19 Comments

Lack of working class representatives is a problem across the Anglo sphere and goes back 30 odd years when neoliberalism and its political equivalent, technocratic governance, got a real foothold in centre left political parties. They either fix it stat, or we are headed for authoritarian governments everywhere. It’s a real political crisis.

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Who is “they”? The problem in this Country is that there are only 2 rigid political parties. This leaves limited room for dissent and gives no opportunity for people to find a Party that works for them. But even if you had your own Party, you’d still have to form a coalition with other groups and this means compromise.

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What the fuck does ‘compromise’ have to do with selecting working class candidates for election?

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Nothing will happen without organized mass mobilization. That means, solidarity and sacrifice for strangers. Of money, time, and more. These monsters are destroying your children's future, and they won't go easily. Yet I see exactly no work on resistance at all. Lots of Substack posts. No even understanding that we'll need a general strike, strike funds, and yes weapons, if only for self-defense against the 400m guns and infinite ammo on the other side. No one is prepared to do anything in the face of that, so we lose, our children die, and that's that.

What's on Netflix?

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people are claiming they would resist, but are instead planning to cuddle into a ball and wait out the four years in the comfort of their homes while all falls apart. lots of naive people live in the us.

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Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman were the low hanging fruit of the Democratic Party. Both outspoken about the US supported genocide and then heavily targeted by AIPAC dollars. Where was the party leadership when this was transpiring? Accepting enormous AIPAC donations to remain silent. Hakeem Jeffries is a huge recipient of these dollars. I agree 100% with Jazzme. The Democratic Party will never accept and support a progressive agenda that focuses on the needs of the American people. The only way out of this duopoly created mess is for a coordinated third coalition of alternative parties and a defection of progressive Democrats to that coalition. I myself donated to the Justice Democrats in their early days. I thought AOC was the future of the party. Who was telling folks to shut the hell up and rally behind Biden following months of unmitigated genocidal support and a debate performance that revealed an empty suit? Justice Democrat superstar AOC.

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20hEdited

This article sickened me. After witnessing the genocide in Gaza, the massacre of Houttis, the sanctioning of millions of people world wide, the over throw of progressive governments, the Ukrainian debacle you authors have the audacity to champion the democrat party and foolishly think it is reformable. Get real! You must be as psyco as Ireali citizens.

My advise: If you be a progressive get the hell out of this party and join a progressive 3rd party.

People

Planet

Peace

the Democrat party eat progressives woke up progressives

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Yes, absolutely. We also need better bullshit detector to prevent such things like a John Fetterman

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Right now in Texas state. Oiloligarchs are trying to ”buy” Texas government, and make it into a national theocracy. Money and religious fanatics is a scary combination, but oh so tempting to many leaders of the state. They have now bribed Governor Abbott, to unseat TX House Republicans who oppose his private school voucher scam for instance.

State Rep Talarico, and other both republicans and democrats, are trying to stop this nonsense.

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Big donor money infects the political system, corrupting agendas and eroding democracy. When I examined AIPAC's track record, I was shocked and dismayed by the number of Democrats accepting support from a foreign donor network. This influence allows money, not merit, to dictate outcomes, sidelining deserving candidates. To me, this is unethical, deceptive, and a betrayal of democratic values. I stand firmly with politicians who reject quid pro quo and prioritize integrity over big-money influence. Politicans of today are weak, and we the people have to stand up to this corrupt "system'.

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The folks who currently hold the reins in the Democratic Party would prefer to lose with candidates like Hillary, Joe or Kamala than win with Bernie Sanders because the goal for them is raising money and protecting the privileges of the rich. There is nothing in it for them if the Democratic Party were in power with progressives driving the bus. While I appreciate the work of progressives, I have to wonder if the Democratic Party is beyond saving. I’m hoping the Green Party sees the opportunity for them and can become more than Jill Stein’s ego trip. It might be a wake up call to the Democratic Party.

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The struggle is between rich and everyone else. No matter your political ideology you will be used and abused by the wealthy in their quest for even more extreme profits at the expense of people and our planet.

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the dnc experimented with the gop-lite paradigm. it did not work. but will they learn or will they claim that it was a tiny stepback, and they would commit to steadfast pursuit of gop-lite. i suspect commitment to gop-lite would be the case.

the dnc has no future without the progressive wing. however, the dnc via kh fully shunned the progressives, indicating that the dnc is not interested in representing them. hence, what future the dnc is seeing as its future is unclear.

progressives are sufficiently appalled by the recent policies by the biden administration to shun the dnc for a long time to come. key issues are: the unconditional sponsorship of the genocide in gaza; allowing the attack on public education across the country to flourish; adopting the trump playbook on pandemic management and public health in general; abandoning climate crisis measurements and instead embracing the frack/drill trump narrative; letting the legal system degrade and making no effort to safeguard it; making minimal effort on the predatory health insurance industry which acts as death panelists.

the progressives need to start building a coalition and emerge as the party that the dnc is unwilling to be.

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I don’t think there is escaping the capture that left-friendly well-off people have executed on the Democratic Party. There’s no going backwards to the 90s pre Clinton.

People need to look to take control of their own destiny and build alternative institutions and do so sincerely. This is hard work but it’s necessary work. I am deeply skeptical we’ll have the transformative change and vision that is needed from the democrats so long as they are positioning themselves as defenders of the liberal status quo— it’s clearly not working.

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Good luck!

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Certainly true, unfortunately, running for Congress is a money game, and our entire politics has been perverted by money. PACS, Super PACS, Citizens United, etc. Talk about rigged. And once a person is elected, he or she must spend hours upon hours begging for money to fund a re-election campaign. Until we reform the way campaigns are financed, and tame unaccountable money, the Billionaire Class will rule -- with near impunity.

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Working class and Young! There have to be age limits for politicians as well as term limits. I'm saying this as someone in her mid-eighties.

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The Constitution is the supreme Law of the Land, not the supreme Court, not even an election. The Constitution is written in plain language, and the supreme Court does not have the Constitutional power to decide what it means. The supreme Court forced Donald Trump to be on the ballot in all 50 states, just as it brought us Jim Crow, just as it forces us to accept money as free speech in elections. And every supreme Court decision that effects the supreme Law of the Land violates the Constitution. Read it for yourself, https://nevinhoraceoliphant.substack.com/p/our-constitutional-republic?r=3sr22y

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That’s the hottest take I’ve seen thus far.

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