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It would be infinitely safer
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It’s not worth dying on behalf of the Democratic Party
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She’d be able to radicalize far more young people and be the most popular streamer in history
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IT’S NOT WORTH DYING FOR THE FUCKIN DEMOCRATS holy shit talk about a close call
In a weird way also, I think the representation matters too, even if you are right the amount of actual power is very little to none.
People want to see that leftist voices can actually be elected and heard in a capitalist bourgeois democracy, its kind of an oxymoron seeing that she can't change much, but I think even the illusion that change is possible is still encouraging to many.
Then think if she spent her entire life fighting for these changes. Imagine if someone like Bernie Sanders instead of giving his life to public service, spent his time being a radio Disc jockey, or whatever the equivalent of a twitch streamer would have been back then. Sure he could have donated alot and "raised awareness" but we wouldn't have a fighter emblematic of the struggles of so many working people to point to and say "This is how we can be better"
Honesty I've come to the conclusion that after an initial bump, representation in the long term doesn't matter, the effect fades and quickly at that, and as far as being a voice and being heard amongst the bourgeois I don't believe people buy that, they can see she's sidelined
To take a page out of Amber's book, people have great instincts and they're not fooled by any illusion of representation, at least not the people we want to reach
And who knows maybe if people like Bernie Sanders had cut their losses and went into radio disc jockeying, they could have become the leftist equivalent of people like Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones, frankly I think the left would be in a better state today had that actually happened
I think we do need some electoral representation otherwise we'll just be nothing more than some country club or lifestyle community that, while doing good things day to day on the ground, in the grand scheme of things will just be ineffective.
Besides, the Bernie campaign did manage to successfully pull American politics slightly leftwards and massively swelled the ranks of people who were actually willing to consider socialism in the US
All politics in the west is a lifestyle brand, leftists shouldn't be denying reality just because it makes us unconformable, you organize around the conditions that actually exist not the conditions we wished to exist
People say this, but forget that without Trump on the other side of that equation Bernie's message would have hit the same way it hit the previous 40 years, which is to say not that well, and AOC is no Bernie and never will be, unless of course Ben Shapiro somehow becomes a Trumpian like figure for the American right in the next 20 years, in which case she may have a chance
I think then it is our task to figure out how to change this. Being only a lifestyle brand will guarantee we don't make a dent on imperialism but create a group of people who grow old look at their bills and think (oh yeah politics was just fun activity who has the time -- and rightfully so). I will be honest something like m4a while good would be a hollow victory to me if it means we dust our hands go home and forget about the cost that America exacts on the world. There is a reason so many "radicals" from the anti-war movement in 1960s onwards just joined the establishment.
That is a gross mischaracterization. In 2016 Bernie was popular not because of Trump but because he represented an alternative outside of Hilary (like Trump is a reason he had to fold, do you think he would endorse Hilary so readily if the opponent was someone other than Trump?). He is the result of decades of austerity in the neoliberal era.
Bernie got his shot in spring 2016 because Trump broke all the political taboos in the fall and late summer of 2015, and he scared people, a lot of people, Hillary didn't become a major player until AFTER bernie folded. It was Trump who struck the populist tone first (and stuck with it) not bernie, even tho he was better at it (for a couple months until he folded)
Yes, absolutely, bernie would have folded no matter what, the narrative works for any Republican which is why the dems will do the same thing in 2022 and 2024, they're never gonna stop and the succ dems will continue to fold
Uhh what? If Bernie could win then why would he fold. Not sure what you mean here. Unless we are just talking about social media hype or something. Edit: I know the Dems ratfucked Bernie but I just am having trouble understanding what you meant here (like what do you mean by a major player? Likely to win the dem primary? Media attention? Polling or something? If you have souces on say polling or something then that would be great).
I don't disagree with this and I see that proving that something won't happen "as easily" is virtually impossible. But I would say that he folded far too easily this time around (as opposed to the last cycle) and the only explanation I can give is that he really wanted a united stand against Trump (and maybe he really didn't want people voting in covid season). In any case, this direction of discussion is
probablypointless.