The Democrats are the most left-wing option that is realistically available to American voters.
The Democrats can be pushed further left if American progressives work to do so.
The Democrats - at the party level - will resist such a change, but that resistance can still be overcome.
In the long term, massive structural overhauls and the downfall of capitalism are the only things that will save America and the world
In the near term, voting consistly and enthusiastically for the least bad option can still protect vulnerable groups from harm and create changes that lay the groundwork for those structural overhauls.
The funny thing about this is that if it were possible to reform the democratic party, it would only be through demanding change, and credibly threatening defection if those demands are not met. By setting conditions and giving those conditions teeth. What you’re suggesting is just asking nicely for people to act directly contrary to their material interests and hoping for the best. It’s complete nonsense.
Also lol at “enthusiastically voting.” Yes, it’s very important that you not only bend the knee to your corporate masters completely unconditionally, but that you do so with a smile on your face. You can trust me, I’m a leftist just like you, see how I say all the language about needing the downfall of capitalism?
That is their entire point. Two party system means that they can take up all space for opposition to Republicans while making their policies bipartisan.
The Democratic party is entirely built to fight any leftward movement, it isn’t just that the progressives didn’t try. They have been trying for 80 years. It is that the entire party is structured and designed to fight that. That is the actual reason Trump could come from the outside and completely reshape the Republicans, but the Dems can form rank and resist Bernie and the progressives.
The Democrats have shown overwhelmingly and repeatedly that they would rather lose to Republicans than move at all to the left.
Then primary the bad actors and reform the Democrat party.
This is your option. There is no other option than violent revolution and I can assure you from spending my entire life in this country that modern Americans don’t have it in them.
If conservatives can morph the Republican party into the traitorous entity it is now, then liberals can reform the Democrat party to move more to the left.
History proves party reformation is possible, and inevitable.
Depends on what you’re talking about, but usually it either means they are in the global south, or have otherwise had a longer history of working class organization or proximity to socialist countries. Not by voting.
Point 3 is wrong. The working classes in the States are already increasingly left, while the DNC is increasingly rightward. The DNC doesn’t care about what voters want, but what their donors need. That’s why it’s critical to engage with parties like PSL.
While those are technically true, they are inconseuqential at best, plain wrong at worst.
Yes, the dems could be pushed left a little over a long time in theory. But practice has shown that this is not achievable since all other material circumstances are against it.
The “least bad” option is a communist party, absolutely not the dems.
Voting is not going to help half as many people than going to the next soup kitchen or neighborhood meetup and organize there.
I hate these soc dem apology posts. Biden has blood on his hands up to his shoulders.
I think we’re showing mixed results on your third bullet. It did seem that way, for a while, as we pushed on social issues. And when it came time to get on with the economic issues, the core management team of the party rallied, and rather than adopt the left flank to win, steps right to hand control to Republicans.
And it’s happened more than once now, to obvious and clear effect: the goal of the Democratic party isn’t to win elections, it’s to keep the country idealogically aligned with a neoliberal ruling class. And if that means handing control of government to Republicans, they’ll do so, then blame the left (even though it’s them moving to the right losing elections).
To the fourth bullet, no, it’s not clear that within the machinations of the party infrastructure it can be overcome. Because if not now, when? Party leadership has never been weaker or more vulnerable nor the times more desperate. Democrats as a party poll worse than Trump, yet progressives can win elections with both the entire Republican and Democratic apparatus gunning to take them down. yet somehow we can’t replace Schumer’s or Jefferies.
Skipping to the 6th point, again, that isn’t actually borne out by the evidence. It’s not something well know in advance and only as an artifact of history. What’s been extremely clearly is that so far, voting has been wildly insufficient to make the kinds of structural changes necessary. Obama is the classic example of this. He runs on healthcare, holding wallstreet accountable, and ending the wars; he delivers corporate “access”, bails out the banks, and continues the wars. The voters did their job and the system didn’t work.
So a relentless optimism that the system will just work as intended doesn’t seem warranted, and it’s clearly not going in a good direction.
Until we recognize that the Democratic party, it at least it’s current and historical structure is at the core of the problem with why we can’t advance political change, its pretty clear that this decent into autocracy, fascism, and a degraded quality of life is inevitable. The Democratic party isn’t just part of the problem: it’s the core element of the problem.
