If you are a "socialist" operating within the system by participating in electoralism, your job as an elected representative are two fold: heighten the contradictions in the political sphere; throw a monkey wrench in the normal day to day activities of the imperialist death machine. That's it, it's really not that difficult. You show up to congress, say you got elected to pass m4a or vote no on ICE funding, vote down imperialist wars, vote down bank bail outs. Your votes will be lonely and will probably have zero effect in the grand scheme of things, but that's the point. A socialist representative, even a squad of them, is functionally weak and incapable of bringing about proper change.

By advocating exactly for the things the working class supports (healthcare pls), showing solidarity with the international proletariat (no wars pls), and trying to give power to the workers (union protections, higher minimum wage) and you fail, time after time, you fail to get any meaningful support from your colleages; you are demonstrating to the working class that this system is not for YOU. You are trying to get them to wake up and realize the system is fundamentally at odds with THEM.

Failure to do this each and every step of the way is opportunism of the highest order. Refusing to stand up for your own demands, and asking to get votes on healthcare, larger stimulus checks, and better working conditions for the working class, is a failure.

I don't know what is in the water on DC, or if it just takes a certain kind of fucking brainworms to even run for congress, let alone win; but goddamn the whole process of slowly "justificating" the process of siding with Pelosi and Schumer on the procedural votes; the idea of not holding Pelosi's entire leadership position hostage is asinine. Nobody cares if you are a latinx congresswoman from the bronx if you don't pass anything fucking meaningful, or "politically" die trying.

    • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]M
      7·
      4 years ago

      They are opportunists. They launder revolutionary and leftist critiques of capital in ways that make most people passive critics of the system, without actively engaging in the solutions as advocated by revolutionary theorists. They have no real, defensible argument for siding with AOC and Pelosi on this; so the only way to attack the message is by killing the messenger.

      • GlacialTurtle [none/use name]
        9·
        4 years ago

        Dore straight up lied about AOC's vote on the CARES act. He's a fucking dumbass grifter who claimed he "got this done in 2 weeks". Yeah dude, you got a bunch of dumb twitter shit done, because that's so fucking hard to do.

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

            It's not attacking the messenger to point out he lied about AOC's vote on the CARES act, it's directly fucking relevant to the entire idea that he's worth listening to and this is some great strategy, not some fucking dumb bullshit to drive up his own profile. His entire attempt at attacking AOC is misguided at best, cynical at worst. It's actively misinforming people to rile them up against someone who doesn't have the fucking power you think she does.

            This vote gets you literally fucking nothing. No one has actually explained what would change because of it. The president will be a guy who said on TV he would veto M4A if it came across his desk. The VP co-sponsored M4A then backed off of it. What leverage do you have? What platform do you have to "punish" anyone who votes against it? Ossoff was asked if he supports M4A and flatly said no, with no shame and no hesitation. We already know Democrats refuse to support M4A. They fucking tell you when you ask. So what is actually changed from this one fucking vote, proposed by a dipshit comedian with a youtube channel, who actively lies about shit so as to rile up people against a congresswoman he now wants to single out as single handedly blocking M4A, supposed to fucking do?

        • late90smullbowl [they/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Forget Dore. I can't listen to the guy tbh, never have. The concept is correct.

          Bad Faith is pretty good on the ideas around this in this week's ep.

          • GlacialTurtle [none/use name]
            1·
            4 years ago

            He claims she didn't vote against it and that she supported it, or at least we shouldn't believe her when she says she didn't. That's contradicted by her speech on the day of the vote, and her own statements and interviews saying she voted no, and her primary opponent attacking her for it (the vote was done in a way that it wasn't recorded, but one no vote is registered). He's been saying it as part of him riling people up against her to declare her as a fraud for thinking pushing for an M4A vote right now won't really do anything.

            https://twitter.com/themattdimitri/status/1339478371214917632 Absolutely unhinged rant

            Meanwhile, here is Jimmy doing a lot of work helping Tulsi pull back from supporting M4A https://twitter.com/Nitzky89/status/1339976725271355393

            https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/out-of-touch-aoc-primary-challenger-says-vote-against-cares-act-slap-in-the-face-to-poorest-people-in-her-district