Democratic debt ceiling deal: catastrophic collaborationist daftness as usual.
They just agreed to keep the police state and war machine running. The Democrats offer nothing of value to the American people.
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I greatly enjoy Matt Yglesias’ dry wit. 
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DACA seems to have made an impact; the BB threads are currently swamped in anti-nazi militancy, and I think they mean it this time.
This may be an end to sheetcake.
I think Arpaio was the true end
YMMV, but, IMO:
Arpaio made people scared and angry. DACA made them realise that Niemoller began reciting his poem quite some time ago.
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I don’t expect this to actually happen, but:
Imagine the impact if Bernie and Colbert aimed the interview at “the Democrats are a lost cause, but let me tell you about this group called the DSA…”.
It seems clear that the Democrats are (a) irretrievably crumbling, and (b) not worth saving.
If that’s the case, they need to be killed off good and hard and as fast as possible.
However, they could possibly survive as a junior coalition partner if they’re willing to just shut up about strategy and open the chequebooks. As Chapo puts it, “bend the knee”.
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If I could write as well as Ta-Nehisi Coates, this would’ve been a lot easier.
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I saw an image of an msnbc/wsj poll about a bunch of topics that is once again interesting regarding politics.
HRC’s popularity was at -23
Trump is at -16
Bernie is at +14
Bush Jr is +15
Obama is +16
The part I will always find interesting is the previous years. For 8/16:
HRC. -16
Trump. -33
Bernie. +22
Bush. -2
Obama. +10
8/15:
HRC. -8
Trump. -33
Bernie. +13
Bush. -1
Obama. +16
2011:
HRC. +34 (this held into 2014)
Trump. -8 (40% neutral)
Bernie. +2 (49% didn’t recognize the name)
Bush. -9 (basically held between this and -1 until 2017)
Obama. +0 (has had 30% strongly disapprove from about this point until now, same as HRC)
It just goes to show the impact of sustained propaganda, the extreme partisanship in the GOP, how little MSM affects popularity, and how incredibly easily most Americans change their minds. Pretty much every poll is like this. Hillary went from one of the most popular politicians in the country to negative favorability summer of 2015, Trump was despised until October 2016, and Bernie’s popularity has not held at all since peaking around the national convention. The DNC has also held its level of popularity (mediocre) while the GOP as a whole has gotten significantly worse.
Right now the left has no clear favored leader, the GOP is a mess, and the DNC is only slightly better off and Obama is the new flavor of centrist taking hold.
Also key things people think are driving wedges in our country is interesting:
- Income inequality
- Partisanship
- Race
- The media
And key issues:
- Gun rights
- Environmental protections
- Immigration
- Abortion
Maybe we are just fucked.
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In a pivotal moment, yes. In a tactically disadvantageous position, yes.
Fucked, no.
As I’ve been saying for a while, the American revolution has already begun.
But, as I’ve also been saying for a while, the American working class has finally awoken and they present a source of power which the world has never seen. If fully expressed, they could make the Russian revolution look like a minor skirmish.
I spent much of that Ta-Nehisi piece literally pumping my fist in the air and shouting “yes!”. What he is saying is the truth, it is exactly what is required right now, and it demonstrates the potential that is waiting to be unleashed.
The unification of the sane half of white America with the still-unliberated PoC communities could drive a revolution that transforms not just America, but the entire history of the world. And there is still a very brief period in which it could be a peaceful one.
I’ve been trying to push a few ideas, which I believe to be true, for the last couple of years:
-
America is a nation that is, and always has been, foundationally based upon white supremacy and the exploitation of poverty. 2/3rds racism, 1/3rd capitalism.
-
The dividing line between left and right is capitalism. If you are a capitalist, you are not left wing. Not all right-wing people are fascists, but do not pretend that the wildly distorted Overton Window of the USA has anything to do with normal reality.
-
American imperialism is exactly as evil and destructive as all other imperialism. To be blunt about it:
Across the world, the main opposition to fascism has always come from socialists. And once things get lively, the Trumpeters are certain to attempt to cloak themselves in the flag and the Constitution.
Reinvigorating US socialism and cracking through American Exceptionalism is essential.
Voluntary purging:
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Thread:
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He’s not quite right, without a goal beyond disrupting you cannot get sustained protest without heavy media coverage and since people have been protesting in larger and larger numbers since 2008 the media covers it less and less until it is a huge event and even then they are looking for drama.
We need sustained protest timed right in 2018 in Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Kentucky, and Nebraska. Registration drives, financial help for immigrants, fielding progressive candidates, etc. Every GOP seat in the senate up for reelection is a 2012 tea partier, and those are some of the most hated groups right now.
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There are a few major problems with waiting for 2018.
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Again, every single path to change requires voters. Every. Single. One.
The reason Occupy failed is because the lack of purpose meant there was no change made whatsoever before the police stepped in and broke up the protests. Part of organizing protests requires setting goals and timing things out against the authoritarians in power. Having bodies is not enough, it is never enough. And Occupy objectively failed at any meaningful change whatsoever - but the TEA Party was extremely successful despite lower numbers because there was a plan.
And 2018 can stop Trump if the right people are put into power in the Senate (the House is impossible to fix), 27 governor seats are up for grabs, many state legislature seats are up for grabs.
If the GOP sustains power through 2022 then it means the GOP will stack the entire nation’s electorate in their favor three times in a row - their action in 2000s meant a strategy of extreme partisanship, their action in the 2010s meant purging democratic voters off the rolls, another round of the GOP using the census makes literally everything in the US worse.
EDIT
And in many cases, the left already missed their opportunity to make a change in the 2017 elections because they lack any sort of viable path to change.
Yup [1].
Protest, overthrow the fascist government, vote. In that order.
When I say “revolution”, I mean it. Not business-as-usual electoral politics and attempts at incremental reform, but a fundamental overthrow of the existing mechanisms of the state. It’s about creating a new path to change, because none of the old ones are still functional.
So long as the TrumpGOP holds power, there is no possibility of an effective democratic response. Fascists will not hesitate to rig an election. The corruption of the US electoral system is already a lost cause.
The targets of fascist violence can not and will not passively tolerate it while they wait for yet another opportunity to demonstrate that the USA is not a legitimately democratic country.
Whether or not they “should” do so, people are going to resist. They will not wait patiently while their families are kidnapped/enslaved/exiled/killed.
The revolution [2] is already happening, slowly and mostly unnoticed. It can be a peaceful and possibly successful revolution in the near future, or a violent and probably doomed one later on. It is down to those two options.
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[1] We’re arguing in circles a bit, and I understand that we disagree on the nature of some of the underlying facts. And I know that I tend to state my views in a somewhat absolutist manner. Assume that there’s an “in my best judgement, based on available information” caveat attached to anything I post.
[2] Counter-revolution, really. The stealth fascist revolution is almost complete.