There’s a lot of doomerism happening in these comments, so I’m just gonna add in that yes, I do think there’s a chance. A small chance, but a chance nonetheless
Right now shit sucks real bad. People know this. That’s why Trump won the first time. He ran as an anti-establishment everything candidate and people—not just his bigoted cultists—ate it up. But things didn’t get better. So then people voted for Biden bc he was the opposition to Trump who had become the establishment as the sitting president. And Biden won and shit still sucked. So then they went back to Trump bc there was no viable republican or democrat candidate outside of Trump and Biden/Harris. (Yes Bernie should have been the answer but America is currently a two party system and he was robbed of a primary election.)
So now that everything sucks and is getting worse and we’ve tried republicans and democrats and none of it is working and most candidates refuse to talk about real issues like affordability, people are starting to say “fine. I’ll find a different candidate then.”
And that’s how we got Zohran Mamdani, an openly democratic socialist as mayor of New York City. All across the country progressive candidates are using this momentum to primary out establishment dems. Not all are winning, but many of the races are close, like Kat Abughazaleh’s race. Even that helps because it shows dems that if they want to keep their seat as the controlled opposition so they can keep getting their bribes, then they have to change their messaging and priorities. People aren’t satisfied with a campaign to return to pre-Trump business as usual. People want a candidate that works for them
So check who’s on the ballot of your dem primaries (which are happening rn and through the summer depending on where you live) and see if there are any progressive candidates and do what you can to support them. Donate, volunteer, spread the word, and most importantly, show up and vote in the primary and the elections in November. Even local candidates like city council members and judges can have a lot of power if they have enough numbers and the support of the people
I know a lot of people on lemmy say that America is beyond repair and that the only answer at this point is a violent revolution but not only is this not realistic, it’s not helpful. A violent revolution would be devastating and the amount of lives lost would be horrifying. Theres also the fact that most violent revolutions result in a military authority taking power rather than a true democratic rebuilding. It’s much easier to fantasize about a violent revolution than it is to do the slow, tedious work of creating real change from the ground up
There’s no need to jump to the worst case scenario when we have a prime opportunity to make real change and build grassroots movements. Like I said, this is our chance to capitalize on people’s anger and dissatisfaction with the system to build class consciousness and grassroots movements. Do what you can, even if it doesn’t seem like a lot, and stay hopeful. We’ll get through this together by supporting each other
As someone looking in from the outside, I can’t back this message enough.
I don’t know if the country will ever go progressive but if it’s going to, this is the only way it will. One of the two major parties has to be infiltrated and overhauled so to speak, by primary.
Third party voting is not really any good yet, the FPTP system has to be fixed, well, removed, to maximise the minor party usefulness. It would be, though, if enough progressives get in to make those changes (which I imagine would be via the Amendment system? I don’t know) for what you know as ranked choice, which really does build worthwhile third party candidacy.
But they have to vote and they have to make use of the primary system. That’s your ticket out. The Republicans have already shown the way because that’s how they got to where they are…using those electoral systems and voting as a unit. Voting the letter on the actual day, too.
That barely existed as a system because it didn’t work well in practice. It was amended in 1804, there were only 3 presidents elected that way, Jefferson was in office when it was ratified.
There’s a lot of doomerism happening in these comments, so I’m just gonna add in that yes, I do think there’s a chance. A small chance, but a chance nonetheless
Right now shit sucks real bad. People know this. That’s why Trump won the first time. He ran as an anti-establishment everything candidate and people—not just his bigoted cultists—ate it up. But things didn’t get better. So then people voted for Biden bc he was the opposition to Trump who had become the establishment as the sitting president. And Biden won and shit still sucked. So then they went back to Trump bc there was no viable republican or democrat candidate outside of Trump and Biden/Harris. (Yes Bernie should have been the answer but America is currently a two party system and he was robbed of a primary election.)
So now that everything sucks and is getting worse and we’ve tried republicans and democrats and none of it is working and most candidates refuse to talk about real issues like affordability, people are starting to say “fine. I’ll find a different candidate then.”
And that’s how we got Zohran Mamdani, an openly democratic socialist as mayor of New York City. All across the country progressive candidates are using this momentum to primary out establishment dems. Not all are winning, but many of the races are close, like Kat Abughazaleh’s race. Even that helps because it shows dems that if they want to keep their seat as the controlled opposition so they can keep getting their bribes, then they have to change their messaging and priorities. People aren’t satisfied with a campaign to return to pre-Trump business as usual. People want a candidate that works for them
So check who’s on the ballot of your dem primaries (which are happening rn and through the summer depending on where you live) and see if there are any progressive candidates and do what you can to support them. Donate, volunteer, spread the word, and most importantly, show up and vote in the primary and the elections in November. Even local candidates like city council members and judges can have a lot of power if they have enough numbers and the support of the people
I know a lot of people on lemmy say that America is beyond repair and that the only answer at this point is a violent revolution but not only is this not realistic, it’s not helpful. A violent revolution would be devastating and the amount of lives lost would be horrifying. Theres also the fact that most violent revolutions result in a military authority taking power rather than a true democratic rebuilding. It’s much easier to fantasize about a violent revolution than it is to do the slow, tedious work of creating real change from the ground up
There’s no need to jump to the worst case scenario when we have a prime opportunity to make real change and build grassroots movements. Like I said, this is our chance to capitalize on people’s anger and dissatisfaction with the system to build class consciousness and grassroots movements. Do what you can, even if it doesn’t seem like a lot, and stay hopeful. We’ll get through this together by supporting each other
As someone looking in from the outside, I can’t back this message enough.
I don’t know if the country will ever go progressive but if it’s going to, this is the only way it will. One of the two major parties has to be infiltrated and overhauled so to speak, by primary.
Third party voting is not really any good yet, the FPTP system has to be fixed, well, removed, to maximise the minor party usefulness. It would be, though, if enough progressives get in to make those changes (which I imagine would be via the Amendment system? I don’t know) for what you know as ranked choice, which really does build worthwhile third party candidacy.
But they have to vote and they have to make use of the primary system. That’s your ticket out. The Republicans have already shown the way because that’s how they got to where they are…using those electoral systems and voting as a unit. Voting the letter on the actual day, too.
The fptp system was broken not long after it was created. It wasn’t always broken like it is now.
That happened under the guise of making it “safer”
Used to be, the president didn’t have a running mate, the runner up was the VP.
By removing that, we’ve made our system into the 2 party monstrosity it is today.
That barely existed as a system because it didn’t work well in practice. It was amended in 1804, there were only 3 presidents elected that way, Jefferson was in office when it was ratified.
Interesting, thank you.
Imagine what difference that would have made over the years.
The guys who set it up originally were actually pretty smart. And we spent the next 250 years screwing it up…
Ranked choice can be done state by state. Alaska, maine, and New York City elections are ranked choice.
The electoral college can be nullified by state by state adoption of the popular vote compact.
That’s only a few states short but all the blue states have signed on, so it needs support from red states which is a much heavier lift.
The original setup was basically a ranked choice system already. The top two vote getters were the president and vice president.
That was changed, ostensibly to “stop assassination” but like all good ideas, it had bad follow on effects.