Summary

Bernie Sanders criticizes the Democratic Party for neglecting the working class, leading to their recent election losses.

He highlights issues like economic inequality, job displacement, healthcare costs, and foreign policy as key concerns for the American people.

Sanders questions whether the Democratic leadership will address these issues or remain beholden to big money interests.

  • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Bernie is correct for the 100th time. But is little too late now. Unless Dems are serious about tackling working class issues. I don’t see anything changing. Many people view the Dem party not for the average person anymore.

    • demizerone@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      The party is done. I switched to being a Independent. The machine is too big to change from the outside, and those that are the inside are blind to what is happening to regular people that would result in voters not showing up or just voting for a Fascist.

      • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Every path people have tried to reform the party or change course ends up dead end. I’m over it. I’m not doing the whole lesser evil shit anymore. I wish them the best because I don’t want Republicans to endlessly win. Until Dems choose to stand for something collectively, outside donor interests all the time. It will be a loop of them losing elections.

    • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Agreed 100%.

      If they did this, they would easily carry states with high populations of blue collar and union laborers. Stop paying lip service and actually do it.

      States that have had major manufacturing centers in the late 20th century like the Rust Belt.

      Like…Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

      The Democratic party is just paying the price for ignoring blue collar middle class voters since the late 80s. They took those votes for granted, and they lost them over time. Just like after blue collar folks they then took the votes of minorities for granted…and now they’re losing those.

      All they need to do is ask what they’ve done for these people lately…like in the past few decades. And when they came really answer that in any terms other than what they prevented the other guys from doing, they shouldn’t have to wonder why enthusiasm for their party’s candidates is at an all time low.

      Literally ZERO people I know personally have actually liked and actively, enthusiastically supported any democratic presidential nominee since Obama. That’s twelve fucking years and zero candidates that got people excited and inspired. Most of my friends voted for these candidates, but nobody liked them.

      Honestly, if it weren’t for the opposition being so unbearably awful, I’d almost be happy to see the Democratic party handed loss after loss until and unless they learn their lesson and stop taking their base for granted.

    • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Do people mean anything other than commodity and gas prices when they say “working class issues?” I feel like abortion, healthcare, education, and student loans are also working class issues, but I take it that’s not what people mean.

      • Incandemon@lemmy.ca
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        7 days ago

        Let’s start with the 70% or so of people that report living paycheck to paycheck[1] rather than claiming that the 'economy is doing fine. Let’s even acknowledge that inflation is making good and housing prohibitively expensive[2].

        The things you mentioned are important. For people that are struggling to keep a roof over their heads though the issue of Healthcare or education tend to be less critical than keeping food on the table. We can’t keep saying the economy is doing fine while people keeping trying to tell us it isn’t.

        [1] https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/living-paycheck-to-paycheck-statistics-2024/

        [2] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/price-tracker/

        • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          The supposed strong economy is based on the average, which is brought up by the ultra-wealthy and their dragon hoards. The median is still getting shit on. There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

        • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          I appreciate the sources and the rigor. But is it not the left that’s consistently pushing for a higher minimum wage? For exploring solutions like UBI or even just expanded social safety nets for the people who fall out the bottom?

          The costs of healthcare continues to skyrocket, when we’re already paying twice what other nations are. Healthcare bills are a leading cause of bankruptcy. But is it not the left (sorry, I started the “is it not” thing, and I feel like I need to keep it going, ahem…) that’s been pushing universal healthcare? For transparency in hospital costs?

          I’m just saying that I don’t think it’s accurate to say the DNC has “abandoned the working class.” The DNC’s never been able to communicate effectively (or perhaps they’ve just never been believed) when they try to explain that they haven’t abandoned the working class. And they’re not very good at fellating microphones.

            • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              Well yeah, but it’s not like they haven’t tried. I’ve certainly been frustrated watching the DNC try for decades to get some version of progressive policy passed only to succeed in the most compromised ways. But usually the reason is simply Americans. My office mate is certain that Jesus is coming back soon. What do you do with that?

          • Incandemon@lemmy.ca
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            7 days ago

            Yes. UBI has been a leftist conversation point for the last few years. Overall though the Democratic Party is opposed [1]. Two years ago when asked if the democrats would step up efforts to help people in financial straights the response was an effective no [2]. If I remember correctly that was even a campaign promise from Joe Bidden, that nothing significant would change.

