He played himself. Glad I spent hours campaigning for Bernie, but not glad it was wasted because he couldn't stop calling Biden his friend.
I remember reading his book and thinking that shit the whole time. I realized though that the book wasn't for me - it was for dumbass libs. And that shitty rhetoric, too - not for us, for the libs. Not excusing it necessarily.
Well, not at all actually. It's bad. I literally changed my mind midway through writing that comment.
I'm not asking him to issue a fatwah against the Democratic party, but he put the fucking kiddie gloves on when he needed to go hard on Biden. I still think he's better than anyone in Washington, but Bernie had twice the vigor or more when he was running against Hillary. His own staff was trying to get him to go on the offensive, but he didn't listen.
Every single media outlet was saying "Bernie can't beat Trump, Bernie will ruin the economy, a socialist cannot win." Then he goes out says "yeah Biden could beat Trump." If he had enough passion to go after Hillary, then he could have at least pretended to put up a fight against Biden. Instead he gave away the farm.
All it really would have done is burnt any bridges Bernie has with the new administration. It would have made him pretty much powerless with no real connections.
A politician noted for being widely liked turning into an asshole; what could go wrong?
Him and Corbyn were too sweet for this Earth. I hope they can at least rest easy now. We can take over from here.
I was so irritated when Corbyn lost. I thought that one was straight up in the bag. Shows what happens when you only pay attention to your bubble, I guess.
I knew Corbyn wouldn't win, but I didn't expect the annihilation that happened.
All of the papers gleefully calling it the worst loss since the 30s or whatever, conveniently ignoring that this is post-SNP so all of the Scottish seats that would be Labour are just SNP now, so the comparison isn't apt.
That's true, but there was also an expectation that Corbyn would be able to 'win the arguement' for why Labour in Scotland should return to dominance (increased welfare/federalism). The expectation was increased following the election of Richard Leonard as the Scottish Labour leader (pro-Corbyn), and as such the resulting electoral blowout in Scotland made Corbyn's leadership even more tenuous.
Interesting insight. I'd say it seems more like a cemented distrust of all London-facing politics, but I admit I don't really understand the Scottish perspective, because I would have advocated for SNP-Labour cooperation, but I guess English support for Labour would collapse if they even seemed to support Scottish Independence?
Well I do think that's the same thinking that many activists/Labour were thinking, remember Ed Milliband got tarred and feather by the press for his supposed ties to the SNP (even though thats false). IMO Labour was entering into one of the most politically challenging courses due to the loss of Scotland, and the failures to properly address it from Corbyn's leadership (not pushing federalism enough for instance) did not help. Of course with Keir in charge I would suspect a very slight/minority Labour government, but that won't happen for another 4 years, I will be interested in seeing how the SCG (Socialist Campaign Group - the likes of Zarah Sultana/John McDonnell) adapt to this circumstance.
By 2024 if Scotland hasn't had a 2nd Indy ref I imagine support for a new ref, but short of open support for independence, will be a possible angle for the hard left. Especially if Scots keep making themselves heard via dumping fish on Downing St. and indy polling keeps looking decisive.
Right, I don't think Bernie was perfect or even ideal by any means but I think he was the one lone person honest enough to do the patchwork to actually let us live to fight another day.
America could have had a bad bitch.
-7DeadlyFetishes
It’s truly over for any mitigating reform. The next shot at best is 2032 with an AOC or Fetterman. Except they aren’t as solid by a wide margin and by then it’s far too late.
What alternatives are more likely to succeed?
If a protracted people's war was imminent, yeah, dunking on electoralism would make sense. But we live in a country where the vast majority of people think legitimate political action is limited to (a) elections and (b) protests that aren't even an inconvenience to anyone.
Bashing electoralism in America doesn't do anything for the global south. Arguably, the only way to end American imperialism is to bring socialism to America. Electoral politics are at least as promising an avenue for that as anything else.
Vietnam winning the war didn't end American imperialism. Not even close.
the vague idea that playing the us’s political system is more likely to end us imperialism than just fighting the US and working for its collapse, or that it is more likely to do good than just assisting anti-imperial struggles
What do these ideas actually look like in practice? What, specifically, can an American do to:
- Fight the U.S.
- Work for its collapse
- Assist anti-imperial struggles
There is no protracted people's war on the horizon in America. Monkeywrenching, sabotage, and similar individual acts aren't going to fix a systematic problem. Someone scraping by in America doesn't have the money, connections, or language skills to travel to another country to physically fight U.S. imperialism (and in many instances -- sanctions, for example -- there's no war to fight).
This is my issue with writing off electoralism: the alternatives suck even more, or are flat-out unrealistic.
Unionization is good too, but that doesn't make electoralism hopeless. Empirically, tens of millions of more people vote than participate in unions, and it's far easier to get media attention on elections than on unionization efforts.
