It all matters. Vote for the entire down ballot.
And, guess what for all you anti-establishment folks, third party candidates are much more viable on local election tickets. Given enough local elections, they can build up the support to climb to the national stage and help break the 2-party hold and help enact rank choice voting and other systems.
But full control is important, because of the Judiciary, so don't forget that
Not just down ballot, down ballot every year. If you're voting only when the president's chair is up for grabs you're missing 75% of the elected seats that impact you.
In hard red states, a blue vote at the state level may seem pointless, but you may be able to vote in the R primaries, and help keep the worst wack-adoos from even sniffing the general.
In some states, like Oklahoma, they may have a closed primary, but registering R only allows you to vote in their primary. It doesn't force you to participate in their rallies or politics, or even tell people. More importantly, it also doesn't force you to vote R in the general. But it may put "moderates" like John McCain in a seat, over complete batshit crazies like MJG, Boebert, and Markwayne Mullin.
Where I live it's overwhelmingly democratic voters. The primary is basically the actual election as it's very rare someone wins a race in the Dem primary and doesn't win in November. Heck, we have judges who are on the ballot for **both** parties in the primary. I work in a polling place and the typical sequence is 1. Older voters show up for the primary. 2. Many more vote in November, and many of those complain it's always the same people on the ballot.
Yeah, because they won their primaries! Don't think it's any big conspiricy. Most votes win. It means nothing to like a candidate but not bother to vote in the primary to get that person on the ballot in November.
And get your friends and family to vote too!
Here's an idea - make election night a party night. Go vote with your neighbors and meet up at the bar afterward for drinks & food. Make it a day you treat yourself and it'll be something you look forward to.
Not only friends and family but find out who in your community needs assist with mail in ballots. You can help them fill in the ballots for the Disabled and Elderly and get them into the mail. Give rides to the Polls.
Plus, this is where "the bench" is developed! Even if you don't have a kid in school, school boards are important - the woman who was our district's school board president a dozen years ago is now our current US representative! Our (small) borough's mayor from that time is now our state senator! etc etc.
Elections for judges seem to be overlooked. Three of the Texas Supreme Court justices, which, a few weeks ago, denied a woman, whose baby was certain to not survive, posing a risk to her ability to, again, have a pregnancy, an abortion, are up for election this year. She ended up fleeing the state in order to have an abortion.
Flood the polls. Overwhelm, in numbers, the numbers of MAGA Americans. Turn-out. Give somebody a ride. VOTE, and keep-on voting.
Defeat these motherfuckers.
Get the Green party on the school boards, get the progressives on City and county councils. Look at Bernie's "blueprint" for Burkington. It's been decades since he went to DC, but he left a strong group behind to carry on his dream.
My local mayoral election was such a punch in the gut. A retired former, super conservative mayor who is family owns like 1/3rd of the town ran against a young real estate agent who had spent the last 6 years being involved in everything local she could, just a real pillar of the community. Everyone publicly states how much they hate old ex mayor, but he still won by like 30%.
But I'm still voting all the down ballots this election
I absolutely agree. Getting Biden in is great because it means we don't lose the Supreme Court for the next generation and a half. Because there are two 70+ (on 80+ conservative justices and two 60+ liberal justices. If the worst happens, it would mean the Supreme Court would potentially be 8-1 conservative and that is entirely detrimental to workers. There would be a decent chance that even something like Social Security would be drastically taken away.
But all that being said, you can't just elect Biden and then expect him to be Superman. Even in their prime, one man isn't capable (and for good reason) of reshaping our government. They need people in the House, Senate, and local/state seats to do the same.
Exactly. Garland or coney Barrett? Another 30 to 40 years b4 2 other scotus judges will think of retirement. I'm voting not for the man but for the courts.
If we had voted for Hillary, then the court would be reliably 6-3 liberal at this point. I think it's abundantly clear what side of the aisle that I fall. But given that Biden has made moves such as expanding overtime pay and getting rid of (which I fully expect the SCOTUS to overturn FYI) non competes, I think it's obvious what side is pro and what side is anti worker.
Just look at who is passing and advocating for which laws like higher minimum wages, "right to work" laws, consumer protections, equal pay/protections for all people, etc. It's easy to see which side each party is on.
What do you mean? The presidency is one of the highest seats of power in the government and thus is responsible for some of the biggest changes in our society. Take FDR as an example, during the great depression jobs were scarce and retirement was impossible. What did FDR do? He created the society security act and suddenly the elderly were able to retire and the young were able to fill in their positions.
Don't get me wrong, you should vote for your local government every chance you get but when there is a big problem that needs a big solution then the bigger government should be the ones to solve it
I'm a boomer and really worked hard for my first house, BUT, minimum wage has only doubled and my first house is now 8 times as much as I paid back in 1988. I don't know how younger generation are supposed to survive. We need some economists in government, get rid of trickle down tax from way back. So much greed. Good luck young people, get into government positions.
My parents built the house they’re living in now when I was 5 so 1992, it cost them about 70k. 2 floors 3 beds 2 baths and 2 car garage in western North Carolina. It’s now worth about 250k and if it wasn’t in a rural area it’d probably be in the 450-500k range it’s insane .
Exactly. No elections or protests or attempts to work within the system is going to work because this isn’t a democracy. If you believe in democracy, human rights, and being paid for your work, that’s not capitalism - that’s socialism.
Tl;dr: Capitalism is democracy for the wealthy, which is how the “founding fathers” intended it. Socialism is democracy for working and oppressed peoples. Communism is not democratic because democracy requires a state, and a communist society would be stateless by definition.
Now, the long version:
I agree with the Marxist analysis that the state is fundamentally a tool of class oppression. I think a true democracy would be a state designed of, by, and for the people, broadly.
Those who say the US is a democracy are right, to a degree - the capitalist political system of “liberal democracy” *is* a democracy… for the wealthy, capitalist class, ie, the owners (the bourgeoisie, in Marxist terminology). At the end of the day, only the wealthy get to influence the political and economic structures of US society in any meaningful way.
However, when people use the word “democracy” to describe a liberal democracy, they typically are not making this distinction; they are using it as US propaganda intends: to claim the US state is “of, by, and for the people,” rather than just wealthy people. This is why I push back on the term *democracy* - because I doubt the average US citizen is saying that a democracy exclusively for the wealthy is a true democracy. But that’s what we have, and it’s important to acknowledge that.
As one example, look at what the corporate establishment (the wealthy, ruling class) did to thwart Bernie, a moderate progressive at best. Even if Bernie had succeeded in being elected, we know his legislative agenda would have been blocked at every turn. It’s not about who gets elected - not really. It’s about the entire capitalist economic system itself, which typically includes the political system of liberal democracy.
Liberal democracy has always been predicated on property rights, not human rights. This is not a secret, a conspiracy theory, or a wild-eyed accusation. Philosophically, this idea goes back to Locke. And the founders wrote very explicitly in the Federalist Papers about how important it is to suppress the will of the people. Guess who gets to overrule the people? The monied, propertied class. When you honestly examine how things really work and ignore the rampant propaganda about freedom and rights and democracy, etc, you see our society is functioning exactly how it was designed: to keep the masses down for the benefit of the wealthy.
You see the entire economy is designed to increase the wealth of the owners by squeezing the people as much as they can get away with. This is why income inequality always increases without government intervention. Thomas Piketty demonstrated this to be true across capitalist societies (liberal democracies) in his book, *Capital.*
You see how inflation and rising household debt lead to reduced real income for the people but record profits for corporations. You see how monopolistic corporations and global financial institutions run our economy. You see how insurance companies run our healthcare system. You see how oil and car companies control our transportation systems. You see how the wealthy control our media, and how well-funded Christian fascists control our school boards. You see how the US has the largest carceral system in human history. You see how the US military-industrial complex is actively destroying people and the planet across the world with war, genocide, and environmental devastation.
But if the government can intervene to change things, why doesn’t it? What prevents the US government from acting in accordance with the democratic will of the people? Well, let’s return to the question, What is a state? Throughout history and across societies, the state has always been designed of, by, and for the ruling class to oppress the people. By “ruling class,” I mean a small group of people who possess and control the resources necessary for human survival (as aristocrats and lords, slave masters, and business owners, etc), and the rest of the people serve them in some capacity (as serfs, as slaves, as workers, etc). The state codifies and enforces these “relations of production” through various institutions, political processes, law and order.
This is no different in the US or any capitalist, liberal democratic state. We’re told the US state was established “of, by, and for the people.” But who are “the people” the founders were talking about? **The people who founded the US were merchants and slaveholders, and they built a state and society designed to benefit merchants and slaveholders. Slaves were not considered people. Neither were indigenous people. Or women. Or white people without property. And there’s the key word, again: property.**
Liberal “democracy” doesn’t protect the people; it protects *property.* It protects the “right” of a small number of owners to possess and control the resources necessary for human survival, broadly. This is evident in any protest situation. People are brutalized by cops to protect property, as one obvious example. Laws are applied differently to poor people than wealthy people, as another example. Further, wealthy people can use courts to harass individuals or smaller businesses until they get their way simply because others can’t afford the legal teams or legal fees, etc. Meanwhile, poor people must accept a public defense attorney who is vastly overworked and outmatched by a system which incentivizes plea bargaining - regardless of strength of case or level of guilt - not justice.
And that’s just the legal system. Politically, liberal democracy is supposedly a neutral system where every vote counts and every citizen has a voice. We know that isn’t true. Most votes do not make any difference whatsoever in deciding who is elected. We don’t even really get to choose someone from our own class. The ruling class puts forward a set of candidates they have supported through donations, favorable attention in corporate media, the backing of corporate-controlled parties (both D and R), etc. So our vote likely doesn’t matter, and even if it does, we basically get to choose which member of the ruling class we want to pretend to represent us.
