this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago

ACA has no public option because of Lieberman. Now maybe if he had been primaried and another more progressive Dem taken his place, then we'd have a public option by now. Instead we've continued with concessions to insurance. But yes- it is MARKEDLY better than what was there before despite all the warts.

Debt cancellation was done by Biden who did everything he could. Now maybe if the Dems had more than a slight majority in the Senate full of (yes, Lieberman like) Sinema and Manchin, they could've done something through Congress.

Biggest climate change bill ever PERIOD. And yes, he approved oil drilling and put tariffs on Chinese EVs. Part of politics. People do want clean solutions but do not want 1) American jobs to vanish due to Chinese subsidization of their entire EV industry overwhelming American auto jobs and 2) ...no real excuse for the oil drilling. Other than people would bitch about even more inflation had he not.

In each of these cases you'll notice a common refrain- the Democrats DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH POWER to enact the things you're talking about. They are not "token" gestures- they're what can get done with what they had. WV put Manchin there but what did the rest of America do? They put only 51 Democrats next to him (including a turncoat in Sinema.) If they didn't need those two votes at all then maybe they couldn't nuke the biggest portion of these bills. Maybe if the American people gave a shit then things would get done.

People seem to think I'm arguing for Democrats or something. I'm not really. I'm arguing for ACTION. Now if you wanna delude yourself and make a "Socialism NOW" party of progressive politics that by first glance turns off 70% of the voting population, go ahead. I'm telling you as a former 3rd party voter when I was a pie in the sky idealist that it's just not gonna happen. What can happen though is turning the Democratic party back to what it needs to be- a populist-ish party that actually seriously helps Americans. If you froze a Republican in 2000 they would probably not recognize the party in 2025 given how the tea party zealots and bigots and grifters have taken it over (even from a dismal 2000 outlook.)

So maybe if progressives and leftists and all those people stopped endlessly fighting amongst themselves and banded together, they could primary and move the party left. Or maybe if they turned out EVERY ELECTION and convinced everyone else to do so, the Democrats wouldn't have to unfuck the previous 4 years of Republican destruction. Or maybe progressive policies just aren't as popular as people think (and one could argue that people in general are too dumb to realize it.)

You gotta train the dog. You can't wait for the dog (the Dems) to do what you want by abstaining from voting or "punishing" them by letting them lose. Witness how the Republican party mirrors their devouts' most fervent desires vs....the Dems.