The Democrats used to promise real change and progress, but they’ve only proven themselves to be the party of stagnation in recent memory. Nowadays they don’t even try to inspire their base, but rather scare them into submission with the threat of Trumpism.
Sure it’s better than the rapid decline into chaos that the order party is trending towards but this pattern of “a couple careful steps forward then a dozen strides sprinting backwards” isn’t working for Americans. Many of us have lost faith in the system because the system doesn’t work for us. What’s worse is that when we get a candidate who speaks to us, the Democratic establishment shuts them down with more efficacy than they ever seem to direct towards any of the Right’s regressive politics.
While I still fall in line and vote for somebody who I am not excited or inspired by in a seemingly futile effort to hold the line, many others have given up because their struggles aren’t being addressed or even acknowledged. You can yell at them and criticize them until you’re blue in the face but I can guarantee you they’re either so tuned out that they’ll never hear it or so dug into their own political ideals that they won’t receive it.
If you want their vote, you’re going to have to earn it.
I think you’re right and that’s ultimately why I voted for Harris but as your original point says either apathy or ignorance amongst many other Americans has grown to the extent that they are willing to risk declining into fascism.
Are we going to change that by telling them to stop being apathetic/ignorant and that fascism is bad? Because that seems to have been the primary strategy the Dems have run over the last decade and the only time it’s worked for them was when the effects of Trump’s incompetence was unavoidably present in the minds of Americans. I’d rather we not depend on another catastrophe to win the next election, assuming we will have one.
Are we going to change that by telling them to stop being apathetic/ignorant and that fascism is bad? Because that seems to have been the primary strategy the Dems have run over the last decade and the only time it’s worked for them was when the effects of Trump’s incompetence was unavoidably present in the minds of Americans. I’d rather we not depend on another catastrophe to win the next election, assuming we will have one.
No, the solution is much deeper and more multifaceted. The Dems have the approximate strategic competence of a walnut.
At the same time, the toxic positivity of ‘agree to disagree’ that has become increasingly present even through the radicalization of the right since the 1990s has allowed many people to entirely detach their increasingly fascist political choices from their social lives, and this must be reversed. The fact that many here on Lemmy seem hell-bent on playing apologist for allowing fascism makes the message particularly important to be said here - we are all responsible for our choices, our choices have moral implications, and we live with those choices forever. There is no washing your hands of your deeds, there is no sitting out and playing innocent. This is not (yet) a despotism; in a republic, citizens have political power, and with that political power, responsibility for what they do or do not do with it.
The Democrats used to promise real change and progress, but they’ve only proven themselves to be the party of stagnation in recent memory. Nowadays they don’t even try to inspire their base, but rather scare them into submission with the threat of Trumpism.
Sure it’s better than the rapid decline into chaos that the order party is trending towards but this pattern of “a couple careful steps forward then a dozen strides sprinting backwards” isn’t working for Americans. Many of us have lost faith in the system because the system doesn’t work for us. What’s worse is that when we get a candidate who speaks to us, the Democratic establishment shuts them down with more efficacy than they ever seem to direct towards any of the Right’s regressive politics.
While I still fall in line and vote for somebody who I am not excited or inspired by in a seemingly futile effort to hold the line, many others have given up because their struggles aren’t being addressed or even acknowledged. You can yell at them and criticize them until you’re blue in the face but I can guarantee you they’re either so tuned out that they’ll never hear it or so dug into their own political ideals that they won’t receive it.
If you want their vote, you’re going to have to earn it.
“The Dems need to change” and “Allowing fascism is not okay” are not mutually exclusive positions, and I hold to both.
I think you’re right and that’s ultimately why I voted for Harris but as your original point says either apathy or ignorance amongst many other Americans has grown to the extent that they are willing to risk declining into fascism.
Are we going to change that by telling them to stop being apathetic/ignorant and that fascism is bad? Because that seems to have been the primary strategy the Dems have run over the last decade and the only time it’s worked for them was when the effects of Trump’s incompetence was unavoidably present in the minds of Americans. I’d rather we not depend on another catastrophe to win the next election, assuming we will have one.
No, the solution is much deeper and more multifaceted. The Dems have the approximate strategic competence of a walnut.
At the same time, the toxic positivity of ‘agree to disagree’ that has become increasingly present even through the radicalization of the right since the 1990s has allowed many people to entirely detach their increasingly fascist political choices from their social lives, and this must be reversed. The fact that many here on Lemmy seem hell-bent on playing apologist for allowing fascism makes the message particularly important to be said here - we are all responsible for our choices, our choices have moral implications, and we live with those choices forever. There is no washing your hands of your deeds, there is no sitting out and playing innocent. This is not (yet) a despotism; in a republic, citizens have political power, and with that political power, responsibility for what they do or do not do with it.