• blackbelt352@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    62
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    We have to undo decades of policy enacted the much longer politically aware and active owner class. They’ve had a head start on us, so it’s going to take tome to dismantle the political machinery they’ve created while minimizing harm done to the rest of us.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      58
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      5 months ago

      We actually don’t.

      A single progressive president means they get to name the DNC chair and a bunch of voting positions.

      It’s literally that easy to take over the party.

      Obama just didn’t do it because he didn’t need the party after they turned on him for opposing Hillary.

      If he’d have rebuilt it, we’d have a functional progressive party planning decades ahead already. And trump would still just be that guy from the Mac Miller song. The SC would be a progressive majority. The situation and Gaza wouldn’t have turned into an open genocide, COVID would have been handled appropriately.

      It’s not some insurmountable task, but it gets harder and harder every cycle.

      By all rights we should have had protests in the streets calling for Biden and the DNC leadership to step down for stealing NH’s delagets. But not enough people had crossed their personal lines by then.

      If we’d have had the fight then, we’d have had a full primary almost to figure shit out.

      But we didn’t.

      Until we finally do, shit won’t change.

      • blackbelt352@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        5 months ago

        We’ve had this sort of situation before, FDR was radically progressive on a lot of policy decisions, he made great strides ad pulling us out of the Great Depression, leading us through world war 2, dramatically reduced the wealth disparity and was so popular with the voting public he was elected 4 times. Then the politically connected wanted to make sure that kind of presidency never happened again, so they paid to get the political machinery altered to suit their needs, term limits were introduced, influential think tanks were created to push favorable public policy and install favorable political assets, launched propaganda campaigns to sway public perception and consolidated economic power.

        I agree that a single properly progressive president can do a lot to make things better, and a president who actually wields power can make some very important structural changes within the political party but it doesn’t disassemble the political machinery that led us to our current situation in the first place. It doesn’t disassemble the vast propaganda networks and think tanks, it doesn’t stop the flow of dark money into politician pockets. All these positive changes can be undone if the next guy that comes in is a shitbag.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          15
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          5 months ago

          We should have learned that confidence is the one thing you can’t fake. A candidate can be confident for illogical reasons, but that’s still more convincing than being right but not being confident. It creates this weird effect where once people get too smart, they become less decisive and people perceive that as less confident.

          The stereotypical nerd.

          Gore probably would have been a top 10 president. But he couldn’t sell himself to voters just a little more. And if memory recalls, he technically didn’t even have to concede. Like, if he had waited I believe the recounts were actively happening. He didn’t even let it run down to the final vote.

          But I think its important to note not a single Dem Senator challenged it either which would have been even better than Gore challenging it

          Bernie would have most likely, but he wasn’t in yet. Biden could have done it, but he didn’t, same with most of the current Dem leadership.

          So Gore should have planted his feet, and voters should have gotten behind, probably would have. But the party didn’t have Gore’s back either. And Gore wasn’t confident enough to try it without the party.

          It’s crazy how shit comes so close and has such widespread consequences. Just one Dem senator back then dragging it out till a final count would have done it.

          • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            Gore probably would have been a top 10 president. But he couldn’t sell himself to voters just a little more. And if memory recalls, he technically didn’t even have to concede. Like, if he had waited I believe the recounts were actively happening. He didn’t even let it run down to the final vote.

            He pushed right up to the deadline. Like, Bush v Gore was decided literally hours before the state deadline to certify the vote.

    • Psycoder@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      During the Hillary vs Bernie times, I was talking with a Bernie supporter in a bar. He told me that the establishment Dems/DNC would promote Hitler himself before they promote an anti-establishment candidate.

      Back then I thought he was a case of mentally sick person making it to the bar and having too much drink. As time passes I agree with him more and more.

    • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      5 months ago

      Do you think the ownership class was upset when AOC voted to stop the rail union from striking?