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Gen Z Won’t Save Us
(slate.com)
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this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2024
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politics
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No, Gen Z just isn’t conservative enough to settle for Dems. Put up a progressive, and they’ll show up.
doubt it will work as well as you think
Whatever the Dems do, even if it move their platform to the furthest left in the known universe most moral puritans on the left will just lable them mainstream, or corpo shills and find a reason to stay home. Regardless of policy position or idea, the far left has always moved the goalposts between each election cycle just out of reach of the main stream.
When they refused to vote for Gore because of climate change the party moved to the left to meet those voters, and the left said fuck off. When they moved to left to get voters that refused Hillary because of corporate speaking gigs the party moved further left on corporate accountability, and the left said fuck off. When Biden moved left during his term to protect the environment, hold predatory schools and lending servicers accountable, attempted loan forgiveness, expanded overtime guarantees, etc etc etc. the left said fuck off to his predecessor. The people who claim the left will just show up if you give them x are big fat liars. Their perceived moral purity will always be more valuable to them than progress and action.
And I say this as someone that is further to the left than the party. I am also profoundly disappointed in the parties lack of moral courage. I just believe in practical progress and action, something most self righteous moral puritans absolutely don't believe in.
No. The party has never moved left beyond their rhetoric. Their actual policies keep moving right. For example, even as their climate rhetoric went left, they still broke records on fossil fuel extraction, waived environmental protections to build Trump’s wall faster, and tried to ban imports of green tech.
The real sticking point is war. The party refuses to move left enough to be anti-war, because they are beholden to defense contractors. And Americans are so sick of war, they’ll vote for anyone they believe might de-escalate.
100% of the USA relies on fossil fuels. Dems have always done both in the last 2 decades, focus on energy independence (which means meeting the present need) and on preparing for the future (clean energy alternatives). And they weren't trying to ban green tech, they were trying to stop spyware from entering the country from china. Yes Biden blew it on the wall.
It's the real sticking point now. As soon as the party shifts their policy stance there will be others, that's my point.
People on the left have no clue how policy is made, how party platforms change, how minds are changed. If you want a seat at the table you actually have to take it. That means showing up and joining, going to meetings, voting on policy platforms, holding your nose and voting for your team and then pressuring you side to do what you want. It means saying "hey, if you take a moral stand on this, I'll back you up in the next election."
But that's not the way of self righteousness and moral purity, the lefts smug moral purists would rather torch the world than work with people. They say "thank for taking a stand on this, but it will never be good enough, kindly go fuck yourself". The party doesn't move left, because the left is far far too self righteous to ever actually work with anyone that doesn't pass their purity test. People like that don't actually believe in democracy, in consensus building, it's their way or the highway.
I agree the party needs to move left, but people that actually want to govern on the left need to meet them there.
I understand that’s what you want to happen. That you think the left should hold their nose, and compromise on the horrors of the empire to get a seat at the table.
But as this election has shown, that’s not going to happen. So it’s not the left that needs to hold their nose to get a seat at the table. It’s now the party that needs to swallow their pride, and acquiesce to the left, or they’ll continue to lose their seat at the table.
You're missing my point. I am much further left than the party on most issues. I too wish for the party to move left. It won't move left by left wing people disappearing, that behavior only serves to move the party right. The party needs 50% of the vote plus one, if you don't show up to vote, they will get it from the moderate right next cycle. Every time you fail to be part of the solution you make the problem much worse.
Alternatively, people can get engaged with the party now, while we have time to take over. The party is made up of it's members. If those members shift heavily left, so will the platform. You don't win the game by refusing to play, you win the game by becoming the team.
But that's the opposite of what is happening. Instead each time the party fails to gain enough power to enact left wing policy and instead is forced to concede to the middle they get punished and they have no choice but to move towards the votes.
We are repeatedly doing exactly what the right wing wants. Stay fractured and disorganized, and we all lose, forever.