‘Straight-up BS’: Democratic chair attacks Bernie Sanders’ election critique
www.theguardian.com
Sanders’ analysis that Democrats lost because they failed working-class voters scorned by party chair Jaime Harrison
    • HRDS_654@lemmy.worldEnglish
      46·
      17 days ago

      Spoiler alert, it won’t. They were already alienating their base by playing the “both sides” card.

      • davel [he/him]@lemmy.mlEnglish
        35·
        16 days ago

        Nope. That will definitely not work, like at all. The Democrats can’t simply debate bro their way out of this.

        Obama did this very thing and basically destroyed him and gave him an origin story

        Maybe Obama destroyed Trump for you, but not for the voters who voted for Trump, or else they wouldn’t have voted for him.

        If fact, the Democratic party is a joke to many petit bourgeois. And also for many working class people, because it abandoned them about 40 years ago in favor of neoliberalism, and has only further abandoned them since[1].

          • davel [he/him]@lemmy.mlEnglish
            25·
            16 days ago

            This sounds like Clinton and her deplorables. You know what that line of reasoning wrought last time? Trump’s first term. You are repeating the Dems’ mistakes and expecting different results.

            This kind of thinking sounds like The West Wing, which I maintain has been the most corrosive media in a generation. It simultaneously made people very dumb and very smugly sure that they’re smart and right and morally correct. A deprogramming podcast: The West Wing Thing

              • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
                2·
                16 days ago

                get up there and have more charisma than him and make him the butt of so many jokes that everyone is straight up laughing at him.

                That and be more of an outright Nazi than him. You forget that it’s not just about charisma, it’s about creating a white christian ethnostate. If you can out-Trump Trump, which inherently means amplifying Fascist rhetoric in a folksy charm, but also providing an entertainingly scathing critique of everything not white and rich, then yeah, you’ll win. But otherwise the right will always vote for the biggest Nazi in the room.

                Failure to recognize this is a failure to recognize how the right thinks. Fascism isn’t the outlier in the American right, it is the norm. They just don’t like calling it Fascism, they prefer traditional christian values.

              • krashmo@lemmy.world
                2·
                16 days ago

                It really sucks that you’re right but this is a big part of the reality of modern elections. What people don’t seem to get about what you’re saying is that this strategy is not intended to make Republicans vote for Democrats, it’s intended to make them stay home. Their perception of Trump is that he’s a strongman. It doesn’t matter that such a description is hilariously off base. It matters that they believe it. Stand up there and call him a pussy with small hands who can’t swing a golf club to save his life and watch him throw a toddler fit while the country looks on. This has the added benefit of giving idiotic “undecideds” the soundbites they clearly want which just might convince some of them to vote for you.

                Is it stupid? Absolutely. Would it work? I honestly think it would.

      • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
        24·
        16 days ago

        Dude you can’t just appeal to trump voters and hope to win. It hasn’t worked, it can’t work, it won’t work. You have to appeal to progressives and people who do not want money in politics. And I don’t believe the democrats will ever be willing to do that.

  • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
    85·
    16 days ago

    Harrison has reportedly chosen not to seek to stay on as DNC chair but his dismissal of Sanders’s statement provoked anger of its own, including from the reporter and columnist Glenn Greenwald. “You and the corporatist and militarist party you lead just got your ass kicked all up and down the US, because Americans see that you only care about enriching yourselves at the corporate lobbying trough,” Greenwald wrote. “If the humiliation you just suffered doesn’t usher in some humility and self-reflection, nothing will.”

    -rarely do I read an article and genuinely think “man, that guy got slammed.” as the rhetoric typically suggests, but wholly hell did Harrison get slammed.

  • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
    84·
    17 days ago

    Fucking piece of shit.

    He later served as a lobbyist for the Podesta Group.[4][11] His clients at the Podesta Group included banks, such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo, Berkshire Hathaway,[12] pharmaceutical companies,[13] casinos, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, and Walmart,[14] among others.[15] In addition to lobbying work at Podesta Group, he has also lobbied on behalf of United Way Worldwide and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.[6]

    • superkret@feddit.org
      7·
      16 days ago

      the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity

      I bet they’re allied with the American Association of Promoting Women’s Rights and Rape.

  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
    67·
    16 days ago

    There is no home for progressives in the Democratic Party. At this point the only hope is to go independent like Sanders or join one of the third parties and abandon Democrats entirely. Democrats will never learn.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
        19·
        16 days ago

        That’s why I favor building a labor party and splintering the Democrats away from their shitty party. Their party is full of people who do not belong and would be more at home in a different party, if we had a system that wasn’t so unfavorable to third parties.

        The only choice is to replace the Democrats as the only other party. Let all the right-wing Democrats join the Republicans and we build a new party with everyone who is left.

        Seems… Impossibly hard to do though.

