this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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Both parties - Democrat and Republican - here in the US - are part of the ‘problem’ and need to go. We desperately need a third or multi party system and an end to this bullshit of geriatrics ruling our government and making decisions.
I would make comments about the first line all the time on Reddit and immediately get downvoted to hell because people would start arguing or making comparisons to the old ‘two sides of the same coin’ bit. That’s fine if that’s how you want to see it.
I get it, we all have certain things we fight for that the other party shits on, women’s rights (abortion), equal rights, labor, gun control, taxes, etc.
But both parties still serve their corporate masters and still do their damndest to turn people here in the US against each other using ever scare tactic imaginable and thru the media sources (Fox, CNN).
They just keep playing the Game to turn people against each other and create more decisiveness and more power for them.
You won't get downvote for suggesting to end the two-party system. What will get you downvote is suggesting that both parties are equally responsible for this shitshow.
Both parties need to go, both parties are not equal, and only 1 is a legit short-term threat to democracy. Phrasing and context matters, and if it comes out sounding like the "both sides" argument you're gonna be downvoted.
I get that both parties suck, but from my view we will never get enough critical mass to make those changes under conservative leadership. If you look at which politicians are fighting to open up rights of the people and freedom, our best move on the board lies with the progressives in the Democratic party.
The problem is democrats still actively fight against the left flank while in power, which leads to a slow crumble/decline as they refuse to do anything to change the status quo too much. Which leads to stagnation and people being more susceptible to falling into far right facisim. Some do end up on the left when educated but few people spend enough time to actually learn about the issues and solutions to our problems to call out the right wingers.
Its a hard call, in 2016 I didn't vote because Hilary sucked and I thought that the US deserved Trump, and it sure did galvanize a lot of people, however Trump also did so much lasting damage, (supreme court, tax cuts for the wealthy/corpos, etc..)
It fucking sucks but the democratic party has done absolutely fuck all to stem the tide, they need to get with the progressive populist program or it's just going to keep getting worse.
Did you ever notice that all the really dangerous legislation - Patriot act, restrict act, Iraq war resolution, et al, are always bipartisan? They're keeping us distracted with culture war stuff while they work towards the same goals. Democrats exist to create the illusion of a better alternative.
Almost all of those massively bipartisan bills like that involve classified information that builds support as meetings are held behind closed doors. As times has gone on, more and more information related to 9/11 has been declassified and talked about and the truth of the matter is there are a lot more real threats that are caught then we know about.
I used to be fully on the side of these things being 100% wrong, but I've weakened that stance a bit in the twenty years since 9/11. I think we have to be more realistic about it. Look at how much people criticized the Bush Administration for not stopping it?
I think my most downvoted comment here on Lemmy was about that exact thing! As an outsider to US, I can tell you that the system works much better.
Here's an unpopular opinion for you specifically; Doing any of that will be a waste of time and not fix any of the problems you lay out. You'd have much better results by doing the work at the local level influencing the democratic party. You think fighting the corporate elite is the problem, but it's not. Third Parties have no organizational structure, no real test ideas, and often are just made up of failed Republicans or far-left individuals that have no idea or interest in governing. They are little more than organizations designed to sell books about how perfect their ideas that have never been realistically challenged are.
Not like the democratic party routinely rigs elections against local lefty populists right? Sometimes even supporting or propping up an insane right wing candidate instead.
No they don’t rig elections. People come out to vote and the winner wins. The party has no obligation to support or promote every candidate. If you get people to vote for you more than your opponent, you will win. AOC did it.
And you don't think they are now more alert to that kind of thing happening?
Why does it matter? Candidates can’t be coddled in the primaries. The general is going to be dirty, you gotta play the game.
Why does it matter that the game is rigged against people wanting to improve our country by implementing progressive/socialist-adjacent policy?
Think about it just a bit and you'd understand why it matters lmfao
The people in power are the ones with money, and they have a vested interest in keeping that power and money to continue growing.
The primaries aren’t rigged. If you convince enough people to vote for you, you win. Others have that very same right ti convince them not to vote for you.
You can say it’s not fair, but you cannot say it’s rigged. It’s false.
When you control the MSM and have all the money in the world at your disposal to sink the other candidate with deceit, it's almost as good as rigging it.
Sure it's not literally rigged where people's votes don't matter but it's literally right up to the line.
That’s what people said about Hillary in 2008 and I don’t remember her winning the Primary.
Lol because enough people hated her enough to not vote for her or to (bleh) vote for Trump, the only one using populist rhetoric (even though we knew he was full of shit)
2008
What about 2008?
She ran against Obama in 2008, and despite being the media and party favorite, lost to Obama who received more votes.
Obama had a more populist message and resonated more with the moment.
She wasn't even close to as much of the media favorite as she was in 2016 (though you're right, she was initially the annointed one)
Obama didn't end up living up to his message though, and definitely fell in line with the corporate dem class.
Populists never live up to their message because their message is mostly bullshit. Either outright lies or overly pie-in-the-sky idealist that can never really happen.
Wrong, they never live up to their message in America because of greed and legislative capture. (Depending on the person)
So, instead of fixing the problem, you merely suggest adding a third element to it?