591

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22940159

Bernie Sanders caused a stir last week, when the independent senator from Vermont and two-time contender for the Democratic presidential nomination sent a post-election email to his progressive supporters across the country. In it, he argued that the Democrats suffered politically in 2024 at least in part because they ran a campaign that focused on “protecting the status quo and tinkering around the edges.”

In contrast, said Sanders, “Trump and the Republicans campaigned on change and on smashing the existing order.” Yes, he explained, “the ‘change’ that Republicans will bring about will make a bad situation worse, and a society of gross inequality even more unequal, more unjust and more bigoted.”

Despite that the reality of the threat they posed, Trump and the Republicans still won a narrow popular-vote victory for the presidency, along with control of the US House. That result has inspired an intense debate over the future direction not just of the Democratic Party but of the country. And the senator from Vermont is in the thick of it.

In his email, Sanders, a member of the Senate Democratic Caucus who campaigned in states across the country this fall for Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic ticket, asked a blunt question: “Will the Democratic leadership learn the lessons of their defeat and create a party that stands with the working class and is prepared to take on the enormously powerful special interests that dominate our economy, our media and our political life?”

His answer: “Highly unlikely. They are much too wedded to the billionaires and corporate interests that fund their campaigns.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago

Change that to take over the Democratic party and you got a good idea.

First past the post kills third parties mathematically.

[-] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I mean, running as a progressive within the Democratic Party already means you have to fight both parties. You have to fight the Democratic Party during the primaries, and you have to fight Republicans if Democrats somehow fail to keep you from winning the primaries. If you do win the primaries, you cannot count on the support of the Democratic Party in the general, as they prefer the Republican to beat you so they can run a centrist next time.

[-] ClassStruggle@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 month ago

Then people need to abandon the DNC and form another option. Reform from within is fantasy, the current power structure will never allow anything that's a threat to their existence

[-] lengau@midwest.social 2 points 1 month ago

How do you plan to avoid the problem of abandoning the DNC causing Republicans, who are worse than Democrats, from gaining unmitigated power while said other party is gaining momentum?

[-] ClassStruggle@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

Republicans are only worse in their rhetoric. They will openly declare their intent, then do it. Democrats omit the declaring part.

Protecting the status quo prolongs everyone's suffering

[-] lengau@midwest.social 2 points 1 month ago

Only one of the two major parties helped ensure that a good friend of mine had legal access to lifesaving healthcare recently, and it wasn't Republicans. Pretending one party isn't worse isn't productive. How are you going to approach the spoiler effect, or do you simply not care about all the death and suffering that will result from strategy that doesn't tackle the spoiler effect?

[-] ClassStruggle@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The spoiler is running right wing candidates posing as liberal. Both times the DNC has done that we got trump.

[-] lengau@midwest.social -1 points 1 month ago

Words have meanings. If you don't want to answer the question because you're embarrassed of the fact that you care for political purity over the lives of others, that's on you.

[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

They're just here to cosplay as revolutionaries. They don't give a fuck about the people who actually suffer under these regimes.

[-] ClassStruggle@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

The only thing that is embarrassing is liberals thinking their candidates are progressive

[-] lengau@midwest.social -2 points 4 weeks ago

Nice non sequitur. Thanks for confirming what I wrote.

[-] Revan343@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Republicans are demonstrably worse than Democrats. Neither care about the poor, but one of them actively tries to kill queer folk, many of whom are good friends of mine, so fuck those Republican assholes.

The Democrat assholes at least aren't directly targeting the people I care about, it's just collateral.

[-] ClassStruggle@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 month ago

Democrats kill them via social murder, which is a direct act of violence against all marginalized communities. Liberals claim they support trans using the restroom of choice, but don't care if they live on the streets to make that decision.

[-] Revan343@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 weeks ago

Republicans kill them directly

[-] ClassStruggle@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 weeks ago

There's an option for no murder

[-] Anomaline@lemmy.world -2 points 1 month ago

Yeah, me getting to use the bathroom is just a rhetorical distraction in the end.

Go back to your hole, .ml troll

[-] ClassStruggle@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago

They care nothing about you

[-] Shardikprime@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

That already has happened. What else you have to lose

[-] lengau@midwest.social 1 points 1 month ago

Right now I live in a state with a Democratic governor, a Democratic state senate, and a Democratic majority on the state supreme court. And these three things are preventing major catastrophes here. So no, this has not already happened, and what I have to lose here is quite literally my life.

[-] Shardikprime@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago

Then you have nothing to worry about, you've got yours, moving on then

[-] lengau@midwest.social 1 points 1 month ago

If the Republican party regains power in my state, my life is in danger. Even if I were so selfish as to only care about having "got mine," that non-sequitur would still be irrelevant.

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world -3 points 1 month ago

"you can't blame the voter! The DNC is at fault for not changing"

-- literally any 3rd party lemming after the election


"Then people need to abandon the DNC and form another option."

-- literally any 3rd party lemming after the election


so which is it? can we blame the voters or can't we?

[-] Jentu@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

If the voters are too apathetic to what the DNC is offering, the thought of abandoning them for something that is much more popular isn't a contradictory prospect. Having an enthusiasm problem so big that trump was able to be elected twice kinda points to the fact that people want something else.

[-] Shardikprime@lemmy.world -4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Only if it helps to the narrative, if not, no

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Dan Osborne ran competitively in a neglected Nebraska Senate race. It's very common for Dems to entirely neglect seats, even whole states, and let winnable races languish.

Sanders candidates can (and did) win races like this in 2018 and 2020. The problem is that once a seat is "winnable", lobbyists state money bombing primaries. Then you get shitty corporate Dems pushing leftists out and promptly losing those seats again.

this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2024
591 points (97.7% liked)

politics

19246 readers
2813 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 2 years ago
MODERATORS