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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The Progressive Movement and the American Left
 
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Fill Baptismal
Dec 15, 2008

Sharks Eat Bear posted:



As to the question of the OP -- the most compelling path forward that I've heard is basically the DSA model of grassroots organizing within the Democratic party at the state & local level to try to pull the party left from within, in addition to commitment to non-electoral forms of civic engagement (activism, mutual aid, etc). It's maddeningly slow, but pragmatically I don't see an alternative that doesn't result in more suffering of vulnerable peoples at the expense of the oligarchs further consolidating their power. But I know a lot of other posters here probably disagree and I'm all for hearing why :)

This is it though. It’s boring, it’s lovely, it’s alienating, it’s unglamorous and it often doesn’t work.

It’s also pretty much the only way forward. There’s not really any alternative. Third parties are jokes. The idea that the left can “abandon electoralism” and seize power by force or whatever is a cosplay fantasy. There weren’t enough ideological leftists to win the dem primary (and that’s assuming every sanders voter would self-ID as a leftist, which is laughably untrue). They aren’t gonna be seizing power by force anytime soon.

Short of massive electoral reform to make third parties more viable (ranked choice, prop. representation, etc.), it’s the only way.

The good news is that party leadership in the US is, compared to other countries, pretty weak, while polarization is strong. So it’s insanely difficult but not impossible.

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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The Progressive Movement and the American Left