If unions are so resilient, why are only ~5% of private sector workers unionized today? You can't argue that electoralism will never work and then turn around and rely on institutions that have been mercilessly hacked down to the bone over the past ~90 years. Besides, labor law has been so thoroughly corrupted that we likely need a legislative fix before unions can regain significant power. Want strong unions? Passing card check or repealing Taft-Hartley would make that a lot easier, but you need to win elections to do that.
We couldn’t even get a sweet likable socdem/demsoc anywhere without getting the full brunt of the power in this country against us.
This is like going on a diet for a week and wondering why you haven't lost 20 pounds. The strategy can work, you just need to do more of it. Bernie lost because he got unlucky (Covid or the Tara Reade story hitting a few weeks earlier would have sealed the primary in his favor) and because he was popular, but not overwhelmingly so. There's no reason a more seasoned, larger left-ish movement can't win, especially if a major event that broke in Biden's favor this time breaks in our favor.
I didn't just say "Bernie got a bad break." I said he got bad breaks and the movement wasn't big enough to win anyways. His 2020 campaign was big enough that it had a real shot, but not so big that it couldn't be denied. The bigger you are, the less lucky you need to be.
Whatever you call unions, they're a modest threat right now because so few people are in them. If they can gain enormous power even when they're illegal, then why are they so small right now? Union power has been on the decline for at least the last 70 years; over the same time there have been many significant electoral gains, and and the farthest-left presidential candidate since Debs just came within shouting distance of the White House. It makes no sense to read the former as promising and the latter as hopeless.
unions for any flaws have an inherent power to them
And the President of the United States doesn't have inherent power?
Let me get this straight:
- Despite only 5% of private sector employees being unionized, despite a decades-long trend of declining union power, and despite recent labor law changes that hurt unions, unionization is a far more promising path to socialism than
- Electoralism, because despite Bernie coming damn close to winning the Democratic nomination, Nancy Pelosi would have just clapped him at the convention instead of letting that happen?
These are bad takes.
Chile
The far more recent examples of leftist electoral success in Latin America are Chavez and Morales, and their projects are in their second decade and have survived numerous imperialist and reactionary attacks.
The president is not inherently powerful
Another take that's just awful on its face. I don't think we're going to get anywhere here.
Like at this point I just hope american comrades are buying guns, stocking up on essential goods, and making a plan to flee the country if it comes to it. Not that it'll get that bad for sure, maybe america continues on as a zombie state where the bourgeoisie accumulate more and more while the masses are so hopeless and nihilistic that there is no chance of any meaningful change as they desperately cling on to the post ww2 american dream that was sold to them, despite knowing full well the material conditions that enabled the post war golden age will never happen again. The worst case scenario isn't rapid decline, because that might actually lead to something, its continued stagnation.
Continued stagnation gives us an outside shot to organize at least. Rapid decline guarantees fascism.
Yet because of this fact, it feels like so much organizing goes into preventing the rapid decline without growing actual worker power. We're on a treadmill to hell
putting energy into preventing rapid decline isn't organizing, that's ngo-industrial-complex shit (i.e. Sunrise, XR, etc., etc.)
unless you're talking about mutual aid, which I'd argue is about keeping people alive so that they might organize another day; or community defense, which I'd also argue isn't about preventing rapid decline but rather defending vulnerable comrades/letting fash know that there's oppo
I guess I'm not sure what you were getting at. Would you mind elaborating?
regardless, w/o the ground work there's nothing inherent about destitution that will bring about a revolution: https://organizing.work/2020/04/the-myth-of-the-present-moment/
if anyone needs a ratline going out of the northeastern states, lemme know.
I met a bunch of methed out Americans who walked across the border and they told me how to do it. They walked across while carrying their dead friend's ashes, too.
for sure.. i need to bone up on all that. For a period of time after the 2016 election, a fair amount of refugees were walking the border and ended up in my neighbourhood. I was asking some of them about it and it was pretty straightforward.
Seems like the biggest issues are doing it asap, before guards notice there are people walking it, and then you go either in the direction of toronto/montreal, depending on where you crossed. And once across, knowing a safe enough place to stay.
My family would want to flee south but uh, I’m not sure Mexico would be any better than staying in the US.
Honestly I think Tlaib would be a better candidate than AOC. Got the midwest thing, less cliquey, and doesn't bend as much. But that's all just dreamy fantasy shit to keep us occupied
Yea that's a good point. It kind of is an insurmountable political mountain for the time being. I guess I'm saying I would rather have her than AOC.
the establishment will pay Black Cube whatever it takes to make the problem go away
those mittens do be cute, but if its cold enough for those toasty mitts then he needs a hat, where is bernies hat?
chapeau dot chat demands answers
A supporter gave him those mittens a few years ago and he wears them all the time! They're made out of recycled sweaters. Another reason to love him. 😭 💙
