Democrats: Here’s how Harris can still win!
Progressives: Well, we all showed up at the same place at the same time. Did we win?
I was at the rally! I was one of the last people let inside before they closed the gate, and thousands of people that didn’t get inside watched and listened from outside of the fencing, so the actual number was more than 34,000.
Here’s a photo I took…
And here’s Bernie…
I can really see AOC as president. She’s already at the minimum age, but I would like to see her take another 5-10 years to learn how to broaden her appeal.
what do you mean? like get some felonies first?
I’m pretty excited by this AOC/Sanders team up. I’m sure neither are perfect, and will have ideas that I disagree with. But they both have a strong reputation for sticking up for ordinary people rather than the rich and powerful. And no reputation (that I’m aware of!) for bullying, blathering, giving in to the rich, sexual abuse, or miscellaneous awful behaviour.
And a team up between old and young is a powerful thing. Age brings wisdom, to spot things a young person might miss; and youth brings energy, understanding, and new ideas.
AOC for 2028? Judging by other comments, it seems unlikely. But AOC later? If they stay uncompromised, stick to the values that America wants without getting bogged down in things that divide the country, and gather support organically across the country rather than relying on traditional rich-people-funding, this could be an amazing victory!
I agree she would be amazing, but Bernie won’t be around long enough for that team-up. He’s already a year older than Biden. The Dems need to cultivate a lot more younger politicians. They should have been going hard at this years ago.
Sounds like it’s time for you to stand up and get into politics ;-)
You and everyone else here. Can Lemmy find one person from each state to field?
As to her age, if she can learn to trust wise people around her, she can do much better than an old person with experience who only sees things their own way! For that reason it might be better to run soon if possible, to have the wisdom of Sanders with her. Hopefully there’s other wise people she trusts to mentior/advise her as well.
Her abilities aren’t the issue, the public’s perception is. I don’t think enough people will accept that she’s been on the scene long enough to be president.
Form a new party!!! Don’t call it Labor or Labour. Don’t call it Green. Don’t call it progressive. Don’t call it socialist or liberal.
Just give it a name that people understand and don’t have preexisting bias against. “For The People”
Take on BOTH the democrats and GOP. Become popular overnight. Keep hammering home it is not about skin colour, race or country of origin, but about the billionaires that aren’t happy with paying no tax and having billions. Make it about the 99%.
It is the only way you’ll get your country back without excessive violence. The two status quo parties are hollowed out from the inside. And both are infiltrated by foreign interests.
That’s what Bernie is saying. He’s calling all progressives to run as Independent, aka No Party Preference, down ballot so we can shove the Corporate DNC into the GOP where they so desperately want to be anyway.
IIRC, he also called for the corpocentrists to get primaried.
The 99% Party. It’s a slick way of calling it a worker’s party without sounding like a communist party.
“People” = “Communist”
Agreed.
Gotta take a page out of idiocracy here folks.
The Cowboy Party (Named after the most popular/recognizable NFL team)
Or, how about:
The Murica Party
Then you put Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as your president. I’ve had debates about the feasibility of this approach and this is the modern Ronald Reagan play.
Please anyone but “The Turd” he’s just another slimy businessman and will grift this country out of more money.
Don’t don’t don’t split the vote. Not even Trump was that stupid.
It’s already split. If Democratic party runs another centrist/neoliberal candidate it will continue to be split. There is no indication that they’ll run anyone left of kamala.
Now’s the time.
Dems are managing to split the vote all on their own it seems
Not very practical while the US voting system is still first-post-the-post. Y’all need to fix that first.
In U.S. you would still have to participate in Democratic primaries so this would come down to creating a new wing inside democratic party. This was done before and didn’t change much. The geriatric party leaders would still control everything.
Please explain
In democracies with multi-party systems you have two voting rounds. In first every party presents a candidate. If anyone gets over 50% of votes he wins and that’s that. If no one gets more than 50% two candidates with most votes go to second round.
In U.S. you have only one round and usually it’s super close. If 3rd party candidate enters the race and gets even 1% of Democrat votes the Republican will win for sure. That’s why Bernie took part in Democratic primaries. His only chance was to win those and run as Democrat candidate. That’s also why Tea Party and MAGA movements were integrated into Republican party even though they started outside of it. If you want 3rd party candidates to run in elections you would have to change the system completely.
That’s not how new parties work my friend
How do they work?
