this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
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The time to have that conversation is before and during the primaries. After that, it's not a worthwhile conversation.
The message isn't the issue, your timing is.
How long do I have to wait for this to work? It's been 25 years of voting blue no matter who and Republicans are just getting more and more power. When do we get to say that's a failed strategy? When there's no elections anymore or when there's only one party on the ballot?
Oh, wait, that happens a ton already because Democrats are fucking useless. Three seats on my 2024 ballot had Republicans running unopposed.
It HAS worked. Do you know how bad it would've been had we had Republican after Republican?? It would've been project 2000.
Damage has been mitigated. Progress has been made. If you don't appreciate that, then I'm happy for you because it means you are well of enough to not notice.
Youy know why Schumer said he wouldnt fight and voted with the republicans?
"Harm reduction".
Sound familiar?
He's a failure.
Harm reduction isn't 100% of possible harm reduction.
I'm not saying they're good. I'm saying they're useful and sometimes not horrible.
So it works when a fascist is elected eventually rather than immediately.
Gotcha.
And exercise doesn't prevent death, only extends life. Better not bother.
Way ahead of you.
But if all we can hope for is death, I don't see a point in participating. Society is awful, people are terrible, and I can't see the stars. And there's literally nothing I can do to fix this, just bang my head against a wall.
I don't see the point in trying to make things better anymore.
I hear ya. I had the same feeling of futility for a long while.
I got rid of it by getting out of the house and meeting little who think like me in real life. Going to protests and school board meetings has helped me not think it's useless.
And showing up to those things let's you push back on those who are pushing the wrong way. If you can't gain ground, slow them down. Make it expensive for them to hurt us.
I’ve tried that. They don’t think like me. I can mask really well because I’m in sales but those people are almost as alien as MAGAs. And not just politically, but socially and culturally.
LOL
What primaries? The Democrats invented superdelegates to subvert democracy in the primary process, and then argued in court in Florida that it was their right to do so when they were sued for it.
Good point. Better to do nothing then. Give up.
Or get more involved in the only party with a chance and change them from the inside?
No, that sounds like work. Forget it.
depends on what you mean by, " get more involved in the only party"
If you mean gut the dems and start over with 100% new leadership and without being at the behest of the rich, I'm in. Otherwise its a pointless pantomime and I'm not interested in playing along in corpo-fascist games any longer.
I love the idea. What's the first step we can take to accomplish that?
tough one. Its not something that comes up often. I'd say for starters we re-register to a new party to get some momentum going. DSA maybe.
Unfortunately then we're back to the FPTP problem. We don't have ranked choice voting, so there can only be two parties.
If we create a new one, we'll need to convince the moderates to join, and the 35% of people who call themselves Democrat like it's a sports team. That's quite a task.
The tea party tried this approach and failed. Then they gave up and infiltrated the Republicans instead. Now they are in charge, rebranded maga.
It is a good point, and I'm not advocating for doing nothing, just acknowledging that change via the Democrats is impossible. Unless you've been asleep for 40 years, you're well aware that real, meaningful change is impossible in this party duopoly, and nothing underscores that more than running a publicly brain-dead man and the entire "progressive" party apparatus lining up behind him in order to suit his fragile, stupid ego.
What I advocate for is doing good with one's own two hands, because that's always possible. Be willing to pick up dog shit even if it's not yours. When someone in your building asks for a favor, be generous with your time. When ICE comes knocking, and they will, find that maybe you have difficulty remembering things. (And if you really want to underscore how shitty the Democrats are, remember that Tom Homan was also Obama's guy.)
I agree. But my point is that the Democrats are the only tool we have at the moment within the government.
We have plenty of tools outside of the government, and you're 100% right that we should use those as well.
But let's not throw out the one tool we have inside the government. Let's improve it so it's useful.
The devils in the details of that vague proposal. So, sure I guess.
That's the thing, we don't.
The Democrats in Washington do not give a fuck about you, me, our families, or anyone else. They exist to do performative things and make nice speeches, then go vote in a manner that can be charitably called conservative but more often enables fascism. For example, remember when they did their nice little stunt kneeling in Congress with their African wear? Those same Democrats linked up behind Biden when he wanted to militarize the police even more.
The only power you or I have is local unless you're willing to commit an extraordinary act of vigilantism or you're a billionaire. That's it.
So join local Democrat groups
Democrats blame progressives for their losses.
Progressives don't exactly show up to vote
Great. Really courting that progressive vote with comments like this.
Do we have Democrats as a tool inside the government? Are you sure they aren't another of the oligarchs' tools?
It's both. And they're the most likely group that we could turn to our purposes.
A broken tool is no tool at all
/c/im14andthisisdeep
I can tell you've never had to sweep or shovel with something when half the haft is gone. Or tear the lid off a garbage can because the mechanism to lift the lid stopped working.
That's what I've always had to work with when it comes to representatives in this country. It's cuz you and your neo liberal Democratic friends think the rest of us don't deserve working equipment. Only your Rich donors do.
Do you actually think the person you're replying to has a bunch of neoliberal Dem friends? Do you really believe they have rich donors?
I see this here on lemmy a lot and I'm sorry to tell you no one with the power to do anything is here so you're wasting your energy lecturing. But you got to feel smug and superior so I guess that's something.
It doesn't matter whether they do personally, what matters is that they're carrying the flag for those that do. He believes what they believe. He does what they tell them. What difference is it to me if he's just a dupe or not?. That ideology should just be allowed to spread without challenge? Who does that serve except the neoliberal elite?
Seems like you're just assuming a lot of stuff about someone and that's not at all how I interpreted their statement. Have a nice one.