• Credibly_Human@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    19 hours ago

    I think this type of thinking ends up being quite self defeating.

    We should evaluate all politicians as vessels to carry out the will of the people.

    When you consider them as such, not as people or entities to assign blame, as your goal is to be pragmatic, you look at their incentives and track records instead.

    I think leftists often have this self defeating problem of being unable to stomach the fact that they will not get their ideal politician, and there will be no sudden uprising.

    As a result, they often will criticize the politicians closest too them too loudly, ending up supporting “both sides” notions that cause voter apathy and let quite literally fascists win instead.

    What I am saying is that we have to be pragmatic.

    Particularly for the US, people have to realize that yes, while the DNC sucks, the democrats are the only practical, realistic way for people to actually end up winning.

    Its long, slow, and no fun at all, but people have to support them publicly, and acknowledge their faults in ways that don’t dissuade voters from voting for them. They then must also vote in increasingly progressive candidates in primaries and local politics.

    Anything else is simply grabbing a foot gun, because this imperfect system is very slow, and won’t change over night.

      • Credibly_Human@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 hours ago

        Thats in an ideal world, but its not practical for the US in particular because their system only allows for 2 parties.

        In fact, many systems boil down to that due to first past the post forcing people to vote strategically instead of for the party that best represents them.

        In reality, people have to vote strategically and then use internal party politics such as primaries to shift the party to a more progressive place.

        Threatening to make them lose only means the worse party comes into power and rachets everything backwards far more than leaving them in place.

    • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      19 hours ago

      Yeah. This whole thing where voting for someone is “falling in line behind” them is very weird to me.

      Politicians are not your friends. Even ones I like, I don’t really look at as that I am “allied” with them. I’m just inputting that I want them in charge more than I like the other person; it’s sort of the last stage of the process of trying to control what my government might be in a position to do to me or do to other people in the world (for good or bad, often for bad).

      Do these people go driving and decide whether the transmission “deserves” to be in third gear or second gear or whatever? Do they set “red lines” about when they will and won’t touch the steering wheel? Dude, the government is often terrible. Refusing to give any input to it until it gets better on its own seems guaranteed to be self defeating.