Me too.
We may be losing, or maybe it just feels like it right now, but we can’t give up.
Get these 1/6 investigations public and make sure to get the word out about some of the crazy shenanigans going on with the false electors and that sort of thing, I think we’ll start to see the public change and then maybe the DOJ won’t be too worried about the “side with guns” doing something too violent and then some people at the top start to see consequences, then we’ll see how things look.
I hope.
Yeah, I was trying to choose a term that generally applied, given the varying ages and such of posters. But few people who crow today about their rights to benefits they paid into, complain about their greedy ancestors back in the 30s taking benefits they didn’t pay into.
I’m weirdly optimistic. I don’t believe Republicans have won, or are likely to win, despite a temporary lead.
I see all the polls that have Biden in the tank, but are all those disapproving people really going to vote Republican because Biden couldn’t get a bigger infrastructure bill passed?
There’s a lot of wild rhetoric, but is it fact or wishful thinking by Fox talking heads? The reality is that Biden has done no harm & some good & Republicans are inventing reasons to attack him – he said he’d unify us & then he said mean things about Republicans! It would help if Democrats would fight back, but even without that, Biden’s biggest failing is not doing enough & everyone knows why.
I don’t yet know much about any of the 2022 races, how many seats are at stake, who the candidates are, etc, but I don’t think it’s a given that Democrats will lose seats. Yes, traditionally, the party in power loses seats, but these are strange times, and recent years have seen lots of traditions overturned. Even if Democrats lose seats in 2022, they will likely be losing them to outright lunatics. Lunatics aren’t reliable, they don’t play well with others, enough of them in Congress will fracture Republicans. Republicans are already fighting among themselves, it will get much worse.
Right now, conservatives love Republican legislation – keep your guns, no abortion, parents running education, but Republicans are also legislating to destroy teachers unions, public education in general, assistance programs of every variety, raise taxes, etc. They will be much less popular when their base gets kicked in the teeth with these laws.
Republicans are also on the brink of open violence against their opponents. McCarthy, etc are assuming that violence will be directed at liberals, but they’ve forgotten how many crazies are in their base. Crazies who are just as, or perhaps more, likely to go after a Republican they feel has betrayed them. If this happens, it will bring big changes.
If a leader shows up and gets them organized, young people will become a force, and not likely one that supports Republicans. If this happens, it will bring big changes.
All Democrats have to do to save our democracy is vote. If enough Dems vote, they win. And if Dems win, democracy lives on. So where is the massive get-out-the-vote campaign from Democrats?
Thanks for these articles: I hadn’t seen them, and it’s a really useful perspective.
edit: Oh, and @Leaper, as for what to do: I emigrated for my own security, and I continue to pay attention and vote for what little good that does. That’s not a practical option for everyone, of course, but while I don’t think full-on prepper is sensible, I think growing some vegetables and taking disaster preparation a little more seriously (for storms, power outages, and other infrastructure issues as much as anything) isn’t a bad idea.
Misery loves company, eh?
You’re welcome, of course; please share them widely and often.
While interesting and saying important things, not one of the articles (the fourth I wasn’t able to read, because it was paywalled) answered my original question: what does this mean to me and the choices I make about my future? Should I be telling my sister to pull her kids out of school and get out of the country right now? Should I quit my job in preparation for a time when the dollar is meaningless and buy rural land? Should I be giving contraceptives to every woman in my life of childbearing age? Should I be buying guns? Should I be planning “self defense” attacks on Republican lawmakers and voters? (I will not, of course.) Or am I just supposed to lay on the floor crying and tying the noose?
If the author is right, and they may very well be, what point is there to my modern life right now? To anyone’s, anywhere?
Because there’s no easy answer, dude; this isn’t a movie or a TV show.
Why in the world do you think there’s a point to your (or anyone else’s) life? You get to decide the point of your life, even here in America, if you can find one.
“Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody’s gonna die.”