I’m not sure. Claude said
Forming a new political party in the United States is a complex process that involves navigating federal and state regulations. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
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Develop your platform: Define your party’s core values, positions, and policy agenda to differentiate it from existing parties.
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Create an organizational structure: Form a committee with leadership roles (chair, treasurer, secretary) and establish bylaws governing your party’s operations.
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Register at the federal level: File with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) by submitting Form 1, “Statement of Organization” if you plan to raise/spend more than $1,000.
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Register in individual states: Requirements vary significantly by state, but typically include:
- Gathering signatures (ranging from hundreds to hundreds of thousands)
- Filing specific paperwork
- Paying filing fees
- Meeting state-specific thresholds
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Build local chapters: Establish a grassroots presence by organizing at the local level in communities across your target states.
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Field candidates: Run candidates in local and state elections to build visibility and credibility.
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Work toward ballot access: Each state has different requirements for getting your party on the ballot, often requiring a minimum percentage of votes in previous elections or petition signatures.
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Fundraise: Develop a funding strategy that complies with campaign finance laws and regulations.
Think of forming a political party like planting a tree - you need strong roots (grassroots support), a sturdy trunk (organizational structure), and many branches (local chapters) before you can bear fruit (electoral success). The process requires patience, as most successful third parties in American history took years or decades to establish themselves.
For more detailed information, you might want to consult your state’s secretary of state office website or the FEC website (https://www.fec.gov/).
I wasn’t taking about forming a new party. There are many parties out there already. People’s Party, Green Party, Libertarian Party… I’m talking about why people don’t vote for them. If Bernie and AOC formed a new party they would face the same issues as all the other parties. In the end they would have work with Democrats and most probably would be absorbed by them.
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Ones I like after going on a Thesaurus and US Declaration of Independence wiki hole. The ones further below are just ones I thought were okay as they came to me.
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People’s Voice Party
American Party
Workers Party
Freedom Party
Citizens Party
Peoples Party
Revolutionary Party
Common Party
United Party
==============
Workers Party
Blue Collar Party
Trades Party
Skilled Party
Collar Party
Rust Party
American Party
Freedom Party
Citizen’s Party
Liberty Party
People’s Party
Civil Party
Center Party
Working Party
99 Party
99% Party
Luigi Party
Rights Party
Blue Party
United Party
Sovereign Party
Human Party
Marching Party
US Party
Founding Party
Founders Party
National Party
Revolutionary Party
Colonial Party
Fundamental Party
Common Sense Party
People’s Choice Party
People’s Voice Party
Laws of Nature Party
Nature Party
Equal Party
Pursuit of Happiness Party
Standing Party
Family Party
Native Party
Great Party
Fighting Party
The “Do Something” party
Workers Party
Blue Collar Party
Trades Party
Skilled Party
Collar Party
Rust Party
American Party
Freedom Party
Citizen’s Party
Liberty Party
People’s Party
Civil Party
Center Party
Don’t worry about getting it right 100% perfect in the planning phase, the important thing is to just get fucking moving. If either trying to shake up the democrats or forming a third party end up being wrong, then learn from it and keep moving. We can’t afford to miss the launch window because we couldn’t agree that the plan was perfect.
The thing is, you can “not call it socialism” all you like. The fact is that it is socialism, you have to respect people’s intelligence enough to know that they will figure that out (or be easily convinced of it, if you really need an argument that doesn’t respect their intelligence). When this happens, and even moreso when you inevitably reveal yourself to be socialist, it will make you look deeply insincere and subversive, because you yourself will have fed into this taboo and not done the work of separating the term from its negative stigma or generating positive media for it.
Socialism is simply the fact of the matter and being socialist means caring about material reality enough to not just lie and gaslight as a means of convincing people. When you get attacked for being socialist, you will not be able to backpedal without sabotaging your own movement, because there will be a litany of evidence that you are socialist. As there should be, or you would not have the support of actual ideological socialists (remember that whole material reality thing I just mentioned).
The material reason why socialism is a “no-no” word is because when the right attacks it, the liberal establishment does what they always do; they backpedal. Not only does this make the right’s criticism look reasonable, because it confirms there is real reason to fear being associated with socialism; but it ensures that the people only ever hear the arguments against socialism, never the arguments for it. All of the arguments which are intrinsically associated with socialism; which you have done all this work to propagate; are never connected to it optically, and the people never learn what it actually is, leaving all of your policy open to attack.
