I think it's been overall pretty good but what is everyone else's thoughts?

  • LeninWeave [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    There was no "electoral left", in any case. Bernie was barely left of center on domestic issues, and 2 degrees from a moderate neocon on foreign issues. There's plenty of hope for America and the American left, especially once those spoils of empire start drying up in a multipolar world.

    • CentristMarxist [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I agree. There's still hope for the American Left and the Worldwide Left. One defeat means nothing. We just need to pick up the pieces and continue our work.

    • Straight_Depth [they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      You are correct the Bernie was barely left of center. But in a nation as rabidly fascist as the US, he may as well have been Ho Chi Minh. The multipolar world we so long for doesn't represent hope for the American left so much as for the International, global south left, and if anything, is a return to the cold war-era status quo, marred as it was with constant proxy wars, coups, interventions and economic strangulation of states that represent an alternative to the US and neoliberalism. So, no real change from today, except now the empire, slighted in its extremely fragile ego, has no choice but to pursue the most aggressive possible policy to have its way in a dying planet ravaged by climate disasters.

      • CrimsonSage [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        The global south needs help from those in the imperial core, who can help, to help in any way they help. Just expecting the most exploited people in the world to carry the revolution alone seems like a bad strategy.

          • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
            ·
            3 years ago

            I don’t think that most people in contemporary America actually do have the economic or social power to be able to make meaningful moves against our own Imperial State.

            What do you define as "meaningful"? Something that threatens to overthrow the State, or something that weakens the State? If the latter is meaningful then I'd say there's a lot that run-of-the-mill people can do.

              • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
                ·
                3 years ago

                being against something, but benefitting from it. Basically the American proleriat is comprised due to benefitting from Imperialism.

                Those who benefit from imperialism are almost exclusively the capitalist class. Transnational profits pay out the shareholders first and then pay out the grunts when pigs fly. The working class in America benefit from imperialism very indirectly, if ever. Plus, this has to be considered against the workers' own exploitation, where it's hard to say if they have any net benefit. Nor are they in control of imperialism; they are controlled by capital which may then use them to justify imperial ventures.

                A Mao-style land reform would do more for the average American than any amount of military or legalistic plunder. I would reach to say that freeing the working class from their expensive dependencies and scams that the market floods them with would also be a superior improvement.

                At the very least we shouldn't divide the working class; we should look for a solution that is broadly applicable (with minor tweaks) around the world.

          • CrimsonSage [any]
            ·
            3 years ago

            You largely aren't wrong but we still gotta do what we can comrade, gotta keep pushing the boulder up the hill.