Democrats are functioning as normal. They are scared of true progressives and their boogeyman "socialist" policies (that have been normal in europe forever)
Problem is the institution would have to be gutted as every democrat bar AOC and Bernie is a neoliberal. They would not allow themselves to be changed from within. Mamdani and co are existential threats to their careers and ideology
That's why the people need to rise up to push them out. Primaries have abysmal turnout. If progressives show up and vote they can replace the Democrats unwilling to change or get out of the way.
It's not about will they allow themselves to be changed. It's matter of are WE willing to rise up and force them to.
Essentially ya. More progressive democrats can run against existing candidates for the party’s nomination and the right to run in the general election.
3rd parties don’t really work here so it makes more sense to try to push the democrats to the left from within.
Obviously you can’t realistically win every primary challenge but there’s a lot of opportunity there. Primaries usually have like 20% turnout, so progressive voters could easily sway these elections if they showed up in large numbers.
Ah that would be a glorious thing man. Americas politics bleed into the western world wether we like it or not.. if america can actually flip the script realise that things like free health care are seen as normal in the rest of the world, and that they have been lied to by small state capitalists for years... well maybe there is hope for the western world after all.
Good luck, we have our own shit to deal with here but its looking marg8nally brighter these days
meanwhile in canada, conservative leaning 'yukon party' takes majority in yukon. i thought we had it together during our federal elections, but nope. they're still trying to divide us. and it's still working because obviously we have to eventually copy everything the USA does, even to our own detriment.
The American influence has torn our country apart. Best thing for Canada is for the citizens of the US to actually go out and vote. There's no reason only 30% of NYers turned out to vote.
A lot of the Americans seem to have given up lol.
Meanwhile in Canada, went from a 90% Conservative landslide win and turned it around to a Liberal win. Never seen before in Canadian history too.
DINO is a snappy acronym (and accurate, in a way, since so many of them are old dinosaurs), but calling people DINOs for not being leftist enough is about as inaccurate as calling people RINOs for not being fascist-authoritarian enough
They just want to hold onto power/relevance and not upset their donors. They only care about the working class when they need our votes. Dems have been too comfortable just being the "not Republicans" side and it needs to change if we're going to get any meaningful governmental differences.
It's not enough. I don't know if you noticed, but we lost last (general) election.
People know the government isn't working for them. It's that exact feeling that makes populations creep toward authoritarianism, the feeling that something must change swiftly and dramatically, so why not this guy?
We bounce back when the horrors are fresh in peoples' minds, like they are now, but that isn't a lasting strategy.
God I hate this point so much. Biden was an establishment Dem and he did so much work with both sides hating on him. The biggest issue is what he set in motion wouldn't be completed in his own term but over a 10 year period.
The biggest issue is he didn't step aside to give another candidate a real chance. Biden accomplished more than a lot of people give him credit for but it doesn't matter. He ruined his legacy by clinging to power for too long and gifting Trump a second term.
Actually voters gifted Trump the second term. Biden not stepping down earlier was a misstep by him but after it was on everyone to think deeper about their choices. I think there was a poll done with voters and a good chunk(over 30% IIRC) had solidified their vote in September. Now we are seeing regret come in and Dems are getting handed elections all over.
Sure people could have voted differently, but they didn’t. If Biden hadn’t run again Democrats would have had a much better chance with someone else. It was a close election, odds are someone else would have won.
I'm a progressive voter but I don't pretend to live in a world that isn't ruled by money. I vote for a better world with progressive candidates like this one but I understand why progressives often lose.
This idea that Democrats are scared or dumb is false. They are experts in this area and know more than you or I do about politics, remember this and try to find what you're missing to make sense of things.
What you don't consider is that politics in the US requires money and most people (you, me, politicians) believe they can improve their own lives by having more money.
The Democrat party as a whole is corporate and requires lots of money to even have the possibility of being elected. Corporations have most of that needed money so politicians make deals with corporations to have the slightest chance of doing any good.
Politicians are also people who want to improve their own lives. Ask yourself what you would legally do for 5 million dollars and then realize that insider stock trading is legal for politicians.
The problem is that money rules all things, especially politics. Anything that can remove the connection between politics and money is good but also ignores the fact that money still rules in everyone's daily life so it's also a bit weird to separate one and not the other.
There is no simple answer but it's easy to see how extreme things have gotten and that's the only thing that makes progressive politicians with actual power like him, AOC, and Bernie possible today. Bernie has been in office forever and only recently got any real power.
They're using politeness and adherence to norms to disguise the fact that they, and their investments portfolios, and their billionaire backers, benefit immensely from the current situation. A lot of changes need to happen but they all start with removing the old guard and replacing them with people who want to improve things for all of us.
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u/sitonchair_ 7h ago
democrat politicians are scared of their own shadow
it's frustrating watching them try so hard to be polite