The following can all be true:
The funny thing about this is that if it were possible to reform the democratic party, it would only be through demanding change, and credibly threatening defection if those demands are not met. By setting conditions and giving those conditions teeth. What you’re suggesting is just asking nicely for people to act directly contrary to their material interests and hoping for the best. It’s complete nonsense.
Also lol at “enthusiastically voting.” Yes, it’s very important that you not only bend the knee to your corporate masters completely unconditionally, but that you do so with a smile on your face. You can trust me, I’m a leftist just like you, see how I say all the language about needing the downfall of capitalism?
That is their entire point. Two party system means that they can take up all space for opposition to Republicans while making their policies bipartisan.
The Democratic party is entirely built to fight any leftward movement, it isn’t just that the progressives didn’t try. They have been trying for 80 years. It is that the entire party is structured and designed to fight that. That is the actual reason Trump could come from the outside and completely reshape the Republicans, but the Dems can form rank and resist Bernie and the progressives.
The Democrats have shown overwhelmingly and repeatedly that they would rather lose to Republicans than move at all to the left.
Then primary the bad actors and reform the Democrat party.
This is your option. There is no other option than violent revolution and I can assure you from spending my entire life in this country that modern Americans don’t have it in them.
If conservatives can morph the Republican party into the traitorous entity it is now, then liberals can reform the Democrat party to move more to the left.
History proves party reformation is possible, and inevitable.
Liberals will never move left cause they’re pro-capitalism.
It’s not for liberals to move the democratic party left, it’s for everybody that wants the democratic party to change to do so.
Then explain why the entire planet is capitalist and yet other countries have FAR more left leaning parties.
The Democrat party can be moved left if liberal voters make it happen.
Depends on what you’re talking about, but usually it either means they are in the global south, or have otherwise had a longer history of working class organization or proximity to socialist countries. Not by voting.
Point 3 is wrong. The working classes in the States are already increasingly left, while the DNC is increasingly rightward. The DNC doesn’t care about what voters want, but what their donors need. That’s why it’s critical to engage with parties like PSL.
While those are technically true, they are inconseuqential at best, plain wrong at worst.
Yes, the dems could be pushed left a little over a long time in theory. But practice has shown that this is not achievable since all other material circumstances are against it.
The “least bad” option is a communist party, absolutely not the dems.
Voting is not going to help half as many people than going to the next soup kitchen or neighborhood meetup and organize there.
I hate these soc dem apology posts. Biden has blood on his hands up to his shoulders.
I think we’re showing mixed results on your third bullet. It did seem that way, for a while, as we pushed on social issues. And when it came time to get on with the economic issues, the core management team of the party rallied, and rather than adopt the left flank to win, steps right to hand control to Republicans.
And it’s happened more than once now, to obvious and clear effect: the goal of the Democratic party isn’t to win elections, it’s to keep the country idealogically aligned with a neoliberal ruling class. And if that means handing control of government to Republicans, they’ll do so, then blame the left (even though it’s them moving to the right losing elections).
To the fourth bullet, no, it’s not clear that within the machinations of the party infrastructure it can be overcome. Because if not now, when? Party leadership has never been weaker or more vulnerable nor the times more desperate. Democrats as a party poll worse than Trump, yet progressives can win elections with both the entire Republican and Democratic apparatus gunning to take them down. yet somehow we can’t replace Schumer’s or Jefferies.
Skipping to the 6th point, again, that isn’t actually borne out by the evidence. It’s not something well know in advance and only as an artifact of history. What’s been extremely clearly is that so far, voting has been wildly insufficient to make the kinds of structural changes necessary. Obama is the classic example of this. He runs on healthcare, holding wallstreet accountable, and ending the wars; he delivers corporate “access”, bails out the banks, and continues the wars. The voters did their job and the system didn’t work.
So a relentless optimism that the system will just work as intended doesn’t seem warranted, and it’s clearly not going in a good direction.
Until we recognize that the Democratic party, it at least it’s current and historical structure is at the core of the problem with why we can’t advance political change, its pretty clear that this decent into autocracy, fascism, and a degraded quality of life is inevitable. The Democratic party isn’t just part of the problem: it’s the core element of the problem.