I’m not a drive by poster (been here since 2004), I’ve had numerous internet issues, board issues as well as other things going on.
Anyway, Bernie’s endorsement pretty much bring this to a close. There will be holdouts, but there always are. Some people just like to fling spitballs and others are just contrarians.
Bernie is in the twilight of his political career. He’ll never run for President again. He has a ton to answer for, but at least the remaining bros have nothing to organize around. And, the Greene have started to read their ugly head again but they look even more like a clusterfuck this year and I don’t think they’ll be a factor
Fuck off trying to delineate and imply we don’t do “real work” or whatever it is you’re insinuating. I was literally homeless for part of last year. We have workers living in vans, and who have gotten medical problems they haven’t been able to fix because our leave policies are so bad. I’ve had friends who have had to resort to actual sex work to be able to afford rent because of the cost of living. We work at an institution that can fire you and cite “academic reasons” to sidestep every provision of our contract because it only applies to “job performance” despite the distinction being meaningless for a large part of our work force. Who does the majority of the teaching, course material design, and especially research load of the University. Where we get paid like we’re half time employees but forced to register for credits, forcing us to work well over what’s legally full time hours, with over half of it unpaid, and then told they’re doing us a favor because they’re waiving tuition for “credits” whose course description is “do the research you’re also employed to do.”
And I don’t generally engage heavily in theory. My interaction with the union is largely practical, I don’t hang around the organizer’s office discussing Hegel or whatever. We have like… maybe 3 people that do that? And they’re all insufferable. And nice editing out the part where I said we’re, including me, also closely involved in helping the faculty union (other educational workers!) as well as fast food and grocery unions organize at the moment. Y’know, people directly in harm’s way due to a pandemic, many of whom agree with us on political issues.
I have no idea where the fuck you’re getting “ageist” from. I suppose it’s true in the sense that we all have bigotry to unlearn but I’m not sure what I said that actually undermines people based on age.
Also I never said how I was going to vote. Personally, I’m almost certainly going to strategically vote for Biden but it’s an ethical nightmare. I know myself. I won’t be able to pass up the chance he might trip and enact something good, but I’m not even convinced it’s the correct decision. Look: obviously Biden is better than Trump, that’s unassailable. They’re not identical candidates. But there is absolutely a meta-effect to consider. If Biden wins, it would appear to legitimize every comment about “moderates being electable” in the eyes of those who made it, kneecapping further left policy for the foreseeable future, and emboldening those who want to play it safe and not pass any actually compelling legislation. It signals to the Democratic party it’s a-okay with us to run someone who is, at best, a sexual harasser (which, as a rape victim, the thought of voting for him is incredibly triggering for me no less mentally taxing than the Kavanaugh nomination debacle). In The Anatomy of Fascism, the author describes Fascism as a reaction to frustration with “weak liberal policymaking”, and people becoming so fed up with weak moderate non-solutions they elect the first person who promises to do something to address their actual problems, even if they’re horrible non-solutions built on bigoted nonsense. Is Biden going to just trigger that revulsion harder? Is it going to cause a worse Trump? Or Trump to pull a Grover Cleaveland and show up in 2024 with even more secure power and public approval than he would have if he had just won 2020? During COVID the Dem party hasn’t exactly been doing great from a labor perspective either, and I’m genuinely concerned signaling we’re okay with such a weak center-right candidate will pave the way for further erosion of those rights under both parties.
Am I, personally, going to vote for Biden? Almost certainly. But it’s non-obvious to me that Biden is better than Trump. Not in the sense that he’s not immediately better, but in the sense that it’s not obvious to me that the act of electing Biden will not exacerbate the same conditions that led to Trump. And I am simply unable to resolve these questions in any way that will allow me to convince anyone with similar concerns that comes to the opposite conclusion. Especially not fellow sexual assault victims that cannot bring themselves to vote for a sexual harasser, and possible rapist.
I disagree. In 2000, I didn’t: I thought that a meta-effect might occur, and a vote for Nader might trigger a meta-effect, might get centrist Democrats to pay more attention to the left.
Yeah, that didn’t happen.
Of course there are secondary effects from elections. But the idea I’ve been hearing about elections ever since I first set up anti-war tables in my high school cafeteria in 1991, that third-party votes could have a salubrious effect on the policies of the Democratic party, just hasn’t held up. And the corollary you seem to be suggesting, that a vote for a centrist now can encourage a fascist later, also doesn’t really seem to happen.
Instead, I think these meta-effect arguments tend to be self-serving. Voting for Biden is a lousy thing to do for someone who’s very far to the left of Biden. And if someone personalizes their vote, treating it like a trophy or a valentine, it’s gonna feel dishonest. Positing a harmful meta-effect attaching to a Biden vote can let the positer do the thing they want to do anyway, i.e., refuse to vote for Biden.
But votes ain’t valentines. Rebecca Solnit’s 2016 article in The Nation is crucial reading for leftists trying to figure out how to vote in times like we find ourselves in, and I really encourage you to read it.
The idea that Bernie didn’t do everything he could to endorse Hillary is completely fictitious. He earnestly campaigned for her, frequently, hard, and unequvicably. Trying to portray him as a sore loser that tried to sabotage the democrats is absolute bullshit. There was no doubt he was going to whole heartedly support Biden.
Yeah I know it’s not like Biden was a Dalek and screaming in a metalic voice to EXTERMINATE Social Security but he definitively talked about cutting Social Security, all your own cites say so. And with an issue like that, we wouldn’t expect a politician to come out and say how much they were really willing to cut it, it’s more something they have to dogwhistle.
Not being disingenuous, I know it’s hard to tell around here sometimes but did he really? He didn’t use the sexual assault allegations, or Biden’s medical record or misspeaking against him did he?
Attacking Biden on Social Security just seems like a straightforward policy, consistency and political character based attack, not so much going for the throat.
Yes, he talked about it, by calling the GOP’s bluff. Everyone, even Sanders know that, and Politifact agrees.
It’s pretty easy to go to Biden’s page and see how he wants to strengthen and protect SocSec.
Biden knew full that the GOP would never agree to a across the board 5% cut on everything. He knew they were full of shit and only wanted to cut social programs in *the name of deficit cutting. * Biden was never going to cut SocSec.
Do you believe that National Lampoon would really have shot that dog if you didnt buy their magazine? :dubious::dubious::dubious:
I give “Biden wanted to cut Social Security” mostly true and so do plenty of other websites. He was (and probably is in my view but we can’t know what he really believes) willing to cut Social Security to save money. In a way it’s admirable he admitted it, he even said he knew it was politically unpopular but he went ahead and was honest.
People disagree on this point, it’s OK. And I’m sure he says he wants to strengthen and protect Social Security now, it’s not good strategy to admit to wanting to cut it.
Sanders running as a Democrat stinks of political maneuvering to prevent the rise of a viable third party, IMO.
You have a transparently corrupt system going on, a dysfunctional one at that; it’s so FUBARed that it’s got to the point where the system presents you with either Trump or Biden as the leader of a nation. I mean, seriously people get your act together. :rolleyes:
I’m sorry to say, but your attitude is the death of Democracy, never mind “managed Democracy”, you are bowing down to Oligarchy and they count on you to keep them at the trough.