harris, she was corporate, didn’t condemn the genocide in Israel, and courted the Cheney vote. That isn’t how to get the left to turn out. Neither had a good platform. Mitt Romney lost and so did John McCain and John Kerry I don’t hear anyone condemning Mormons or veterans being losing classes of candidates.
A principled woman who isn’t a corporate shill or pro-genocide is completely different. Our system is broken, pretending a little adjusting of the regulations or pretending the other side is acting in good faith and being gracious is clearly a losing strategy.
Sad but true. DNC thought they had it in the bag with Kamala to the Hispanic group. Did they? Nope! A lot of voters didn’t want a female leader. Mexico is doing better than US currently when comes to leadership and voters.
Actually the groups that swung the election for Trump were young men (HUGE swing), and immigrants (despite voting against their own interests and pulling the ladder up behind them for future immigration).
Senior men were more likely to vote for Kamala than young men.
Not really. There wasn’t a huge swing of people switching from Democrats or independents to vote for Trump. Those target groups just decided not to vote. In other words, it’s not like more people are relating to Trump’s messages, but it’s people not relating with either’s message and feeling apathetic. This is why Trump bashing isn’t helping. There needs to be genuine improvement of the Democratic party itself.
Traditional democrats swung huge for Trump. Young men, immigrants, working class. Even many groups who didn’t vote said that they would have voted for Trump if voting was a requirement. If voting had been mandatory, Trump would have won the popular vote by even more.
It was a blowout on almost every level. Young women, particularly college-educated young women, are the only group who swung left this past election. Make of that what you will.
Show me the data.
Trump received less than 300k more votes in 2024 than in 2020. That is less than 1% increase. Adjusted for the voting population, he actually received less votes in 2024 than 2020.
Harris received about 10 MILLION less votes in 2024 than Biden in 2020, about a 13% decrease.
Sure, when you look at percentages, it seems like there was a swing, but that’s just not true. The data shows every year, Republicans vote for Republicans, but Democrats do not vote at all when they don’t fully support their leader (not even for a third party).
The exact same thing happened with Obama, but inverse. There were historically high increase in voter turnout because the constituents actually supported him.
Data shows that increase in voter turnout correlates with Blue wins. That’s not debatable.
We gotta figure out how to De-Tate people
Immigrants did still vote for Kamala as a majority (55%).
I wasn’t aware of the massive jump Trump had achieved with young men. Looks like it was especially true with young white men, with nearly two thirds voting for Trump. Less than 30% of young men from other racial demographics voted for Trump with the exception of Latinos (45%).
Overall the biggest jumps were with Latinos and young white men but he saw an increase in nearly of every demographic except older white people with whom he has historically had majority support.
The powers and process screwed over Bernie in 2016. It would have unquestionably been a clear victory over orange circus clown. He would have been one of the greatest leaders in the 21st century. Now he’s too old, even though the fire is still in him. But we do know now that America hates women, especially of colour, for leaders. AOC wouldn’t have a chance until a huge social upheaval to change such attitudes and core hatred has occurred, possibly the Civil War 2/WW3.
Just like how past world wars created the world we live in today. Before WW1, before men of all social classes bled together in the trenches of Europe it was quite a different attitude regarding the rights of people and classes compared to after the event. The schools of fascism and communism was very enticing to populations after such a wanton and colossal loss of life by poor leadership on the battlefields.
Clinton and Harris didn’t lose because they were women. They lost because their campaigns were broken.
Harris was sabotaged by Biden trying to cling to power despite not being fit for the job anymore and Clinton thought she had such a guaranteed win she didn’t even bother to try to counter her image as the career politician that was everything wrong with government at the time. They would have both still lost even if they were old rich white men.
And, before you say it, Biden only won because of the pandemic. If people hadn’t been dying in droves at the time, we would have already finished with Trump’s second term by now.
a sanders/occasio-cortez ticket would work, and basically be a coronation for her, if we can do enough work to still have elections in four years.
