I hear this line all the goddamn time, but it was just not fucking so. It was forced to accede to change by large amounts of its base demonstrating electoral activity, both in primaries and in the general, despite a desire to limit the radicals of their base from influence.
I mean they had their thumb on the primary a lot less than the DNC, at least. That’s why Trump made it to the general in 2016 rather than the GOP’s preferred candidate.
Their respective distances measured relative to the average American voter? Yes.
Distance from the center is irrelevant; the relevant quality here is position on the absolute left-right scale, with socialism/anarchy on one end and fascism on the other (the center does not exist in this view, as that is inherently relative). And I have to say, Trump is a lot more fascist than Bernie is anarchist. That’s the problem here; Trump fought with his political establishment and won, while Bernie and the rest of the American left didn’t.
Christ, man, do not tell me that’s what you think strong leadership is.
Yes and no. Trump is the ultimate representation of the base desires of his constituents, a man who “grabs them by the pussy”, calls Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals and publicly calls for a ban on Muslims. He also says whatever the fuck he wants—which happens to be what his constituents want to hear—whenever the fuck he wants, something something quite part out loud. These are traits of strong leadership that Trump possesses and nobody on the left does. Taken out of the general insanity of Trump, they’d be willingness to be radical and stand up for your principles. Of course it’s not like Trump possesses these qualities; he’s just a narcissist, but this and that are different problems.
Okay, the next step is - you’re asked ‘how?’
A public option (or single payer healthcare, depending on how radical you want to go), investment in renewables, tax laws and funding the IRS, investing in public transportation (point to NYC or similar for an example of that in action), respectively. The rationale behind a lot of leftwing policies is fundamentally very simple; the complexity comes from the execution, which low-information voters don’t care about and high-information voters will listen to long explanations for.
The idea that the Dems just forgot to lie about being good is absurd.
They didn’t; they simply lost the option to even lie about being good, because being good is antithetical to the desires of their donors.
Many of the left-wing detractors on Lemmy, where the average commenter is more politically informed than the average voter couldn’t name jack fucking shit about the Dem platform in 2024.
That’s because the Dem platform was just that bad. The Dems treated their own platform as irrelevant and almost completely focused on the democracy stuff without any action to back it up. The average Lemmy left-wing detractor could name the main points of the GOP platform, because the GOP is both better at building narratives and actually cares about their (absolutely horrible, to be clear) platform.
I mean they had their thumb on the primary a lot less than the DNC, at least. That’s why Trump made it to the general in 2016 rather than the GOP’s preferred candidate.
Distance from the center is irrelevant; the relevant quality here is position on the absolute left-right scale, with socialism/anarchy on one end and fascism on the other (the center does not exist in this view, as that is inherently relative). And I have to say, Trump is a lot more fascist than Bernie is anarchist. That’s the problem here; Trump fought with his political establishment and won, while Bernie and the rest of the American left didn’t.
Yes and no. Trump is the ultimate representation of the base desires of his constituents, a man who “grabs them by the pussy”, calls Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals and publicly calls for a ban on Muslims. He also says whatever the fuck he wants—which happens to be what his constituents want to hear—whenever the fuck he wants, something something quite part out loud. These are traits of strong leadership that Trump possesses and nobody on the left does. Taken out of the general insanity of Trump, they’d be willingness to be radical and stand up for your principles. Of course it’s not like Trump possesses these qualities; he’s just a narcissist, but this and that are different problems.
A public option (or single payer healthcare, depending on how radical you want to go), investment in renewables, tax laws and funding the IRS, investing in public transportation (point to NYC or similar for an example of that in action), respectively. The rationale behind a lot of leftwing policies is fundamentally very simple; the complexity comes from the execution, which low-information voters don’t care about and high-information voters will listen to long explanations for.
They didn’t; they simply lost the option to even lie about being good, because being good is antithetical to the desires of their donors.
That’s because the Dem platform was just that bad. The Dems treated their own platform as irrelevant and almost completely focused on the democracy stuff without any action to back it up. The average Lemmy left-wing detractor could name the main points of the GOP platform, because the GOP is both better at building narratives and actually cares about their (absolutely horrible, to be clear) platform.