Opinion | Despite Everything, Bernie Sanders Still Believes
www.nytimes.com
The senator from Vermont explains why the left still has a fighting chance.

“Sometimes people say, you know, you’re 78, all that stuff, and you’ve been doing this for a long time — But should I be quitting now? When you look out and you talk to these beautiful, beautiful young people who want to move this country forward in such a decent, humane way, it really does inspire me. And to the degree that I have gotten those folks involved in the political process, yeah, I am very proud of that. I don’t know that I’ve ever done anything in my life more important than that.”

    • volkvulture [none/use name]
      12·
      4 years ago

      vague carrot&stick promises of social democratic reform in the imperial core is not the promised land imo... not unless you're Strasserite I guess

        • volkvulture [none/use name]
          6·
          4 years ago

          damn, i guess we should all pat Bernie on the back again for endorsing Joe Biden!

          That's cummunism !

                • volkvulture [none/use name]
                  3·
                  4 years ago

                  social democrats have sold out the far-left and communists almost every time throughout history.

                  they want to maintain bourgeois standards of living while going through the performative ritual of addressing class disparity.

                  it is not for nothing that places like Norway & Finland & Denmark found it so easy to transition from being collaborationist quisling states to the "Nordic model".

                  Ethnonationalist social welfare with some universal approaches merely preserves these Scandinavian monarchies & ruling classes.

                  • apricotmarmalade [comrade/them]
                    1·
                    4 years ago

                    this is :100-com:% correct. hot take incoming

                    i think there's still a case to be made for using electoral politics as a beacon and for publicity—as a means, not an end. i simply don't think we're going to see meaningful insurrections in the imperial core. as long as we don't go full lib brain and stop thinking about anything else (like those /r/s4p holdouts...) because of this, i think it is sane to support politicians who apply recognize class divisions and apply materialist analysis to some extent. we can connect with sympathetic folks while organizing etc etc.

                    • volkvulture [none/use name]
                      2·
                      4 years ago

                      you're right on the last point, i think.

                      but I also believe that at the end of the day "left unity" and "death to America" are mutually exclusive when it comes to social democracy. not even once.

                      Bernie's angle had class conscious connotations, but was more "MAGA" than anything else.

                      If "recogniz[ing] class divisions and apply[ing] materialist analysis" in Congress just means the occasional :20 second clip of AOC roasting some old rich CEO or Trump fall guy on CSPAN, then I'm not sure we're going to get anywhere through these "means".