Late Stage Capitalism

They asked very highly paid political consultants that assured them that Clintonian third way triangulation had worked once in the 90s so the smart and responsible thing to do was keep playing that playbook.

Sure it failed a couple dozen times since then.

I imagine the Democratic Party to be made up of effectively three groups.

1. People that aren’t nearly as smart as they think they are that are certain they’ve crunched the numbers and have the only winning strategy, surprise, it’s move to the right.
2. A bunch of old farts convinced the only thing you need to win is money and getting that money, no matter the cost in who you are beholden to, is worth it
3. A lot of voters that correctly identify that it’s a two party system and they have to vote for one of them but then incorrectly think that the party is good or at all gives a shit about them.

I was in group 3 for a while and I think it’s the most difficult part of the whole fucking mess. There are two facts that are both true at the same time and the fact they are both true is mind boggling

1. The shitty American electoral system means we can only have two major political parties. The republicans have gone mask off fascist while the democrats at least pretend to be less fascist. They are the better of two incredibly shitty options
2. the democrats being the marginally better option of two shitty options doesn’t begin to make them particularly good and definitely doesn’t make them at all effective at achieving any of the goals I would agree with.

So we get stuck in this weird quagmire where I would agree with some of the policy goals of the Democratic Party, but I also know they will never go after those goals. When push comes to shove, even if they have the power to, they will always backseat the goals I care about and somehow find a way to deeper entrench the moneyed powers (see the ACA for a great example of offering a good policy goal like ending pre-existing conditional denial but coupling it with entrenching for profit healthcare, for profit health insurance, and failing to actually solve the massive host of other problems with American healthcare)

If you find yourself in group 3 you have accepted theres no other option but to vote for the democrats (a position I take on Election Day too) and you think “these leftists are spoiled brats, look at all the good things the Dems are trying to do”

If you are post-group 3, you find yourself somewhere where I am. I realize the electoral system forces my vote to go to the Dems or make it easier for the republicans to consolidate power. But I know the Democratic Party is effectively an organ of capital, there to do the bidding of capital while putting out tweets and letters about all the nice things they wish they could do but gee golly shucks they just couldn’t find a way to make it happen. Change is hard, I mean not if we are talking about something the donors want, but something the people want, yea, that’s really tricky.

It’s why they have to fight against the DSA, because if a group of politicians can show voters that you can elect someone to do your bidding instead of the bidding of the mega donors, their whole position as useful organ to capital is threatened. And that’s where group 2 gets their bread buttered.