• Corn@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      The centrist voter is a myth. There is not a human who will vote for “means-tested subsidies for a state-run employer-funded health insurance marketplace where you have no idea what it will cover or cost.” But wouldn’t vote for “free healthcare” when you move to the center by compromising your bills, you lose voters who suspect the policy won’t help them, you dont gain a bunch of “moderate Republicans” who want only half of immigrants subjected to inhumane conditions.

    • bloup@lemmy.sdf.org
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      4 days ago

      Take a marketing class. If you think that politics is about pandering and not about convincing people, then you’ve lost the game already

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.worldBanned from community
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        4 days ago

        Yes, we already lost last election because of the exact reasons stated by the person you’re responding to

        • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net
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          4 days ago

          Except the person they were responding to phrased the situation poorly by leaving out important context.

          In reality, the Democrats lost because they kept expecting leftists to vote against their working class interests in favor of right wing, pro corporate policies that only serve to maintain the capitalist system. You know, the very thing we are fundamentally against?

          Maybe if the Democrats actually made strides for legitimate left wing policies, they would encourage more left wing individuals to throw their hat in with them.

          Yet, time and time again, they have shown to throw the working class under the bus if it serves the whims of the capitalist market. Now, no one trusts them to uphold our interests when push comes to shove.

            • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net
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              4 days ago

              Funny of you to assume leftists want the neoliberal, capitalist establishment to win.

              Maybe if they actually began to support left wing policy and ideology, instead of routinely throwing us under the bus to save the skin of those who exploit us, leftist would be willing to vote for them.

              Also, FYI, there are more than just Democrats and Republicans to vote for. Saying people shouldn’t vote for Democrats isn’t the same thing as advocating against voting at all.

        • bloup@lemmy.sdf.org
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          4 days ago

          I definitely don’t have it all figured out, but I wanna know do you ever think about stuff like what it took for the civil rights movement of the 1960s to succeed? Do you think it was a matter of pandering to the interests of centrist liberals or do you think that a big part of it was criticizing status quo liberalism and refusing to settle? I really think that you should read theletter from Birmingham jail by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because the archetype that he addresses in that work is replayed out every single time somebody ever deigns to criticize the Democrats for their political strategy.

            • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net
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              4 days ago

              The fuck are you talking about? They did show up for Gore. He won the popular vote. The only reason Bush won was due to the electoral college flipping the vote. Gore’s election was stolen from him.

              Democrats have not been moving left. They have consistently been moving further and further right since post-WW2 and McCarthyism completely demolished any legitimate left wing politics in this country. Meanwhile the voting population became more and more disenfranchised by the fucked up system we live under.

    • GraniteM@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      You’re not exactly wrong, but it’s even more fundamental than that. If leftists were a more reliable voting bloc, then Democrats couldn’t exist as they do today. They would be primaried by more leftist candidates. And then, if hard left policies were more popular with the general electorate, they would win.

      The nightmare we’re all living in right now is proof. I don’t believe for an instant that The Powers That Be wanted Donald Trump to be president. Even by fascist standards he’s kind of a disaster. They wanted fucking Jeb! But Trump’s implicit message of “I’m going to fuck shit up and the establishment doesn’t want me” resonated with a lot of people. It just got the extra boost from being tied with fucked up racism, sexism, and ignorance, all of which are tied to pretty solid groups of voters.