            And despite that, when the democrat’s made promses when it comes time to follow through they have a hard time enacting their goals. I will grant that a big chunk of that is republican interference, but the democrats seem to be extremely hesitant to use the levers of power available to them to follow through. When one side is blatently, openly cheating, its folly to keep trying to play by old rules.

            And please don’t get me wrong, nothing I’m saying should be taken as endorsement for the Republicans. I want to live in a world of rational debate and law. However, both sides have to agree to that for it to work. When one side wants to win at all costs the democrats can’t keep playing from the same old book forever.

            [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/policy-2020/economic-inequality/universal-basic-income/

            [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/us/politics/biden-economy-midterms.html

          • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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            6 days ago

            Democrats passed the ACA without any Republican support. They should have passed MFA then. It was terrible and made my life much harder at the time. It’s better now, but barely. My wife has a low paying government job and her health insurance costs went up significantly more than her 2% raise. Both of us took cuts in net pay while food, property taxes and seemingly everything else went up. What have Dems done about housing, pay, taxes, food costs in the last term? Nothing. Oh, Biden got one drug to be cheaper. But I’m not a diabetic. Yet.

              • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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                6 days ago

                I only have an associate’s degree which was very affordable and I worked thru school but I guess I get to help pay for those who took on a lot more debt. If that had been on the table maybe I’d have gotten more education.

                • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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                  6 days ago

                  This is temporarily embarrassed millionaire rhetoric. This is the reason the DNC gets away with platforming milquetoast horseshit in the first place.

  • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Spoiler alert: They will remain beholden to big money interests and continue to lose. God damn it.

  • Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Yeah, just like the republicans. Its the part of all this leftist shaming on here never addressed. I voted democrat because they were the lesser of two evils. At no time did I think they were going fix whats broken.

  • Fontasia@feddit.nl
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    6 days ago

    So the working class had to be specifically told

    • the democrats support unions
    • the democrats support breaking up monopolies
    • the cost of living is a complex issue with multiple causes that will take a very careful and calculated collection of regulations regarding home ownership, rent, taxes, and it’s not going to work for everyone, and it’s not going to happen overnight
    • supporting and expanding social welfare programs helps everyone

    What are they expecting? The Republicans will be able to write a law saying Netflix will be cheaper and have no ads?

  • ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip
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    7 days ago

    This is an inaccurate claim by Sanders. Biden was the first President to walk a picket line with striking workers.

    With union negotiations, he was pretty balanced. He did come down on the railroad strikes some after both sides got stuck, but they did get improvements beyond what management wanted to give. With the ports, though, he stuck with the workers and forced management to negotiate by refusing to override the strike.

    Could the Democrats do more? Sure. But they’re still recovering from the fever that took the party over with Clinton in '92. There are a lot of people who believe that win was a meaningful approval of the pro corporate but not racist Democratic Party platform, when in reality Clinton only won thanks to Perot.

    I don’t know that there was any magic messaging that Harris could’ve deployed this time around. I’m not sure there was any likely alternative even from a short post-Biden primary that could’ve done better than her.

    Trump has everyone thinking he has some magic way to boost salaries and lower prices. And he railed against the elites more stridently and apparently people believed him.

    On the other hand Google saw a lot of traffic with people asking if Biden dropped out so who knows what could have been done to avoid Trump 2.

    • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Could the Democrats do more? Sure. But they’re still recovering from the fever that took the party over with Clinton in '92.

      If that’s true, Jesus H. Christ, Democratic party, just get out of the way and let someone else fight fascism. If you’re “still recovering” 32 goddamn years later, you’re not recovering. That’s just a permanent part of the party identity. And the people are clearly not wild about what you’ve become if you lose to Donald Fucking Trump two out of three times.

      So just quit.

      Shut the party down and let something else take its place, because whatever happened in 92 is chronic and terminal, and you’re bringing the rest of the country down with you.