What you are suggesting here is not the solution but exactly the issue that has brought us to this point.
The only way that you will ever launder the term “socialism” is by openly advocating for socialism and calling it what it is when you do. You just aren’t going to beat the establishment at their own game; rather, we must show the people what it is to be respected and hear policy based in material reality that will actually address their needs, and you will win support from across the spectrum.
I disagree. And I don’t mean to preach, but there is a power in words and using them (or not using them). The fight over the word and meaning of socialism is not what “the people” need right now, that can come later. This has been happening in the US closing in on a century. It’s not those tolerant of material reality (as you say) you need to convince, it’s those that would benefit from “the peoples” agenda that don’t acknowledge material reality. Ride the wave of making billionaires pay.
Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years.
Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security.
Socialism is what they called farm price supports.
Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance.
Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.
Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.
When the Republican candidate inscribes the slogan “Down With Socialism” on the banner of his “great crusade,” that is really not what he means at all.
What he really means is “Down with Progress–down with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal,” and “down with Harry Truman’s fair Deal.” That’s all he means.
- Harry Truman
Don’t swim against this right now. These programs from the new deal and fair deal are not even called socialist by American standards anymore.
This quote is an example of what I am talking about though. Roosevelt had to take great strides to ease the great depression, because of mass protest movements at the time openly led by socialist/communist parties, but he could not go so far as to address the economic system that created the great depression. Nor could the capitalist class allow these policies to be associated with the socialists that visibly fought for them. Doing so would threaten the power of capital; this is not long after the bolshevik revolution that created the USSR, so there was major fears of similar movements taking root in the US.
This is not Truman defending the new deal, this is him distancing the new deal from socialism.
The new deal was not socialist, which is by design, but it was made up of things that socialists would have certainly fought for and taken even further if their effort was sincerely meant to achieve socialism.
It’s time to stop letting socialism be used as a scare word. Sure, the loudest ones will continue to bury their heads in the sand, but those people weren’t going to be won over anyways. Furthermore, you aren’t going to win people over by talking down to them, and you cannot address their needs in a sincere manner if your base assumption is that they aren’t intelligent enough to understand their own lives.
edit: I’m also not suggesting that we should be fighting over “the word and meaning of socialism”; precisely the opposite, in fact. I’m saying that we should be living examples of what a socialist is and what socialists advocate for. We should be seen in our communities doing the ground work of organizing and being role models for what we believe in.
The difference between what we are accused of and what we are actually doing is stark, which can’t be pointed out if we’re constantly distancing ourselves from anyone that calls themselves socialist simply because we’re afraid of the word. There is so much present day and past evidence; from the rich history that was erased in the red scare and all of this anti-socialist sentiment; for us to draw on instead of trying to distance ourselves from the reality that what we advocate for is anti-capitalist in nature.
Buddy half of American voters voted for trump. We are well past “insulting their intelligence”. The reality is that the majority of American voters are stupid, lazy, or both.
Separately I don’t think you know what socialism is if you think progressive policies are socialist. Just because “social programs” and socialism share a common word doesn’t mean they are the same thing.
If American voters are as stupid as you claim then it shouldn’t be hard to trick them into changing their vote.
Simultaneously, American voters are “stupid, lazy, or both”, but intelligent and well-read enough to understand what you mean when you explain the difference between social welfare and outright socialism as you are backpedaling on being a socialist.
That being said; I’m not talking about progressive policies, I’m talking about socialism. There might be plenty of progressive policies between here and socialism, but the end of that side of the spectrum is socialism.
Bernie is already third party, doofus. And if you want to fix anything you have to vote DNC.
give it a name that people understand and don’t have preexisting bias against. “For The People”
I’m pretty sure that name (or similar) has been used in ways that… don’t sit very well with people!
If only this turn out had actually opposed trump at the polls
Go baby go!
It’s working kids - despite the blackout from the mass media, people are taking to the streets:
That line should be way higher than in 2017… that gives me less hope than more tbf
Cool. So what policy changes did they enact? None? Then who gives a fuck?
Action, not words, AOC. Action, not words, Bernie. Fucking stfu and DO something.
Getting their base energized and angry about the current situation is doing a lot more than introducing a bill that has a 0.00% chance of getting passed. The chances of them talking to the high ranking party officials and getting them to reverse course probably has the same chance of success.
