Yup. Democratic leadership would rather trump win than run a left-facing campaign and candidate. What’s the definition of insanity?
Yea but they won’t court the “left”(what little of a left exists in America) because the DNC doesn’t want leftist or even center-left policies, they like and want center-right policies that republicans 30 years ago pushed.
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Centrism can win in places that aren’t America. Too many Republicans are being fed propaganda all day long by Fox “News”…an organization that has argued in court that no one should take them seriously. But that’s where they get their news. They’re also indoctrinated by their religious upbringing from Evangelicals. There is no such thing as a moderate Republican anymore. They have shown that they will vote every time for the Republican candidate regardless of how flawed they are. Trump is a convicted felon that tried to overthrow the government, has been found in a court to be a rapist, was best friends with Jeffrey Epstein, has had numerous failed businesses and bankruptcies, has denigrated our troops. NONE OF IT MATTERS. Stop trying to appeal to the right and actually get your voting base excited about the policies you want to push.
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There is no center in the US. If you’re okay voting for Donald Trump, you are not in the center. That’s entirely the point.
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Keir won because the UK, like the US, has First Pass The Post and the Even More Far Right Party - Reform - divided the votes on the Far Right hence the Tories came second in lots of electoral circles were they usually come first.
Also I’ve lived all over Europe including the UK and New Labour is plain Right, not Center-Right - they only seem center by comparison with the Tories who migrated to the Far-Right during the Leave Referendum and subsequent Johnson Government.
Similarly by comparison with most of Europe (not the UK) the US is a country with only a plain Right (maybe even hard) and a Far-Right.
Curiously, both New Labour and the Democrat Party support the ethno-Fascist regime in Israel, something which I feel neatly underlines my point as from what I see elsewhere in Europe (with the notable exception of Germany) no Leftwing party supports them.
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America’s far left is just normal shit.
“Hey how about everybody gets food and can see the doctor”
“How about suck my dick and be my slave”
“Whoa whoa you two, let’s be civil. Especially you, first guy 😠”
Too scared of the spooky communism👻👻
A spectre is haunting the United States 👻
America’s left is what you describe as the far-left, but the far-left is much the same as it is everywhere else, Marxists and Anarchists. The far-left is relatively consistent internationally because its built on centuries of theory and practice.
America’s democratic party is much further right than any left leaning European party. Yet, even in the countries where those are or have been in power, the scary communist vision American propaganda promoted never materialized. People’s lives got just a little better as a whole in most cases. American capitalism is a cancer just as much as communism is an unattainable utopia. The answer, as in most cases, lies in the middle, but that’s something the American electorate really struggles to grasp.
First of all, I absolutely agree that the Democrats are a right-wing party, and the center-right European Social Democracies generally have higher living standards for most people than in America. However, I believe you have overlooked what I believe are critical factors, and you can correct me if I’m wrong here:
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The Social Safety Nets in these Social Democracies are shrinking in most cases
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Most of the Value consumed in these Social Democracies, the grear, vast majority, comes from countries in the Global South paid far less than the Value created for the Global North, meaning they depend on Imperialism
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Disparity continues to rise as Capitalism continues to centralize into fewer and fewer larger and larger Monopolist syndicates, the trend is still towards instability
The reason they haven’t “turned to Communism” is because they have never wanted to, they have been fundamentaly structured around Capitalism as the dominant Mode of Production and rely on Imperialism to subsidize their cost of living.
The reason America is different is because it is the global Hegemonic power. The “World Police.” Why is it that the US outspends the rest of the world on the military? So it can project soft power all around the world, securing unequal trade deals with the wealthy Capitalist classes in the Global South. The world trades in US dollars, which the US fights to maintain because it profits from that. This internally causes hyper-disparity between the wealthy and the poor in America.
Finally, I want to ask why you say Communism is an “unattainable utopia.” Marxists have thus far been proven correct in their thesis that markets trend towards centralization through competition over time, and that as firms get larger they begin to develop infrastructure for their own internalized planning. The concept of a fully publicly owned, centrally planned economy is built up by Capitalism itself. That’s without speaking to the fact that there are already Socialist states working towards said goal of full public ownership and central planning.
Why do you say the answer is a “middle ground?” What does this look like?
Honestly… I’m not sure at this point. I was somewhat nihilistic before, but these past few years have brought that sentiment to a whole new level for me…
The main limiting factor towards a true communist utopia is one: we’re human. As such, we are unfortunately individualistic by nature, and it’s been proven time and time again that the accumulation of wealth and power only strengthens that sentiment in the vast majority of the population. Under these constraints, I don’t see a path to fully public, decentralized governance and economic equality, someone will always attempt to centralize both.
What can be done is increase regulations, break up monopolies, put on safety guards and ensure better redistribution, and use, of wealth by increasing taxes to the ruling class. So basically yeah, some form of democratic socialism.
But then again, since decisions are made by the ruling class, that is unlikely to happen, it’s not in their best interest.
And as we’ve seen this time around, you just can’t beat stupidity. All the good intentions and overwhelming proof in the world won’t do you any good if people are unwilling to listen. Oftentimes, even the highly educated are unwilling to listen, what chance do you have with the average person?
I’ll address what you said in a moment, but I really do think you should read theory. If nihilism is overtaking you, in my opinion that means you have likely not properly analyzed our conditions, nor how to fix them. I keep an “introduction to Marxist theory” reading list I can link if you want.