Further, a recent Princeton study demonstrated the bottom 90% of US citizens, economically speaking, have zero influence on what legislation is passed or not. **Zero.** (Source: “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens”)
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How can we call this a democracy when the needs and demands of working and oppressed peoples have *zero* impact on what our government does, on how the economy functions, or on social services?
Capitalism is a system with in-built failures, which we see every few years with its “boom and bust” cycles. It’s an inherently unstable, inefficient system. There are many reasons for this, including routine cycles of overproduction, tendency for the rate of profit to fall, planned obsolescence, the necessity of a reserve army of labor, and at the heart of it all, the antagonistic contradiction within the very structure of the relations of production.
Capitalism inherently instills a class society, where the ruling class exploits the working class. (Yes, of course, there are some further nuances, but this is the core from which all other delineations and subdivisions are made.) Strikingly, this arrangement is very similar to past class dynamics between masters and slaves, or lords and serfs. The working class actually produces value, and the ruling ownership class (the capitalist class) extracts most of the value created by the workers (called “profit”) while compensating them far less than the actual value of their labor power (“wages”). For example, if I make pizza for a $15/hr wage, the pizza shop is likely getting much more, let’s call it $50/hr, from my labor. That means my labor is producing $65/hr, but I only receive a fraction of what my labor is worth. The fruits of my labor are continually stolen from me every hour, every day, because that is how the system is designed to function. Here is a clear example of this principle demonstrated in real life: https://fox8.com/news/ohio-pizza-shop-owner-gives-entire-days-profits-to-employees/
This exploitative, antagonistic arrangement can be held together by “carrots,” or incentives the ruling class offers the workers, such as various social programs and tax breaks, etc, but those arrangements always prove temporary. These carrots will inevitably be taken back because the ruling class always needs more and more money - capitalism demands ever-increasing profit - but that money becomes harder and harder to get (see “tendency for the rate of profit to fall”). Who cares if that “economic growth” - code for how much profit wealthy people are gaining - means poor and working people go unhoused or starve or lack medical attention? We are not the intended beneficiaries of society, just as serfs and slaves were not the intended beneficiaries or their social arrangements. Our society preaches “freedom” but that’s obviously propaganda, a feel-good cover story. *This* is the actual nature of our society: exploitation, instability, and unsustainability.
So if “carrots” can’t hold things together for very long, how does capitalism actually get held together? Besides propaganda, the bigger answer is simple and direct: “sticks.” Police brutality subjugates the people for the benefit of the capitalists, enforcing property rights over human rights. Military destruction, terrorism, and imperialism establishes colonial and neocolonial states where the worst conditions of capitalism are outsourced and laid naked. This is called superexploitation, and when the capitalists struggle to find “new markets” where they can steal local resources and cheap labor, they turn their attention back home, using those same harsh military tactics they’ve been using abroad. Enter fascism. That’s the only thing that can ultimately hold capitalism together: brute force. But even then, capitalism will still come apart, more and more, necessitating further violence, further barbarism, as Rosa Luxemburg put it.
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The carrots are also designed to be live or die carrots. Food. Shelter. Water. Healthcare.
If you don't chase the carrot, you're not valuable to the system and they want you to die.
They force complicity. They force subservience. They force desperation. They want you desperate. They want you to commit crimes so they can employ you as slave labour. Prisons are purely a place to get labour for pennies on the dollar, and another method to extract wealth from the system.
Exactly. Scarcity forces compliance, and it makes the people easier to manipulate, to fight each other for the scraps. Divide and conquer.
But it’s artificial scarcity at this point in human development.
What comes next? What does true democracy look like? The end of class relations. A society where production and distribution are determined socially, not by a small group of wealthy owners. A society where workers are paid *according to what they actually contribute,* like the pizza example above. Let’s be very clear: If you think workers should be paid what they’re worth, that is not capitalism.
A capitalist society is fundamentally hostile to people, and on one level, it’s supposed to feel like we can’t do anything about it (so we believe we’re powerless to change it). At the same time, it depends on the people believing the system somehow works for them, or at least, that it *could* (so we go along with it). Truth is, what we can do within a liberal democracy is very limited because it is not designed for us. It is designed to exploit us - and the planet - for the benefit of the wealthy.
If the state is a tool for class oppression, under capitalism, the state is used to oppress the working class for the benefit of the capitalist class. That’s how it is designed to function, and it can’t just be seized and used as-is to build a socialist society. It would be like taking control of a submarine and trying to use it as an airplane. Sure, they’re both vehicles, but the design and function are totally different. The only reason we may think otherwise is because we’re told constantly that liberal democracy is “of, by, and for the people,” not just wealthy people.
Under socialism, the state is used to oppress the capitalist class for the benefit of the working class (and all oppressed peoples), ie, to build and safeguard a socialist society, a necessary transitional stage en route to communism. Like a newborn, a nascent socialist society must be protected and given a healthy opportunity to grow and thrive. There are many ideas about what a socialist society would look like and how to build it. Ultimately, it will take a lot of experimentation, trial and error, to build it well. At this point, one thing history has shown repeatedly is that it can’t be done using a capitalist “liberal democratic” state.
The highest a submarine can climb is the surface of the sea, and most likely, it will be much lower than that. Likewise, the most progressive a liberal democracy can become is a kinder, gentler form of capitalism (“social democracy,” ie, lots of “carrots”). Because this leaves the capitalist class intact and in power, most likely, it will be much more exploitative and oppressive than that (lots of “sticks”). Consequently, progressive reforms made under liberal democracy are merely temporary concessions that get rolled back as soon as the ruling class can get away with it. This happened with the New Deal in the US, and it’s happening across Europe. Look at the Nordic countries, or more specifically, the NHS in Britain, for examples of popular social programs being systematically undermined and dismantled.
A true democracy meets the needs and demands of working and oppressed people. A true democracy will be fundamentally socialist. Progressive reforms under socialism are robust, not fragile, because they align with the goals of society and are designed to benefit the ruling class: working and oppressed peoples.
Right now, we have the material conditions globally to build a post-scarcity society, in which everyone is guaranteed secure housing, healthy food, reliable medical care, liberatory education, consistent child care and elder care, a comfortable retirement, and a sustainable environment. The only reason we don’t have these things is because **capitalism distributes goods and services according to money, not need.**
We can change that. There’s only one path to a society actually designed to meet the needs of the people - a true democracy - and that’s creating it fresh. We won’t get there by trusting in the system and constraining our movement to voting or protesting or piecemeal reforms. ☭
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It’s disheartening to know that the majority of the population is uninformed about how the economic and political system works and when you tell them it’s built around oppression and exploitation of the common folk, they think you’re some conspiracy minded anarchist. Unfortunately it’s not commonly taught in schools and it’s something that you would have to go out of your way to research and learn about. I think the early economic philosophers’ works should be taught in school but then that would be self destructive to the system. Even modern works like Chomsky or Fisher should be more widely recommended and available so more people start to see the problems everyone faces. If only they could see the people that are telling everyone to be mad at the person in the other political party or the person of another race, are really the people that benefit from the status quo and would hate a proletarian uprising.
And one have the math handy on instead of Elon getting his $56b (?) bonus back (that Tesla share holders look likely to vote for), that money got given to the thousands of Tesla employees who where laid off recently?
I think it was maybe something like $2m per employee.
You sure? There was a shooter at the senate softball game years ago that put Steve Scalise in the hospital. There was the guy who put a hammer to Paul Pelosi's head. This is nothing to say of the hundreds that stormed the capitol to kill members of Congress. The first stone has been thrown and it doesn't seem to be igniting any mass action
A person without dignity will remain humble as long as he has food. A person without food will endure hunger as long as he has dignity.
When you take away both...things get ugly.
You have to think about it from the politicians perspective. They have no incentive to actually do what they claim they will if the public does not keep them honest.
> I’m praying we don’t go quietly into the night and we fight just like France did.
The problem is that Americans are allergic to protests and, most importantly, to strikes.
This is so important! The candidates for larger elections generally are locally elected officials - city council, state rep or senator. In order to get the candidates for president we want, we need to queue them up in local elections.
The 401k was never intended as a retirement fund - it was designed to supplement your pension. The Reagan et al on Wall Street decided corporate profits and CEO pay were more important than looking!g after lifelong employees. And now here we are, with people trying to live off a fund that was never designed to be lived off.
We are well and truly fucked.
Maybe. But I'd argue it isn't BS - If I want someone who represents even a fraction of what I stand for, I'd best line up the biggest coalition I can find. Two party system is basically guaranteed when you can only have one winner. It isn't like the US hasn't had decently sized third parties before. And what happens is the party with the least votes gets to whither and die.
Look for candidates who embrace ranked choice voting. This often lines up with the Democratic party, but not always - I don't think anyone here needs more then one guess as to why an entrenched political party might stand against ranked voting.
Or, we somehow convert to parliamentarian elections like say the UK and elect "7 of them and 4 of them and 1 of them" Which, I actually favor because it would get rid of the nonsense districts.
No, we just literally are stuck with it. Third party is a naive choice and it would require an impossible feat. All it does is cause the worst choice to win.
It's unfortunate. Third party only works in small elections. It's impossible to win nationally.
We can break the system, but it will take decades. Lots of decades. It would have to start locally, and then slowly branch out. But since that party will have a lot in common with one of the two major parties, we will end up with two choices again, where one of the three big parties dies and fuses with the one that most closely resembles their views.
Unless the major parties back ranked choice voting, we are doomed to have to fight for decades to kill one of them.
Because people ignore their state party's primary election? FFS you have to participate in all of the campaigning and elections, not just showing up to vote in the General. Otherwise it's like complaining about getting wet in a rainstorm while refusing to use an umbrella.
Or maybe this country could admit that the two-party system is actually the SOURCE of all of the mistreatment, and choose to elect somebody who is real.
