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No, Democratic Party would throw an election rather than move an inch to the left.
The most relevant paragraph imo
Bernie’s coalition was filled with the exact type of voters who are now flocking to Donald Trump: Working class voters of all races, young people, and, critically, the much-derided bros. The top contributors to Bernie’s campaign often held jobs at places like Amazon and Walmart. The unions loved him. And— never forget — he earned the coveted Joe Rogan endorsement that Trump also received the day before the election this year. It turns out, the Bernie-to-Trump pipeline is real! While that has always been used as an epithet to smear Bernie and his movement, with the implication that social democracy is just a cover for or gateway drug to right wing authoritarianism, the truth is that this pipeline speaks to the power and appeal of Bernie’s vision as an effective antidote to Trumpism. When these voters had a choice between Trump and Bernie, they chose Bernie. For many of them now that the choice is between Trump and the dried out husk of neoliberalism, they’re going Trump.
The failure that will forever define Bernie’s political legacy will be not turning the energy that was behind him in 2020 into a more permanent movement. He just gave the phone bank and email lists to the Dems and fell in line.
…the progressive movement held our collective noses and reacted to an existential crisis for the preservation of american democracy in the face of imminent fascism, and the coalition succeeded at that goal for a short while, but only just…
It’s not a failure, he made a choice. In hindsight we see it as the wrong choice, but we don’t know what the alternative is. We will never know if it was right or wrong, failure or success.
Nothing is ever so simple.
It’s a failure unless his goal was for his movement to fizzle out and flounder.
He’s right. In a declining capitalist state like the current US, workers want change. In the absence of a genuine working class party that correctly blames capitalism and the capitalist class for a revolution, you get a “radical” capitalist-funded party that at least points the blame at someone — marginalized people.
The dems only offer to preserve the status quo, and no one fucking wants the status quo.
Get organized. Liberal democracies in the imperial core historically always slide to fascism.
It’s worth noting that “fascism” specifically is a eurocentric — or even more specifically a 20th century-centric — ideology. You could argue the US has always been “fascist”, just that the fascism has been focused on people outside it — the countries it constantly wages wars on. Still a good way to describe the direction declining capitalist states are headed to, I guess.
Fascism is Capitalism in decay, the violent immune system employed by the Capitalist class. A great work on fascism is Blackshirts and Reds. I can provide a longer Marxism intro reading list if you’d like, but Blackshirts is a great start.
You could argue the US has always been “fascist”, just that the fascism has been focused on people outside it
Hitler was inspired on how to treat the Jews, Romani, disabled, and queers, based on how we treated Native Americans and Black Americans. He saw the country doing so well in the world stage excluding millions from the same status and privilege as the normalized default, and thought it would work for Germany and Europe, by force.
America was founded by rich white oligarchs, it was never going to support anything good without a lot of people letting go unless they died.
EDIT: Sorry if you get double pinged, server had a hiccup as I was posting.
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While it’s good to hear him say it now, I’m very annoyed that he didn’t attempt to hold Dem feet to the fire while they were in an election, and could have potentially extracted concessions. AFAIK he’s also still not calling the Palestinian genocide a genocide.
This is not to take away from the message that the democratic party must be destroyed and replaced with a working class (IE: Communist) party, which is correct, but merely to point out that Bernie himself cannot be trusted to lead it.
Brother is hurtling towards 90. I wouldn’t trust him to lead a drum circle.
…this is the crux of it: bernie’s time was eight years ago, and even though i absolutely respect his lucid resolve, the movement needs fresh figureheads to sustain its momentum…
Any example at hand of these liberal democracies that hystorically always slide to fascism? What does imperial core mean?
It’s not that liberal democracies always slide, specifically, it’s that Capitalist states always slide, and this is heightened by being in the Global North. Global North countries brutally explioit Global South countries via Imperialism, by relying on vastly under-paid labor and selling it in the Global North for higher prices.
Fascism is Capitalism in decay, the violent immune system employed by the Capitalist class. A great work on fascism is Blackshirts and Reds. I can provide a longer Marxism intro reading list if you’d like, but Blackshirts is a great start.
I also recommend Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, and the famous Yellow Parenti Speech (a small excerpt here.
Primarily referring to Germany and Italy’s descent into fascism, and we’re currently seeing this happen in France, and now in the US. These countries only see a shift to the left with an external force, like Scandinavian states giving concessions to the working class when the nearby USSR posed the threat of a good example — and by extension, the threat of a working class revolution; of course, these concessions are gradually being taken away now.
Imperial core countries refers to colonizer countries that now control financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank, and depend on the continued exploitation of former colonies.
I specify liberal democracies in imperial core countries because we have seen limited successes for the left outside it. Like Allende coming to power in Chile (before being overthrown in a US-backed coup 2 years later), or now Lula and Claudia coming to power in Brazil and Mexico.
