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[–] 48 points 3 months ago* (14 children)

While I won’t argue that this has often been the role of the Democratic Party, and I have no doubt that it is a priority of the current party leadership, it is not an inherent function of the party. With our current electoral system, it is inevitable that our politics will be dominated by two parties. Republicans are the worse choice of the two on literally every single issue, including being less open than Democrats to changes to the electoral system itself. The solution, as leftists, is not to abandon the Democratic Party, but rather to take it over from within and elect party leadership focused on real change and not upholding the status quo. This approach is much more feasible and potentially much faster than trying to build a new party from the ground up, and much less destructive and painful for the people than violent revolution and the civil war that would likely ensue.

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  • [–] 25 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    How do we the people create any true influence over the DNC? Aren't they like the final approver for a democratic presidential candidate? And the DNC board isn't elected by the people as far as I know. How could we ever have a true leftist democratic party if the DNC is running things?

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  • [–] 24 points 3 months ago

    They argued, and won in court, that they are a private corporation and voters are not entitled to fair elections and they are under no obligation to listen to the will of the voters regarding the candidates they select to win the nomination of their party

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago*

    We can get a lot of the way there by not rubber stamping their bad candidates. They need to know that if they play chicken with the voters we wont blink-- but we always have in the past. We'll let the republicans drive this country right into the gutter if the DNC doesnt actually court our vote and just does whatever the rich donors and AIPAC want. The centrist voters would rather roll over and say they were powerless to influence the DNC, and vote for whatever trashy candidate the DNC sleezes into place. Theres nothing down that centrist road. It'l be a painful fight and we'll take a lot of lumps letting republicans win if the DNC effs with us, but its the only strategy we realistically have.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    While I won’t argue that this has often been the role of the Democratic Party, and I have no doubt that it is a priority of the current party leadership, it is not an inherent function of the party.

    The purpose of a system is what it does.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    Anyone paying attention to political history in the US knows it is an inherent function of the party. Liberals have always been the gatekeepers of capital, always placing a firewall between the left and structural change.

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  • [–] -2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    That's how they passed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, huh? By stopping structural change

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  • [–] 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

    Those weren’t passed by voting Blue no matter who, but by organizing, unionizing, striking, protesting, and threatening revolt.

    Power concedes nothing without a demand. If you don’t threaten politicians’ careers, they will ignore your pleas.

    Unless of course you have the capital to buy favor, which capitalists have and do.

    Schoolhouse Rock and The West Wing have endumbened us all.

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