        • Grapho@lemmy.mlEspañol
          3·
          15 days ago

          there are already sizable third parties in the US, such as PSL, DSA and the Green Party. PSL in particular is always active in unions, protests and community programs, and lately they’ve shown they trust younger members to be out there and adjusting to the demands of the members.

            • Grapho@lemmy.mlEspañol
              4·
              15 days ago

              Ok, then stay home or keep voting democrat, but stop pretending you want change without doing anything to bring it about. Individualism and conformism is exactly what got the US here and both parties would be very happy if y’all stayed that way.

              Politics is what happens before and after you cast the ballot. The vote itself might as well be a formality.

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                2·
                15 days ago

                Get off my nuts, I want to build a labor party. I just think it’s going to be extremely fucking hard and we should recognize it. We still have to do it.

                I heard an interesting idea on the Red Menace pod that tenant organizing might be the key to building a labor movement. Unlike AFL-CIA affiliates which are poisoned with labor aristocracy, almost all tenants are universally poor workers. That’s a potentially huge source of power.

                • Grapho@lemmy.mlEspañol
                  2·
                  15 days ago

                  I misread you, then, my sincere apologies. Seeing a lot of defeatism and it frustrates me because that didn’t help a single bit in 2016 and only made 2020 worse. I agree on your point about the AFL CIO, which is why I’m fond of PSL, they’re very principled domestically, regarding trans rights and on firmly anti-imperialist foreign policy and they’re not part of the Washington aligned labor unions. The comrades I look up to the most are engaged in unions and organizing there.

      • TheOubliette@lemmy.ml
        17·
        16 days ago

        Which speaks to a much greater problem regarding Sanders: he dropped the chance to build a movement and parallel platform and instead just became a sheepdog for Clinton, Biden, and Harris. He was a useful lightning rod for the popularity of social spending policies and getting debt off the backs of the vast majority of people, but only served as a lightning rod, not turning it into organizing or strength. Just like Obama disassembled his electoral team to use party insiders and lose the 2010 midterms, Sanders gave away his donor list for a song and left his ground game operation hanging until they fucked off and did their own things.

        This is why any turn to the Democratic party is a death knell and why we need the exact opposite approach to building the left. The heart of left strength is organizations, of people workinh to educate one another, recruit, and engage in action according to an independent political program that does not wane or falter just because one old guy capitulates to Democrats. There needs to be hundreds of people ready to replace any “important” figurehead or candidate or politician, they must be jettisonable as needed and beholden to members’ will, not donors’.

      • Asafum@feddit.nl
        9·
        16 days ago

        I wonder how many good people are out there that just won’t get into politics because they’re “children of the Internet.”

        I’m not saying I’m worth a shit, but my Internet footprint over my life would have me destroyed if I got into politics. I try to leave as little as I can truly public of myself, but back in the Myspace days and early Facebook I was very very ignorant.

  • Asafum@feddit.nl
    57·
    16 days ago

    “We have the perfect candidate lined up for 2028! We’ve recruited Dr.Frankenstein and in a world first we’ve resurrected both Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, stitched them together, and they will be the new face of the Democratic party! Vote for us or you’re racist and just want Donald Trump to win!”

    • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.mlEnglish
      17·
      16 days ago

      I have terrible news, Margaronald’s tenure in hell made them unelectable among Christians. We’re gonna gave to go with plan B and get George Bush and somehow make him more racist

      • ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml
        6·
        15 days ago

        The date is January 20, 2030. President Rafael Theodore “Ted” Cruz, Canadian Zodiac Killer suspect, enters the Whitehouse for the first time as Commander-in-Chief. He giggles stupidly through his nose as he steps into the Oval Office, patchy beard catching his spittle. His prodigious belly jiggles beneath a too-tight dress shirt and suit jacket as he walks. The seams of his pants strain with effort.

        “Oh boy, are we going to do great things in here,” Ted says to no one in particular. His arms outstreched, he completes a full spin before plunging his face into Trump’s chair and inhaling deeply. The prior administration’s aides left it here for him, specifically as he requested. He savors the musky, faintly fecal aroma, his crooked member growing turgid, almost long enough to press against the inside of his trousers - but not quite. Teddy shivers at the sensation.

        “EVERYONE OUT!” his voice cracking as he authoritatively commands his aides to leave the room. He can’t take the arousal anymore. They stare at him open-mouthed, but they comply. They’ll always comply now. Ted smiles smugly, assured of his stately presence and presidential demeanor. Kneeling before the well-worn leather chair, Cruz meticulously unbuttons all but the top button of his shirt and tosses his jacket aside. Arms shaking, he drags the shirttails erotically over Vienna sausage nipples. Giggling, he says to himself, “Wouldn’t want to get you messy,” before throwing the shirttails over his shoulders. He feels majestic. Like Count Chocula from the cereal boxes mommy would never buy him. But now mommy is so proud of him and he can buy all the Count Choccy he wants. And oh, does he want.