I truly love Bernie but I am pretty sure he’d tell you himself he’s too old now, and even if not, MANY voters would have reasonable concerns. I like a Walz-Ocasio-Cortez ticket to get her in then a pres run after that though.
again, the point isn’t that he makes it. the point is that you expect him to die in office.
that said; there won’t be elections unless we do actual politics, and at that point, we will have either moved appropriately far to the left that we have better choices for leadership structure, or habituated ourselves to the smell of the crematoriums.
I think AOC is awesome and I think she’d do great work as like pres/vp, but I like that she’s a representative too. She keeps the focus on congress and does a good job of showing people that it’s not just the president that matters. I’d totally vote for her if she ran for president/vp but I also would like it if she just became a congressional leader (like official minority leader or leader of a new party) for actual progressives in congress. I don’t know if that all made sense, but basically I’m trying to say that people don’t have to keep aiming higher. She does and can continue to do good work in congress and that’s just as important as presidential work
honey, congress doesn’t matter. unitary executive is pretty clearly the thing they’re all running with.
I know that congress is useless, but it’s not supposed to be. That’s why I like AOC being a prominent house rep and why I think it’d be great if we could primary out these old “democrats” (that just vote with the republicans half the time anyways) and elect progressives like AOC so that congress will actually work for the people and be a check on the executive power so that we don’t have any more presidents like this in the future… if we have a future
and I know windows is horrible to use, but it’s not SUPPOSED to be.
I still use arch.
AOC was in the fucking CIA. so maybe grain of salt. I’m ready for her to pull an obama. if you’re old enough to remember him before he was president.
fuck the dems. fuck primaries. fuck that party forever. fuck them. never forgive. it’s not like there’s gonna be real elections again, anyway. anonymous says even this latest one was bullshit, and I already low key believed that. please stop clinging to your lib shit fantasies.
we are so far past ‘progressives’ and gentle adjustments. the world is on fire, and we’ve been letting it burn for decades. we have a deep infection of fascism. if you want life on earth to survive, we need radical shit. you will not get that by voting.
im not saying don’t vote. im saying you won’t get another chance. i’m saying it’s too late to fix stuff like that. I’m saying maybe carter was your last real shot at fixing things by voting for gentle mild changes.
As if the screwing started 2 months ago and not 200 years ago
Yes, but you can see why it’s particularly relevant to bring up now. It has intensified significantly.
I gave him a ‘russian’ tag at some point so I doubt he cares.
Is everything that you disagree with Russian? You know you don’t have to answer that because That’s the typical response
I disagree with a lot in this world which isn’t Russian. I also don’t disagree with every Russian. Not pussy riot. Not Navalny, oh wait, he was murdered by putin…
Your username, I’m assuming, refers to the Russian empire in decay? Or are you a Putin supporter or apologist?
Nah, just seeing the .ml in your name says enough.
This is the duo we need
They really need to start their own party. The dems are dead.
Make Bernie Minority Leader already PETITION: https://www.change.org/p/bernie-sanders-for-senate-minority-leader
I was there. It was awesome seeing so many people. I prefer Mutualism over Democratic Socialism, but like AOC said there, “no matter if you disagree with me on a few things, if you are willing to fight for someone you don’t know, you are welcome here.”
I’ve even been telling my friend group that now’s not the year to criticize tankies so long as they’re fighting fascists
I’ll oppose authoritarianism no matter what the flavor is.
Been watching an Infographics Show video on YouTube about Mao Tse Tung’s horrible consequences, but the thing was that he resembled Trump MUCH MORE than he did Bernie.
Sure, and absolutely, but like, threat assessment
I wish you Americans would deal with this crap before I end up getting drafted to defend my country from the orange porcine dementia patient.
Face it. Your blaming dirt farming peasants that John the bastard is going to crusade your lands.
There’s literally nothing we can do about it besides die as well in most cases.
The British empire was brought to its knees by normal patriots to form the country you’re making excuses not to defend. Coward.
