Greek philosophers in 300 BC: Hey, so electoralism is a rigged game, because only wealthy and prestigious families have enough money to finance the popularity contest to get themselves or their puppet candidates elected.

Marxists in the 1800s: Electoralism is a rigged game. Capitalists stack every election with their puppets. Political power is subservient to economic power.

Liberals in the 2020s: No, electoralism has never worked. But it might work for us this time.
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[+] 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago*

    Without replacing the bourgeois state with a socialist, proletarian one, the ready-made levers for reinforcing the bourgeois mode of production will cause a reversion. The Paris Commune was the first such example of this failure in action.

    The Soviet Union was one of the latest. Yeltsin taking office, failing to get his way, and then shelling parliament into surrender being the most prominent example of the failures of electoralism, even in an ostensibly proletarian state.

    Gaza also a great instance of the wages of strict electoralism. You rally your people behind a more militant political body (Hamas in 2006) and the end result is your heavily armed neighbors using the results of an election as causa belli. Hell, the American Civil War is another great example, what with a Southern coup government rising up after a Presidential election defeat.

    It is through organization and revolution that we can actually move on into a better world.

    It gives us a fighting chance, at least. But it is also hard, painful, and requiring enormous self-sacrifice particularly among the early adopters.

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