this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
269 points (90.4% liked)

politics

19170 readers
5628 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This article is about progressives changing the Democratic parties objectives/policies and does give examples.

Between 2009 and 2020, many left-wing Democrats agitated for their party to embrace a “full employment” macroeconomic policy. AOC was among them. Then, when the COVID crisis hit, Democrats did as these progressives advised.

...

In 2020, congressional Democrats insisted on increasing unemployment benefits to a level that left many laid-off workers with more income than they’d previously earned at their jobs. Under Biden, meanwhile, Democrats enacted a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill on a party-line vote. The party’s decision to pursue stimulus on this scale — after Congress had already appropriated trillions of dollars in relief spending — was explicitly motivated by the left’s critique of Obama. As New York Times reported in 2021:

...

Since Occupy Wall Street, the American left has made student debt forgiveness one of its core policy demands. The Biden administration has taken extraordinary measures to answer that call. The president has successfully canceled a record $116.6 billion in forgiveness for 3.4 million borrowers. He has also attempted to unilaterally cancel at least $10,000 of student debt for virtually every U.S. borrower.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

“The left has won a lot more than “nothing” from engaging with the Democratic Party.”

That’s straight from the article. Progressives are democrats. Leftists are not democrats and don’t work with liberals.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, using your terminology, progressives have sure gotten a hell of a lot more left wing policy implemented than leftists, so...

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Could that be because the left has been suppressed for the last 100 years and their leaders were jailed or killed by the state? And now here come the pro-corporation pro-war liberals telling us how left they are.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

How do you intend to come back from those 100 years if you just insult and attack your closest left wing allies?

Edit: Okay Lemmy's working again, it cut me off earlier.

I think strikes are ineffective and we need nationalization of some industries instead. I'm no bootlicker. I'm just someone who likes to see and get results. By constantly eschewing your natural allies and rejecting them with purity tests, all you've done is extend 10 years since Eugene Debs was imprisoned to 100 years since. And all the while, left wing ideas have been implemented by others.

The others may not be left enough to your taste, nor the policies adequately left enough, but if we're measuring actual progress, they've done more for left wing causes. There may be good reasons why, but it doesn't change that fact.

Working solo has not been remotely successful for leftists at all. Unless they want to make it 150 years where they've done nothing, they need to work with allies.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Liberals are not and have never been allied with leftists. In what world are you living? They’re fundamentally opposed to one another. You should read some books. Books written by leftists, not liberals.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was moreso thinking progressives and leftists. At the end of the day, a US liberal is still much closer politically to a leftist than they are to a US conservative. That's doubly true for the leftist.

The leftist wing isn't strong politically in the US. They've gone down their path on their own, and it hasn't been successful. I'm a progressive, and I'd like to see an alliance that strengthens the left and progressives and mainstream Democrats. We're natural cousins compared to what Republicans have become. We'll do a lot better sticking together, and if we do, there's the possibility we diminish Republicans enough that we could split ourselves, and have the two major parties be Democrats/Progressives and Progressives/Leftists. This is the path that gets the most left wing policies implemented.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Again, I urge you to read leftist literature. Leftists will NEVER achieve anything under a neoliberal capitalist society through voting. It is not possible. That’s why leftists don’t vote. And until “progressives” or whomever understand fundamentally what leftists want and how it can be achieved, there’s not really any point having a dialogue with them. You want us to shut up and get in line to vote dem. And then what happens? The rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the bombs keep dropping. Harm is not reduced, it just shifts somewhere else.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

If your supposition that "Leftists will NEVER achieve anything under a neoliberal capital society" (neoliberal capitalist is redundant btw) were true then we wouldn't have Social Security or the EPA, both of which were passed during Republican administrations but at a time when the progressive wing had influence.

The other commenter is correct that leftists have virtually no power in the U.S. The Democratic party has never been a left-wing, labor-dominated party; they've mediated between business and labor. Things have changed for the worse in American politics. International competition (and greed) has made business owners ruthless, the civil rights movement of the 60s led to a half-century white backlash against the federal government, and then Christian fundamentalists captured the Republican Party. The progressive wing of the Democratic party has been forced into a mostly defensive position.

You're free to not vote of course, but I do think sitting idly by while your country slips into Christofascism because the progressives aren't left enough for you is foolish. There are only two boxes left if you're ruling out the ballot box, and I'd wager most aren't ready to use one of those. Theory is great but realpolitik is how the world is shaped comrade, allies help.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

What exactly do you suggest then, if not voting?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Leftists are not democrats and don’t work with liberals.

This is false. Not all leftists are Democrats but some are and/or vote for them and do work with them.