That is such a gross and fundamental misunderstanding of the Revolutionary War it’s almost comical. Probably most important to note is that the Revolution was bankrolled by U.S. oligarchs, and we received a lot of help.
I’m not saying they didn’t have help. I’m saying you have to start it yourselves! No one is going to swoop in and save you. YOU have to do it! Only then will you start getting others to join.
If you tell yourself you’re powerless, then you are. You sit there doing nothing while making excuses for it.
YOU ARE NOT POWERLESS. Together you are strong. Get up and act like it.
I know it sounds fun to believe that friendship or togetherness can topple a nation that’s willing to drone strike its own citizens, but the truth is that the game is so heavily rigged in the U.S. that we have a lot of needs. We need guns, we need intelligence, and we need enough peer to peer outreach to actually organize. Without third-party assistance, it’s pretty hard to go beyond the local protesting we’ve already been doing.
Everyone likes to fantasize about Jan 6th without realizing there were big financial groups working on outreach, organization, and supporting travel to the capital to make that happen. There is no money for the left in the U.S. You really want to yell at us, at least donate to organizations like Indivisible first.
Hey man, whatever you need to tell yourself to feel good about doing nothing.
That sounds like Russian propaganda.
While not that untrue, it’s a pretty bleak interpretation of history.
You could argue the founding fathers were oligarchs but remember… they toppled a monarchy. Doesn’t get more autocratic than that.
You could also imagine some “oligarchs” could see that they benefit from a more equal society.
At the end of the day, the founding fathers clearly support rebellion. Say what you will about them but they were not hypocrites. From the Declaration of Independence:
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it”
Rebellion is your duty.
our reality is pretty bleak lol
Say what you will about them but they were not hypocrites
Sorry, you’re saying the people who were committed to making a Land of the Free that excluded blacks and women weren’t hypocrites? The Founding Fathers are some of the biggest fucking hypocrites of all time.
The only thing they hated is that they couldn’t be the British aristocracy. They absolutely were oligarchs and the vast, vast majority did not due it out of noble reasons. They did it because they wanted more profits.
The Founding Fathers are some of the biggest fucking hypocrites of all time.
Slavery abolitionist and Founding Father Thomas Paine would agree with you. He literally called Washington a hypocrite (and incompetent) in an open letter.
One of the few “Founding Fathers” that I tend to like.
Okay sure. Just ignore the main point I was making. Sounds like a thing a coward would do. Have fun living under tyranny.
Your point is based on fundamentally flawed information. You can make the argument that Americans should engage in revolution! But I would point the example towards the great work of unions during the Industrial Revolution, rather than pointing to one of the many times the U.S. rose up to blindly support their oligarchs.
Land of the Free that excluded blacks and women
As well as the indigenous and non-landowners.
U.S. oligarchs HATE competition. They conned the rubes of 1776 to fight the British monarchy so they could have a monopoly on graft in the colonies, the U.S. finally got pulled kicking and screaming into WW1 and WW2 because they hated the competition from Germany et al, and not out of any love for Europe. The support for Hitler among the U.S. ruling class was high and well documented, including Prescott Bush.
So instead of fighting now you’re just going to allow yourself to get drafted later? How is that in any way preferable
What do you suggest Americans do? Say someone is a working class American who didn’t vote for Trump. They can barely make ends meet and have no power or political sway. What does that person do? I’m not trying to be funny, I’m simply interested in your take and perspective as a non-American.
If you have any spare time, even half an hour here or there, go to protests. Connect with like-minded folks.
And while we’re at it, why don’t people in China have the freedom to speak out against their government and not have censorship? Maybe if they all just got together in a big public square and really protested, I bet that would end really well.
China never really had functioning democracy to begin with, so this comparison doesn’t really apply. The point is to rise up before it gets as bad as in China.
Also thought of mentioning Hong Kong. Might be an even better example actually.
I mean, if they all did it, it absolutely would make shit happen
The whole issue stems from most people wanting to just keep their heads down
(The parent commenter was making a Tiananmen Square Massacre reference.)
