Funny how when someone from the left wins a primary vote blue no matter who no longer applies… weird…
Not a uniquely American problem unfortunately.
This is the election of our lifetime
Blue: Minuscule progress.
Red: Regression.
We are currently experiencing what happens when people don’t “vote blue”.
Yes, Kamala would have been just as bad as Biden, but I don’t think it would have been worse than what trump is doing now.
Two party system sucks, but that is what is currently reality.
Fundamentally there can be no progress unless imperialism is tackled, and movements against capitalism and towards socialism begin. Otherwise, as long as imperialism is the dominant means by which the US economy functions, it will continue to decay, wither, and die, with those at the top violently retaining their plunder internally and externally. The DNC is a bourgeois party, ergo they cannot stop this process of imperialism. Both parties represent decay. It isn’t regression, but progression towards capitalism collapsing under its own weight.
To frame the DNC as “miniscule progress” means that if blue is voted every single time, the laws governing imperialism and capitalism will magically alter at a fundamental level and the US Empire will be able to last forever. This is wrong, of course. It’s also why the working class needs to build its own parties (such as PSL), overthrow the existing system, dismantle imperialism and settler-colonialism (at home and abroad), sieze the large firms and key industries, and gradually work towards the sublimation of property into a collectivized economy run along a common plan. The alternative is to go the way of Rome, a long, drawn-out collapse while the global south suffers the most.
This is current reality.
To frame the DNC as “miniscule progress” means that if blue is voted every single time, the laws governing imperialism and capitalism will magically alter at a fundamental level and the US Empire will be able to last forever.
This is discrediting the time and effort people have put in to create the positive change we have seen in America over the past 100 years.
You cannot dispute the fact that America has improved over the last century. We are currently not where we need to be, but there has been improvement.
I am for a co-opting of the blue party to create an America that we can be proud of. My reasoning is that there will be less suffering and a more controllable outcome than some nebulous “revolution”.
Until we see the results of Zohran Mamdani’s run for mayor and what he does after, I believe it is possible.
What I am doing to act on that belief is volunteering for my local DSA chapter.
To be clear, this is not a rhetorical question:
What real life actions are you taking to affect change in the direction of your beliefs right now?
Edit: For anybody interested in the topic of changing America, nothing will happen if you do nothing. Get out there and do something!
It isn’t discrediting the time and effort of activists at all. If you look at the last century, real change has come from directly organizing against the system, not through voting blue. Further, I will not say the US is overall getting better. Some areas like queer rights are better, but the US became world hegemon in the last 70ish years, the economy is run on plunder and genocide. You entirely glossed over imperialism in my points, is it because you don’t think it’s as big an issue as I believe it is, or is it that you agree with me, but think we can keep running on the imperialist system and change it from within?
I am for a co-opting of the blue party to create an America that we can be proud of.
Utter fantasy, unfortunately, considering the DNC is a bourgeois party that exists due to bourgeois consent and feeds off of bourgeois donations. They cannot be taken over. Revolution is both more feasible and controlled than working within the palms of the bourgeoisie and dancing to their tune.
As for the DSA, that’s better than nothing, I suppose, but for its size the DSA gets very little done. PSL does more work per member because they have a coherent and unified line, something the DSA desperately needs in order to maintain relevance to the working class instead of functioning as a pressure valve.
What real life actions are you taking to affect change in the direction of your beliefs right now?
Not going to dox myself, including party affiliation as well as the degree of that affiliation. Is this an appeal to your own authority, ie you presume you have more organizing experience and wish to wield that as a cudgel, or are you genuinely wondering what I am suggesting you yourself do?
real change has come from directly organizing against the system,
As we are seeing right now, Red parties are more willing to recklessly act against protestors, who are exercising their first amendment rights, with impunity. I am not saying that blue parties will be the ones making the direct change, but blue parties make collective action more viable to perform.
the DNC is a bourgeois party that exists due to bourgeois consent and feeds off of bourgeois donations.
Correct, which is why having publicly funded, grassroots candidates can create change in the party.
Is this an appeal to your own authority, ie you presume you have more organizing experience and wish to wield that as a cudgel, or are you genuinely wondering what I am suggesting you yourself do?
Nope, just hate it when people say the only path forward is a full on revolution, then take zero real action to make the world a better place.
Blue parties do not make collective action easier. In any instance where there has been genuine risk, both parties take the mask off. This has happened throughout history, from the older CPUSA (before it became revisionist), to the Black Panther Party, to the Civil Rights movement, and so forth. The DNC is a pressure valve, when that doesn’t work they take the mask off just as quickly.
Secondly, you didn’t at all explain why grassroots funded candidates can take over the DNC. The DNC is set up to begin with as a bourgeois party, its continued existence comes from satisfying the bourgeoisie. It cannot be taken over, either the party will pressure or expell radicals or the bourgeoisie will front its own other parties, even relying purely on the GOP.
As for hating when people talk about revolution without organizing, that doesn’t do anything at all for the logic of the arguments at hand. If someone thinks the solution to climate change is praying for it to go away, and someone else points out the fundamental issues tied to capitalism and overconsumption, that doesn’t mean the person praying has a leg up for taking action. If the action doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.
Finally, again, you dodged the matter of imperialism. Do you just think it doesn’t matter, or do you think we can fundamentally pivot away from it without revolution? What does that look like in practice, in your eyes?
My friend, you seem to be misunderstanding what I have been saying.
You keep on talking in absolutes. I am talking about chances. If it is 0.00001% safer/easier to perform collective action under a blue party, it is still easier/safer.
The primary message I am trying to get across is to use the system that is currently implemented in this country to create an opportunity for change.
Discouraging people from voting or encouraging people to vote for a party that has no chance is doing damage to both of our agendas.
Correct me if I am wrong, but your position is to perform a full correction of the system. I wish you the best of luck with that and if you succeed, I will celebrate.
We can work both inside and outside the system to create change.
On the topic of Imperialism, yes, I do believe America is an Imperial country and I think it is bad.
I gave several examples of bipartisan effort to crush left-opposition, then you argue for entryism on the basis of the DNC being 0.00001% better (with no evidence, I might add). This is just wrong, the DNC lets the GOP do whatever it wants to, and works hand-in-hand when it genuinely gets dangerous. The primary rebuttal to your strategy of reformism is that we cannot use the political tools created by and for the bourgeoisie to retain their power in order to flip it on them.
What’s necessary is revolutionary party building, which requires a combination of direct action, activism, engaging in the political system as its own unit, and showing just how incapable the system is of getting the working class what it needs. Not working with the system, legitimizing and relying on it.
Correct me if I am wrong, but your position is to perform a full correction of the system.
Capitalism cannot be corrected. What needs to happen is socialism, we need to move beyond private ownership as the principle aspect of the economy into one where public ownership is. If public ownership becomes the basis of the economy, the bourgeoisie loses its dictatorial control, and imperialism no longer becomes a necessity to keep the dumpster fire of capitalism burning.
We can work both inside and outside the system to create change.
The extent to which we can work within the system is driven by our ability to front worker parties like PSL that show a legitimate alternative, not by treating the DNC as a representative of proletarian interests. It cannot be unless forced through outside pressure.
On the topic of Imperialism, yes, I do believe America is an Imperial county and I think it is bad.
Great, so you understand that in order to end imperialism, we need to move beyond capitalism and into socialism, which requires revolution.