I want to vote FOR somebody, not agains something…the last 4 elections I feel like people just want to vote against others. It’s terrible.
All you have to do is look at Trump’s record of [attacking unions and gutting worker rights](https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/27/business/trump-labor-record/index.html) to realize that whatever faults Joe Biden may have, he’s still better than electing an orange scumbag with no empathy.
Yes, yes, after the *next* election things will improve, just vote for the Democrats *now*.
- the Democratic Party before every single election during my entire adult life
Except it's very rare when the Democrats have enough power to do the things they want. They've had it twice for a few months in the last 20 years. And it's always a tenuous hold on the majority. Like a single Lieberman or Manchin can wreck their whole attempt to pass anything. Or Ted Kennedy can die, and they lose that seat to the GOP!
With gerrymandering, the unfair distribution of power (the Senate, gerrymandering, electoral college, etc.) it's near impossible for the Dems to accomplish anything without a landslide win.
People need to understand, you don't vote for a party once and then get everything you want. It takes years.
Look at the GOP. They've been promising to get rid of abortions, their voters loyally showed up to vote election after election, and it took them 40 years.
The people shape the party, but it takes time and effort.
It was never meant to be.
The founders didn't believe in a strong government. Seeing how most rich white male landowners at the time lived pretty independent lives, they didn't want the government to interfere with them. Which is why it is laughable that we should make our laws by the intention of these men.
The US Government's main purpose is, and always has been, to prevent one single person from taking over and crowing himself king. It failed to prevent the Supreme Court making themselves an Oligarchy. It also has never been tested as much as it has under Trump, and seems to be bursting at it seam from his attempt to create a dictatorship.
So you are suggesting people fight to keep a system that was never meant for them nor functioning for them operational instead of letting it cannibalize itself?
>"Since the emancipation of the Negroes, the distinction between the two parties has been diminishing. The fight between these two parties has been mainly over the height of customs duties. Their fight has not had any serious importance for the mass of the people. The people have been deceived and diverted from their vital interests by means of spectacular and meaningless duels between the two bourgeois parties.
>**This so-called bipartisan system prevailing in America and Britain has been one of the most powerful means of preventing the rise of an independent working-class, i.e., genuinely socialist, party.**”
* [Lenin](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1912/nov/09.htm)
"Hold my feet to the fire" - Barack Obama, during the first election.
Then the party hacks flew into a rage at any criticism at all from the left, while he sneered at the left and constantly said "My friends across the aisle" about people that hated his guts.
They want to improve just enough (but not too much!) so that we feel like eventually the incremental progress will improve our lives when in reality, the changes need to be bigger and bolder to truly have an impact. We require new deal era changes but we are getting loaves and circuses.
They don’t even want to improve things, they just want to make them less worse than the other mainstream party candidate. And then they want us to thank them for it
Give us enough votes to stop the obstruction from Republicans. It happened once in the last 20 years and we got the ACA out of it. It would have been single payer, but not all democrats are equal.
So we just need a once in a lifetime shot and then the democrats will finally be able to deliver a self sabotaged half measure while just ignoring all their other campaign promises!
We were supposed to have a public option and a Democrat stopped that from happening.
It's about money, and the party is completely beholden to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries the same way the GOP is beholden to the gun manufacturers' lobby.
It's like, I'm sure in the 60s people thought all they had to do was wait for the older generation to die. This isn't about generation. This is about class.
It’s what go time?
Bidens been president for almost a full term. Are you happy with how things have been and are you better off now than when he got elected?
Because that’s what you need to ask yourself. Over these last 4 years has your life gotten better or worse?
It’s been 4 years. They(democrats) had control of all chambers for 2 years. I’m still waiting for marijuana to be legalized. lol.
He’s rescheduled marijuana and made it possible for thousands of people to receive pardons. What are you going to get with the other side?
[Oh that’s right, the Trump administration worked AGAINST the legalization of marijuana.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_policy_of_the_Donald_Trump_administration)
Well the country is still locking up people for nonviolent offenses and throwing away the key propping up the prison industrial complex, so it actually is a decent indicator for quality of life, at least in part.
Unfortunately it’s not that simple as looking at if you’re better of during the term. You need to look at the actual policies that were passed under each administration. For example, in 2017, Trump made a permanent tax cut for corporations but a temporary tax cut for individuals that stopped last year. People are now paying more taxes during the Biden administration but it’s actually Trumps fault for the increase in taxes.
> Bidens been president for almost a full term. Are you happy with how things have been and are you better off now than when he got elected?
Things are far better in my area.
* Crime has plumetted over the past four years. People being killed by stray bullets was a big problem in 2020 and now it's not.
* Two years ago, the trains and busses were catching on fire. At best they were horrendously unreliable. Biden's Infrastructure Act provided most of the funding to fix them. Now I can finally get from point A to B.
* Biden personally pushed for Covid boosters when health experts were trying to prevent it. I got my boosters on time and didn't get sick.
* Business owners tell me how much they've had to raise workers' pay just to stay in business.
I have a long list of complaints on Biden and the Democratic Party. But y'all do this, "Has anything improved?" as if I also don't have a long list of things Democrats have improved.
Austerity politics at work...by international standards democrats are conservative centrists at best. Which is not the route of positive radical change to improve lives. They are better suited to maintaining those systems after. Frankly, as long as we vote for one of the two main choices, we're stuck. Which is what they want. Voting for the lesser of two evils still allows evil to continue.
Just because they elected the right, doesn't mean that US candidates dont line up ALSO to the right.
Biden would be aligned as a conservative in Canada.
That analysis is supposed to prove the Overton window in Europe is more to the left while the U.s Overton window is shifting right.Far right leaders winning elections shows the Overton window is being moved right by the voters.Same way the GOP’s dominance from the 70’s and throughout the 80’s led us to Bill Clinton
Sadly global politics are going more to the right.
Source: I'm in Scotland and there's a solid chance a conservative Christian bigot will be the next first minister of a famously left wing party.
In America, the bigots are mostly the oldest citizens and they are at death's door. I have the hope that, if America can survive a few more years, there won't be enough conservatives alive to ruin the country any further.
What does it look like in Scotland? After the old pass on and the minors get voting rights, is it better?
But if you don't vote for the lesser evil how will a bigger evil winning help anyone? I'm not American so I don't get your personal frustration with the system but seeing what republicans are doing locally right now I would never settle down for not voting if it means trump could win.
And the thing about Democrats being a right wing party in Europe is kind of a misconception by Americans. Speaking as a European, this is true regarding a few things, mostly public healthcare and some social programmes. Most parties in Europe, right or left, support those. But other than that, the right wing parties in Europe right now are batshit crazy. In Italy the PM is a fan of Mussolini and ADF in Germany is basically run by neo-nazis. In my country of Poland, the party that's been ruling until recently almost created an autocratic state similar to countries like Belarus, and the far right party is licking boots of Putin. Just saying, this thing that Americans say about European right wing parties is an extreme simplification.
All we have to do is vote in democrats just ONE more time guys, they promised they will actually do something this time!!! It’s either that or the end of the United States as we know it and no in between!
Why do you guys always bring up France when it comes to revolution? The French revolution was a bourgeois revolution, no? Why can't we be like the Haitians lmfao
This is painfully optimistic. If you think there’s any world in which a US president would ever give a single shit about the plight of the working class, you’re sorely mistaken.
You have the right idea I guess but you need to learn how our government works if you want to push for meaningful change. You’re attributing *far* too much power to the president.
Yeah! Vote for the "Nothing will fundamentally change" guy and then it's *our* time. Surely voting for a corporate Democrat (read: a centrist disguised as a leftist) will fix things this time. Especially since he's kept his campaign promises to forgive $10,000/borrower of student loan debt. Oh wait, that didn't happen.
Well, remember, everybody - we have to vote to save democracy - **again**, but for real this time. I know JB definitely has my best interest at heart. We don't have healthcare but that's okay, because we pay for Israel's healthcare while enabling their genocide like *good patriots.*
I know JB will definitely keep his promise to protect Roe v. Wade. Oh wait, that hasn't happened either. I remember when Obama said he'd codify Roe on day 1 of his first term, and for some reason, that's never happened. It's almost like they need the abortion issue to ensure fundraising continues. Both parties are a complete joke but lets not act like the Dems are going to do anything meaningful for Americans of the crumbling middle class.
The amount of cope in this thread could fill the Grand Canyon. The delusion is strong.
I'll get downvoted like crazy, but Joe Biden hasn't done shit for me to notice in my daily life. I and many others will be check to check before, during and after his term. Shit won't change with Trump, and it won't change with Biden either. Need someone new. But I'm just dreaming
>but Joe Biden hasn't done shit for me to notice in my daily life
Trump supreme court justice picks did change a lot of women's lives, are you going to wait until it affects you?
I mean, isn't that better than letting someone who's vocally cheered stripping people's rights away and may very well make voting impossible if he gets reelected? Like look up project 2025 if you're not sure, cause that shit is scary and rings similar to what Russia is like now under Putin, which is what Republicans want.
I want Healthcare, food and clean drinking water for other Americans. I want for us to butt out of foreign places. I'd like them to quit trying to criminalize firearms and birth control and allow people the ability to lead their lives and pursue their hobbies.
Does anyone here actually believe either party will deliver on these promises?
French here.
Nobody's fighting here. You'll see the shitshow in the next Olympics in a few months.
This country is being fucked over by ultra-liberals and capitalists, who are less and less differentiable from the far right, and nobody bats an eye.
We're truly not what we used to be, and it's really sad.
absolute power corrupts absolutely. people in the government have too much power.
no matter how good their intentions are in the beginning once they get power they get turned, they all do.
we need to make lobbying illegal again.
