this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
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He'll talk populous and antioligarchy until the election, then ask us to vote for his good friends the oligarchy.
You're letting perfect be the enemy of good - you can push for changes while still operating in a society.
Not sure how anyone sees the highest level ever recorded of homelessness, followed by another record level of homelessness, as good. How 53% of renters can't afford their housing as good. The widest level of income inequality we've ever had as good. Enabling the mass slaughter of Palestinians while ignoring the pleas of its own people as good, then deny there is a genocide occuring. Throwing trans under the bus while embracing war criminals like the Cheneys, blowing Republican dog whistles, and expanding the police state as good. Refusing to listen to voters that the DNC's hand selected candidate wasnt fit for office until the money people said get him out, as good.
The enemy of good is liberals that refuse to hold their own people accountable.
So in other words, the same criticisms that Sanders makes.
I don't see you leading raids on US army bases, so don't act like you're out there facilitating the destruction of the US empire on any substantive level if you're eschewing politics. At least Sanders is actually working day in and day out to better conditions for people that the US oppresses, in and out of the US.
If you're actually just trying to coax people into abandoning democracy on a philosophical level by pointing to the US's captured and neutered democracy, you're no better than the people in power right now who are doing the same thing to their own ends.
Sanders will talk about addressing those things then tell us we need to support the people enabling those things. He's a sheepdog. Where's this version of Bernie been hiding the last 4 years? All this populous talk ended right after he asked us to vote for his good buddy Biden. Now that he doesn't need to protect a committee chair seat he's come out of hibernation.
Sanders has literally had a consistent message of beliefs since the 1960s. I don't agree with every tactic he chooses, but I understand why he backed Biden over Trump once he was locked out of the general.
If you can show me some progress you or anyone else has made on getting those things (e.g. universal healthcare) through alternative means, I'd be very interested to see it. Republicans are at this point straight evil. The Democratic Party at a leadership level is a bunch of entrenched wealthy neolibs who would rather see Republicans win than lose ground to actual progressives like Sanders, AOC, etc.
People believing that that makes the 2 parties the same thing, are either so bought into their own defeatist nihilism that they can't recognize anything but instant and total victory as progress, or they're intentionally trying to torpedo change via democratic means (maybe to validate their beliefs that they know the "proper fix" without actually having to actually have those preferred systems tested).
Sanders is inside the party, using his platform and the broad dissatisfaction post-election to push the party leadership. He's literally striking while the iron's hot. If you see that as a negative thing, or if that makes you doubt him, I don't know what to tell you.
The nationwide free breakfast program for students was created directly in response to the black panthers free breakfast program. Prefiguring a better society through direct action and political education has proven more effective than engaging in electoral politics.
SBP (which is only one relatively small and highly means-tested example) was passed by elected politicians. BPP didn't put it in place themselves, elected politicians in office who were in favor of it used the opportunity of national attention to push other elected politicians to pass it. And that is just one of many student food assistance programs, most of which were not passed due to attention created by direct action.
I'm not arguing against direct action, I'm just disputing that it's been "more effective" than other means. It tends to facilitate the more effective means. The advantages that community action provides are around being highly agile and highly targeted. It can't provide countrywide, uninterrupted assistance programs, because no community groups have the resources necessary for that. The BPP could never have provided free lunches for students nationwide by themselves, and they didn't want or attempt to.
Really compare the last few Dem/Repub presidents. Carter, Clinton, Obama and Biden aren't really the oligarch supporting corpo fascists people try to portray them as. They used the legal channels, usually got fucked by a hostile congress and had more progressive goals than you're imagining.
I can’t hear you taking about progressive goals over all the drone strikes and dead Palestinian children
So why weren't we tearing down the government when Bush started bombing Iraqi kids or any of the many other times we did equally fucked up evil shit? Are you thinking Trump and the Republicans are going to do better?
Liberals die in the "do no wrong" space and fail to unify because of that. What Sanders does is say the things you definitely support and continue to support his party because it is the only vehicle we have for progressives. Conservatives continue to show apathy towards their own people doing shitty things and continue to be a solid voting block because of it, consistently pushing for more and more control.
So what do we do here? Because democratically the solution is to vote the progressives who are ALWAYS on the Democrat ticket. But progress takes time and we do exactly what you're doing now and destroy our own democracy since we do not see instant results.
The genocide in Gaza is disgusting but clearly something is going on with these governments showing unity with one another on all the evil shit going on. Meanwhile we're protest voting the only progressive ticket and tearing apart Bernie Sanders instead of uniting and fighting back. Liberals are dying to infighting bro
I think you have the wrong comment dog, I didn’t mention any of the 3 Bushes or Trump =b
Many of us were, but leftists have to fight both the system and liberals defending it. One of the biggest issues with liberals is they don't want to tear down systems like white supremacy, they want to rework it into something they are comfortable with.
In the words of James Baldwin 'how much time do you want for your progress? '
Democrat incrementalism in reality has been incremental fascism.
Let the party die