Does this guy really think shouting at people and calling them names is how you convince them to change their mind about political strategy? His rudeness is matched only by his total inability to defend his position with logic or evidence.
This is why the Democrats keep losing. Anyone who questions their obviously failed centrist bullshit is a Russian troll, or whatever other story they can tell themselves to justify sticking their fingers in their ears and chanting ya ya ya.
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Strypey
in reply to Strypey • • •(1/?)
I mean, look at the trend in Democrat politics over the last half a century;
1977-81: Ford and Carter. For all their failings, these guys were social democrats, not unlike Sanders or Warren
1981-93: Reagan and Bush Snr drag the US into Milton Friedman's neoliberal nightmare
1993-2001: Instead of rolling back GoP neoliberalism, Clinton treats it as the new normal
2001-2009: Dubya brings the neocons to the centre of US politics
2009-2017: Obama leaves them there.
2017-2021: Drumpf
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Strypey
in reply to Strypey • • •(2/?)
2021-25: Biden broke the pattern, but only because 2016 made it very clear that the US left was not going to vote for a neocon lite administration again.
Biden himself was the least worst candidate from the neocon wing of the Dems. See his policy on genocide in Gaza as an example. But his policy platform and administration drew significantly on the left of the party. Which is why he was able to win.
Strypey
in reply to Strypey • • •(3/3)
2020: The Harris campaign was a repeat of the failings of the 2016 Clinton campaign. They tried to tack back to a perceived "centre" circa Obama, as if the preceding two elections had never happened.
This isn't even where the centre is anymore, to the degree that formulation still makes sense. It's certainly wasn't acceptable to a left that had finally got *something* out of electoral politics for the first time in decades.
But died-in-the-wool Dems seem perpetually unable to see this.
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Strypey
in reply to Strypey • • •I also want to comment on the 'not USAmerican therefore not allowed to comment on US politics' trope. For a start, I notice it only ever comes out when I'm disagreeing with them, and they're struggling to back up the assumptions they've confidently stated as facts.
Secondly, the US styles its head of state as the "leader of the free world". So they're our leader too, but we can't freely comment on the politics that produces them? Yeah, nah.
(1/?)
#USPolitics #GeoPolitics
Strypey
in reply to Strypey • • •Finally, everyone online speaking the same language is pissing into the same political pool we all drink from. There's no hard boundary between the politics of the US and those of small English-speaking countries like ours. USAmerican politics affect ours *significantly*, and we can't fully participate in our politics if we censor ourselves about anything to do with the US.
Arguing otherwise is shilling for unaccountable imperial power.
(2/2)
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Strypey
in reply to Strypey • • •Final comment about Democrat loyalists getting pissed off with my irritating habit of expecting them to mount a convincing argument for their dogma. I promise : )
Once again I really wish my fediverse app had an option to delay delivery of @mentions (eg for 24 hours). Either delayed delivery of my posts to people I @mention, or delayed display of replies to them. I suspect such conversations could be much more thoughtful and constructive if they were slower.
@moshidon
Lucas @Moshidon 🇺🇦
in reply to Strypey • • •Strypey
in reply to Lucas @Moshidon 🇺🇦 • • •@moshidon
> That'd be complicated to maintain
Why's that?
Indieterminacy
in reply to Strypey • • •In Belgium cant even call out the fact that a tram stop needs 20 people to check for tickets (10 ticket inspectors with the word 'security' on their back and 10 police officers to protect these vampires).
When I point out that its likely 500 EUR an hour to find somebody without a 2 EUR ticket Im reminded that Im a foreigner.
This procedure is not needed on trains - seemingly 1 conductor is worth 20 of them.
I should point out that the police are genuinely embarrassed to be doing this.
tootbrute
in reply to Strypey • • •i wish that were true and american politics didn't affect other english speaking countries. i also wish america would stop bombing, taking over, or using financial coercion against other countries. sadly, american politics matters all over the world...it's not just about the price of their eggs 🙁
i enjoy your commentary. with politics it's not black/white all grey. people don't like nuance.
Strypey
in reply to tootbrute • • •Thanks for the vote of confidence, one does one's best.
@tootbrute
> with politics it's not black/white all grey. people don't like nuance
Many people don't, I've noticed. As Dubya put it "you're either with us or you're with the terrorists". As an old Jewish saying goes, given two options, I take the third.
Although it's hard to quantify, I feel like the proportion of people allergic to nuance is getting higher. I blame DataFarm algorithms. It's a problem that urgently needs fixing.