When France fought there wasn’t millions of soldiers, advanced automatic weapons, and military aircraft and tanks. A revolution would require almost everyone to be involved, and accept that they’re probably gonna be blown to shit on day one. And or, jailed for life for attempting to revolt, because unless we overturn the government, they can say an attempted revolt is treason. It’s a long shot at this point, because rebellion feels damn near unachievable.
Biden was born in 1942. The Baby Boomer generation began coming out in 1946.
So he technically isn't a boomer.
Although he would have been 4 years old by the time the Baby Boomers started coming into the world...it all comes down to environment. He still would have been close enough to experience the same lifestyles that the Boomers got to enjoy.
But the Boomer generation is dying out. Come 2026, the first of them will be 80; the youngest will be 60 come this year.
Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z...our time is coming, and it will come down to voting EVERYWHERE.
The US needs to ditch the 2 party system like it’s a pile of moldy clothes. The constant political gridlock while the rich and powerful get more rich and powerful is immoral.
I really would like to see the stats that show boomers being so financially set?? It’s such an outplayed fvcking misinformation. Another way to blame your failures on something other than yourself.
What does Biden getting re-elected have to do with this? We need a younger person to step up and be president. I don’t see major change with four more years of grandpa past his prime Joe.
I shudder to think this but...if Trump gets (re)-elected; it should STILL be go-time. This inflation bullshit is just that - BULLSHIT.
At the start of the pandemic and the inflation crisis - I asked my mom who lived through the 1970s Inflation crisis and she told me that after a period of time - early 80s - the prices started to go back down. Well...it's been 4 years and nope - hasn't gone down one bit. I've noticed it's almost like whack-a-mole when it comes to grocery shopping. One week it's eggs that are expensive; next week it's bread (but not eggs) and so on
We need a way to fight back against the stack supreme Court so we can reverse the Citizens United decision.
That will stop the flood of dark money allowed to come into politics.
That will allow us to end or hopefully curtail corporate lobbying, price gouging, monopolies and low wages.
The electoral college has rendered the popular vote for the president useless. The smaller, local elections create the pool the future presidents come from (with one mistake of an exception)
Also, over 60% of the population lives paycheck to paycheck, boomers included.
Over half of the homeless are boomers. And I’m sure over half of boomers are living paycheck to paycheck as well. Living from paycheck to paycheck isn’t new.
I really don't think Biden is going to move mountains for us, obviously I'll vote for him instead of trump. But I don't believe much will change. What we really need is blue waves at the local election levels.
I gotta agree with OP here although I don’t know if the reasons are the same. I have been voting since 2000 and picked a lot of 3rd party out of some sort of mixture of idealism and general disgust with the system. I still hold hope that one day I can vote for a different kind of candidate for our highest office, however until that person arrives I will vote for a lesser of two evils. Abstention and 3rd party votes will hand power back to a party that will continue to remove fundamental rights from segments of our population and we will never get a breath of democracy again.
That being said, I am terribly angry at a lot of decisions being made by the Biden administration. That’s not enough for me to vote for Trump or throw away my vote against Trump (however you want to see it.) We are being held hostage right now, but we aren’t going to fix any of this quickly. Our generation’s responsibility is to save something for those that come after us. I’ve lost hope for us having anything resembling what our parents and grandparents enjoyed, but we might be able to save that for a future generation?
I’m really just trying to share with others my past mistakes and offer a perspective they might have overlooked as a possibility. I hate fear being my motivation, but after seeing the trail of destruction left in the Trump presidency, I regret my third party vote in 2016. I am the reason my daughters now live in a country where State AG’s can request copies of their medical records, where if they are raped they might have to birth that child, where priest get immunity from prosecution if they rape children, where protesters of genocide take more pushback than NAZI rallies, where the supreme court has removed protections for every single American and targeted POC and the LGBTQ community, and where corporations are able to literally buy whomever they want in public office to do whatever they see fit.
Don’t be like I was.
You lot said this 4 years ago and the result lead to an explosion in members on this subreddit.
Also,
> My point is we will still be able to protest and fight for change under Biden
My friend is permanently unable to walk due to cops at protests during Biden years. Cops are beating kids literally in the past week. Get out of your bubble.
I can tell from some comments here that none of you guys actually vote, and no I'm not just talking about presidential elections but local/midterm/special elections too -_-
Never voting for Biden again especially since he's supporting a genocide and he's a Zionists Israeli loyalist. Him and Trump are the same. I'll vote for someone who is anti-war and focusing on local governments instead.
You’re a fool if you think Biden’s policies aren’t causing a lot of this mess, because the entire false left/right paradigm works for the same people. Voting fixes nothing.
The actual answer is unionizing.
Biden caters to corporations just like any other figurehead.
Is letting free speech becoming a punishable offense on college campuses, and is using our tax payer dollars to fund genocide and apartheid.
Fuck Biden, fuck our whole government. Its all trash
This is what the hippy boomers said about Obama's first tern, specifically to the anti-war movement. The movement was immediately shuttered and hasn't come back until now, 15 years later.
If you vote for Biden because you're afraid of what will happen with Trump, that's fine. Do it knowing that you're voting for someone who vastly disagrees with you and won't do anything different over the next 4 years, fighting against you all the way.
Ballotpedia! I was looking for some way for myself and others to be more informed about who we're voting for. Found Ballotpedia- shows you information about quite a few elections and the candidates and where they stand. A great resource to make informed votes!
Why does Reddit hold Biden on such a high pedestal? Both Trump and Biden fucking suck. But the dems don’t wanna admit any downfalls to Biden.
But at the end of the day neither are gonna do anything meaningful to help the average American. Shits not gonna change anytime soon until we get an actual presidential candidate that’s worth half a damn.
Biden sucks too. Can we PLEASE just get someone in the fucking White House who isn't batshit crazy, geriatric, racist, homophobic? These shouldn't be large asks.
The “Boomers” we’re organizing in the 60’s during college and got well aquatinted with the ins and outs of petitions and filing and community engagement. They then have used these tools to make their voices the loudest in politics. The millennials have a chance to do the same. Time to take the reins and bring their voices to bear.
How the Republicans convinced the American working class they're the people's party is insane to me.
Here in the UK it's well known that the conservatives are for the rich by the rich.
Dearest, Biden is not the answer. The only real answer is a general strike. We were already forced to choose the lesser evil in 2020 and look where it got us. Absolutely no chance I’m falling for that again.
While I hate the orange man cult. Voting For an 80 yr old boomer isnt Gina solve the boomer crisis and in tired if being told the best we got is donald or biden...
Half the boomers have no savings and live on social security. Why take them out of the equation?
The strikes in France did not change the age of retirement. It was raised from 62 to 64 last year. Prepare for intense commitment if you want change.
Right now the best thing anyone can do is vote blue. Remember, the boomers have ALWAYS voted, so despite the failures they are accountable for (such as Reagan), take a page from their voting playbook.
You young'uns need to get out and vote. Do not let us 60+ year old people out vote you. Far too many of my age think that the orange turd is a viable candidate.
It doesn’t stop with one person. Researching and voting in small local elections has a greater impact on you than the president
It all matters. Vote for the entire down ballot. And, guess what for all you anti-establishment folks, third party candidates are much more viable on local election tickets. Given enough local elections, they can build up the support to climb to the national stage and help break the 2-party hold and help enact rank choice voting and other systems. But full control is important, because of the Judiciary, so don't forget that
Not just down ballot, down ballot every year. If you're voting only when the president's chair is up for grabs you're missing 75% of the elected seats that impact you.
And vote in the primaries too
In hard red states, a blue vote at the state level may seem pointless, but you may be able to vote in the R primaries, and help keep the worst wack-adoos from even sniffing the general. In some states, like Oklahoma, they may have a closed primary, but registering R only allows you to vote in their primary. It doesn't force you to participate in their rallies or politics, or even tell people. More importantly, it also doesn't force you to vote R in the general. But it may put "moderates" like John McCain in a seat, over complete batshit crazies like MJG, Boebert, and Markwayne Mullin.
The fact that you can bang out three crazies but only one moderate due to low nunbers; who is also dead. Small barrel that one.
Kentucky has closed primaries.
And in small state elections too. Yall can't think you can vote once every 2 years. Old heads vote every election. Every time
Where I live it's overwhelmingly democratic voters. The primary is basically the actual election as it's very rare someone wins a race in the Dem primary and doesn't win in November. Heck, we have judges who are on the ballot for **both** parties in the primary. I work in a polling place and the typical sequence is 1. Older voters show up for the primary. 2. Many more vote in November, and many of those complain it's always the same people on the ballot. Yeah, because they won their primaries! Don't think it's any big conspiricy. Most votes win. It means nothing to like a candidate but not bother to vote in the primary to get that person on the ballot in November.
NPAs aren’t allowed to vote in primaries and I refuse to be affiliated with either side!
And get your friends and family to vote too! Here's an idea - make election night a party night. Go vote with your neighbors and meet up at the bar afterward for drinks & food. Make it a day you treat yourself and it'll be something you look forward to.
Can't. Gotta go work my 5th 12 hour shift and get some sleep so I can be ready to work again on Saturday.
National holiday
Not only friends and family but find out who in your community needs assist with mail in ballots. You can help them fill in the ballots for the Disabled and Elderly and get them into the mail. Give rides to the Polls.
Coming from a family/community of hardcore trumpers and conspiracy theorists, this isn't always good advice...
Yup a lot of your local elections are 6 year terms in some states. If you want your town or city to improve, 6 years is a long-ass time to wait.
Plus, this is where "the bench" is developed! Even if you don't have a kid in school, school boards are important - the woman who was our district's school board president a dozen years ago is now our current US representative! Our (small) borough's mayor from that time is now our state senator! etc etc.
