For US democracy to survive, it needs progressives like Sanders and AOC | Judith Levine
www.theguardian.com
The Democratic establishment says this election is about preserving democracy – yet are more worried about looking disunited than winning
  • BobaFuttbucker@reddthat.com
    181·
    4 months ago

    They’re only progressive by US standards because the bar has sunk so low their stances on things are progressive by comparison.

    We absolutely need them, AND more

  • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    194·
    4 months ago

    It needs a lot more than that, at this point.

    But that’s not really what this article is about: it’s actually about trying to torpedo the Democrats’ chances by fanning the flames of that disunity, even though progressives like Sanders and AOC support Biden because they’re the ones that actually give a shit about preserving democracy and they know not trying to change horses mid-stream is the best way to do that!

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    3·
    4 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Before the 2020 elections, the Democratic congressional campaign committee changed its rules to cut business ties with any consultant who worked with primary challengers – who were coming, not coincidentally, from the left.

    By simultaneously marginalizing the left and depending on its votes, the party has courted only mistrust and cynicism from the social justice movements whose ideas, in milder form, they eventually co-opt.

    Most of the people I’ve met making get-out-the-vote phone calls for whatever mediocre candidate the Democrats put on the ballot come from the old, New, Labor, feminist, anti-war or antiracist left.

    In June 2020, under Trump’s orders, national guard troops in riot gear fired teargas and rubber bullets at citizens peacefully protesting George Floyd’s murder in Washington’s Lafayette Park so that the president could have his picture taken holding up a Bible in front of a church.

    When Trump lectured governors to “dominate” – arrest, prosecute, jail and “do retribution” to – demonstrators in their cities, only the Illinois Democrat JB Pritzker, whose name has been floated to replace Biden on the ticket, objected.

    West and Stein are right: unlike parliamentary systems, where parties large and small represent proportionate popular support within government, the US electoral duopoly fails democracy.

    The original article contains 1,078 words, the summary contains 203 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!