IMO the point of the articles is to simply be aware of what’s happening and assess things accurately. Stop pretending the US is exceptional. Stop pretending everything is mostly fine. Stop lying to ourselves, as a nation, about every ddamned thing so that we can collectively feel smug about ourselves and the things we do. Stop being surprised all the time.
The US is a profoundly broken and fucked up oligarchy that has been gaslighting its citizens for more than 150 years, at least. Deal with that, if we can. But thinking the US is some egalitarian, anyone-can-make-it-if-they-try wonderland is a fucking lie.
People under 30 are particularly aware of the lie that is our country, IMO. They will never have it as good as their parents and will never even approach the quality of life that their grandparents had. And they know it. And they know why, some of them. A lot of them, actually.
You know what, I had three fairly lengthy paragraphs going trying to explain a lot of things, and I just deleted all of it. It still wasn’t saying everything that was going on in my head, and I finally decided that I wasn’t going to succeed in filling all the (obvious to me) gaps between what I was thinking, what I was saying, and what others read. So there’s that.
I did come to one conclusion, though: a lot of my thinking was triggered by the acquaintance I’ve mentioned in other threads. He did what relatively few people in my experience have done: walked the walk of his political beliefs. He uprooted his entire life, shut down his small business, moved literally cross country. I think that just left me wondering who else is going to do so, and what that means to them…and the people around them…
High minimum wage, hugely pro-union, favoured towards blacks and “LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender women of color” and anti-globalisation. It’s all if the Democratic Party platform.
https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/building-a-stronger-fairer-economy/
There is so much wrong in this thread. Starting with the exclusionary title.
A few points to be made:
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Standards of living are increasing and in many, many ways life is much better for the youth than it was for their parents and grandparents. However, we don’t have the luxury of being the only industrialized nation on the planet in a post WWII era. Now we have to compete globally and that still hasn’t sunk into the heads of many on the left who think that the rest of the world cares about our counterproductive economic policy. No. They are going to exploit it and profit from it strategically.
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Tremendous progress has been made in how marginalized communities are treated. This is very good and I think the impact is underestimated.
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Decriminalization of marijuana in many states is another big deal.
Now the funny thing is that what is simultaneously and contradictorily decried as a racist conspiracy theory and the great left hope of massive demographic change hasn’t quite worked out. Going all in on a coalition of identity politics was always risky because people are more complex than the boxes the political elites put them in.
So, no, the so-called left hasn’t lost. Unfortunately, as they are an illiberal menace. They just have to compromise with their coalition and the rest of the nation.
Assuming humanity doesn’t destroy itself with nuclear weapons or more likely plagues than it seems like it would be inevitable that leftist economics will have an audience as automation and AI displace humanity from the labor portion of wealth generation. Be patient.
What’s high? Even $15 is barely more than half of an inflation-adjusted minimum wage from the 1960s, and they didn’t even fight for that. We’ve still got $7.25 minimum wage in a country where the average rent of a 1 bedroom apartment is about $1250/month. That’s “hard left” to you?
Supporting the existence of unions is hard left? Progressive? I would also not say that they are meaningfully “hugely pro-union”, what pro-union policies or legislations have they pushed recently?
This is not an economic policy. Yes, I granted that they’re allowed to be less hateful in the past because rich people don’t give a shit about that.
In what way are they anti-globalization, and in what way is that a hard left policy?
You’re falling for the extreme Overton window pushing talking points where anything that’s not “we should put kids back in coal mines” is “hard left” - democrats are not seriously pushing any of the policies you mention, and even if they were, they’re all significantly way more right to what was within the normal range of politics as far back as the 1960s.
For instance, who is more pro a robust minimum wage and a pro robust unions - a 2021 democrat or a 1965 liberal republican?
In rhetoric/campaign mode.
In rhetoric/campaign mode.
Your dossier seems out of date as it seems to be referring to the pre-‘Third-Way’, pre-DLC/DNC version of the party leadership.
