this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (8 children)

I mean, I was super curious what Sanders could've done if he had the chance. Instead, we got the opposite experiment.

If democrats in the US vote for stuff like Biden, then they're not voting for any radical change. Trump isn't comparable to that.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago

I still remember the full-on panic mode people were in when it looked like Bernie might clinch the nomination in 2020. So absurd, but that's what happens when the ruling class is afraid that they might have to pay higher taxes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

It's always been conservative neoliberals vs far right nationalism. No one is willing to change much of anything.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago

"vs" is doing some heavy lifting there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, don't see much change happening

🙄

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago

I ment more positive change, I'm aware the country is being burned to the ground and looted.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 23 hours ago

I mean, I was super curious what Sanders could’ve done if he had the chance.

There is a lot of speculation that Sanders would have faced enormous opposition both from the "centrist" media and conservatives within his own party, such that he was hobbled for his full four years. But the expectation is predicated on Sanders playing by Clinton/Obama rules, where you float a progressive idea and Congress says "NO!" and then throw up your hands and spend the back half of your term glad-handing dictators to sell F-35s.

I don't think Sanders would have the Trump/DOGE enthusiasm for shredding the norms and imposing radical reform at the executive level. But if this Presidency is any indication, all you really need is a ketamine fueled cartel of techbros, a stack of EO stationary, and a fresh sharpie. And you can fully remake the federal bureaucracy from root to branch.

If democrats in the US vote for stuff like Biden, then they’re not voting for any radical change.

Biden made a very conscious decision to run to the left of Bernie in 2020. He avoided Clinton's fumbles through the Midwest in large part by echoing all the Obama '08 and Sanders '16 pledges, while the national media amplified his electoral platform in the middle of a COVID-induced campaign freeze.

American Dems are just as vulnerable to a coordinated propaganda campaign as their conservative and libertarian peers. So its no surprise people who'd fallen for the corporate sponsored faux-populist schtick in elections prior would fall for it this time around. But there was also a very deep and not unjustified fear among moderate Dems that running anyone but Biden would guarantee the kind of news cycle smear campaigns against Sanders that brought down Hillary.

The failure of the American liberal movement is largely rooted in their lack of faith in their own base and their own message. Liberals have convinced themselves that every year is 1972 and every progressive is going to lose like McGovern did. They've bought fully into the Republican propaganda machine and only ever know how to fight on the Republicans' terms. And, as a result, guys like Reagan and Bush and Trump can stake out turf to the left of Democrats, win on narrow margins, and then govern uncontested as fascists.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

What would it take to pass a constitutional amendment for ranked choice voting, or any other voting system without a spoiler effect?

Spoiler: not by voting

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Congressional Democratic Majority and the same in most state legislatures. Its functionally impossible to pass an amendment at this point.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Yea but the Dems wouldn't pass that, though.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Americans voted for Biden because the primary system heavily favored Biden and Americans were told Biden was "more electable" than Bernie, even though every one of Bernie's policies and his messaging polled better.

If the DNC didn't put their thumbs on the scale, Bernie would have won in 2016 (or 2020), and guaranteed a democratic victory in the next election because nobody receiving free healthcare is going to vote to go back to the current system.

Bernie isn't radical, he's a social democrat, he just looks radical because the democrats are right of George W Bush right now.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I get it and I don't disagree, but- Well, I for one wouldn't mind some radical change. Just not in the direction that it is going right now. Radical in itself is nothing bad, when the status quo is as bad as it is.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If democrats in the US vote for stuff like Biden, then they’re not voting for any radical change

I don't exactly know the details, but weren't there accusations of meddling from the DNC that stoppered Sanders' chance of securing the nomination, and a belief among some that he might have won the nomination if it had been a free and fair primary process?

In other words, it's possible (though by no means certain) that your sentence above works if "democrats" means "the DNC and the establishment of the Democratic Party", but not if it means "people who by-and-large support the Democratic Party".

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago

The Dems did some delegate fuckery where all candidates endorsed Biden because ~~Bernie~~ Trump had to be stopped at all cost, and their delegates went to Biden even if he hadn't been voted for. Kamala contributed all of her 0 delegates and got VP for being ~~a cop~~ the first to drop out iirc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Oddly enough people say that they voted for these policies for change. It’s a mess.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Trump is a lot of things, but he definitely isn't a status quo politician.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago

No, but he’s not really what I think of when I think of “change” either.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Still nothing

Courts wouldn’t even let Biden offer student loan relief

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (37 children)

They were only able to because of the way he went about it. He could have simply ordered the Department of Education to immediately forgive the loans and erase any record of the debt, and dared the SCOTUS to order him to create new debts (which he could simply ignore).

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Probably, but I'd only believe that there is really nothing to be done once I see someone actually left-leaning attempt everything in their toolbox.

I believe Sanders would have tried to change as much as possible in the US. I also believe that he would have failed regarding a lot of things. Would have really liked to see him try though.