Political Memes

What's not mentioned in this excerpt is that this was sponsored by Third Way, a think tank that is singlemindedly devoted to convincing Democrats to cut the left out of the party. God knows the DNC has its problems, but it's misleading to frame this as a mainstream Democratic conference.

"Moderates say party should go moderate" shocker

The blue MAGA are here on Lemmy and I ran into couple of them. They keep shouting to the rooftops that the Democratic party did nothing wrong and berate Trump voters as stupid and ignorant. But they are tone deaf when you point out that the Democratic party is not willing to run on the platform on Medicare-for-all, build more social housing and increase federal minimum wage (and ditch Israel), which made the party unappealing and lose consistently. Basically, blue MAGA don't want to go left, because even if they are socially progressive on issues, they benefit from wealth inequality because they themselves are affluent in spite of being socially progressive.

Edit: yep, the blue MAGA came out of the woodwork. They think Medicare for all, affordable housing, and increasing minimum wage are red fascism.

This is just the other half of the one party state

Excuse we, what?

The rightwing coup within the DNC. Those staffers and consultants need to be blacklisted from politics. They have done nothing but drive the country into fascism.

I'd like a list of those who subscribe to this theory to ensure not a single one of them ever gets a vote from me again. I'm an overseas voter and my "home" state is so gerrymandered to shit it doesn't really matter what I do anyway.

I smell bullshit here, but yeah this is definitely a laundry list of exactly the stuff not to do. A moderate democrat is a Krysten Sinema and a Joe Manchin that exactly did a lot of damage to Democrats.

Also, owning up to democratic governance issues of large cities? Republicans run <20% of America's top 50 cities, and 10% of the top 30. Republicans are not in the business of running large cities, so WTF would give credence to them on a topic they literally have no expertise or relevant track record in doing.

A good bit of literature has studied the problem and arrived to recommendations that overlap in parts & depart in others with this playbook.

A former parliamentarian of the Hungarian government studied its slide into illiberalism, and suggested remedies for the current, similar trend in the US. Resist in the courts & media, and build a powerful social base at the state & city level throughout the country. The latter means

the Democratic Party must reconnect with the working class to preserve liberal institutions

Doing that means

1. "creating new and strengthening existing local organizational structures, especially labor unions". Do not focus "on issues important to the active base only" such as "media freedom or democracy": this leads to "failures of mass mobilizations". "[E]ngage with [ordinary people] outside elections, focusing on issues that matter to them".
2. "[T]o push through popular reforms that elites oppose", free "the party from elite capture" by shifting financing "from the corporate elite to small and micro-donations".
3. "[C]ommit to left-populist economic policies".
4. "[L]earn symbolic class politics", "embrace the mundane and be down to earth".

you don’t protect democracy by talking about democracy — you protect democracy by protecting people

I'm seeing the playbook overlap a bit with points 1 & 4, diverge from point 2, and not treat point 3.

Another article reviews research observing a decades-long trend of class dealignment: workers abandoning the left-wing party & joining the right. As unions have weakened and Democrats abandoned them, the party has increasingly relied on & shifted appeal to urban middle class professionals & minorities. The review names 4 paths researched or discussed to reverse dealignment.

• inclusive populism: "appeal to working-class voters’ sense of resentment at economic elites and stress how elites use racial resentment to divide segments of the working class that share a common interest in economic justice"
• anti-woke social democ­racy: make "a clean break with factions of the party that embrace unpopular social and cultural messaging that alienates working-class voters"
• deliverism: "pass and implement large-scale economic reforms that benefit working Americans"
• institutionalism: reinvigorate a "labor movement capable of advancing working-class interest in politics and [re-embed] Democratic and progressive politics into the lived experiences of working-class communities"

It looks like the playbook is going with anti-woke social democ­racy & institutionalism, rejecting inclusive populism, not mentioning deliverism.

They seem to think the way to win the working class is to go more MAGA-like (anti-woke social democ­racy) instead of trying a competing strategy like inclusive populism. It also looks like they're choosing not to break free of elite capture, which seems like a huge mistake.

Dear US-Americans, it is time to form a new, progressive party.

The Overton window just keeps sliding to the right

I'm sure if they break right then those Republicans they've been chasing for the last 40 years will finally vote for them!

"Guys I figured it out! Republicans win so we just need to be Republicans! It's fool proof!"

Love America, stop letting extremists speak for us, get involved with regular people, foster community, and govern better. The democrats might have a chance after all.

you want a maga monarchy, even long after the diaper's been buried? this is one of many ways to hand it to them.

A convent of dems in Virginia attempting to revive Jimmy Carter.