MidgePhoto
in reply to Strypey • • •I'm unpersuaded.
Strypey
in reply to MidgePhoto • • •> So the Left voted Republican because they prefer Trump to someone less far Right?
I'm unpersuaded
Well that strawman is stone dead. Well done. If you look at the election results, the GoP votes were pretty much the same as 2020, while the Dem numbers dropped off a cliff. What happened, as in 2016, is that the Dems tacked right, and most of their supporters voted no confidence by not turning out.
Learn the lesson, or see it repeated. Your call.
MidgePhoto
in reply to Strypey • • •Not "most", I think.
FWIW I would have been greatly amused if Biden, who was objectively a pretty good President, had resigned a short while before the election, giving Harris a) first black female President; and b) whatever advantage a sitting President has.
But it wasn't up to I think either of us.
( and c) A poke in the eye for the red tatt with 47 in it ;) )
Strypey
in reply to MidgePhoto • • •@midgephoto
> Biden ... had resigned a short while before the election
I'm guessing you mean after the election? Because otherwise this is what happened, but clearly didn't produce the results you describe.
> who was objectively a pretty good President
Good for what? His administration was a big improvement, because much of its policy was taken from the left of the party. The Dems won in 2020 despite him. A better choice of candidate in that election might have carried through to 2024 🤷♂️
MidgePhoto
in reply to Strypey • • •Odd guess.
Biden was President until Trump was President.
If Biden had resigned before the election, Harris would have been President.
And sitting President at the election.
After the election, well yes, that would have been the poke in the eye for anything numbered, and there would have been a first female president, but no electoral advantage. Unless, 4 years later ...
Strypey
in reply to MidgePhoto • • •> Biden was President until Trump was President
Oh right, you mean resigned as President, as opposed to stepping down as candidate. Sorry. Incumbent advantage didn't seem to help Drumpf in 2020. I doubt it would have moved the needle.
> After the election, well yes, that would have been the poke in the eye
Assuming he won. Which seems unlikely. So probably would have made no difference at all. Now if he'd stepped down as candidate early enough for the Dems to run a primary ...
MidgePhoto
in reply to Strypey • • •I gather a lot of tatt had been ordered with 47 on it.
Making him 48 would sting a little.
MidgePhoto
in reply to Strypey • • •Try an alternate reading:
The vote is generally about 50/50 but after Trump 1 there was a big surge, which was a transient for cause(s).
Strypey
in reply to MidgePhoto • • •@midgephoto
> The vote is generally about 50/50 but after Trump 1 there was a big surge
Yes. I think because the Dem policy platform tacked significantly to the left for the first time in decades. Back towards the centre from the neolib/ neocon centre-right positioning of the Clintons and Obama.
> which was a transient for cause(s)
Not sure what you mean by this.
MidgePhoto
in reply to Strypey • • •Strypey
in reply to MidgePhoto • • •@midgephoto
> I thought because Trump
I think you're right that this was a factor. Whatever appeal Orange Stalin has, it appears to be stronger at a distance. When he's not in power he can play the champion of the underdog card, which doesn't work for a sitting President who's spent 4 years kicking the underdog.
But while I think that would explain a drop in Drumpf's polling, I don't think it can explain a massive jump in the Dems' vote in 2020, nor it dropping off a cliff in 2024.
clawfulneutral
in reply to Strypey • • •Strypey
in reply to clawfulneutral • • •@clawfulneutral
> it is 100% their fault and their responsibility, and they will never in a million fucking years own it
Seems that way. A cynic would say that's because they are a false opposition, loyal to the same money men as the GoP. What US needs to regenerate its dying democracy is constitutional reform, to get money out of politics, and bring in some kind of proportional representation in elections.
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clawfulneutral
in reply to Strypey • • •the Electoral College is never going away, so changing it from winner-takes-all to proportional + 2 would, in my opinion, go a surprising distance toward making national politics less terrible. but nobody wants to hear it.
(every state gets as many electors as it has House Reps + Senators, so proportional + 2 makes sense, but it’s probably too autistic a solution to ever be accepted 🙄)
apart from that, yes, money out of politics. Citizens United “dollars = speech which must be free” is responsible for a vast acceleration of the decline. #uspol
Strypey
in reply to clawfulneutral • • •> the Electoral College is never going away
Never say never ; )
> Citizens United “dollars = speech which must be free” is responsible for a vast acceleration of the decline
Yup. Details explained in a number of the episodes of The Lever's excellent Master Plan podcast;
masterplanpodcast.com/
Master Plan | Listen Now
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