this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2024
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United States | News & Politics

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 hours ago

Bernie couldn't win when it was just Democrats deciding amongst themselves.

The Democrats ran Bernie before, during a time that was much more favorable for a progressive candidate. Only then, his name was George McGovern and he got beat like a rented mule.

Progressives need to learn how few people in this country are willing to consider the notion of the possibility of thinking about letting their daughters date a progressive, much less elect one President. It's not enough to be right, if you're fucking stupid about the citizens of this country.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 5 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 41 points 22 hours ago

Yes but then the DNC would not be able to please their donor class. Which is far more important than winning.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

Most likely the DNC would have sabotaged him like Labour sabotaged Jeremy Corbin

[–] [email protected] 4 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Yeah that's the subtext of the headline. Or should be if it isn't the author's intent. This shouldn't be understood as an endorsement of social liberalism, but as a denunciation of the system as a way of obtaining good outcomes.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

He should found a new party based on his moral and ethical values. First, take over Vermont government, after that let's see. He's the only politician I know whou could pull this one in the American scene. He's already independent and representing much more than Vermont.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 21 hours ago (6 children)

We already have like 5 more. Why wouldn't he join greens or communists or peace and freedom or another?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

I don't get it. He seems to understand the dems will never be a working-class party. Why's he still in there instead of an actual socialist org like the PSL or FRSO?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago

Fear for his life, probably. He seems to be popular enough to give those parties a momentum that would make him a target of both the capitalist parties.

Black Panther party members — including its leader — were killed by the FBI. A genuine threat to capitalist rule will naturally have to face these threats.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (3 children)

I'm down, but he's just so old. With his only heir apparent being AOC. People don't like her nearly as much despite basically identical policy proposals. I wonder why?

I've said this before but at this point I think our only hope is the destruction of the Republican party so Democrats are the new conservatives. This way a progressive party could arise.

Or get rid of first past the post voting and the electoral college. But that seems harder somehow.

Or, honestly, this is the end and there is no hope left.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

People don’t like her nearly as much despite basically identical policy proposals. I wonder why?

AOC voted to protect the rail corporations from the union strike.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago

despite basically identical policy proposals

You don't really have this problem when you vote for political parties instead of presidents.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 17 hours ago

This is why he should do it now. It's his ideas the ones founding the party, not him. This is still one right moment, the Democrats are in crisis and the people opposed to Trump feel strayed. Meanwhile, the Republican party is raving on their victory, but we all know Trump will fuck it up as soon as he is in charge the next year, leaving people disenchanted.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 day ago

No, Democratic Party would throw an election rather than move an inch to the left.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The most relevant paragraph imo

Bernie’s coalition was filled with the exact type of voters who are now flocking to Donald Trump: Working class voters of all races, young people, and, critically, the much-derided bros. The top contributors to Bernie’s campaign often held jobs at places like Amazon and Walmart. The unions loved him. And— never forget — he earned the coveted Joe Rogan endorsement that Trump also received the day before the election this year. It turns out, the Bernie-to-Trump pipeline is real! While that has always been used as an epithet to smear Bernie and his movement, with the implication that social democracy is just a cover for or gateway drug to right wing authoritarianism, the truth is that this pipeline speaks to the power and appeal of Bernie’s vision as an effective antidote to Trumpism. When these voters had a choice between Trump and Bernie, they chose Bernie. For many of them now that the choice is between Trump and the dried out husk of neoliberalism, they’re going Trump.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 18 hours ago

Bernie’s coalition was filled with the exact type of voters who are now flocking to Donald Trump... It turns out, the Bernie-to-Trump pipeline is real!

Except this election wasn't decided by voters switching sides, it was decided by something like 16 million Biden voters not showing up for Harris or Trump, who himself lost about 2 million votes from his 2020 total.

For those 16 million who sucked it up and voted for Biden in 2020, the choice this time wasn't Harris or Trump, it was Harris or staying home.

[–] [email protected] 139 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (15 children)

He's right. In a declining capitalist state like the current US, workers want change. In the absence of a genuine working class party that correctly blames capitalism and the capitalist class for a revolution, you get a "radical" capitalist-funded party that at least points the blame at someone — marginalized people.

The dems only offer to preserve the status quo, and no one fucking wants the status quo.

Get organized. Liberal democracies in the imperial core historically always slide to fascism.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago

Even here in Europe where there are genuine left wing parties, where there's proportional representation, where we have mistly functional education, labour class people are voting for folks who blame poor people and immigrants for everything that goes wrong. I think part of the blame is with tabloid style media and social media magnifying formerly fringe opinion. Just saying that having a real alternative for the populist right, might not be enough.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago (2 children)

While it's good to hear him say it now, I'm very annoyed that he didn't attempt to hold Dem feet to the fire while they were in an election, and could have potentially extracted concessions. AFAIK he's also still not calling the Palestinian genocide a genocide.

This is not to take away from the message that the democratic party must be destroyed and replaced with a working class (IE: Communist) party, which is correct, but merely to point out that Bernie himself cannot be trusted to lead it.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (4 children)

It's worth noting that "fascism" specifically is a eurocentric — or even more specifically a 20th century-centric — ideology. You could argue the US has always been "fascist", just that the fascism has been focused on people outside it — the countries it constantly wages wars on. Still a good way to describe the direction declining capitalist states are headed to, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago

Fascism is Capitalism in decay, the violent immune system employed by the Capitalist class. A great work on fascism is Blackshirts and Reds. I can provide a longer Marxism intro reading list if you'd like, but Blackshirts is a great start.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You could argue the US has always been “fascist”, just that the fascism has been focused on people outside it

Hitler was inspired on how to treat the Jews, Romani, disabled, and queers, based on how we treated Native Americans and Black Americans. He saw the country doing so well in the world stage excluding millions from the same status and privilege as the normalized default, and thought it would work for Germany and Europe, by force.

America was founded by rich white oligarchs, it was never going to support anything good without a lot of people letting go unless they died.

EDIT: Sorry if you get double pinged, server had a hiccup as I was posting.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (5 children)

The failure that will forever define Bernie's political legacy will be not turning the energy that was behind him in 2020 into a more permanent movement. He just gave the phone bank and email lists to the Dems and fell in line.

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