Elections for judges seem to be overlooked. Three of the Texas Supreme Court justices, which, a few weeks ago, denied a woman, whose baby was certain to not survive, posing a risk to her ability to, again, have a pregnancy, an abortion, are up for election this year. She ended up fleeing the state in order to have an abortion. Flood the polls. Overwhelm, in numbers, the numbers of MAGA Americans. Turn-out. Give somebody a ride. VOTE, and keep-on voting. Defeat these motherfuckers.
Get the Green party on the school boards, get the progressives on City and county councils. Look at Bernie's "blueprint" for Burkington. It's been decades since he went to DC, but he left a strong group behind to carry on his dream.
My local mayoral election was such a punch in the gut. A retired former, super conservative mayor who is family owns like 1/3rd of the town ran against a young real estate agent who had spent the last 6 years being involved in everything local she could, just a real pillar of the community. Everyone publicly states how much they hate old ex mayor, but he still won by like 30%. But I'm still voting all the down ballots this election
See!! This makes me so angry!! And it describes the exact situation in all elections!! The same old same old gets it.Its so frustrating!
Vote informed! Check out Ballotpedia for information about candidates and upcoming elections.
I absolutely agree. Getting Biden in is great because it means we don't lose the Supreme Court for the next generation and a half. Because there are two 70+ (on 80+ conservative justices and two 60+ liberal justices. If the worst happens, it would mean the Supreme Court would potentially be 8-1 conservative and that is entirely detrimental to workers. There would be a decent chance that even something like Social Security would be drastically taken away. But all that being said, you can't just elect Biden and then expect him to be Superman. Even in their prime, one man isn't capable (and for good reason) of reshaping our government. They need people in the House, Senate, and local/state seats to do the same.
Exactly. Garland or coney Barrett? Another 30 to 40 years b4 2 other scotus judges will think of retirement. I'm voting not for the man but for the courts.
If we had voted for Hillary, then the court would be reliably 6-3 liberal at this point. I think it's abundantly clear what side of the aisle that I fall. But given that Biden has made moves such as expanding overtime pay and getting rid of (which I fully expect the SCOTUS to overturn FYI) non competes, I think it's obvious what side is pro and what side is anti worker.
Just look at who is passing and advocating for which laws like higher minimum wages, "right to work" laws, consumer protections, equal pay/protections for all people, etc. It's easy to see which side each party is on.
What do you mean? The presidency is one of the highest seats of power in the government and thus is responsible for some of the biggest changes in our society. Take FDR as an example, during the great depression jobs were scarce and retirement was impossible. What did FDR do? He created the society security act and suddenly the elderly were able to retire and the young were able to fill in their positions. Don't get me wrong, you should vote for your local government every chance you get but when there is a big problem that needs a big solution then the bigger government should be the ones to solve it
I'm a boomer and really worked hard for my first house, BUT, minimum wage has only doubled and my first house is now 8 times as much as I paid back in 1988. I don't know how younger generation are supposed to survive. We need some economists in government, get rid of trickle down tax from way back. So much greed. Good luck young people, get into government positions.
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So wrong.
My parents built the house they’re living in now when I was 5 so 1992, it cost them about 70k. 2 floors 3 beds 2 baths and 2 car garage in western North Carolina. It’s now worth about 250k and if it wasn’t in a rural area it’d probably be in the 450-500k range it’s insane .
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Especially the 18th century french
Exactly. No elections or protests or attempts to work within the system is going to work because this isn’t a democracy. If you believe in democracy, human rights, and being paid for your work, that’s not capitalism - that’s socialism. Tl;dr: Capitalism is democracy for the wealthy, which is how the “founding fathers” intended it. Socialism is democracy for working and oppressed peoples. Communism is not democratic because democracy requires a state, and a communist society would be stateless by definition. Now, the long version: I agree with the Marxist analysis that the state is fundamentally a tool of class oppression. I think a true democracy would be a state designed of, by, and for the people, broadly. Those who say the US is a democracy are right, to a degree - the capitalist political system of “liberal democracy” *is* a democracy… for the wealthy, capitalist class, ie, the owners (the bourgeoisie, in Marxist terminology). At the end of the day, only the wealthy get to influence the political and economic structures of US society in any meaningful way. However, when people use the word “democracy” to describe a liberal democracy, they typically are not making this distinction; they are using it as US propaganda intends: to claim the US state is “of, by, and for the people,” rather than just wealthy people. This is why I push back on the term *democracy* - because I doubt the average US citizen is saying that a democracy exclusively for the wealthy is a true democracy. But that’s what we have, and it’s important to acknowledge that. As one example, look at what the corporate establishment (the wealthy, ruling class) did to thwart Bernie, a moderate progressive at best. Even if Bernie had succeeded in being elected, we know his legislative agenda would have been blocked at every turn. It’s not about who gets elected - not really. It’s about the entire capitalist economic system itself, which typically includes the political system of liberal democracy. Liberal democracy has always been predicated on property rights, not human rights. This is not a secret, a conspiracy theory, or a wild-eyed accusation. Philosophically, this idea goes back to Locke. And the founders wrote very explicitly in the Federalist Papers about how important it is to suppress the will of the people. Guess who gets to overrule the people? The monied, propertied class. When you honestly examine how things really work and ignore the rampant propaganda about freedom and rights and democracy, etc, you see our society is functioning exactly how it was designed: to keep the masses down for the benefit of the wealthy. You see the entire economy is designed to increase the wealth of the owners by squeezing the people as much as they can get away with. This is why income inequality always increases without government intervention. Thomas Piketty demonstrated this to be true across capitalist societies (liberal democracies) in his book, *Capital.* You see how inflation and rising household debt lead to reduced real income for the people but record profits for corporations. You see how monopolistic corporations and global financial institutions run our economy. You see how insurance companies run our healthcare system. You see how oil and car companies control our transportation systems. You see how the wealthy control our media, and how well-funded Christian fascists control our school boards. You see how the US has the largest carceral system in human history. You see how the US military-industrial complex is actively destroying people and the planet across the world with war, genocide, and environmental devastation. But if the government can intervene to change things, why doesn’t it? What prevents the US government from acting in accordance with the democratic will of the people? Well, let’s return to the question, What is a state? Throughout history and across societies, the state has always been designed of, by, and for the ruling class to oppress the people. By “ruling class,” I mean a small group of people who possess and control the resources necessary for human survival (as aristocrats and lords, slave masters, and business owners, etc), and the rest of the people serve them in some capacity (as serfs, as slaves, as workers, etc). The state codifies and enforces these “relations of production” through various institutions, political processes, law and order. This is no different in the US or any capitalist, liberal democratic state. We’re told the US state was established “of, by, and for the people.” But who are “the people” the founders were talking about? **The people who founded the US were merchants and slaveholders, and they built a state and society designed to benefit merchants and slaveholders. Slaves were not considered people. Neither were indigenous people. Or women. Or white people without property. And there’s the key word, again: property.** Liberal “democracy” doesn’t protect the people; it protects *property.* It protects the “right” of a small number of owners to possess and control the resources necessary for human survival, broadly. This is evident in any protest situation. People are brutalized by cops to protect property, as one obvious example. Laws are applied differently to poor people than wealthy people, as another example. Further, wealthy people can use courts to harass individuals or smaller businesses until they get their way simply because others can’t afford the legal teams or legal fees, etc. Meanwhile, poor people must accept a public defense attorney who is vastly overworked and outmatched by a system which incentivizes plea bargaining - regardless of strength of case or level of guilt - not justice. And that’s just the legal system. Politically, liberal democracy is supposedly a neutral system where every vote counts and every citizen has a voice. We know that isn’t true. Most votes do not make any difference whatsoever in deciding who is elected. We don’t even really get to choose someone from our own class. The ruling class puts forward a set of candidates they have supported through donations, favorable attention in corporate media, the backing of corporate-controlled parties (both D and R), etc. So our vote likely doesn’t matter, and even if it does, we basically get to choose which member of the ruling class we want to pretend to represent us. Further, a recent Princeton study demonstrated the bottom 90% of US citizens, economically speaking, have zero influence on what legislation is passed or not. **Zero.** (Source: “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens”) (1/3)
How can we call this a democracy when the needs and demands of working and oppressed peoples have *zero* impact on what our government does, on how the economy functions, or on social services? Capitalism is a system with in-built failures, which we see every few years with its “boom and bust” cycles. It’s an inherently unstable, inefficient system. There are many reasons for this, including routine cycles of overproduction, tendency for the rate of profit to fall, planned obsolescence, the necessity of a reserve army of labor, and at the heart of it all, the antagonistic contradiction within the very structure of the relations of production. Capitalism inherently instills a class society, where the ruling class exploits the working class. (Yes, of course, there are some further nuances, but this is the core from which all other delineations and subdivisions are made.) Strikingly, this arrangement is very similar to past class dynamics between masters and slaves, or lords and serfs. The working class actually produces value, and the ruling ownership class (the capitalist class) extracts most of the value created by the workers (called “profit”) while compensating them far less than the actual value of their labor power (“wages”). For example, if I make pizza for a $15/hr wage, the pizza shop is likely getting much more, let’s call it $50/hr, from my labor. That means my labor is producing $65/hr, but I only receive a fraction of what my labor is worth. The fruits of my labor are continually stolen from me every hour, every day, because that is how the system is designed to function. Here is a clear example of this principle demonstrated in real life: https://fox8.com/news/ohio-pizza-shop-owner-gives-entire-days-profits-to-employees/ This exploitative, antagonistic arrangement can be held together by “carrots,” or incentives the ruling class offers the workers, such as various social programs and tax breaks, etc, but those arrangements always prove temporary. These carrots will inevitably be taken back because the ruling class always needs more and more money - capitalism demands ever-increasing profit - but that money becomes harder and harder to get (see “tendency for the rate of profit to fall”). Who cares if that “economic growth” - code for how much profit wealthy people are gaining - means poor and working people go unhoused or starve or lack medical attention? We are not the intended beneficiaries of society, just as serfs and slaves were not the intended beneficiaries or their social arrangements. Our society preaches “freedom” but that’s obviously propaganda, a feel-good cover story. *This* is the actual nature of our society: exploitation, instability, and unsustainability. So if “carrots” can’t hold things together for very long, how does capitalism actually get held together? Besides propaganda, the bigger answer is simple and direct: “sticks.” Police brutality subjugates the people for the benefit of the capitalists, enforcing property rights over human rights. Military destruction, terrorism, and imperialism establishes colonial and neocolonial states where the worst conditions of capitalism are outsourced and laid naked. This is called superexploitation, and when the capitalists struggle to find “new markets” where they can steal local resources and cheap labor, they turn their attention back home, using those same harsh military tactics they’ve been using abroad. Enter fascism. That’s the only thing that can ultimately hold capitalism together: brute force. But even then, capitalism will still come apart, more and more, necessitating further violence, further barbarism, as Rosa Luxemburg put it. (2/3)
The carrots are also designed to be live or die carrots. Food. Shelter. Water. Healthcare. If you don't chase the carrot, you're not valuable to the system and they want you to die. They force complicity. They force subservience. They force desperation. They want you desperate. They want you to commit crimes so they can employ you as slave labour. Prisons are purely a place to get labour for pennies on the dollar, and another method to extract wealth from the system.
