EDIT: AOC is doing what the unions wanted her to do.
https://hexbear.net/post/236928/comment/3033122
DISCLAIMER: Before you jump on me, the below post is to show how much of a dead end electoral politics is. You cannot vote in socialism.
But you should still vote in socialists. The more, the better. Building up the organisations needed to actually bring in socialism is much easier under a more left-adjacent government.
AOC and the other progressive Democrats did not vote for the anti-strike legislation because they’re liberals or hate workers or anything. Their vote was necessary to pass the 7 paid sick days bill. That was the agreement between the progressive and conservative Democrats.
But this nuance is fucking lost on people here. When you play the electoral game, you have to compromise. Every elected official will do so. AOC, Bernie Sanders etc. are not betraying the working class when they support such bills. They’re doing the best they can.
But it’s as if the people here don’t want the best. They just want empty gestures. And when people like AOC do the smart thing that would at least benefit some people, they act as if AOC is the same as Nancy Pelosi.
Guess who wants you to believe that? Guess who benefits from that? The Republicans. It’s grifters like Jimmy Dore and Infrared and Glenn Greenwald that push this rhetoric all to drive more leftists to either apathy or direct support for people like Tucker Carlson and DeSantis who are the “true” populists.
The vote passed by like over a hundred votes. The handful of progressive congresspersons couldn’t have stopped it. But what they could do, was get the other bill with the paid sick leave passed in exchange for a vote that was already going to pass. I mean, it’s like people are forgetting that the latter vote barely passed. Almost no Republican voted for it.
Why? Because the Republicans hate the working class more than the Democrats.
Please don’t forget that.
TLDR: AOC, even if it doesn’t seem like it at times, is better than most Democrats and all Republicans. A Congress and Senate filled with people like AOC will be exponentially more conducive to implementing socialism than any other. It will still not bring in socialism. Socialism can only be achieved by a revolution. But creating the conditions and the organisations and the class consciousness necessary for that revolution, is easier under a social democratic government than any other.
@LiberalSocialist you make some very valid points in this thread (although I did not have the wherewithal to read all 370 comments and counting). Overall I think you're correct but I do think it's important to criticise AOC and the rest of "The Squad" when they do reactionary shit like voting in support of funding neo-nazis in Ukraine (which AOC did), supplying weapons to Israel's apartheid state (which AOC also did) or, in this case, voting to legislate the railworkers back to work against their will without supporting their full demands.
She didn't have to vote for the strike-breaking bill (and it would have passed anyway), and the 7 days of paid sick leave is half of what the unions have demanded, so she's only doing some of what the unions have asked her to do.
I do agree, though, that it's important to vote in socialists whenever possible. We have no choice but to work with what we have for now, and constantly build and demand better and more.
AOC is probably not an actual socialist (as many in this thread will be quick to point out) but there's no denying that she has done a huge part in shifting the overton window substantially to the left in American politics.
Thanks for your comment. These thread so quickly go out of hand, so I don’t fault you for not reading every comment.
I’m 100% for criticising AOC and other progressive politicians. But it has to be measured and appropriate.
It cannot be done in such a way that boosts the countless politicians who are so much worse. And the criticism has to be aimed at improving the situation, whether by pushing progressive politicians to the left, or by creating/boosting left orgs and platforms etc.
The moderate and right wings of capitalism want to take down the left flank (progressive politicians) and we have to be wary of that and prevent that.
Tends to happen when you reply with the same comments to every single commenter