this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2026
264 points (99.3% liked)

politics

30906 readers
2762 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 2hundredpancakes@lemmy.blahaj.zone 35 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Save you a click: overthrow of the establishment DNC is possible and it's happening. Also, AIPAC money can't buy everything.

Progressive California state Sen. Aisha Wahab has won a special election to serve the remainder of disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s term in the US Congress, defeating a centrist Democrat backed by millions of dollars in AIPAC spending.

... In November, Wahab will face Bay Area Rapid Transit board member Melissa Hernandez again in a race for a full two-year term in the US House.

[–] bedwyr@piefed.ca 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

To do that we need a range of populist candidates for all regions. We only have inner city populists, and not that many really.

Why do we not have more challengers? There isn't a lack of left populists in any area in this country. Don't think they couldn't win.

[–] Manjushri@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Why do we not have more challengers?

Probably because until now it there wasn't a reasonable expectation to win. Before the last cycle or two, the few progressive candidates that had the resources to run tended to get plowed under in the primaries and rarely saw the light of day by the time the general elections rolled around. That will hopefully change now because of victories like this and the fact that progressives are now seen to be winning in primaries around the country, even against established, old-guard democrats. Many more progressive hopefuls may now see a realistic path to office and throw their hats into the ring allowing even more establishment dems to be rousted from office.

As you can see, I'm very hopeful that this is the start of something big. I know that there are many things that could derail this, not the least of which is the authoritarian take over of the federal government, but hope is what I got, so I'm clinging to it. If the nation survives another election or two, we could see huge changes in this country.

[–] bedwyr@piefed.ca 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

But we only have one flavour of progressive, and it's not going to play everywhere. We need a broad coalition of left populists, of populists, real ones not fake ones that scapegoat which is what the establishment associates with populism, arguing popular is the enemy and in this country that chooses leaders based on popular votes we have to make sure we are unpopular.

We need populists that fit their districts, and for most of the country that means we need white candidates. At least 60 some percent should be white, as 60 some percent of the population is.

Why is there not a single white populist in the party? Bernie doesn't count at this point. Universal health care is a majority position for instance. A vast majority last I heard. Breaking up trusts and monopolies that artificially inflate costs is a majority position. Charging the rich taxes is a majority position. Living wages are as well although that one is more prone to fuckery.

We need to organize, and to cooperate on what we agree on, while combatting organized interests turning us against each other. We are played like a fiddle, by Israel, the Republicans, the Democrats, the Corporations and their Trade Groups, because we aren't organized.

That's a great question I don't know the answer to. It might be that many left-leaning folks are disillusioned with the political system at large and choose to disengage. The country does have a fantastically low voter participation rate, which itself says things about the citizens' faith in the system. I'm hopeful that current events, and victories like this one, will push more hopefuls to run as challengers.