I am aware
I saw something recently that was talking about how individualism has led us to this situation. Everyone is thinking what they can do. We lost our collectivist spirit. We don’t think about what we can do.
An individual has essentially no power. A group does. We need to get better at organizing. This is made hard because we are so separated from each other, driving individually to work, then back home, largely to houses where you don’t interact with anyone else. We have basically no third places anymore where you’d typically organize. This situation was designed, and it’s going to be hard to get out of, but we need to get better at forming groups and organizing.
This situation was designed, and it’s going to be hard to get out of, but we need to get better at forming groups and organizing.
Nothing can be fixed until it’s understood to be a problem, and AOC from her stump speeches and emails seems to at least recognize the problem you’re pointing that American systems are essentially “massively scaled up isolation from others”.
Rugged individualism has failed us. It’s going to take a reclamation of collectivism to fix our problems.
Great point. I’d argue that an extension of individualism is consumption.
What was the majority positive response to Luigi? Consumption.
People asked where to buy stickers and T-shirts. T-shirts.
They are powerless if everyone stops giving them power
The country is nothing without its workers
Of 10-20% of the population actively protested and actively tried to halt any functioning of society, you’d be surprised at how much you could get done. A that large mass of people is absolutely hell to control and subdue, and they certainly cannot arrest even a significant fraction of them. If the threat of protests of that scale were real every time they tried some fuckery, they would give in very quickly
The problem is that almost everyone thinks like you say, “what am I to do? I’m powerless”, and give up before even trying
I’d love leaderless movements to have a better track record than they do, but the reality is that I think they fail much more often than they succeed in this country.
People can’t just quit their jobs and occupy wall street forever.
I am aware it’s difficult, but my point was that you aren’t powerless
As an unconnected individual with a middling net worth, you are powerless in this system. Whole movements of people are powerless. The only way this could possibly work is with the numbers and probably a leader organizing it.
What are you talking about? We modernize what our forefathers did. Open a cryptowallet and ask France for help. The organizing is there if you are looking.
What do you suggest Americans do?
You’d know more than someone outside of the US.
we are less free to say it than someone outside of the US
I never said I was American. I asked a hypothetical question. I was interested in a non-American’s thoughts.
People in numbers have ALL the power. I know Americans have been trained for defeatism, but look at what protest, resistance, and strikes can do overseas.
American here. Our boys are nearly draft age. This shit is terrifying.
So what are you going to do about it? Because up here right now I personally am having to do shit like teach my parents and wife how to shoot guns, having to hoard canned goods and encourage others to do the same, having to comfort my elderly grandmother who is scared as shit about this and letting her know I have plans to protect her in the event of an American invasion. Because of your country. And I’m really fucking angry about it.
Quit bitching and do something about it. Do more.
EXACTLY
I’m also Canadian and I am also mad. I’m buying a gun and learning to shoot it. I’m working on custom fpv drones in my free time. I’m using my chemistry degree to com up with potential explosives. This is not me. I wanted to have a life heavy involved in tech l, but I can’t do that anymore.
So many children have been sacrificed for their second amendment rights and now just silence. Absolutely disgusting.
The destruction of teslas is pretty much the Boston tea party part 2 electric boogaloo. Seems like most people would let the British fuck them up forever if they were alive back then.
Seriously. Americans are all up about their fucking gun rights to prevent government tyranny and look at what’s happening.
Preach brother (or sister). I’m 100% with you.
On the bright side, they’ve got lots of guns and ammo for us to ‘liberate’ from them if they ever decide to invade us… I’m planning on making Che Guevara proud, lol
I’m a trans woman living in Texas. How do you think I feel? No one’s having a good time right now, buddy. I fully anticipate that I will be dead or in a concentration camp within one or two years because, as of right now, I have no way to escape and I’m still working on trying to find groups to organize with.
As far as I’m concerned, my days are numbered.
I have no future.
At least there’s a chance that they’ll get distracted by some shiny new thing and won’t invade Canada.
No one’s having a good time right now.
