I've endorsed voting five times already in this thread and yet I still get the same response. It's like Americans think civil engagement begins and ends at voting. Ironically, the point of this post is to call that very line of thinking into question.

The enduring ideology of the political establishment is the promotion and protection of the ruling class' interests--invariably at the expense of the working class. Both parties serve the same master, and because there are only two, the voters don't have much say in the matter. Progressives, like Bernie, who call out the billionaire donors are the exception to the rule. (More on him later.)

Seen from the leftist perspective, the overlap in the Venn Diagram is a consistent commitment from our politicians to put profits over people. It is why both George Bush and Barack Obama bailed out Wall Street (to give just one example of corporate welfare). It is why SCOTUS declared corporations "people" and campaign donations "free speech". It's why the U.S. has engaged in neo-imperialism over the land, labour, natural resources, and markets of developing nations. It's why the CIA assassinated democratically elected leaders in South America and Asia. It's why we've had decades of stock market growth while wages continue to stagnate. This is not accidental: the system is working as intended.

If Bernie had been elected in 2016 the outcome for the DNC would likely have been just as dramatic. If you want the Democratic party to be a leftist party, go make it one. We’ve literally seen a major party pushed to fascism. You know know change is possible.

I wrote this in another comment but I'll reiterate here. Bernie did not get a fair chance at the presidency. The DNC limited the number of debates (not allowing their favourite to be taken to task), they gave Hillary debate questions ahead of time, gave Trump/Clinton all the media coverage, etc. It is damn near impossible to succeed as a third-party candidate (sorry, Jill Stein) so a self-proclaimed socialist has to run as a Democrat and play by their rule book. And they don't even have to play by their own rules! (Court Concedes DNC Had the Right to Rig Primaries Against Sanders.) When AOC runs, they'll do the same thing and then she will spend her time in Congress backing establishment democrats. Please realize that the political elite would much rather shift to the right than to the left. The far left-wing actually threatens the profits of the wealthy.

You could make the same argument about any third party candidate, which would ignore their tremendous disadvantage in our current system. The DNC tilted support in Clinton's favour from the beginning:

• Court Concedes DNC Had the Right to Rig Primaries Against Sanders
• WikiLeaks emails showing Clinton received debate questions ahead of time

Also, consider Obama. Obama did get more votes than Hillary. Obama had a majority in Congress. Obama literally ran on hope and change. And yet he continued in the same problematic behaviours. Government bailouts for the rich, drone strikes, holding prisoners in Guantanamo Bay for years without due process, persecuting whistleblowers, the list goes on.

Even when we find "better candidates" they either work for the system or fail to change it.

I've already agreed that we should vote. But it's not enough.

Progressive ideas have effectively been taken off the table since the Cold War. Even if we can get more progressives in Congress, the establishment dems sideline them. It's easier for both parties to move to the right because this does not threaten the wealth and privileges of the oligarchy.

Any progressive running for president is, for that reason, fighting against the odds. And when they lose, they take the energy behind their campaign and redirect it to support "centrist" democrats. That's it, two political parties and we call ourselves a democracy.

Let me guess: Democrats are completely innocent in our present state of this affairs, right? If we just get more Democrats in all three branches of government, they will fix all our problems. Is that it?

I don't blame you: I used to think the same. But what does it take to see this is a bipartisan problem? We have President Biden and Bernie Sanders both warning about the oligarchy, and you people think they're just talking about Republicans. For fucks sake...

At least you have more than two options. We literally cannot vote against anything that two political parties agree on. What's more, anti-establishment forces like Bernie Sanders and AOC are either sidelined or used to redirect voter dissatisfaction into votes for establishment candidates. So while I agree with the need to effect change locally, its doubtful that we can enact meaningful change at the federal level.

This also applies to Biden. So many leftists held their nose for Biden due to his progressive promises and in order to "usher in" a new generation of progressives afterwards.