"Third Way" (mentioned in the image) is the idea that left progressive politics are fully compatible with private interests/Capitalism. It's basically Ayn Rand free market philosophies restamped as a leftist idea.
this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2026
174 points (95.8% liked)
United States | News & Politics
9449 readers
429 users here now
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
I listened to some clip from a thirdway person today. I'll try to find it. The dude unironically was talking about how they were vital in fighting Bernie Sanders and getting Hillary Clinton to win the primary. Like, straight up, "we'll fucking do it again" kind of vibes.
Hillary Clinton fucking lost to Trump. Like, he was literally boasting about getting Trump elected basically.
Fuck, I gotta find the clip. It was wild.
Edit: Found it. Skip to 3:55 for the part about Sanders.
Thirdway could maybe be classified as "free market" neoliberals back in like 2016 or 2020. But it's 2026, they are nothing but supporting fascist at this point. They are currently focused on fighting the only group in the country successful at fighting Trump and increasing voter turnout. I don't know what else to call them besides fascist sympathizers.
The worst part about how the conservative Democrats are behaving here is that it's not their party. They hijacked the party. In the '80s and '90s the "New Democrat" neoliberals took over the Democratic Party. They took over a party that had ushered in the greatest period of prosperity in American history. And they destroyed it. The party of FDR was murdered by these conservative Democrats and their neoliberal policies.
FDR was a genocidal freak too though and that prosperity you speak of was only for white men.
Chris Hedges, America: The Farewell Tour
The New Deal, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, saved capitalism. It was put in place because socialists were a strong and serious threat. The oligarchs understood that with the breakdown of capitalism—something I expect we will again witness in our lifetimes—there was a possibility of a socialist revolution. They did not want to lose their wealth and power. Roosevelt, writing to a friend in 1930, said there was “no question in my mind that it is time for the country to become fairly radical for at least one generation. History shows that where this occurs occasionally, nations are saved from revolution.” In other words, Roosevelt went to his fellow oligarchs and said, “Hand over some of your money or you will lose all your money in a revolution.” And they complied. That is how the government created fifteen million jobs, Social Security, unemployment benefits, and public works projects. The capitalists did not do this because the suffering of the masses moved them to pity. They did this because they were scared.
Which speaks to how said Democrats didn't do enough to rein in the capitalists from having political power. To retain all the gains made by and for the working class one must have some sort of dictatorship of the proletariat.
Didn't do enough? FDR literally boasted that he personally saved capitalism! He wasn't trying to rein them in. He was protecting them! FDR's administration created the concept of redlining at the federal level. Deliberate black poverty is part of his legacy.
Obviously my feedback is directed at those who genuinely believe FDR was a socialist, which he wasn't.
Oh. Sorry!
No worries. It takes messaging discipline not to alienate normie socialists from the revolutionary cause. Simply saying FDR wasn't a true socialist doesn't convince anybody even if it's demonstrably true.
You have to ease them into it.
Book suggestion. The Democrats: A critical history. -by Lance Senfa
Spoilers: The Democratic Party has never been good, it's just been rehabilitated through a mainstream rewriting of / popular history
view more: next ›