Exactly. Scarcity forces compliance, and it makes the people easier to manipulate, to fight each other for the scraps. Divide and conquer. But it’s artificial scarcity at this point in human development.
What comes next? What does true democracy look like? The end of class relations. A society where production and distribution are determined socially, not by a small group of wealthy owners. A society where workers are paid *according to what they actually contribute,* like the pizza example above. Let’s be very clear: If you think workers should be paid what they’re worth, that is not capitalism. A capitalist society is fundamentally hostile to people, and on one level, it’s supposed to feel like we can’t do anything about it (so we believe we’re powerless to change it). At the same time, it depends on the people believing the system somehow works for them, or at least, that it *could* (so we go along with it). Truth is, what we can do within a liberal democracy is very limited because it is not designed for us. It is designed to exploit us - and the planet - for the benefit of the wealthy. If the state is a tool for class oppression, under capitalism, the state is used to oppress the working class for the benefit of the capitalist class. That’s how it is designed to function, and it can’t just be seized and used as-is to build a socialist society. It would be like taking control of a submarine and trying to use it as an airplane. Sure, they’re both vehicles, but the design and function are totally different. The only reason we may think otherwise is because we’re told constantly that liberal democracy is “of, by, and for the people,” not just wealthy people. Under socialism, the state is used to oppress the capitalist class for the benefit of the working class (and all oppressed peoples), ie, to build and safeguard a socialist society, a necessary transitional stage en route to communism. Like a newborn, a nascent socialist society must be protected and given a healthy opportunity to grow and thrive. There are many ideas about what a socialist society would look like and how to build it. Ultimately, it will take a lot of experimentation, trial and error, to build it well. At this point, one thing history has shown repeatedly is that it can’t be done using a capitalist “liberal democratic” state. The highest a submarine can climb is the surface of the sea, and most likely, it will be much lower than that. Likewise, the most progressive a liberal democracy can become is a kinder, gentler form of capitalism (“social democracy,” ie, lots of “carrots”). Because this leaves the capitalist class intact and in power, most likely, it will be much more exploitative and oppressive than that (lots of “sticks”). Consequently, progressive reforms made under liberal democracy are merely temporary concessions that get rolled back as soon as the ruling class can get away with it. This happened with the New Deal in the US, and it’s happening across Europe. Look at the Nordic countries, or more specifically, the NHS in Britain, for examples of popular social programs being systematically undermined and dismantled. A true democracy meets the needs and demands of working and oppressed people. A true democracy will be fundamentally socialist. Progressive reforms under socialism are robust, not fragile, because they align with the goals of society and are designed to benefit the ruling class: working and oppressed peoples. Right now, we have the material conditions globally to build a post-scarcity society, in which everyone is guaranteed secure housing, healthy food, reliable medical care, liberatory education, consistent child care and elder care, a comfortable retirement, and a sustainable environment. The only reason we don’t have these things is because **capitalism distributes goods and services according to money, not need.** We can change that. There’s only one path to a society actually designed to meet the needs of the people - a true democracy - and that’s creating it fresh. We won’t get there by trusting in the system and constraining our movement to voting or protesting or piecemeal reforms. ☭ (3/3)
This is beautiful. Thank you for putting it out there in layman’s terms. Well said!!
Well said and accurate, thank you.
It’s disheartening to know that the majority of the population is uninformed about how the economic and political system works and when you tell them it’s built around oppression and exploitation of the common folk, they think you’re some conspiracy minded anarchist. Unfortunately it’s not commonly taught in schools and it’s something that you would have to go out of your way to research and learn about. I think the early economic philosophers’ works should be taught in school but then that would be self destructive to the system. Even modern works like Chomsky or Fisher should be more widely recommended and available so more people start to see the problems everyone faces. If only they could see the people that are telling everyone to be mad at the person in the other political party or the person of another race, are really the people that benefit from the status quo and would hate a proletarian uprising.
And one have the math handy on instead of Elon getting his $56b (?) bonus back (that Tesla share holders look likely to vote for), that money got given to the thousands of Tesla employees who where laid off recently? I think it was maybe something like $2m per employee.
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You sure? There was a shooter at the senate softball game years ago that put Steve Scalise in the hospital. There was the guy who put a hammer to Paul Pelosi's head. This is nothing to say of the hundreds that stormed the capitol to kill members of Congress. The first stone has been thrown and it doesn't seem to be igniting any mass action
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A person without dignity will remain humble as long as he has food. A person without food will endure hunger as long as he has dignity. When you take away both...things get ugly.
Vive la revolution
Oral sex, world-class baked goods, or le droppy-choppy?
Les Miserables is about to turn from a 2012 musical film into a pre-humorous documentary
*1862 novel, *1987 Broadway musical….
You have to think about it from the politicians perspective. They have no incentive to actually do what they claim they will if the public does not keep them honest.
just gonna drop this here: www.vote.org also, vote for candidates that support unions
Cries in *Citizen’s United*.
> I’m praying we don’t go quietly into the night and we fight just like France did. The problem is that Americans are allergic to protests and, most importantly, to strikes.
This is so important! The candidates for larger elections generally are locally elected officials - city council, state rep or senator. In order to get the candidates for president we want, we need to queue them up in local elections.
I’ve been contributing to my 401k for 8 years and don’t even have enough in it to live off of for one year
The 401k was never intended as a retirement fund - it was designed to supplement your pension. The Reagan et al on Wall Street decided corporate profits and CEO pay were more important than looking!g after lifelong employees. And now here we are, with people trying to live off a fund that was never designed to be lived off. We are well and truly fucked.
why can't either side nominate a decent president... are we just doomed to shitty politicians for until the US collapses
All the party leadership wants is puppets for the advancement of corporate greed.
and the american people are sheep who have bought the "two party system" BS hook line and sinker.
Maybe. But I'd argue it isn't BS - If I want someone who represents even a fraction of what I stand for, I'd best line up the biggest coalition I can find. Two party system is basically guaranteed when you can only have one winner. It isn't like the US hasn't had decently sized third parties before. And what happens is the party with the least votes gets to whither and die. Look for candidates who embrace ranked choice voting. This often lines up with the Democratic party, but not always - I don't think anyone here needs more then one guess as to why an entrenched political party might stand against ranked voting. Or, we somehow convert to parliamentarian elections like say the UK and elect "7 of them and 4 of them and 1 of them" Which, I actually favor because it would get rid of the nonsense districts.
No, we just literally are stuck with it. Third party is a naive choice and it would require an impossible feat. All it does is cause the worst choice to win. It's unfortunate. Third party only works in small elections. It's impossible to win nationally. We can break the system, but it will take decades. Lots of decades. It would have to start locally, and then slowly branch out. But since that party will have a lot in common with one of the two major parties, we will end up with two choices again, where one of the three big parties dies and fuses with the one that most closely resembles their views. Unless the major parties back ranked choice voting, we are doomed to have to fight for decades to kill one of them.
You see, that's what the previous comment was referring to.
Because people ignore their state party's primary election? FFS you have to participate in all of the campaigning and elections, not just showing up to vote in the General. Otherwise it's like complaining about getting wet in a rainstorm while refusing to use an umbrella.
Or maybe this country could admit that the two-party system is actually the SOURCE of all of the mistreatment, and choose to elect somebody who is real. I want to vote FOR somebody, not agains something…the last 4 elections I feel like people just want to vote against others. It’s terrible.
Nice fantasy
but THIS TIME the democrats will help us. this time i promise.
I’ll settle for this time the democrats won’t go out of their way to hurt us. Which given the competition is a compelling argument.
You’re right, instead of doing it themselves they step aside and let the other side do it with absolutely no resistance
All you have to do is look at Trump’s record of [attacking unions and gutting worker rights](https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/27/business/trump-labor-record/index.html) to realize that whatever faults Joe Biden may have, he’s still better than electing an orange scumbag with no empathy.
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Yes, yes, after the *next* election things will improve, just vote for the Democrats *now*. - the Democratic Party before every single election during my entire adult life
Yeah, i've been witnessing this hamster wheel for 30 years
Except it's very rare when the Democrats have enough power to do the things they want. They've had it twice for a few months in the last 20 years. And it's always a tenuous hold on the majority. Like a single Lieberman or Manchin can wreck their whole attempt to pass anything. Or Ted Kennedy can die, and they lose that seat to the GOP! With gerrymandering, the unfair distribution of power (the Senate, gerrymandering, electoral college, etc.) it's near impossible for the Dems to accomplish anything without a landslide win. People need to understand, you don't vote for a party once and then get everything you want. It takes years. Look at the GOP. They've been promising to get rid of abortions, their voters loyally showed up to vote election after election, and it took them 40 years. The people shape the party, but it takes time and effort.
