First point, this is not an instance to simply give up working with Democrats. That one bad experience shows that what you need to do is be consistent and when democrats withdraw from their views and moderate that you need to the primary them and show them that if they do those things they will be kicked out of office. You don’t elect people once and then expect everything to always work out. You go and continue holding their feet to the fire. The article you linked is interested only in trying to show that working towards leftist politics in mainstream parties is a dead end because it’s not taking the lesson of the experience to the logical conclusion of voting again to kick out the Democrats that moderated. But I’m not surprised since it also seems to think a third party will ever take root which will never happen and only removes any power we have as individuals.
Second. I totally agree just medicaid isn’t enough, I mentioned that. I think the system of for profit insurance needs to go but I was talking to someone who said Democrats don’t ever do anything and that was my point. They do shit all the time even if it’s not as good as it should be, that just means more work needs to be done. Which is always a normal thing in any form of government, persistence is how things change and keep changing, not voting once and thinking everything will magically be fixed like what many did in 08 with Obama.
Third. I also agree that FDR saved capitalism but we as communists still had power back then through our voting bloc that was massively voting for the Democratic party. The communists back then supported FDR because they understood that we need to have a seat at the table and that to do that we need to vote for leftist Democrats. They did that and then had a seat at the table pushing for more socialist policies. Again, Communists, particularly during the war when FDR used a communist like structure of a federal government directed economy to great success, the people like Browder knew that we can be communists and have a seat at the table only when we vote for Democrats, that running our own people for the presidency and often for federal offices in general is a fools errand and that we need to invest in changing the democratic party because that’s how the two party system works. Then they were cast out post FDR death at direct instruction by the authoritarian piece of shit Stalin.
A third party is a lovely idea until you remember that that’s not how the American system works. First past the post, the different voting restrictions, all the other shit, these keep third parties from being able to impact anything but local politics. But until many of those things change third parties are wasting your vote. Federal funding does fuck all when it means you lead to fascists wanting to put queer people in camps and wanting to create trump Gaza into power. Federal funding also won’t fix any of the systems that keep third parties out of power. A third party can’t simultaneously take power and change the system while also not be capable of taking power and changing the system. It’s running around in circles pretending you’re moving towards a brighter future when it’s be better to just remake the democratic party who already has the infrastructure and funding and who many will just always vote for and who doesn’t have the system literally making it impossible for them to take power.
Edit: I’ve helped some of my local communists and socialists impact our local area but being in a deep red state most of what everyone does is outreach and organizing as opposed to actual governmental stuff. I’m also disabled and trans and have my own shit going on working to getting out of my red state so that I’m in a much more blue area where I will be more comfortable working with my fellow communists and socialists.
First point, this is not an instance to simply give up working with Democrats. That one bad experience shows that what you need to do is be consistent and when democrats withdraw from their views and moderate that you need to the primary them and show them that if they do those things they will be kicked out of office. You don’t elect people once and then expect everything to always work out. You go and continue holding their feet to the fire. The article you linked is interested only in trying to show that working towards leftist politics in mainstream parties is a dead end because it’s not taking the lesson of the experience to the logical conclusion of voting again to kick out the Democrats that moderated. But I’m not surprised since it also seems to think a third party will ever take root which will never happen and only removes any power we have as individuals.
Second. I totally agree just medicaid isn’t enough, I mentioned that. I think the system of for profit insurance needs to go but I was talking to someone who said Democrats don’t ever do anything and that was my point. They do shit all the time even if it’s not as good as it should be, that just means more work needs to be done. Which is always a normal thing in any form of government, persistence is how things change and keep changing, not voting once and thinking everything will magically be fixed like what many did in 08 with Obama.
Third. I also agree that FDR saved capitalism but we as communists still had power back then through our voting bloc that was massively voting for the Democratic party. The communists back then supported FDR because they understood that we need to have a seat at the table and that to do that we need to vote for leftist Democrats. They did that and then had a seat at the table pushing for more socialist policies. Again, Communists, particularly during the war when FDR used a communist like structure of a federal government directed economy to great success, the people like Browder knew that we can be communists and have a seat at the table only when we vote for Democrats, that running our own people for the presidency and often for federal offices in general is a fools errand and that we need to invest in changing the democratic party because that’s how the two party system works. Then they were cast out post FDR death at direct instruction by the authoritarian piece of shit Stalin.
A third party is a lovely idea until you remember that that’s not how the American system works. First past the post, the different voting restrictions, all the other shit, these keep third parties from being able to impact anything but local politics. But until many of those things change third parties are wasting your vote. Federal funding does fuck all when it means you lead to fascists wanting to put queer people in camps and wanting to create trump Gaza into power. Federal funding also won’t fix any of the systems that keep third parties out of power. A third party can’t simultaneously take power and change the system while also not be capable of taking power and changing the system. It’s running around in circles pretending you’re moving towards a brighter future when it’s be better to just remake the democratic party who already has the infrastructure and funding and who many will just always vote for and who doesn’t have the system literally making it impossible for them to take power.
Edit: I’ve helped some of my local communists and socialists impact our local area but being in a deep red state most of what everyone does is outreach and organizing as opposed to actual governmental stuff. I’m also disabled and trans and have my own shit going on working to getting out of my red state so that I’m in a much more blue area where I will be more comfortable working with my fellow communists and socialists.