        Ted whips out his phone but fumbles it. Wormlike, he inches across the floor to retrieve it. Retaking his position before the chair, he sniffs again. “Please look into the camera, no face detected,” his phone reads. He looks, poutingly at the camera. He tries smiling. He tries frowning. But still, the phone will not recognize his very normal human face. A face mommy even called handsome once. He begrudgingly enters his password. He holds up his Whitehouse ID to log into PornHub and navigates to the incest section by muscle memory. “Hot Latina MILF Makes Teen Boy a Man” catches his fancy. “Teddy’s been a good boy, mami,” he whines in a feigned Cuban accent. His hands are cold and sweaty with excitement. As he pushes play, his fat finger slips and the share menu pops up.

        “Oh no Teddy you’ve done it again, don’t post it to Twitter like the last time - and on 9/11 too, you were so naughty,” he shivers with an erotic sense of shame. “Oh, X, I’m sorry Elon,” he says, looking over his shoulder. “No, it’s okay, keep going,” says Vice President Musk before crawling into an armoire, beady eyes glinting through the cracked door.

        Teddy’s finger hovers over the X on the share menu, trembling. He catches a faint whiff from the chair and spontaneously orgasms. The muscles of his hand sieze up. “Oh Teddy look what you’ve done…”

      • Asafum@feddit.nl
        3·
        16 days ago

        Trump Forever. We will know nothing but Trump.

        Jokes aside he did mention years ago that he was due a third term because the Democrats were unfair to him so baby wants a do-over

        • averyminya@beehaw.org
          2·
          16 days ago

          And more recently than that he told Christians that if they vote for him they’ll never need to vote again

  • dephyre@lemmy.worldEnglish
    53·
    16 days ago

    No way, Democrats have to pivot more to the right, surely that help, right? …right?

      • SoJB@lemmy.mlEnglish
        28·
        16 days ago

        Liberals are losing their minds blaming everyone except their dogshit policies and strategies.

        You know what, yeah I did cause the Dems to lose. And you know what, I’ll fuckin do it again in the midterms if they don’t move left.

        • ...m...@ttrpg.network
          7·
          16 days ago

          …i held my nose and voted democrat in the face of imminent fascism, and i’ll never forgive the fascists for forcing my hand…

          …that hard choice wasn’t enough, though, and i don’t blame you for that…

  • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
    53·
    16 days ago

    Marx and Lenin continue to be vindicated by the passage of time.

    No, the Democrats will not shift left. Their donors would rather they lose to republicans than win on a more progressive platform, and as such will not shift left.

    No, we cannot “elect good democrats” to shift the party to the left. The DNC is an organization that has perfected itself as an anti-radical filter. Those who can fundraise well are elevated to the top, those who speak up against injustice are shunned and whipped.

    We must actively organize outside the DNC and pressure the system. I keep an intro to Marxism-Leninism list I can link if anyone wants it, let me know.

      • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
        10·
        15 days ago

        Here it is, Cowbee’s “Read Theory, Darn It!” beginner reading list. All except one work has an audiobook alternative linked, otherwise there are text links directly to said works. It starts off with foundations, then builds on said foundations, ending with some practical advice on how to conduct yourself as a Leftist in general. I also include intersectional theory regarding trans and enby liberation, gay rights and history, and decolonialism.

        Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!

        • Shark_Ra_Thanos@lemmy.mlEnglish
          5·
          15 days ago

          That’s awesome. Thank you. I will need that audio. I have head injury from a bike/car accident a few years ago. I can’t read any more than two pages before my memory drops everything i just read about %50 of the time. That’s how i “read” Gary Webb’s biography not long ago!

    • slingstone@lemmy.world
      13·
      16 days ago

      To be fair, in South Carolina, Jesus could run as a Democrat and somehow lose to Lindsey Graham with likely voters.

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
    40·
    16 days ago

    This is what I’m saying here, it’s time to blow up the Democratic Party. It’s already done like 2/3 of the work for us. Blow it up.

    • TheOubliette@lemmy.ml
      15·
      16 days ago

      Yes, join a socialist organization and help delegitimate these (literal) losers and help put focus on the issues faced by working people!

      If you are are still particularly interested in electoralism, then I recommend getting together with like-minded people to create a disciplined voting bloc who loudly announce that they will not vote for Dems unless a certain policy regime is adopted.

      The sassy way for me to put this is that there will be no blowing up or realignments so long as you and others vote for these clowns! This is why they try to pander using PR and not policy concessions.

    • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
      7·
      15 days ago

      Dang it the onion! You gotta stop with the news and get back to over the top satire. You are fooling people into hope again.

  • L0rdMathias@sh.itjust.works
    29·
    16 days ago

    “Sanders you fool! The view from atop my ivory tower does not match the view you say the people who are not on the ivory tower have.”