It helps to use your brain to actually think about the outcomes of actions. On the off chance that I’m just being an asshole, please let me know what is a better use of their time.
If another four years of Trump and the threat of project 2025 wasn’t enough to make these people do the bare minimum it would have taken to stop it, I honestly don’t see how a few empowered speeches will do more than jack-shit to motivate them.
I wish it were different, but we’re taking about a group of people who have a proven track record of stopping short of walking the walk.
You’re right it is much better for them to give up.
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Or the ok, or the mildly evil in this case.
What are you doing besides uselessly bitching and moaning about how others aren’t doing enough. Grow up, shit will never be perfect in the real world and we are on the edge of a fascist regime coup. Even if Bernie doesn’t do shit, getting that many people together is still a net positive compared to him voting on stuff or talking to people or introducing bills that will never pass just so morons think he is doing something better than rallies.
Getting large groups of people together repeatedly is the most important thing that can happen right now. Quit bitching and fucking do something.
lol… again. Gathering people in large groups is not an action. It’s just accumulation. VOTING is an action.
No mountain was moved moved because a bunch of people gathered at is base and shouted at it.
And I find it ironic that the advice you’re suggesting is the exact same thing I see presented to the far left/progressive do-nothings that sit at home and watch everyone else try and cast their votes to save their sorry asses, or wait until shit gets this bad before they mobilize into larger clusters of do-nothings to stand around and smugly criticize everyone that warned them this would fucking happen.
They helped make the bed. They can lie in it with the rest of us that didn’t.
The real irony is that currently there are not even local elections to be had where I am. I’m case you are new at voting, it’s not continuous. Saying the only action is voting is… Well if you haven’t gotten the point by now you are not going to.
I vote. I don’t just vote every 4 years either, and that didn’t just start with Trump. If you don’t understand that more action is required than just voting at this point you need to look up from whatever you have your head stuck in. We are already in uncharted territory and while the rallies are not perfect, they are better than doing nothing and sitting on your hands until the next election.
“They helped make the bed. They can lie in it with the rest of us that didn’t.”
Yes there are a lot of dumb fucks who seriously fucked up the election, and yeah they were wrong on so many levels. This isn’t about being right, or having superior principals. This is actually about survival. The collapse and changes will be violent, and we are so fucking close to changes you can’t even imagine. So grow up, stop complaining about how other people didn’t do enough. It is just a childishly small thing to get hung up on.
DO SOMETHING. Protect yourself, your family, your friends and those that can’t protect themselves.
lol. Naah. We’re done. It’s over. I’m just making sure that those responsible are able to see what they’ve done. See the damage they caused to so many people. They walked lockstep with the trumpers, and now they will suffer alongside them.
Best now to just make sure everyone can recognize them for who they are and properly lay the blame at their feet where it belongs.
Because ALL of this was avoidable.
Now, there’s not much else to do about it.
I really hope you are a TURF account, I would have more faith in humanity at that point, at least that person is doing something.
I didn’t think you are. Your apathy, hate, and small world view combined with you ignorance in how bad situations can get and the privilege to think it can’t happen to you is really sad.
If you are dead set on lying in bed and doing nothing, please do that and shutt the fuck up. Don’t spread shit that only benefits the fascists just because you are to ideologically pure to do something.
“introducing a bill that has a 0.00% chance of getting passed” is Bernie’s function.
So he can look like the real leftist who is really trying.Litmus tests for the rottenness of our overlords
what have you been doing? besides typing on a keyboard at people
Have you ever met this buddy of mine?
That poor Bill, brought into the world because @MisterOwl thinks it’s better to have a useless, irrelevant stack of paper then to start solidifying a base of people to act as the real opposition party.
If Bernie was 20 or 30 years younger, AOC and him would smash the fucking Government of Putin.
Does she mean Democratic National Convention or Democratic National Committee the later being the common thing referred to as DNC?
The National Convention is almost five thousand delegates with a plus one or two. Its not exactly a rally its the body that confirms or votes for the party’s Prez candidate. They have guest, speakers, other elected Democrats(who aren’t delegates), and invite the Press.
The worst part is that Republicans unironically believe that these are all paid actors.
Digging into who is actually paying them is a fun road to go down as well. They can’t answer. When the democrats were in charge, they’d be paid for by the government!