      I think the American middle got taken by surprise at their own apathy in '16. Then in '20 they were motivated by fear. This week, they showed that they’ve simply lost faith in the Democratic party, plain and simple. That they’re tired of what they’ve been getting from the party and they’ll accept a horrible person over perpetuating the arrogance and inaction of the Democrats.

      And while I can’t say I was too fed up to support Harris, now that Tuesday is behind us, as much as I despise Trump, I have to admit that the Democrats got exactly what they deserved at the ballot box: the same lukewarm apathy they’ve shown the American people the past 12 years.

      Maybe they’ll finally get the message and put together a cohesive, intelligent, inspiring platform and message for the midterms, but if history is anything to go by, I’m guessing that this time in 2 years, they’re thrilled as fuck to take back the House (with too slim a majority to do much beyond hold up legislation), with progressives gaining slightly more seats than now, and the party as a whole will still have the same lack of focus, direction, and message…

      …and I would bet money that this time in 2026 they still don’t have anything close to an idea of a possible presidential nominee that gets people excited.

    • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Harris said she could not think of anything she would do different from Biden in a period where Biden was remarkably unpopular and people are hurting, a lot. And she essentially promised them more of the same. “We won’t go back” is not a promise to move forward. And her promises to help people start a business and give child credits… does not help anyone not interested in starting a business, who already has kids or does not want kids. Everything was contingent on very narrow promises.

      So the voters that needed change stayed home… They can say they did not vote for Trump and wash their hands of anything bad that happens.

      Let’s see how it pans out.

    • BadmanDan@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Bernie is becoming a serious issue for Democratic messaging. He’s in the senate, he KNOWS what Biden has done for the working class. And instead of helping to promote that message to his millions of followers, he’s rather virtue signal. It’s really a sick game man.

      • Atlas_@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Voters aren’t stupid. The reason so many people like Bernie is because he’s genuine and walks the walk. Supporting a candidate that doesn’t actually match his values would significantly weaken that.

      • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        The voters proved your theory wrong. Working class voted Trump or stayed home. How you you explain that… Because whatever Biden did… 1) it was not enough and 2) Harris promised more of the same.

        • FatCrab@lemmy.one
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          6 days ago

          That the overwhelming majority of voters are not just uninformed, uncritical, and apathetic, but actually might be morons? I don’t know.

          Biden and Harris both have been fairly active in supporting labor and trying to tackle corporate Greed. Harris regularly talked about anti-gouging laws as well as the other items mentioned already. Biden was the most pro-union president we’ve seen in decades, had a strong NLRB, and was responsible for appointing the most active and effective FTC head we’ve seen in ages.

          There are many many issues with the democratic party, but holy shit, being less supportive of the working class than fucking Republicans is absolutely not one of them.

        • FatCrab@lemmy.one
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          6 days ago

          That the overwhelming majority of voters are not just uninformed, uncritical, and apathetic, but actually might be morons? I don’t know.

          Biden and Harris both have been fairly active in supporting labor and trying to tackle corporate Greed. Harris regularly talked about anti-gouging laws as well as the other items mentioned already. Biden was the most pro-union president we’ve seen in decades, had a strong NLRB, and was responsible for appointing the most active and effective FTC head we’ve seen in ages.

          There are many many issues with the democratic party, but holy shit, being less supportive of the working class than fucking Republicans is absolutely not one of them.

        • FatCrab@lemmy.one
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          6 days ago

          That the overwhelming majority of voters are not just uninformed, uncritical, and apathetic, but actually might be morons? I don’t know.

          Biden and Harris both have been fairly active in supporting labor and trying to tackle corporate Greed. Harris regularly talked about anti-gouging laws as well as the other items mentioned already. Biden was the most pro-union president we’ve seen in decades, had a strong NLRB, and was responsible for appointing the most active and effective FTC head we’ve seen in ages.

          There are many many issues with the democratic party, but holy shit, being less supportive of the working class than fucking Republicans is absolutely not one of them.

          • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            I think you are right, but being better than the other guy was not enough apparently.

            Edit: and I’ll informed voters might have a lot to do with who owns the channels used for information. The mainstream media is owned by billionaires, and the most popular podcasters/streamers seem to be right wing and in the pockets of billionaires.

            Have you witnessed the corruption of Joe Rogan, it was very public and very obvious.

  • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Working class people can also suck, tho. Remember all those stickers they put on the gas pumps blaming biden for the price of gas. Like, common you fucking fools, that’s ridiculous and you would never let your bitch boy trump take the credit for that.

  • yarr@feddit.nl
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    7 days ago

    Hey Bernie:

    Thanks for being a democratic hack for years and years. You rage against them and constantly try to dunk on them, but what’s your party affiliation? Oh yeah, that’s right, Democratic. Good job criticizing them while also being part of the problem.

    • Podunk@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Bernie sanders is the longest serving independant senator in united states history. Hes been criticizing the democratic party since the 1970s, you absolute muppet.

      • yarr@feddit.nl
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        7 days ago

        OK… so he’s been part of a party he feels is ineffectual and hasn’t solved anything since the 1970s?

          • yarr@feddit.nl
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            7 days ago

            Ask him, he’s seemingly the one very disappointed with the Democratic party.

            • Podunk@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              Ok. Let me try again.

              What would you do if you were bernie? Whats your course of action?

              • yarr@feddit.nl
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                3 days ago

                I would do the same thing: complain endlessly about the Democratic party while doing nothing to distance myself from them.

  • Sundial@lemm.ee
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    8 days ago

    He’s 100% correct. This failure is a failure of the DNC to actually pay attention to what the voters want.

    • Alteon@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I don’t believe that it is. I believe that the problem lies in the fact that we’re not communicating effectively with the voting base. Her policies we’re not bad and effectively DID target the working class, for example child care and expanding taxes on the upper class. Her economic policies were strong and we would have seen benefits. However, none of this matters if this information isn’t getting to the voter base.

      Conservatives are actively targeting Gen Z and nonpoliticals with absolutely bullshit lies - for example, staying that liberals are actually racist, that DEI is making things worse for people, and that our whole policy is based on insults and hatred. Of course, to anyone paying any attention, this is blatantly false…but to an outside viewer, whose struggling to make ends meet, who’s single and insular, whose constantly told that women have it rough (and nothing about how to deal with men’s problems) they find the conservative arguments start to gain roots.

      We want to win next time? We need to talk to people. Tell them what being a man really means. That empathy, not control, is what a society like the US should be based on.

      • Sundial@lemm.ee
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        7 days ago

        Harris went too far right in an attempt to court the Republican vote. She preached peace in Gaza but she campaigned with known war-hawk Liz Cheney and staunchly defended Israel. She said she’s going to stand up against big businesses and help the environment but she talked about having Republicans in her cabinets and not ban fracking. She campaigned on being tough on the border but expected immigrants to vote for her. She did a lot of stupid shit and no one wanted to pay attention because everyone was scared of criticizing her because of their fear of Trump. They literally ran on a “moderate” platform when campaigning against a far right fascist wanna-be dictator. This should have been a slam dunk victory for them.

        Democrats need to get their head of their asses and actually have progressives run. Until then, all they will do is slide more and more to the right and disenfranchise more of their constituents who want their society to progress and not cater to the radicals.

        • ripcord@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          This should have been a slam dunk victory for them

          I mean, sure, if close to half of the country hadn’t become really, really shitty people with no morals.

          It’s tough to win on points like you’re talking about when the core problem requires undoing a multi-decade cultural shift to having absolutely zero integrity and most of the 7 sins being core values

    • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      This election, like every failed election effort since 2000, was a referendum on the democratic party platform: neoliberal business as usual for the top 15% sprinkled with “we’re not Republicans”

      • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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        8 days ago

        “we’re not Republicans”

        Trust us, we are different. Oh how specifically are we different? What a great question, is it not the best part of this nation to be able to ask such things. Anyway, as I was saying…

  • ytsedude@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    The only focused Democratic message for the past 8+ years has been, “We need to stop Trump,” which I agree with, but without Trump, I can’t think of a single, unified message. That’s not enough to get the general population fired up and excited to vote for Dems. One thing that made Obama so popular was he had specific goals and gave people hope.

    Trump, in the meantime, has been feeding people all sorts of promises and hopes and dreams. They’re all terrible and full of shit, but that is a more powerful message than just, “We need to stop Harris.”

    • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I’m also legitimately convinced that the average American person is just an asshole and likes other assholes. Trump is the most conceited, whiney, cry baby, know it all, jagoff and everybody knows it. He wears it like a medal. And people love it man. They just eat it up.

      It’s just like Carlin said. The politicians come from us. Because they are us.

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Trump is the most conceited, whiney, cry baby, know it all, jagoff and everybody knows it. He wears it like a medal. And people love it man. They just eat it up.

        That’s the thing. I’m sick of the media painting this as a “they’re holding their noses and voting” thing. This dude doesn’t win despite his vulger rallies and his racist, sexist, homophobic, crazy, whiney, criminal, and arrogant behavior… He wins because of that shit.

      • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
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        7 days ago

        I don’t know, I try to be a little more optimistic. over 250million eligible voters, only 70million voted for Trump. That’s less than a 1/3 and could be lower if you included the entire population. People will spend extra time to pursue things that will benefit them directly, there just needs to be better communication about the good things that will benefit them for their time, not the things to be fearful of because people will tune that out (as shown by the voter turnout).

    • DancingBear@midwest.social
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      8 days ago

      You know what does excite the dems though? And also the republicans?

      Actual progressive policies……

      As close as this election was, if Bernie betrayed the Democratic Party and ran as an independent in 2016, do you think he would have won

      I do

  • Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Man, if he’d form a populist left party and stop caucusing with the Dems, he might get a lot of enthusiastic support and candidates running locally soon

      • karl_chungus@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        We could also do this ourselves, if we could find a way to organize it.

        I’m sure with enough attention he’d acknowledge, and maybe support it.

        It may sound silly but what’s the alternative?

        • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          8 days ago

          I really think ranked choice voting is the answer here. It will open up the opportunity for third parties to actually gain traction.

          • karl_chungus@lemm.ee
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            8 days ago

            Me too but how are we going to get that changed before the next election?

            Before ranked choice voting we need at least one party to rally around with a candidate that focuses on popular issues. Once we have someone in office that will commit to those issues we can then talk about these kinds of changes.

            A good place to start would be at the state level since states run their own elections. For that all I can suggest is to get more actively involved in local politics than you ever have before.

            Of course, that’s assuming we have another election.

            • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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              8 days ago

              Never underestimate the obstruction from establishment Democrats at every level of government. We passed a bill authorizing statewide use of ranked preference voting in CA and our neoliberal democrat governor Gavin Newsom vetoed it. I generally support his policies but this one was a flat out “fuck you” to everyone alienated by the neoliberal business as usual party that runs our state.

              • karl_chungus@lemm.ee
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                8 days ago

                The answer to obstruction at every level of government is to push back at every level of government then.

                That means getting involved in local government. You. Me. Us. All of us. Starting now.

                • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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                  7 days ago

                  I’m nearly pissed off enough to try and run for local office myself now and I hope others also feel that drive.

                  Only reason I haven’t done it is because I’m a nobody retail worker with no money. I can’t afford to upend my life to go campaign. And I feel that a lot of other people are in a similar boat. But I also feel that the last hundred years of American politicians have been so far up their own asses that having a regular everyman in office like myself can’t possibly be worse.

                  We should be able to take out a business loan or something to run for office. But also we shouldn’t have to do that.

            • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              8 days ago

              That’s a good question. I think we need a massive push towards it, from our local officials all the way to the top. Bernie may get onboard.

              • karl_chungus@lemm.ee
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                8 days ago

                True but nothings going to happen until we both demand it and actually do something about it.

                The time to be hopeful that one of the major parties has an awakening is over.

                • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  8 days ago

                  Absolutely. I think that the best path of action is to let our local politicians know clearly that this is the desire of their constituents, and push hard to vote in candidates that support this. All of these politicians started somewhere, so the best hope for change starts locally and grows from there as word gets out.

    • danc4498@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      A third party, eh? Nah, he needs to take over the Democratic Party once and for all.

      • ramble81@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        He had momentum, the DNC, also run by our oligarchs denied him of the opportunity.

        • DancingBear@midwest.social
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          7 days ago

          Not for long

          Bernie kicks ass like a kung fu fighter

          Dems lost this election Bernie is still kicking and just won his seat back easy peasy

          Dude is an old motherfucker but kind of in the same way Samuel L Jackson is a bad motherfucker

        • nomous@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          No there needs to be a place for “moderates” and embarrassed former-republicans to gather. The actual left can mobilize around Sanders and the current Republican party can die.