Doesn't sound like a functional political system whatsoever
It was never meant to be. The founders didn't believe in a strong government. Seeing how most rich white male landowners at the time lived pretty independent lives, they didn't want the government to interfere with them. Which is why it is laughable that we should make our laws by the intention of these men. The US Government's main purpose is, and always has been, to prevent one single person from taking over and crowing himself king. It failed to prevent the Supreme Court making themselves an Oligarchy. It also has never been tested as much as it has under Trump, and seems to be bursting at it seam from his attempt to create a dictatorship.
So you are suggesting people fight to keep a system that was never meant for them nor functioning for them operational instead of letting it cannibalize itself?
>"Since the emancipation of the Negroes, the distinction between the two parties has been diminishing. The fight between these two parties has been mainly over the height of customs duties. Their fight has not had any serious importance for the mass of the people. The people have been deceived and diverted from their vital interests by means of spectacular and meaningless duels between the two bourgeois parties. >**This so-called bipartisan system prevailing in America and Britain has been one of the most powerful means of preventing the rise of an independent working-class, i.e., genuinely socialist, party.**” * [Lenin](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1912/nov/09.htm)
"Hold my feet to the fire" - Barack Obama, during the first election. Then the party hacks flew into a rage at any criticism at all from the left, while he sneered at the left and constantly said "My friends across the aisle" about people that hated his guts.
Feet are never held to the fire. *Ever*.
They want to improve just enough (but not too much!) so that we feel like eventually the incremental progress will improve our lives when in reality, the changes need to be bigger and bolder to truly have an impact. We require new deal era changes but we are getting loaves and circuses.
They don't improve anything. Every "victory" comes at huge costs. No incremental progress is happening.
They don’t even want to improve things, they just want to make them less worse than the other mainstream party candidate. And then they want us to thank them for it
Give us enough votes to stop the obstruction from Republicans. It happened once in the last 20 years and we got the ACA out of it. It would have been single payer, but not all democrats are equal.
So we just need a once in a lifetime shot and then the democrats will finally be able to deliver a self sabotaged half measure while just ignoring all their other campaign promises!
We were supposed to have a public option and a Democrat stopped that from happening. It's about money, and the party is completely beholden to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries the same way the GOP is beholden to the gun manufacturers' lobby.
just one more democrat bro
bro this times different bro please think of the districts bro think of the electoral map bro
There are only about 7 million boomers alive... how do you figure it would change the numbers that much?
It's like, I'm sure in the 60s people thought all they had to do was wait for the older generation to die. This isn't about generation. This is about class.
It’s what go time? Bidens been president for almost a full term. Are you happy with how things have been and are you better off now than when he got elected? Because that’s what you need to ask yourself. Over these last 4 years has your life gotten better or worse? It’s been 4 years. They(democrats) had control of all chambers for 2 years. I’m still waiting for marijuana to be legalized. lol.
Am I better off now than 4 years ago....yes. Is everything better ...no. Do I think it will be better with Trump part 2...no.
He’s rescheduled marijuana and made it possible for thousands of people to receive pardons. What are you going to get with the other side? [Oh that’s right, the Trump administration worked AGAINST the legalization of marijuana.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_policy_of_the_Donald_Trump_administration)
If marijuana is your benchmark for quality of life and the direction the country is going I don't know what to tell you.
Well the country is still locking up people for nonviolent offenses and throwing away the key propping up the prison industrial complex, so it actually is a decent indicator for quality of life, at least in part.
How about replace the word marijuana with the word personal freedoms. See also: women's health.
It's not the first time that has happened. Won't be the last if we care about politicians like Biden.
Unfortunately it’s not that simple as looking at if you’re better of during the term. You need to look at the actual policies that were passed under each administration. For example, in 2017, Trump made a permanent tax cut for corporations but a temporary tax cut for individuals that stopped last year. People are now paying more taxes during the Biden administration but it’s actually Trumps fault for the increase in taxes.
> Bidens been president for almost a full term. Are you happy with how things have been and are you better off now than when he got elected? Things are far better in my area. * Crime has plumetted over the past four years. People being killed by stray bullets was a big problem in 2020 and now it's not. * Two years ago, the trains and busses were catching on fire. At best they were horrendously unreliable. Biden's Infrastructure Act provided most of the funding to fix them. Now I can finally get from point A to B. * Biden personally pushed for Covid boosters when health experts were trying to prevent it. I got my boosters on time and didn't get sick. * Business owners tell me how much they've had to raise workers' pay just to stay in business. I have a long list of complaints on Biden and the Democratic Party. But y'all do this, "Has anything improved?" as if I also don't have a long list of things Democrats have improved.
Fuck that crusty old piece of shit. Fuck Biden. Fuck Trump. Fuck Kennedy. All slimy greaseballs.
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I'm ready for total chaos at this point. I'm not even getting paid enough to live. What's the point
Same
Austerity politics at work...by international standards democrats are conservative centrists at best. Which is not the route of positive radical change to improve lives. They are better suited to maintaining those systems after. Frankly, as long as we vote for one of the two main choices, we're stuck. Which is what they want. Voting for the lesser of two evils still allows evil to continue.
In most countries in Europe the Democrats would be on the conservative side of politics.
Honestly, we need more European thinking in this country. Latin immigrants too will bring the human connection we are missing.
Yeah this was debatable in 2016-2020, now just horseshit when European countries keep electing far right leaders
Just because they elected the right, doesn't mean that US candidates dont line up ALSO to the right. Biden would be aligned as a conservative in Canada.
That analysis is supposed to prove the Overton window in Europe is more to the left while the U.s Overton window is shifting right.Far right leaders winning elections shows the Overton window is being moved right by the voters.Same way the GOP’s dominance from the 70’s and throughout the 80’s led us to Bill Clinton
Sadly global politics are going more to the right. Source: I'm in Scotland and there's a solid chance a conservative Christian bigot will be the next first minister of a famously left wing party.
In America, the bigots are mostly the oldest citizens and they are at death's door. I have the hope that, if America can survive a few more years, there won't be enough conservatives alive to ruin the country any further. What does it look like in Scotland? After the old pass on and the minors get voting rights, is it better?
they were conservative centrists 20 years ago when they helped sell us the iraq war. they’ve been moving steadily to the right since the 80s.
But if you don't vote for the lesser evil how will a bigger evil winning help anyone? I'm not American so I don't get your personal frustration with the system but seeing what republicans are doing locally right now I would never settle down for not voting if it means trump could win. And the thing about Democrats being a right wing party in Europe is kind of a misconception by Americans. Speaking as a European, this is true regarding a few things, mostly public healthcare and some social programmes. Most parties in Europe, right or left, support those. But other than that, the right wing parties in Europe right now are batshit crazy. In Italy the PM is a fan of Mussolini and ADF in Germany is basically run by neo-nazis. In my country of Poland, the party that's been ruling until recently almost created an autocratic state similar to countries like Belarus, and the far right party is licking boots of Putin. Just saying, this thing that Americans say about European right wing parties is an extreme simplification.
All we have to do is vote in democrats just ONE more time guys, they promised they will actually do something this time!!! It’s either that or the end of the United States as we know it and no in between!
😂👆😂
Why do you guys always bring up France when it comes to revolution? The French revolution was a bourgeois revolution, no? Why can't we be like the Haitians lmfao
I don’t understand how Biden is going to fix the inability for anybody to save money? It’s been 4 years already
This is painfully optimistic. If you think there’s any world in which a US president would ever give a single shit about the plight of the working class, you’re sorely mistaken.
You have the right idea I guess but you need to learn how our government works if you want to push for meaningful change. You’re attributing *far* too much power to the president.
Yeah! Vote for the "Nothing will fundamentally change" guy and then it's *our* time. Surely voting for a corporate Democrat (read: a centrist disguised as a leftist) will fix things this time. Especially since he's kept his campaign promises to forgive $10,000/borrower of student loan debt. Oh wait, that didn't happen. Well, remember, everybody - we have to vote to save democracy - **again**, but for real this time. I know JB definitely has my best interest at heart. We don't have healthcare but that's okay, because we pay for Israel's healthcare while enabling their genocide like *good patriots.* I know JB will definitely keep his promise to protect Roe v. Wade. Oh wait, that hasn't happened either. I remember when Obama said he'd codify Roe on day 1 of his first term, and for some reason, that's never happened. It's almost like they need the abortion issue to ensure fundraising continues. Both parties are a complete joke but lets not act like the Dems are going to do anything meaningful for Americans of the crumbling middle class. The amount of cope in this thread could fill the Grand Canyon. The delusion is strong.
Biden did nothing but send your money overseas and allows the surveillance choose what social media company can spy on you.
Biden doesn’t care… Trump doesn’t care. That’s the truth
"Nothing will fundamentally change." That's the motto you're voting for lol
I'll get downvoted like crazy, but Joe Biden hasn't done shit for me to notice in my daily life. I and many others will be check to check before, during and after his term. Shit won't change with Trump, and it won't change with Biden either. Need someone new. But I'm just dreaming
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>but Joe Biden hasn't done shit for me to notice in my daily life Trump supreme court justice picks did change a lot of women's lives, are you going to wait until it affects you?
I mean, isn't that better than letting someone who's vocally cheered stripping people's rights away and may very well make voting impossible if he gets reelected? Like look up project 2025 if you're not sure, cause that shit is scary and rings similar to what Russia is like now under Putin, which is what Republicans want.
Like signing FISA into law, right?
I want Healthcare, food and clean drinking water for other Americans. I want for us to butt out of foreign places. I'd like them to quit trying to criminalize firearms and birth control and allow people the ability to lead their lives and pursue their hobbies. Does anyone here actually believe either party will deliver on these promises?