It’s an interesting ending to an otherwise fine comment. Bernie would slide the US towards liberal democracy, further from fascism
That’s not how Capitalism or fascism works. Capitalism is in constant decay, this decay leads to sharpening contradictions and fascism is deployed to protect Capitalist interests. Bernie would not end Capitalism, he may only slow it’s rate of descent, not stop it or reverse it. A great work on fascism is Blackshirts and Reds. I can provide a longer Marxism intro reading list if you’d like, but Blackshirts is a great start.
Reread your post and then really consider if that rhetoric would get >50% of the vote. It’s just more academic jibberish that falls flat outside coastal cities.
That’s not the message to voters, that’s the message to thinking people who are evaluating the problem. The message to voters is much more simple. Point the finger where the blame lies, and tell the people what you’ll do for them. Of course no serious funding will come your way if you try that though, since the corpos running the country aren’t going to donate to a candidate who seeks to unseat them. There you see is the root of the problem. It’s not a government of the people, by the people, unless you believe that silly lie that corporations are people.
If this is how he felt the last year, he’s just as culpable as all of the other fucks who stayed home and didn’t vote. Fuck him and his Monday morning quarterbacking.
Bernie can’t even garner the support of his own party, let alone the whole country. What are you guys on??
Not to mention the constant complaint about old people in politics while demanding more of this dinosaur?
You think the party elects presidents? It doesn’t. People do, not politicians or parties. Your myopic view is what’s wrong with American elections, particularly Democrats: the idea that a party can win by virtue of appeal to the machine.
Bernie would have won in 2016 if HRC, Wasserman-Schultz, Donna Brasil, and the DNC hadn’t subverted his nomination. Again in 2020 if the DNC, Kamala, and the other candidates hadn’t dropped out in favor of Biden against Sanders.
The idea that any candidate is owed the presidency is fucked. So is your misunderstanding of the problem.
Bernie has a lot more energy than Trump and Biden combined, tbh.
He doesnt get support because he actually supports the working class. The fundamental thing us left folks have to accept is the democratic party simply isnt a left wing party. The left doesnt exist anymore in the US.
The parties are right wing conservatives called Democrats vs fascist psychopaths that call themselves Conservatives.
The reality simply is that the left is the right, and the right isnt even on the chart anymore. The actual left doesnt even have representation at this point.
Voters have to start getting a lot louder about this, in more obnoxious ways. Protesting has to happen, at minimum.
America just voted for an old dude who can’t string two sentences together, and can barely walk unaided. Do you really think the “too old” argument holds water?
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The republican party and adjacent is mostly white nationalists, what would make you think that they would switch to voting for a Jewish person? He would have unfortunately lost.
Last I saw something like 55% of the populace looks like it voted for trump. In these crazy pants times I do not see bernie winning.
You are not intelligent or informed. 20% voted him in. 55% of the people who voted comes out to about 40% of the eligible voters nationally.
Going passed the disinformation in your first line. The people who vote are all that matter in a democracy. The others are basically dependent on their decision making regardless of if its because they can’t or won’t.
Why do different elections have different vote totals? Why is non-voting a significant bloc?
55% of the vote, 20% of the population. Democrats stayed home.
…rather presumptuous that non-voters were democrats…
55% of the electorate who care which is sorta more sad sounding.
Stayed home, or had their votes discarded because of hanging chads? We’ll never know because there was no challenge issued.
Confront reality, please. Harris couldn’t replicate past voter turnout because she made no wide, progressive promises like Medicare for All, which the working class loves.
What no political theory does to a mfer
Trump offers a fake anti-establishment for people who are rightfully mad at the state. Only a working class party can direct that towards actual improvement.
Problem is obviously that a working class party wouldn’t be funded and backed by billionaire capitalists the way the duopoly is; that’s the point of liberal “democracies” — keeping capitalist parties in power.
This is why citizens united is basically the worst thing to come out of the millenia. So far. In the US at least.
I’m not impressed by this analysis.
- It doesn’t account for those who stayed home.
- It doesn’t account those who would have voted for Sanders instead of Trump if that option were actually available to them.
- Who did they think would be excited to volunteer to canvass for Democratic genocidaires? The DNC knowingly forfeited their ground game.
I really cannot see how anyone who would vote for trump would vote for sanders. its like apples and poison ivy. I don’t get those who don’t vote in a democracy either. I hate living in this eroding time period but way the hell glad to be living when democracy is considered the standard form of government. On tope of it we get to vote for the office, and get to vote for people to run for the office, and can sign signatures to get people on the ballot to run for office. I feel like people really don’t have a good sense of human history.
We literally saw it happen. It is well documented. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanders–Trump_voters
Yeah I just don’t see it. They could not be more different to me. I have no idea what measure these people are using that they would flip between those two. so I get they exist but its so outside my perspective I can’t grok the individual who is like that. Its like flat earthers for me.
They couldn’t be more different to me, either, but what we think is irrelevant. Whatever their reasons, and no matter how alien those reasons might be to you and me, significant numbers of people really did flip.
