Tinidril @ Tinidril @midwest.social

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2 yr. ago

It's accurate that their lawyer made that true argument. That's just how party primaries work in the US, unfortunately. It's not accurate that "the party went to court for the right to rig". The whole point of the argument was to avoid a potentially long and expensive case from moving forward. The context matters, and the lawyer would have been incompetent not to bring it up, as would a Republican or even Green party lawyer in that situation.

the party went to court for the right to rig.

Not a fair interpretation of an argument made by a single DNC lawyer in a single context. Also, the primary is over and Mamdani won.

DNC normally "3rd parties don't function in our two party system, there's no point in voting for them

That part is just reality.

And Hegseth said he'd stop drinking.

Even if there were a magic politician who did everything right...

And even an apologist for Adolf Hitler might fall back to this vibe based argument.

Things can decline and progress at the same time.

Which is explicitly in my comment that you replied to.

The average american has access to far more luxury than ever before.

TVs are thinner (and cheaper), computers are faster and fit in your pocket. Technology moved forward, and you could even try to wrangle that into an argument for capitalism. (Which I would reject, but the bones of the argument are at least there). How you tie that to anything Democrats have done, I have no idea.

but I think on average things have improved

And you are delusional. Many things have gone well for some people, and some things have even gone well for almost everyone. That doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of working Americans are in way worse shape than they were 50 years ago.

You haven't wrestled with any of the facts above, but here are some more. The average personal savings rate in 1975 was over 12% and today it's below 6%. Nearly half of American households today have no retirement savings at all. Appliances now last less than half as long as they did in 1975. Jobs are far less secure than in 1975. Educational requirements are far higher than in 1975. College costs are way higher, as are medical costs - even for those with insurance. Even streaming media has been enshitified to where cable TV was cheaper and more convenient.

These are the kind of conditions that reliably turn neoliberalism into fascism.

Really? I think you might be the only one that doesn't see the decline. I've been making these points for years, and I've never had to defend the notion that things have gotten worse for workers. Sure, there are specific things tht have improved, but not the whole. Even a lot of the big improvements like the ACA have made the economic picture worse overall.

Union membership in 1975 was around 25% compared to 10% today. Wealth inequality has absolutely exploded, as has the percentage of Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Personal debt has also exploded. People used to borrow to buy a house. Then they started borrowing to buy a car. Then they started paying for college with debt. Now people are financing their groceries.

By every relevant measure, economic outlooks for everyone but the wealthy have crashed in the past 50 years, and Democratic solutions have done dick to stop it. In many cases it was even Democrats making things worse.

You are right, but the problem is less about corruption in politics and more about the weakness of voters. As bad as shit is, it's pretty much exactly what we voted for.

I used to want them to give some ground. Now I want us to take it. It's become absolutely clear that they don't just beat us down for advantage, they hate us and want us dead or suffering.

We have the power, but they have us using it to fight each-others. It's time for the people to unify and use our power to tell the wealthy what the new rules are going to be.

But America brings so much to the table! There's all the goods manufactured in America, there is all the creativity coming out of the American TV and movie industries, there is all the scientific research and knowledge that is totally not leaving. What about innovative software (licenses) and enshitified streaming services. America is on the cutting edge of defense and it's partners totally trust that America would never yank away support for those weapons at the whim of a mad king or anything.

Most importantly, how will the world ever get by without the American financial system that contributes nothing to the world and demands all the wealth in return? I think the world will find America hard to shake.

(Massive /s, just in case it's not obvious.)

Fair, but parliamentary systems are a little bit different.

Really nothing. It has to do with fascism. Neoliberalism is losing to it all around the globe. Only Brazil and Mexico are bucking the trend, and they elected leftists.

Let's just put our heads in the sand and pretend that Democrats didn't lose the entire fucking country. They did everything right, it's just dumb luck.

It's not even just the federal government. Not only did Obama lose the House and the Senate, he also lost the Democrats over a thousand statewide seats. At some point there has to be a come to Jesus moment. If things haven't gotten bad enough now, what will it take?

Not just Obama, but he is a perfect example of the kinds of Democrats that made fascism inevitable.

I don't give a shit about Obama being black. We elected a black president so apparently we were ready for it, and that's great. I blame Obama for selling us out to Wall Street on multiple occasions. I blame him for perfecting Clinton's triangulation politics that replaces substance with flowery rhetoric. I blame Obama for redirecting funds traditionally used for congressional races to his own campaign chests, then blaming the Republican Congress when he couldn't get anything done. Should I go on?

So, you don't have any examples then. Got it.

Americans have had 50 years of "progress" where all the great things Democrats say they do don't seem to help. Technocratic improvements and even material improvements don't even register with people anymore. Voters (regardless of what they might say) want transformative change. Forgiving some student loans is good, but free college is transformative.

Republicans offer transformative change. In the absence of anything on offer from the Democrats, the culture moves right. 50 years later and here we are.

Plenty of parties start with a few percent and then grow.

In a FPTP election system? OK, let's hear it. What are some parties that grew to power under FPTP elections.

I think the last one was probably Bill Clinton?

LOL, wut? Bill Clinton said "The era of big government is over." then proceeded with the largest dismantling of the federal welfare state until maybe now.

What does the left have to do with it?

Meh. We'll see what happens when it threatens their office. A lot of them have already started changing their rhetoric.