United States | News & Politics

2710 readers

1105 users here now

Welcome to [email protected], where you can share and converse about the different things happening all over/about the United States.

If you’re interested in participating, please subscribe.

Rules

Be respectful and civil. No racism/bigotry/hateful speech.

Post anything related to the United States.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

322

Bernie Sanders and AOC’s Rallies Can Become a Mass Movement (jacobin.com)

submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I was gonna say it's rare for Jacobin to be this far off the mark, but then I read the article and they're not, because of this bit:

The “Fighting Oligarchy Tour” rallies headlined by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can become something much bigger — if Bernie and AOC direct their rally attendees into sustained organizing efforts against Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

And that's what's ultimately going stop this whole thing from amounting to anything: Bernie and AOC are just not gonna do that. As for why you'll have to ask them, but they won't and anyone who thinks they will needs to challenge their inner biases and take a serious look at both of their track records. It's frankly baffling to me how anyone—and especially someone who teaches labor studies like the author of this article—can look at these two and see resistance leaders. More fundamentally, though, the left needs to stop conflating "must", "can" and "should" with "will".

I also take issue with this:

These events have had a concrete strategic focus, as one of Bernie’s advisers explained online: “For those asking, yes these [rallies] are tied to action. All have been in or near GOP-held swing districts and we are following up with specific actions to pressure their Member to vote NO on any Medicaid cuts or billionaire tax breaks — or else face electoral consequences.”

Didn't this particular goal already fail? Trump has full control of the budget no?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

have you been to or watched any of their speeches? because I have and from what I'm hearing, firing up people to take action in person (not just posting and voting but protesting in real life) is exactly what they're encouraging... it's fine to criticize their records as not being "Left enough" but let's be real, are there any actually Leftist politicians who enjoy widespread popular support in the US?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

have you been to or watched any of their speeches? because I have and from what I'm hearing, firing up people to take action in person (not just posting and voting but protesting in real life) is exactly what they're encouraging...

Protesting in real life is less than the bare minimum, though. Read the article again; it says they need to direct attendees to be organizers, to actively organize all manners of resistance activity (protesting in the way Americans think of the act isn't enough) and get their friends, coworkers and neighbors to join.

it's fine to criticize their records as not being "Left enough" but let's be real,

No no that's not what I'm doing. I mean I do think they're too passive and too establishment-friendly for the things they're trying to do, but I'm not criticizing them at all. In fact their track records are just fine (if in many ways lacking) for what they are, and that's the thing: They're not resistance leaders; they're charismatic center-left legislators with the ability to rile up a crowd who are popular with American progressives and that's it. Expecting them to spearhead the resistance (or even just progressive politics) is barking up the wrong tree, and Americans need to hurry up and find the right tree to bark up before it's too late.