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Weird. The party that claims to be "for the people" keeps putting centrists in charge. We're ready for someone who is actually for the people!
I'm confused. Are you arguing that AOC is or isn't for the people?
She absolutely is. Her nomination is the DNC's nightmare.
It all makes sense when you realize who makes the cutoff for what they consider "people."
Controlled opposition
Buzzword catchphrase
Sadly I don't think it's possible to have a party "for the people" with only two parties. There's too much pressure for both of them to champion the status quo.
Yes it is. If the part "for the people" turns out to be captured you drop it and get in an actual party for the people. Rinse and repeat as needed. There is a problem with political parties growing too old and becoming too institutionalized. But keeping them in power instead of giving them the boot is a choice made by the voters.
"Championing the status quo" is not how I would describe what Republicans are doing right now.
Quickest way to mobilize the Democratic party is to threaten to put a progressive in charge
they'd rather lose to Trump for a third term than do that.
See David Hogg
See Bernie Sanders.
They learned their lesson with Obama. The funny thing is he’s not even a fucking leftist, the party is just so full of dinosaurs they think a modern centrist is a leftist.
The dinosaurs know they're marching right, that's where all the money is (for them).
With Obama they just learned how to take a somewhat progressive candidates and bend them into a moderate. It's the same thing that happened with Kamala, although of course it's hard to say if either were ever really progressive or if they just used that for votes and didn't mind discarding it once they got pressured by the party and consultants.
Obama wasn’t even somewhat progressive before the Democratic Party. He was against gay marriage for a while.
Kamala was never progressive.
Yeah I definitely agree, both Kamala and Obama are candidates that acted progressive in their primaries but as soon as they eventually got the nomination they went towards the corporate Democrat establishment. My main question is whether they were progressive at some point but let themselves be changed by the establishment, consultants, and donors or if they never really cared that much to begin with. The end state is the same but the difference is important as it gives us insight into how much power the consultants and others have over candidates vs if they didn't really care then it wouldn't have taken much to change them.
Kamala was picked as VP because Dems thought she would get votes from the republicans who aren't so MAGA. She's on the conservative side of things: tough on crime as AG, opposed cannabis legalization (changed position later), opposed abolition of death penalty (flipped later), etc.
In general, no. In terms of specific policies as an AG, there were some.
I'd say she's a centrist, with some progressive policies and some regressive. Just my opinion obviously.
Neither was Obama. Not long after he put a bow on the nomination, he voted for an expansive security bill. A lot of people were surprised, but not me.
They’re definitely for the billionaire people.
Aren't there primaries for the Dems?
Sort of, sometimes. They can and will heavily disadvantage candidates they dont like. Like when they gave Hillary the questions for debates beforehand but not to Bernie, and let hillary control the funding of races, including her own. And like when they cut new hampshire out of the primary results this year because the New Hampshire dems wouldnt move the date for the primary to when the dnc wanted. So sure you could vote in that primary, but nothing was done with the results. Straight to the garbage can with those ballots.
Russia says they have a democracy too, with votes and everything. Not saying we're the same, but proving we have "democracy" by the fact that voting happens is not that firm of a thing. Its easily corrupted.
Voter turnout in primaries is pathetic. In 30 states, you have to be registered with the party - i.e.: give them your name and address for fund-raising purposes - to vote. This all works to bias primaries to 'establishment' candidates, or at least people well known among party apparatchiks. They are, theoretically, the best way to get progressives or populists into office, but practically, those progressives are fighting demographics and the general apathy of voters under 40.
The same phenomena that let MAGA take over the GOP keep the moderates in charge of the Dems. At least, until someone figures out how to motivate all the young internet revolutionaries to actually go and vote instead of memeing about how useless voting is.
You're blaming the DNC for something that is controlled by each individual state.
Not really. I'm saying that the system discourages change. If there's blame for the DNC, it's that their message has constantly been something along the lines of "be reasonable & empathetic; improve the world through measured change" which tends to demoralize people who think the system is seriously fucked. That empowers the career politicians. GOP propaganda, at least for the last 50-or-so years, has been "More guns! More babies! No brown people!" which tends to attract passionate radicals.
DNC: I am here for the working people-- from billionaires, all the way to millionaires.
From the business owners to the CEOs, the Democrats are here to hear you. All the people, white or tan, brown people of light complexion as long as they have a 401k and 10 million in assets they will LISTEN