Now that Trump is in charge, they can’t say that anymore! So they’ll move onto another scapegoat such as Bill Gates, or NASA (and ignore that NASA gets funds from the government).
I don’t think facts or lack of evidence has ever gotten in their way before. They will just say it’s George Soros. Or they will point to fake craigslist posts which can be created by anyone.
Even then, I feel like you could just say “Oh, great, so now that Trump’s in charge, he can investigate George Soros’ finances, right?”
They can say George Soros or Bill Gates, pretty common namedrops on conservative media.
“It was fauci and the chemtrails”
Trump and gang is trying to have AOC charged for terrorism, so it seems to be working. She should either get DNC leadership now or finally form her own party.
Please don’t let her form a new party. As much as people say they hate the 2-party system, fragmenting the Democratic Party would be a yuge mistake at this point. We need to let the Trumpublican Party eat itself when he keels over from dementia or his final Big Mac Attack. The MAGA opportunists who rode in on his coattails will tear each other to pieces as they claw for position like rats.
The maga problem isn’t just Trump. This is the culmination of decades of work by christo-fascist conservatives. They’re not resting on their laurels and lining their pockets like a normal regressive administration. Every effort is being taken to solidify their power and deconstruct any threat that might rise up post-trump. Even if they did eat themselves there won’t be a government to rebuild.
We’re passing an inflection point in American politics. People want change and polls indicate they don’t care what side it comes from. The Democratic party has never polled lower. Being the milquetoast neoliberal corporate party is objectively the worst anchor to tie around your neck.
AOC and Bernie’s message isn’t wildly popular on accident. That energy needs to be captured and amplified, Democratic party or not. What’s the worst that happens from a split ticket? More people stay home?
Edit: you don’t even have to run against them to capture the Democratic party. Just have headliner progressives threaten it with a broad show of support and you force them to open up the primaries. Their policies have no support, they have no chips to call the bluff.
A Trump presidency, let alone TWO, wouldn’t have been possible without the gradual dumbing down of Americans over the last century, which IMO is an unintended side effect of progressive addiction to entertainment and convenience. Nobody conspired to make people more stupid by getting them to watch too much TV. That happened as business people strove to sell more products and get richer, like always.
Conspiring to make and keep people stupid is a conservative top 10 hit. For them the ideal populace is homogenous, fertile, docile, fearful and uneducated.
Anti-intellectual attacks have been the go-to for centuries, they’ve just gotten more modern and efficient. Look into groups like the heritage foundation, prager u, the heartland institute and (most importantly) the people bankrolling them.
Its a long legacy of chipping away at the foundations of democracy and critical thinking. Blaming technology and the free market is buying their propaganda. It’s the same lie they use to frame climate collapse as an unavoidable natural cycle.
I know there are individuals who hate the world and want everybody else to be suffer, or to be dumb and gullible because then they’re easier to con. But IMO the main driver is the basic conservative attitude that everybody should stand on their own two feet - either because in their minds it makes the nation stronger, or they just resent having to pay for anybody else’s anything - even things that benefit other conservatives. Individually motivated group behavior often looks like a conspiracy but it’s not. Most people don’t eat meat to spite vegans, or floss to put dentists out of business. Etc.
The Democratic party’s plans, laid bare: Do nothing and wait for everyone to notice how awesome they are.
We gotta put all our energy into what they’re doing. They’re the rare few on the left that really understand what is going on and how to start fighting it.
You’re right, but consider how poisonous those names have been made to conservatives. Their ears automatically clamp shut.
Know the jacked up part? If conservatives listened to either one of those two, without knowing who they were, they would be all ears.
First time I heard Bernie was on NPR, had no idea who was talking, but I gathered it was a politician running for office. (This was him running against Hillary.)
“LOL, this guy is a joke. You can’t actually answer questions honestly and in a straightforward manner. Holy shit! He just answered a question about Israel without mumbling around. Fucking love him, but whatever he’s running for, he’s going to lose.”
Yeah.
Start showing up.
Removed by mod
Honestly, I’m not impressed. This is in DENVER. Take it to a blood red district and show me the numbers. This is not where Dems need to spend their time.
I agree and disagree. They need to pick up a bit of momentum, and “yes men” can help peer pressure the less dogmatic red-teamers to start thinking about their message. Then, once they hit those red states the no-men might show up a bit too and we start getting momentum through them as well