  • Aermis@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Hi. Working tradesman. I still voted blue even when the 4 years under trump were mostly better for me than under Biden. Of course most likely coasting off of Obama’s era. But I got no relief under Biden. I pay $20k a year for my Healthcare and still have to pay thousands a year out of pocket for visits. My family in Ukraine is still unsure what’s going to happen in the next year. Many of brothers in my local are unemployed now during the hardest time to pay to live. We hear the record profits the corporations made and swindled the working class dry so we can eat yet there has been no relief. How did making 6 figures for a family of 5 turn into almost living pay check to pay check.

    I’m ok with sacrifice if it means others get the help they need. But I don’t think anyone got the help they needed. We sacrificed for no benifit to anyone but the elite, and we are continuing to be ignored.

    This is what Sanders is talking about. And I’m afraid of what Trump is going to do for many Americans. For my Ukrainian family back home. For my neighbor who is Taiwanese. But recently I’m more worried to keep food on the table for my kids. I don’t even care who won anymore. I have election and political fatigue. I did what was asked. I keep doing what everyone thinks is right. But I’m burning out.

    • FrowingFostek@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      This comment spoke to me. I’m in the trades as well. I vote blue because, its further left than I can get from the red party.

      Best of luck. We will need it.

    • laverabe@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      You’re likely eligible for your states Medicare subsidies. Democrats fixed the family glitch in 2022, so you’ll likely save thousands switching off your employer plan, even if you’re making low six figures.

      Of course those subsidies expire in 2025, and there is a snowballs chance in hell of those getting renewed now.

      Democrats did a lot of things to improve the lives of working class, at least as much as they could get pass the Republican house.

      Their problem is messaging. They are terrible at communicating what they’re doing, and how it’s going to help. I mean part of that problem is the media (ie fox news) is allowed to lie and Dems try to tell the truth. The playing field is not really level.

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        Another headache is that everything dems do is means tested, so you’ve got to jump through a bunch of hoops to figure out if you’re even eligible for any new program. Even if the programs do give relief to people, it’s much harder to message on a complicated program with layers of bureaucracy rather than “everyone gets 3k per child no matter what.”

        • Consumer2747@lemmy.world
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          I’m in social work and this is huge. Trying to sign people up for these programs feels so invasive. I regularly apologize for the invasion of privacy and the implied judgement of these means-tested forms.

          This is the legacy of the Clintons and those that followed them giving credit to the idea that you have to prove you’re deserving. Not only do means-tested programs have a negative psychological impact, they’re stupidly inefficient. They require lots of outside labor to make them even marginally effective.

          The people who need them often barely have time/energy to take care of themselves, so you end up needing this whole extra layer of professionals to help them through the barrier. They all need grant it state funding of their own. All that money could be more efficiently distributed if the gates were gone, or even designed to be useable by the people who need them, in the circumstances they’re in.

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        6 days ago

        I really wish the DNC would get a blowhard demagogue cult of personality lying piece of shit like Trump to be their figurehead and then just actually do good shit once in office. Like read the fucking room man, you’re playing to sound policy when the people are voting for bloviating dickheads. Just be one of those and then worry about doing the right thing. Quoth Trae Crowder a few years back: “Do you want to be right, or do you want to win?”

  • N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 days ago

    “Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign? Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing? Do they have any ideas as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful Oligarchy, which has so much economic power?” Sanders asked.

    ”Probably not”

    Bernie has been the Cassandra of the Democratic Party for decades. They need to realize that it has gone too far. The insane wealth gap, which has surpassed pre-Revolution France at this point, combined with the unaffordability of everything has created a crisis that won’t be fixed by platitudes and vague promises.

    People are desperate, afraid, and angry. Changing that to hope and enthusiasm requires real plans that average voters can understand and even more than that requires correctly showing people the source of the problem.

    Being beholden to billionaires is the real problem. And all their money, advertising, polling, and other bullshit didn’t do a damn thing to help Harris. Take them on the way FDR did or give the country to republicans permanently.

