God. The UK has a fucked system too, but just having a few viable third options would probably result in... at least mildly less fucked politics than we in the US currently suffer.

At least you lot can punish a party by actually removing electoral seats from a party busy fucking around without just saying "Here, fascists, it's all your's :)" and sending the wrong message entirely.

But yes, the most important thing at present for us, assuming elections mean anything going forward, is putting leftists on the ballot. That Mamdani managed such enthusiasm gives me some hope. Not a lot. But some.

If I were a religious man, I'd be sacrificing a cow for his success right about now. It's... pretty grim out here other than him, at the moment.

Hell yeah. Nitpick away. Push for actual left politicians. Go canvas for a candidate who better meets your ideals. Don't forget to vote in primaries and local elections.

Also don't forget that we need to actually make it to having elections for the next 4 years to even start trying to turn this ship around.

That's what pisses me off about these tribalists coming out to parrot the post-defeat "it wasn't our fault for not trying to be appealing, it was the fault of the plebes for not supporting us" DNC propaganda.

"Always blame the peasants, never the kings!"

It's hilariously subservient and the avoidance of change inside the Democrat Party that this "let's not criticize our leaders" aims to achive pretty much guarantees a similar result next time the Democrats face a Republican populist - Fascism - and that part is the very opposite of hilarious.

It's also seriously hypocrite to cloak yourself in a "we want to protect trans people" cloak whilst fighting against the criticism of the Democrat Party that can change the very leaders whose choices and strategies resulted in the current situation where trans people are getting harmed: if they genuinelly wanted to protect trans people from harm, they would not spend their time trying divert criticism away from their holy cows.

Nitpicking ain't the same as doing the work to get a more progressive candidate through primaries of a major party & onto the ballot.

And you have shit libs still clabbering about how the 2024 General ended up.

Can we not pivot and look to the future? Are Democrats secretly wanting to Make Democrats Great Again, like they once were?

Ffs

And our nitpicking and low approval of the Democrats is now a key talking point for Republicans. I may be ignorant but I'm not seeing changes in leadership which is why the approval rating is low. We want something locked and loaded and with sure footing by the midterms so that, at minimum, messaging is on point. But so far they haven't done anything to appeal to people and actually create a platform that energizes people. They need a leftist issue that makes people as irrationally angry as trans girls in high school sports does for MAGAts.

Two different things, "nitpicking" and then, you know, voting (for Dems).

What does that have to do with what I'm saying?

Where did I say "Don't criticize the Dems!"

I'm saying "Next election that comes about, maybe don't fucking purity politics us into literal Nazi death camps like you did this time, you twats"

also time to nitpick fundamentalist beliefs and deradicalize before the inevitable bullshit wedge issue campaigns in the run up to the next elections

He now holds the primary attendance record in NYC. It was only 30% of eligible voters, up from 21% in the last election. That’s literally all it takes. We just need to show the fuck up.

Congressional primaries see less than 15% attendance. We’ve been letting retirees pack our ballots with centrists for 40 years, then complain about our choices in the general elections. We wouldn’t be calling for term limits if we consistently participated in primaries.

They are either trying to trick people into not voting against the GOP or they have been tricked themselves.

“Both sides are the same” has been a bad faith argument I’ve heard from conservatives for decades.

The point is that socialism cannot be achieved by electoral means. At best, if the masses in the street really pressure those in power, you get social democracy. That being said the choice for Americans was neoliberalism or fascism. The reasons for fascism winning go deeper than "the left was to whinny", but that's beside the point being made here.

We need never be afraid of the vote of informed Americans. It is only the ignorant voter we have to fear, ignorant politically, no matter how fine his house or how expensive his schooling. Such people have never experienced democracy; they have merely enjoyed its benefits. It is hard to explain what democracy is; it is necessary to participate in it to understand it.

The former Berlin businessman I referred to earlier told me that he blamed his own group, people with the time and the money and the opportunity to know better, for what happened to Germany. "We ignored Hitler," he said. "We considered him an unimportant fellow, not quite a gentleman, not of our own class. We considered it just a little bit vulgar to bother with him, to bother with politics at all."

They thought of the government as "They." The only possible route to a clear conscience in politics is to accept political responsibility, either as an active member of the party in power or as an equally active member of the loyal opposition.

—Robert A. Heinlein, Take Back Your Government

If you don’t try to change anything, of course the awful “moderates” stay in charge.

Trying to change thing is exactly what the Uncommitted movement tried to do. And while they failed to move the needle in the 2024 election, in 2028, the Democrats will have to think a lot more about whether they want to keep losing in exchange for supporting genocide.

Remember, it's always "the most important election ever." Every election is billed as that. But sometimes you need to be willing to accept a short-term loss in exchange for long-term progress. Myopically focusing on just the election right in front of you is how we got into this mess in the first place.

Kamala losing gave space for someone like Mamdani to win. It's clear that corporate DNC centrism is a toxic losing brand. If Kamala had won, it is extremely unlikely that Mamdani would have won the NYC primary.

This is such a tired narrative. You guys really want to focus on the leftists when half the country voted for an authoritarian?

Scratch a liberal, a fascist bleeds

It's a valid concern moving forward.

The Republican party has made a HARD turn toward fascism. No marginalized group is safe from fascism. Unchecked, I absolutely believe conservatives would be onboard with camps for trans people. They've happily waltzed past every red line so far.

That's a legitimate question. Alligator Auschwitz has opened for immigrants. Mostly it's a warning that concentration camps are opening, and that the targeting of trans people means that they are in serious danger of being one of the next demographics to be sent.

Just like the Nazi concentration camps did not begin with mass deportations of Jews, so too is the case here.

Yeah. And yet, despite this clear and present fascism, those same leftists who bragged about how pure they are are still bragging about it and claiming it as left praxis.

If we have another meaningful election, it will be no thanks to them - and doubtlessly, if we have another meaningful election, they'll try to peddle this same exact 'trick' in service to fascism since they still think it was the best thing they've ever done in their lives. Which is why it's important to point it out as the pro-genocide pro-Nazi bullshit that it is before the metaphorical ten minutes before election day.