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Does Israel have a right to your tax dollars? (lemmy.today)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/workreform@lemmy.world
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[–] 5 points 3 months ago (12 children)

Can someone please explain the prominence of el Sayed. Is his placement a strategic or precious position?

I get that he’s progressive it’s more I am trying to get my head around American politics and why some elected are particularly important.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 months ago

    90% of our representatives of both parties are bought by Israel through AIPAC and private donors like Miriam Addleson. This organization dumped 36 million dollars into this election to try to get their preferred outcome. His win is a big deal because it is a win for the American people against runaway corruption.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    The reason everyone was focused on this primary is because AES flies in the face of decades of democrat strategies.

    The democrat consultants would all say that "In a purple state like Michigan, you should run the most conservative democrat possible. Otherwise, you'll lose. Moderates win states which constantly flip from democrat to republican".

    AES is michigan voters rejecting that notion and running someone that is to the left of a lot of democrats currently in office. That's them ignoring what the establishment want. It's even more significant because he was outspent 9:1 (10:1? 12:1? That's a fuzzy number, but by a lot).

    The general will prove whether or not this was a good strategy (I think it is). And if it is successful, it upsets the narrative of a LOT of pundits. It shouldn't be possible (according to them) for Abdul to wins.

    This is why this is generally seen as a very important election.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago

    In a purple state like Michigan, you should run the most conservative democrat possible. Otherwise, you’ll lose.

    Yeah, that's not necessarily true.

    People who vote for conservative Democrats are way more into the things that MAGA Republicans like: Voting R to prove your manhood; Voting R to own the libs; Voting R to deport all the immigrants; Voting R to keep trans women out of women's sports (all ten of them.)

    Then there's independents who are really only concerned about how the economy is doing, or rather how their own household is doing. If it's doing poorly, they vote against the incumbent. If their household is doing well, they'll keep the current guy to avoid rocking the boat.

    Then there's the breed of Democrat who is interested in platform issues. They're not all interested in the same platform issues:
    Some really want universal healthcare.
    Some really want to stop support of the Gaza genocide.
    Some want serious action on the climate crisis.
    Some want a jobs guarantee.
    Some want full access to women's reproductive healthcare, including abortion, to be guaranteed nationwide.

    Some want a combination of these things.

    And then there's those Democrats who will vote blue no matter who, because they acknowledge the crisis of democracy that's unfolding in the US. The Republican party is actively attempting a coup in order to secure themselves a permanent majority, a step towards a one-party state, and autocracy. If that happens, then our elected officials don't need to care at all about what the public thinks, since the peaceful transition of power as been eliminated. (That also puts non-peaceful transition of power in the center of the table, but that's a different conversation.)

    But this last batch of Democrats try to express their policy opinions in the primaries rather than in the general elections, and back any Democratic candidate that makes it to the general. So some of these Dems are voting in progressive candidates in the belief that progressive Democrats are better winners against Republicans than centrist ones.

    (To elaborate on this hypothesis, Republicans are going to Republican: FOX News just has them by the balls, and there's nothing for them, but a Democratic candidate that has something to offer will draw apathetic Democrats to the election polls, tipping the election in their favor. And in the current clime, we're seeing this happen repeatedly.)

    So what the centrists are banking on is a voting bloc that likes establishment Democrats that take corporate money and are beholden to the lobbies of their campaign contributors, that doesn't like progressives (who try to be beholden to their constituency) and yet are not so hardline that they vote Republican, who do the same thing. That would be the corporations and the lobbyists themselves, I think.

    Democrats as a group don't identify as blue the way Republicans identify as Red. This is evident in the messaging crisis on the Democratic side. They vote D because they're interested in the policies that benefit them, or to stop MAGA from taking over the country. Establishment Democrats seem to be looking for blues that identify as blue.

    Maybe there's a demographic that I'm missing, but from here it seems that our Blue Dog Democrats are out of touch.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    To be clear, he is not elected. He won the democratic party nomination for the senate from Michigan. He is prominent because he is Muslim and progressive and is not the kind of candidate we usually get from the democrats for a seat this important. Most of the prominent democrats (elected or in party leadership) had supported his opponent. Also much more money was spent against him in the nominating race than for him. And much of the funding supporting his opponent (or denigrating him) was from AIPAC.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago*

    Yeah, if elected he will be 1/100 people voting in half of congress.

    Granted his vote being 1/100 is better than being in the house which has 435.

    So if you can get the right 269 people to agree on something good, it will go to the president and be vetod.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    Option 1: The American people are tired of being exploited and are electing candidates which will genuinely represent their interests, setting the stage for an economic renaissance of sorts after American workers have been heavily exploited since the 90's (really the 80's but everyone had money then so no one cared).

    Option 2: The American people are tired of being exploited. The elites which control the country and media recognize this and are allowing meager concessions as a pressure release valve to prevent an actual revolution (as they did to end the Battle of Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict) where people demand the full profits created by their labor, and instead are satisfied with cheaper housing, food, and gas (but still probably all more expensive than they were like 20 years ago).

    Unfortunately option 2 is much more likely. Every win for the people is worth celebrating, but I trust no Democrat, especially a self-described capitalist like El-Sayed. My hope for him is the same as my hope for Mamdani: that he will decrease the suffering of the working class, allowing us to be exploited a little bit less and thereby have a little more time for organizing and raising class consciousness. DSA is not the revolution and never can be, but with any hope they can be a stepping stone towards it.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 child)

    he's just doing the rounds like mamdani did, happens for every "upset" political canidate.

    establishment plays their games trying to fearmonger/gotcha while the new guy gets a bunch of free publicity

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    Well, he's running for US Senate (100 Senators total), which a much more powerful office than US Representative (435 Representatives total). Democrats have a pretty good chance of gaining majority in the US house of Representatives, but they'll do well to pull even in the Senate (currently at +3 to Republicans I think). So, the Democrat candidates running for Senate have a chance of making a much bigger impact to the balance of power (James Talarico in Texas is also an example of this). The fact that Abdul El-Sayed is 1) a (extremely handsome...) Muslim man, and 2) from the left progressive end of the party is making waves.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago*

    hes upsetting the natural order of the DNC, which are the schumers/hakeems of congress, which are definitely not true democrats. theres like a dozen+ that is backed by the AIPAC or other billionaires to vote the same way as schumer.

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