  • foggy@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    God fucking dammit he should have been the fucking president in 2016. Fuck this timeline.

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    7 days ago

    The DNC needs to allow voters to elect who they actually want during the primary. We were force fed Hillary because the DNC didn’t want Bernie. We didn’t even have a primary because we were force fed Biden, then given Harris because Biden was so unelectable. The DNC must allow democratic process to take place so that voters elect the presidential candidate that they want.

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      The DNC is too old and too set in its ways. They’re like a bad police force- unreformable.

      The only way forward for the DNC is to visibly jettison their old guard and hope enough voters give them another shot- which is also a maybe at best. Losers lose.

    • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Democratic party aside, Bernie couldn’t get the votes. I actually think the news media has been a much much bigger problem with someone like Bernie getting power. They always try to paint someone like him as being radical, when anywhere else in the world he would be a normal person on the left.

      • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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        7 days ago

        The issue with Bernie is that everyone knows he’s a socialist. If there was someone else who presented the same ideas Bernie has while also saying “I’m totally not like Bernie” people would actually vote for that candidate. Most Americans are closeted socialists, they’ll in favor of socialist policies as long as you don’t call it socialism.

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        7 days ago

        I have a feeling that that might change after this election. There’s a real sense among liberal media (that I engage with) that a loss of this magnitude needs to be answered by a pretty substantial break with the status quo.

        • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          I’ll believe it when I see it, there is too much money to be made by selling division and overblown narratives.

      • leftytighty@slrpnk.net
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        7 days ago

        they’re too busy sanewashing totally normal ideas like seperating children from parents, tariffs on every import, and mass deportation. Totally rational positions squarely in the overton window.

        What will they say about the concentration camps those immigrants are rounded up into? What will they say about the military being deployed to round up residents? I guess we’ll find out.

        Taxing billionaires though, how radical

    • shadowfax13@lemmy.ml
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      we don’t do that anymore, having “democratic” in party name is enough. be prepared to have liz cheney as nominee with ben shapiro as her running mate in 2028.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    The what party? America still has more than one political party?

    Edit: I don’t mean ‘both parties are the same, you knuckleheads.’ I mean there won’t be a Democratic party by the next election. There won’t be any parties but the Republican party.

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        Oh don’t worry! That’s what the checks and balances is for. There will always be a check to the executive branch. Sure the executive branch is Republican but the Senate won’t be-… Well wait okay it is but at least the house-… Well alright they’ll have the executive branch, the house, and the Senate, but the judicial branch is still going to be able to-… Well at the very least two of them are about to retire and will be replaced with ppl hand picked by president so th-…

        Well at least the ice cream machines at McDonald’s can be fixed independently now… That’s something right?

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      50/50 on that one. It’s just as likely they keep an opposition party to keep up appearances as many dictators do and have sham elections.

        • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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          7 days ago

          If we’re talking about a distinction without a difference then we can admit that America is a one-party state that only pretends to be a two-party system.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            No, sorry, I can’t admit that Hillary Clinton would have picked the same sort of SCOTUS justices that Trump picked, the ones that did things like end legal abortion nationwide.

            I also can’t admit that Trump would have appointed Lena Khan to any sort of powerful economic position.

            And I certainly can’t admit that Republicans had an infrastructure program considering they had four years to come up with one and never did.

            Edit: If you want to say that the U.S. has two major political parties, one is center-right and the other is far right, I won’t disagree. But that’s a different issue.

            • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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              But you have to admit that RBG didn’t step down during Obama’s term, that they let Republicans keep Merrick Garland out of the SC and gave them that seat, that they didn’t put Roe v. Wade into law during any of the chances they had to do so.

              Admit that they were excited about Cheney and Bush’s kids giving an endorsement and never even bothered putting Sanders on stage at a campaign rally.

              Admit that their presidential candidate underperformed the abortion-legalizing state ballot measures in every state that had one.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                7 days ago

                See my edit:

                Edit: If you want to say that the U.S. has two major political parties, one is center-right and the other is far right, I won’t disagree. But that’s a different issue.

                You telling me what I need to admit has nothing to do with your initial claim that it has only pretended to be a two party system. Do not move the goalposts.