Political Memes

Sounds about right.

It is the job of fascists to make sure any groups who might oppose them are too busy fighting each other to stop them.

This actually was a bit of a process. After Hoover, America was a serious shithole. A Hooverville was a shanty town. We call them homeless encampments now. It took Roosevelt's new deal to pull us out with a lot of national programs.

Then WW2 happened and we were super in debt, and we needed to get really organized to develop a robust union-supported middle class, so that our GDP outpaced our debt + interest + spending.

And the owner class took all that personally. Before the war, the industrialists organized a propaganda campaign to instill capitalist values in the US (and no small amount of fascism). They weren't yet good at it but got better with time.

And once big industries were unionized and regulated, Lewis F. Powell Jr. wrote his notorious memorandum outlining the plan to recapture the government, especially the courts, in order to create a pro-commercial state, e.g. one in which unions weren't welcome, regulations weren't enforced, and the working class knew their place.

And the owner class has been following that agenda since. Of course, it is turning the US back into a shithole on the verge of fiscal collapse, but they don't care. Nor do they listen to the economics experts that point out that liberal democratic societies end up far richer, including their owner class. They think as Trump does, that they're the experts on everything, and they surround themselves with sycophants who don't disagree with them or challenge their ideas.

In the 1970s, but especially after Reagan, lobbyists and special interest groups gained access to elected officials, and got really clever in all the ways that they can bribe them. Politician went from being a decent career into a gateway into the owner class, and so people ran for office not to do things (e.g. to create change) but to be adjacent to power. Nowadays, money is super entrenched. Campaign contributions are dwarfed by PAC money which is dwarved by Superpacs, and then there's the promise of post-career cushy high-paying jobs... as lobbyists.

(Apparently it's super humiliating. Once you're in office, if you want to keep your campaign sponsors happy -- and willing to keep you in office -- you have to pass what they say. They give you the bills prewritten and expect them to be passed verbatim. Fail, and that sweet high-paying job you were promised after your political career is gone. So elected officials beholden to large sponsors are forced to be absolutely subservient. It explains why it's so natural for Republicans to abdicate all responsibility to Trump, and why establishment Democrats are incredibly milquetoast, and make every excuse not to pass public-serving legislation. It also explains why establishment Democrats are fighting progressive and DSA factions more fiercely than they fight Republicans, even though the GOP is actively trying to unmake the two-party system and arrest the Dems as political enemies as soon as they get the chance.)

Progressives and DSA are gaining traction specifically because the establishment Democrats are just weak Republicans, and many of those who'd vote for them would rather vote for the guy with the fancier suit and the better memes. Progressives and DSA are coming into office with an actual platform beyond we're better than the Republicans and are trying to actually pass public-serving policy.

Trump, in the meantime, has a knack for inviting people to be their worst selves. He attracts voters who just want to vote based on vibes, rather than a platform and their own best interests. Trump also is openly racist in contrast to the dog-whistle racist Republican party of 2015. White racist Americans found refreshing. He's only saying what we all are thinking. Since then, the Republican party now has a purity test, that either you're 100% MAGA devout, or you're a RINO. And already we're starting to see the MAGA movement start to cut into their own ranks, excluding those who are not quite perfect.

Agreed, but you should still go and vote the brainworm posse out.

Look you're either down to use your allotment of violence this November to fight back within the system, or you're mad enough to fight The System, and build anew.

Anything else makes you a Republican Asset. Fascism is already here, and I don't believe you can vote your way out, but there is value in getting the data to prove it. There is value in giving The Democratic Party enough rope to hang themselves with. To prove to both yourself and others that even with more power The Democratic Party will still only fight with strongly worded letters.

There is also value in pumping up the DSA faction inside the party, and helping them takeover.

There is no value in staying home, and it's too late this election to build a Third Party Movement. So your options are either get behind Blue, or get ready to get bloody. Otherwise you're just a whining Republican Asset.

Voter depression task force out and about again right in time for midterms. Man "leftists" must really love having Republicans in power.

You folk are either Russian bots, or so far brainwashed by Russian bots you've become indistinguishable from them.

IMO democrats aren't really "left." They're more like "were going to use the federal gov to protect corporations" and then the GOP is more like "were going to use the state and local governments to protect corporations"

And then every November, Americans vote to protect corporations.

Weird uptick of both sides bullshit the closer we get to November, go vote.

Both sides are the same? We mush have an election coming up.

I've been saying similar things for a long time now. Repulicrats and Demicrans are two sides of the same coin. Bush signed in the patriot act. I got all excited to make a change and voted for Obama. Then he signs in the expansion of the patriot act and carpet bombs the shit out of Syria.

With all this national debt, you'd think we'd have something to show for it.

This is the time of the year when accounts with a thousand post and ten comments start trying to depress the vote for the only party that has a chance to beat the republicans.

This is why I think reforming the Democrats is a lost cause. They would rather torpedo the entire thing than give an actual leftist one iota of power.

El-Sayed / Hasan manufactured controversy playing out right now is a perfect example of what this looks like.

"Both sides same"

There’s a lot of liberals in here thinking they’re leftists, or trying to “unify the left” in their usual bullshit ways.