First, no Communist is “Utopian.” Utopianism refers to the strategy of trying to figure out the right formula and directly create it, rather than analyzing existing structures and where they are headed. Communists analyze Capitalism and advocate for Socialism because Capitalism creates the conditions for Socicalism naturally, over time, by forming monopolies that can be folded into the public sector and centrally planned.
Secondly, you are making a critical misunderstanding of Communism. Communism is fully publicly owned and centrally planned. This is the entire purpose of public ownership, once you have public ownership you can plan things centrally, along democratic lines.
Thirdly, human values and thinking is guided by their social relations and material conditions. In Capitalism, a highly individualistic system filled with competition, these values are expressed at greater levels among Capital Owners. However, as it centralizes, the working class becomes more associated, and communal values are expressed at greater levels. This process has been reflected throughout all of history, from the tight-knit family structure of Feudalism to the modern era, the Mode of Production has formed the Base of society, and influenced the laws, culture, art, and so forth forming the Superstructure that reinforces the base, in a cycle that continues to evolve over time as one Mode of Production slowly leads to the next.
As per your “Democratic Socialism,” you are describing “Social Democracy.” There is nothing Socialist about what you described, a Capitalist state with large safety nets is Capitalist regardless. As such, you retain the inherent unsustainability of Capitalism and the further rising disparity it contains, until it is eventually overthrown and Socialism is achieved.
Regarding people’s receptions to ideas, this gets back to the Base and Superstructure argument. As the Base shifts over time, people become accepting of new ideas and values. Focusing on literacy and organizing are the best ways to increase social awareness of systemic issues, and figuring out how to solve them.
I maintain that you should read theory. I can offer a reading list, or answer any questions you might have. I don’t think it’s fair for you to denounce Communism as impossible if you haven’t engaged with the literature enough to fully understand what it even is, or how Communists want to achieve it and why they believe it not only to be possible, but necessary.
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That’s intentional. A conscious decision made by the DNC.
They don’t want to give up their share of rich donors and insider trading privileges.
Exactly. In bourgeois “democracy” political parties serve the wealthy Capitalists and Imperialists that can afford to buy them. Socialism is the only path to actual democracy.
Looked at the dem votes for the last few elections and it looked consistent except for biden. Who somehow got way more than normal.
2008 69 mil 2012 65 mil 2016 65 mil 2020 81 mil 2024 66 mil
The Biden campaign offered something, notably student loan forgiveness, but both Clinton and Harris’s campaigns relied on the dumbfuck Pied Piper strategy that they would offer nothing to the voters other than being not-Trump.
That’s a dumb fucking strategy because there are fewer people that will vote Democrat as the lesser evil than will vote Republican just because Republican. They have to court people with policies they actually want.
And the absolute crazy thing is they tried this in 2016 and it failed, yet somehow had the balls to try again when it mattered more.
And the absolute crazy thing is they tried this in 2016 and it failed, yet somehow had the balls to try again when it mattered more.
They could blame 2016 on Hillary, not on the “I’m not him” strategy. Go figure that a 20+ year campaign to paint a woman as the literal devil would in fact cause problems for her at the ballot box, right? Who would have guessed except for anyone with a functional frontal cortex?
So many times I saw people on Lemmy saying they weren’t going to vote because of [insert Reason X]
Everytime I told them they should, I was brushed off with some stupid Argument.
Well, I congratulate everyone who did that. You now live in a country headed by someone openly flirting with fascism. I really hope [Reason X] was worth it. And I really hope [Reason X] won’t get worse under Trump (it will). You failed to prevent a fascist from raising to power just so you could virtue-signal.
The democrats shifted right, and yet the fault is still on those that didn’t vote?
yes. yes, it is. Those that didn’t vote failed to stop fascism from rising.
Even if you think that Democrats are too conservative, the alternative you chose and got is Trump.
Also the phrase goes “stop fascism at all costs” not “stop fascism at all costs except when the alternative has shifted a bit to the right (but in no way as far as the fascists we would be trying to stop) and now is too conservative for you”
“Vote for my shitty policies or the other guy will have shittier policies” is not a platform.
The point of a democratic republic is that elected officials enact the policies those who elect them want. If you don’t offer to enact those policies you don’t get elected.
Yes, non-voters were stupid to not vote for the lesser evil, but the Harris campaign violated the very basis of democracy and thought they could simply use Trump to bully people into voting for them.
Imagine a system where a fascist Boogeyman is held up every election and people reliably vote against them without regard for who they vote for. The other party could put up whatever shitty candidate they wanted whether they espouse the views of the population or not.
Not only is that not at all a fucking democracy, it was the documented strategy of the Democratic party! Except it doesn’t fucking work, which they should have learned in 2016.
Imagine a system where a fascist Boogeyman is held up every election and people reliably vote against them without regard for who they vote for. The other party could put up whatever shitty candidate they wanted whether they espouse the views of the population or not.
Except when the other party sees they lose 3/4 elections in a row by putting up fascist boogeymen, they will statistically stop doing that, since it’s a losing strategy. They can only keep doing that because Americans are showing them that they actually like it better than an actual human being.
Israel actually doesn’t matter to most Americans, sad as it is.
That’s about to change.
