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Bernie and AOC, Put Your Platform on the Ballot (jacobin.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by BrikoX@lemmy.zip to c/usa@midwest.social

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Bernie and AOC have a national platform, an energized base, and the infrastructure to gather small donations. Now they need winnable policies to back. It seems impossible in the MAGA-controlled government — unless they turn to state ballot initiatives.

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[–] baronvonj@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

A third party forces the Democrats into a leveraged position, even if it only holds 5-10% of the votes. It doesn’t even need a candidate on the ballot, because it forces the other candidates to become responsive to the third parties platform. This helps Democrats because it can move them from unviable, unelectable positions, like the ones they took in 2024, towards viable, electable, popular positions like the ones Bernie and AOC are advocating for.

We've had third parties for decades and this hasn't happened yet. How do you propose succeeding at it this time? Bernie ran in the Democratic Primary in his first run for Senate. He won it. He turned it down and ran as an independent but he already had the voters on his side from the Democratic primary. AOC, and other Squad members, ran in the Democratic primary because of Bernie's run in the Democratic primary in 2016.