Seriously. One of the most conservative old guys at my running club yesterday said, and I quote, “someone needs to kill Donald Trump and Elon Musk.” And I live in Alberta.
We are absolutely done with the US’s bullshit up here guys. Fucking do something. If one more of you cowards tries to tell me you’re going to vote harder in the primaries or some other stupid limp dick excuse, I swear to god man. Our lives and sovereignty are being threatened here. For the love of god do something actually useful for once in your lives.
buddy if its such an issue for you no ones stopping you from driving down and doing whatever it is you expect others to do for you yourself
I am preparing, in my country. Fix your own damn bullshit because it is bleeding into me and my loved ones and countrymen’s lives and livelihoods.
easy cop out good job
lol fucking coward.
making edge art and complaining on lemmy doesnt make you brave, you do that because you’re scared
hi im dilroop gill btw crucifix bit less of a coward than you are
Honestly, fuck off. Most of us didn’t want this shit. Stop victim blaming.
Honestly, fuck you. You don’t understand what it is to be threatened with invasion from the greatest military power of all time.
Lol you aren’t getting invaded. Relax.
How’s that “Trump is just saying stuff, he wouldn’t actually do that” attitude working out for you so far?
Except our country did. He won the popular vote and those who stayed home meant they were fine with him winning.
Just don’t comfort these assholes when they finally regret their decision.
Americans hoard guns like crazy and then act like elections are the be all end all of political reform. It’s idiotic and disgusting.
Right wingers hoard guns. I have been saying for a solid fucking decade that if the left isn’t armed we’re helpless. There’s the SRA and JBGC, but a major part of the democratic platform has been “we’re gonna take your guns” since before I was born. I might go out in a blaze of glory if the brownshirts bring war to my doorstep, but I’m not picking a suicidal fight on my own.
ETA: and yes, the Democrats aren’t left wing. But they are the leftmost viable party we have. And they have been anti-gun for decades. Which means they tend to not own guns and they tend to not organize militias.
You never see right wingers saying shit like this. They are willing to do shit to further their political leaning without any plan for self preservation, and that’s why they are winning with this weird opinion that most people don’t share.
But here you are telling me to go attack the US government. They won because they have billions of dollars backing them and their rivals are ineffectual, not because they are crazy.
Then “most of you” should have done something about it.
Fucking exactly.
I hear you, brother. I’m in Alberta too, but never been interested in guns; I’m waiting for my PAL to be approved as we speak. My parents and in-laws are terrified and upset about their grandkids potential futures. I’m talking to them daily to try to calm them down. We’re angry all the time, and now filling with anxiety about the upcoming election, because we all see the lies and bullshit tied to money, power, and ignorance starting…
Good luck, it’s been 280 days since I put in for my renewal and it’s still apparently only passes the initial review. Called about 4 times now, no help at all. Maybe the AB CFO will be a bit better for time.
A lot of my Albertan coworkers are still reciting the conservative propaganda and sound bites. There really is no hope for them as they are willingly obtuse…
I’ve got a friend in Quebec that told me that they’d “wish Trump would hurry up already and make Canada the 51st state.” I also know a Canadian trucker that joined the line during that trucker protest over…whatever it was they thought they were protesting.
I was in Düsseldorf recently and met a UK resident (fluent in German) who was nuts for Musk.
It’s a problem that has spread to many other countries. In fact, I’d argue that right wing populism is all part of the same swing and it’s only the most cartoonishly evil in America.
Yeah I mean there’s lots of people who are still just chronically stupid.
canada is working on divesting from buying american made items.
Our meat prices locally dropped way down since the tariff bullshit. I’ve been saying we need to get away from tying our food markets to the US for like a decade, nice to see that I was right for once.
You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after every other option has been exhausted first.
Churchill, wasn’t it?
I swear to god man.
You swear to do what? What are you gonna do about it if we don’t get rid of Trump? If we don’t engage in large-scale riots and die so Canadians are safe? How about YOU do something? The best way to deal with an aggressive neighbor (geopolitically speaking) is invading them to enact regime change or just genocide the people there. Go on. Do it. Put your money where your mouth is and start walking across that border with a weapon in your hand. Once you win you can impose whatever government you want here.
