"If you didn't want fascism you should have voted!"
"If you didn't want fascism you should have voted!"
cross-posted from: https://vegantheoryclub.org/post/1427393
15 comments
-
David Hogg, the new Vice Chair of the DNC, has allocated $20M to primary out the old appeasers, and replace them with youthful progressives to create a true opposition party.
Democratic primaries only see ~20% turnout in congressional elections. 30/50 states have partisan primaries, meaning you must be registered as a Democrat to vote in the Democratic primary. This was a contributing factor in Bernie’s 2016 loss.
Rather than progressives and leftists fracturing over third-parties, we need to all block vote progressives into the Democratic Party through primaries and replace the deadwood centrists that have been content with the status quo.
Check your state’s primary type here: https://ballotpedia.org/Primary_election_types_by_state
-
Guess I missed the part of the voters agreement where I agreed to not disrupt the status quo after voting. Maybe do whatever it is you’re currently doing to fight this unjust system AND vote next time?
-
How does this theory apply to say, gay marriage or healthcare in America? Both of which have gone from a less Left position to a more Left position?
-
How does this theory apply to say, gay marriage or healthcare in America?
These are the counterexamples to the ratchet effect that demonstrate the theory is false.
What the ratchet effect fails to encapsulate about neoliberalism is that neoliberals are not blocking progress to the left. Neoliberals are intentionally moving too slowly to the left to make meaningful, systemic change.
Democrats move one step forward, Republicans move three steps back. So even though Democrats are moving us forward they do it so slowly that over multiple administrations we move backwards.
Democrats never bothered to codify Roe v Wade. Republicans aggressively pursued Supreme Court appointments. Democrats refused to remove the filibuster when RBG died. Republicans removed the filibuster to get their Supreme Court picks through the Senate.
Side note, it was Democrats for who removed the filibuster for most Presidential appointments, but not Supreme Court appointments. People tend to learn the wrong lesson for this as well. Republicans are bad faith actors. They are going to try to seize power no matter what Democrats do. The Democrats did not bring this upon themselves. Republicans did it.
This distinction, that the Democrats are moving too slowly not blocking progress, matters because it is a core appeal of neoliberalism. If neoliberals completely blocked progress as the ratchet effect claims, people would more readily reject neoliberalism. Instead neoliberalism allows for incremental progress which at a glance can seem appealing. What people who partially internalize neoliberalism fail to realize is that our problems our systemic. Incremental change is too slow to correct criminal justice, wealth inequality, or stop climate change.
In short we need a new meme. I've been thinking about two dancers moving slowly to a furnace on the right. Something like:
🚪 💃 🕺🔥
Where the dancer on the left keeps moving one step towards the exit while the dancer on the right takes three steps toward the furnace. This meme could probably use some work though or maybe a different approach altogether. I would definitely would like to hear people's thoughts.
-
Progress comes at the point of a spear. Voters had to demand it before the oligarchy would consider concessions in either area, and it's worth noting that neither of those categories are examples of left-wing victories. Healthcare is still a dystopian nightmare (and capitalist wet dream) and gay marriage is under threat from a SCOTUS that is looking for wedge issues to rile up the conservative base for the next round of elections.
-
Have they?
Healthcare costs more than ever, insurance companies now have the power to weigh in on your medical decisions, and private practice has become untenable due to the sheer amount of paperwork and negotiation involved in every step.
Obama care was a handout to insurance companies and healthcare systems to pay them off for the intended changes, and they basically compromised away most of the rest of it - all we got was students get a few years more coverage from parents and no denials for pre-existing conditions
The whole plan came from the heritage foundation - the purpose of the affordable care act was to prevent universal healthcare. Like everything else that comes out of that cursed think tank, it's a nice sounding package for something horrible
And gay marriage was just done through the courts, right? It's a tug of war issue - just like planned Parenthood funding and abortion, rather than actually putting in real protections legislatively they keep these rights in constant danger.
Both parties campaign on these issues, and I'm not saying they're not important to the people affected, but they're distractions
-
The whole plan came from the heritage foundation - the purpose of the affordable care act was to prevent universal healthcare.
This goes against the entire notion of the ratchet effect.
If things got steadily more right wing, this wouldn't need to be a consideration. But, taking your words as accurate, it means that America went from a less progressive healthcare system to a more progressive one, even if it is imperfect.
On gay marriage, it's worth reading about. It.was a fairly complex move that was pushed by the administration pretty hard. And of course there's a bunch of legislation around it and other gay rights now.
-
-
15 comments