this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2024
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22241305

Jessica Corbett
Nov 06, 2024

"While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change," said the Vermont Independent. "And they're right."

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[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

Unfortunately, Bernie fought tooth and nail for this status quo over the last 4 years. I agree with the sentiment, the Dems have to go, but Bernie is acting as a sheepdog.

[–] 5C5C5C@programming.dev 11 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

Or he's a pragmatist who is concerned with both harm reduction and the likely reality that the only takeaway that Democrats will ever have from losing an election to someone right wing is that Democrats need to go even further to the right to win.

If leftists give the impression that nothing will ever be good enough for them then

  1. Democrats have no incentive to court the left
  2. Democrats have no estimate for how many votes they would even be able to pick up from the left relative to how far left they might try to reach

I personally believe that if the Democrats had taken on a progressive populist anti-genocide platform they would have won the election handsomely, but I am left with no way to empirically prove that to anyone because so many leftists opt out of voting entirely.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

It's not pragmatic to lose, for what it's worth. We know that reform is impossible, and Bernie likely knows too. You're correct that had the Democrats run on a progressive anti-genocide Social Democratic platform, they would have won, but that's not what their donors want and need.

Marxism is vindicated by the passage of time.

[–] BurningRiver 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Are the donors really going to stick around if the Dems get plastered every election (if there is another one) and never win anything? One of three things will happen, to wit.

  1. nothing changes and the Democratic Party is toothless, useless and abandoned.
  2. The working populace starts a new leftist party and the Democratic Party is dead.
  3. the DNC pushes further left and wins back some votes

I think #3 is the least likely to happen. Although in the near future I think it doesn’t matter at all, because we’ve sunk into the mid to late 1930’s Germany. I hope our allies in Europe is prepared to move forward without our support.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

Their donors keep donating so they stay a right-wing party, they would rather the Dems lose as right wingers than win as more progressive.

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