That’s the problem with “Someone should kill Trump and Elon Musk”. The “Someone” part, which translates to “anybody but me I just want to continue being lazy and comfortable”.
I’m glad you somehow still managed to blame people in OTHER COUNTRIES for YOUR mistake.
Yeah pretty classic US attitude.
How the Fuck is an Albertan supposed to slice YOUR countries problems!? Lmfao. YOU do something! YOURE the American
Just the dumbest take ever.
If it comes down to that then I’m sure me and some of my fellow Americans will rebel and put the 2nd amendment to the test.
Why is this news to anyone? He has been screwing over working class people since his casino days. His great business plan was “don’t pay any contractors until they sue me in court”.
What a surprise he is doing the same now starting with government employees.
Im tired of these rallies. What is the point? So poor Bernie can be ignored some more?
Have some balls and declare intent to secede. Civil War this bullshit. Only civil war can hurry up and get the clown out of the president seat.
If you want civil war so bad then what are you doing sitting around all day on the internet?
Please flip the bird to the Democrats and run for president
ok that’s cool and all but what are they actually doing?
They’ve clearly demonstrated they have enough influence to draw a crowd. Plenty of activists dream of that kind of audience. Hopefully they did more than just state the obvious… mobilize them towards non-electoral action!
I’m sharing the petition to get Bernie the Senate Minority position: https://www.change.org/p/bernie-sanders-for-senate-minority-leader
Dems are turning on Schumer, the moment is ripe to insert Bernie into leadership.
Rallying and engaging people in these states is absolutely crucial to any further strategy. There is nothing they can truly do to fight without tons of popular support. They are trying to reach some of the 90 million people who didn’t care enough to vote last year, to ask them to start caring.
It’s honestly the very best thing they can use their platform to do right now.
There is nothing they can truly do to fight without tons of popular support.
That’s true, absolutely, but also there’s only so much hype can do without actions alongside to make people feel empowered. Plenty of people go to protests, then realize they’ve just stood around chanting and feel like nothing was accomplished, especially after a few times in a row. So while rallying and gaining popularity is necessary, it’s not sufficient.
On the other hand, using those crowds to accomplish actions, even minor and safe, shows to participants that this is a group and a strategy that can accomplish things.
What would you suggest they do?
I would suggest they survey their target audience (when they’re in Arizona, ask Arizonans), see what they need the Dems to help with, and then see if they can use their power to help with it.
I know that’s vague, but one of the worst things I could do is arrogantly pretend I know the most important struggles of local working people. Sure, I could just guess, and some of those guesses may be right - perhaps establishing community aid organizations to reduce the impact of financial strain, creating or supporting rent/tenancy unions to help address housing crises, and labor struggles like union industrial action efforts to create better working conditions and reduce injury and death in the workplace, throwing their weight behind existing protests. But if something else is more important to a region (perhaps a local group able to solve a local problem is underfunded or needs an expert to assist), and a political party recognizes and addresses it, that is empowering to the citizens and helps build enthusiastic support for the party, rather than just seeing them as ineffective distant rich people.
The thing is, they DO already know the struggles of the working people. Of course they do surveys, data analysis.
The problem is that people don’t believe them. Their brainwashing forces them to automatically reject our message, even though our policies poll well across the board – when they are divorced from the messenger. Attach the name AOC to the idea universal basic income, suddenly it’s communism.
The outreach they are doing is some of the most important work we can do right now. The middle class must become convinced that these people are in fact committed to their well-being before they can be mobilized by them.
When AOC/Bernie have an “army”, like Trump does – people who will trust and believe them enough to show up when and where they ask them to, to fight for what we all believe in – THEN they can start taking very direct and meaningful action.
Think about what we are up against – money, law, and military. The only way we push through all that is with huge populist support.
We need more of this. Mad respect to ACO and Bernie for standing with us and telling truth about this administration.