Quite right. shows the utter folly of kowtowing to the right in fear of being labeled too far left. Perfect cover for them to tack economically right by playing the identity politics card, not they they care about the issue, but rather it costs the corporate donors less than economic reform. Senor Beef is right.
The US has moved more to the right on fiscal policy (except for the deficit) and it’s done so for a good reason. Policies that have opened up trade, provided more freedom to businesses, promoted research, and supported entrepreneurship have hugely benefited the US economy. Socially, the US has been moving steadily left. The Democratic Party left-wing isn’t happy with either of those trends. Rather than recognising that an expanding economy helps everyone, they seek to demonise the rich. And instead of recognising that American society is becoming more diverse and more accepting of diversity, they’re trying to impose their own version of a liberal fantasyland society, complete with a new vocabulary, on everyone else. Most Americans reject both of those leftist frameworks. And many Americans identify those leftist frameworks with the Democratic Party and therefore reject it as well.
No, they believe in a government that is fair for everyone, and the best way for a government to be fair is to let people be free. Society isn’t perfect and government is needed to address societal faults. But the government should focus on specific identifiable faults, rather than seeking to restructure society. It’s fine if a politician or political activist wants to lead society on the way to what they believe will make a better society. That’s why we have elections - to select our leaders. But political leadership shouldn’t be about ordering the people to do what the government wants it to; it should be about getting people to follow the governments leadership and changing because the people believe that changing is the right thing to do.
Read what you wrote. The Democratic Party wants to more than double the minimum wage. And I checked Statista - the average for a one-bedroom apartment is $960, and for a two-bedroom it’s $1101 from their latest figure (February 2021). $551 to split a two-bedroom apartment is not starvation-inducing, even for someone making $7.25/hour. Make the argument that the minimum wage should be higher if you want to. But you’re not going to be able to make a reasonable economic argument that it should be more than doubled.
The hard-left is very much pro-union. That’s not just in the US; it worldwide. Every socialist party in western countries seeks increases in union membership and expanded union powers. The US left is just following the examples of others. And the Democratic Party platform is thoroughly pro-union.
As for the promotion of LGBTQ+ interests, I find it odd that you’re stating that not part of the Democratic Party’s economic policy when that clause was quoted directly from the Democratic Party’s economic policy. As for being anti-globalisation, here’s another quote: “For too long, the global trading system has failed to keep its promises to American workers.” But don’t ask me why leftists are anti-globalisation. I’ve never understood why bringing people out of abject poverty by giving them jobs is considered a bad thing.
I also find it odd that you’re saying Democrats aren’t pushing the things I’m listing, when I’m getting them from the Democratic Party’s platform. Maybe you’re saying the party just put those things in to appease its left wing, but didn’t really mean it? Or maybe you’ve just never read it?
It’s not my dossier, it’s the Democratic Party’s own platform. Here it is again:
https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/building-a-stronger-fairer-economy/
Am I the only one around here who’s actually read it?
Cool story.
No, really that is a nice idea, but the current Republican Party is led by “leaders” that report that they are not responsible, and they are really being led by the most reprehensible forms of ideals from their base.
So Trump is being Trump and Republicans are being increasingly vaccinated, although less so on the far right. So what? Neither point supports k9bfriender’s premise that Republicans only want to provide good government to other Republicans, nor my premise that conservatives want a hands-off government, especially regarding social issues.
Is your point that the Trump and the far-right are turning centrist voters away from the Republican Party in the same way that the far-left is turning centrist voters away from the Democratic Party? I’d agree with that point. But that means that the Democratic Party is relying on anti-Trumpism, rather than its platform to attract voters. That’s a losing strategy at every level below the presidency. “Yeah, but Trump” is a great strategy for rallying the left. For the rest of us, we’re tired of hearing about it. Trump’s been gone from government for a year.
Then again, I guess perpetual hate is a feature of the left. UK Labour members are still complaining about Thatcher after all.