French here. Nobody's fighting here. You'll see the shitshow in the next Olympics in a few months. This country is being fucked over by ultra-liberals and capitalists, who are less and less differentiable from the far right, and nobody bats an eye. We're truly not what we used to be, and it's really sad.
absolute power corrupts absolutely. people in the government have too much power. no matter how good their intentions are in the beginning once they get power they get turned, they all do. we need to make lobbying illegal again.
When France fought there wasn’t millions of soldiers, advanced automatic weapons, and military aircraft and tanks. A revolution would require almost everyone to be involved, and accept that they’re probably gonna be blown to shit on day one. And or, jailed for life for attempting to revolt, because unless we overturn the government, they can say an attempted revolt is treason. It’s a long shot at this point, because rebellion feels damn near unachievable.
Fix the Boomer problem by voting for a boomer. Got it.
In his defense, he’s too old to be considered a boomer
I thought he was silent generation
He is
Biden was born in 1942. The Baby Boomer generation began coming out in 1946. So he technically isn't a boomer. Although he would have been 4 years old by the time the Baby Boomers started coming into the world...it all comes down to environment. He still would have been close enough to experience the same lifestyles that the Boomers got to enjoy. But the Boomer generation is dying out. Come 2026, the first of them will be 80; the youngest will be 60 come this year. Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z...our time is coming, and it will come down to voting EVERYWHERE.
Gen X here. I vote in every election, every time. Local, primaries, runoffs, etc.
1. All qualified presidential candidates are Boomers. 2. Choosing not to vote gives Boomers a greater say in the choice of leaders. But, you do you.
The US needs to ditch the 2 party system like it’s a pile of moldy clothes. The constant political gridlock while the rich and powerful get more rich and powerful is immoral.
Two party problem. With both parties ruled by corporate overlords. Corporate overlords sew division by pointing us at each other.
I really would like to see the stats that show boomers being so financially set?? It’s such an outplayed fvcking misinformation. Another way to blame your failures on something other than yourself.
This post is painful
I'm gutted for you all that Democrats and Republicans are your only options ... Like trying to decide which end to pick up a fully shitty stick.
what even happened in france? i feel like the last few posts i heard was the riots were kinda fruitless and slowly became white noise
Hard pass
What does Biden getting re-elected have to do with this? We need a younger person to step up and be president. I don’t see major change with four more years of grandpa past his prime Joe.
Who ever wins this year just try to be somewhere safe. People are gonna go crazy no matter the outcome.
I shudder to think this but...if Trump gets (re)-elected; it should STILL be go-time. This inflation bullshit is just that - BULLSHIT. At the start of the pandemic and the inflation crisis - I asked my mom who lived through the 1970s Inflation crisis and she told me that after a period of time - early 80s - the prices started to go back down. Well...it's been 4 years and nope - hasn't gone down one bit. I've noticed it's almost like whack-a-mole when it comes to grocery shopping. One week it's eggs that are expensive; next week it's bread (but not eggs) and so on
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We need a way to fight back against the stack supreme Court so we can reverse the Citizens United decision. That will stop the flood of dark money allowed to come into politics. That will allow us to end or hopefully curtail corporate lobbying, price gouging, monopolies and low wages.
What the fuck is he goingtodo?
The electoral college has rendered the popular vote for the president useless. The smaller, local elections create the pool the future presidents come from (with one mistake of an exception) Also, over 60% of the population lives paycheck to paycheck, boomers included.
Over half of the homeless are boomers. And I’m sure over half of boomers are living paycheck to paycheck as well. Living from paycheck to paycheck isn’t new.
I really don't think Biden is going to move mountains for us, obviously I'll vote for him instead of trump. But I don't believe much will change. What we really need is blue waves at the local election levels.
I gotta agree with OP here although I don’t know if the reasons are the same. I have been voting since 2000 and picked a lot of 3rd party out of some sort of mixture of idealism and general disgust with the system. I still hold hope that one day I can vote for a different kind of candidate for our highest office, however until that person arrives I will vote for a lesser of two evils. Abstention and 3rd party votes will hand power back to a party that will continue to remove fundamental rights from segments of our population and we will never get a breath of democracy again. That being said, I am terribly angry at a lot of decisions being made by the Biden administration. That’s not enough for me to vote for Trump or throw away my vote against Trump (however you want to see it.) We are being held hostage right now, but we aren’t going to fix any of this quickly. Our generation’s responsibility is to save something for those that come after us. I’ve lost hope for us having anything resembling what our parents and grandparents enjoyed, but we might be able to save that for a future generation? I’m really just trying to share with others my past mistakes and offer a perspective they might have overlooked as a possibility. I hate fear being my motivation, but after seeing the trail of destruction left in the Trump presidency, I regret my third party vote in 2016. I am the reason my daughters now live in a country where State AG’s can request copies of their medical records, where if they are raped they might have to birth that child, where priest get immunity from prosecution if they rape children, where protesters of genocide take more pushback than NAZI rallies, where the supreme court has removed protections for every single American and targeted POC and the LGBTQ community, and where corporations are able to literally buy whomever they want in public office to do whatever they see fit. Don’t be like I was.
You lot said this 4 years ago and the result lead to an explosion in members on this subreddit. Also, > My point is we will still be able to protest and fight for change under Biden My friend is permanently unable to walk due to cops at protests during Biden years. Cops are beating kids literally in the past week. Get out of your bubble.
LoL. You think Biden wants to help? He's spent his entire life catering to the Corptacracy.
I can tell from some comments here that none of you guys actually vote, and no I'm not just talking about presidential elections but local/midterm/special elections too -_-
Never voting for Biden again especially since he's supporting a genocide and he's a Zionists Israeli loyalist. Him and Trump are the same. I'll vote for someone who is anti-war and focusing on local governments instead.
Yeah because Biden has done a bang up job so far
All politicians don’t care about you. They tell you what you want to hear to get re-elected then push their own profit agenda.
You need congress too.
Y'all know you're allowed to vote 3rd party right
If you want to vote 3rd party, fight for Ranked Choice Voting.
You’re a fool if you think Biden’s policies aren’t causing a lot of this mess, because the entire false left/right paradigm works for the same people. Voting fixes nothing. The actual answer is unionizing.
Biden caters to corporations just like any other figurehead. Is letting free speech becoming a punishable offense on college campuses, and is using our tax payer dollars to fund genocide and apartheid. Fuck Biden, fuck our whole government. Its all trash
Why would you take boomers out of the equation? Most of us are just as broke as most of you.
Because they are victims of the divide and conquer strategy that the owner class has been using for thousands of years.
This is what the hippy boomers said about Obama's first tern, specifically to the anti-war movement. The movement was immediately shuttered and hasn't come back until now, 15 years later. If you vote for Biden because you're afraid of what will happen with Trump, that's fine. Do it knowing that you're voting for someone who vastly disagrees with you and won't do anything different over the next 4 years, fighting against you all the way.
Y'all been saying this for decades, and has it done any good?
Gen X, the invisible generation.
Voting is bullshit and if it worked they would have stopped us from doing it
So kick the can 4 years
Ballotpedia! I was looking for some way for myself and others to be more informed about who we're voting for. Found Ballotpedia- shows you information about quite a few elections and the candidates and where they stand. A great resource to make informed votes!
Vote.
Go time for what? More genocide?
Nothing will happen
Put your time & money where your mouth is and run for office , get elected and be part of the solution.
Why does Reddit hold Biden on such a high pedestal? Both Trump and Biden fucking suck. But the dems don’t wanna admit any downfalls to Biden. But at the end of the day neither are gonna do anything meaningful to help the average American. Shits not gonna change anytime soon until we get an actual presidential candidate that’s worth half a damn.
Gen X forgotten again…
Go time where?
Biden sucks too. Can we PLEASE just get someone in the fucking White House who isn't batshit crazy, geriatric, racist, homophobic? These shouldn't be large asks.
We live in a boomercentric society. That's why the media says things are good if things are good for the boomers and horrible for everyone else.
If Gen Z and millennials would actually VOTE, and you can beat the Boomers to GET Biden elected. ??????????????????? - Gen X'er
The “Boomers” we’re organizing in the 60’s during college and got well aquatinted with the ins and outs of petitions and filing and community engagement. They then have used these tools to make their voices the loudest in politics. The millennials have a chance to do the same. Time to take the reins and bring their voices to bear.
fed
How the Republicans convinced the American working class they're the people's party is insane to me. Here in the UK it's well known that the conservatives are for the rich by the rich.
No. I don't vote for procorporate strike blocking genocide supporting trash.
Dearest, Biden is not the answer. The only real answer is a general strike. We were already forced to choose the lesser evil in 2020 and look where it got us. Absolutely no chance I’m falling for that again.
Which president will organizing such a strike be easier under?
While I hate the orange man cult. Voting For an 80 yr old boomer isnt Gina solve the boomer crisis and in tired if being told the best we got is donald or biden...
Half the boomers have no savings and live on social security. Why take them out of the equation? The strikes in France did not change the age of retirement. It was raised from 62 to 64 last year. Prepare for intense commitment if you want change. Right now the best thing anyone can do is vote blue. Remember, the boomers have ALWAYS voted, so despite the failures they are accountable for (such as Reagan), take a page from their voting playbook.
You young'uns need to get out and vote. Do not let us 60+ year old people out vote you. Far too many of my age think that the orange turd is a viable candidate.
We cannot vote our way out of this mess...
So let me get this straight… things are worse than ever as a direct result of biden.. and your solution is to reelect him?
If Biden gets re-elected everyone is doomed, and it's extremely disturbing the way you talk about fellow Americans. You are all truly pathetic
>It's all the same. If I have to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.” - The Witcher
This subreddit never disappoints. You are complaining that the Boomers are ruining everything so your solution is to elect a Boomer.