Democrats aren't left. They are also party of wealth, not labour. Democrats are plain right, Rebublicans are fascist right.
196
Community Rules
You must post before you leave
Be nice. Assume others have good intent (within reason).
Block or ignore posts, comments, and users that irritate you in some way rather than engaging. Report if they are actually breaking community rules.
Use content warnings and/or mark as NSFW when appropriate. Most posts with content warnings likely need to be marked NSFW.
Most 196 posts are memes, shitposts, cute images, or even just recent things that happened, etc. There is no real theme, but try to avoid posts that are very inflammatory, offensive, very low quality, or very "off topic".
Bigotry is not allowed, this includes (but is not limited to): Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism, Sexism, Abelism, Classism, or discrimination based on things like Ethnicity, Nationality, Language, or Religion.
Avoid shilling for corporations, posting advertisements, or promoting exploitation of workers.
Proselytization, support, or defense of authoritarianism is not welcome. This includes but is not limited to: imperialism, nationalism, genocide denial, ethnic or racial supremacy, fascism, Nazism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, etc.
Avoid AI generated content.
Avoid misinformation.
Avoid incomprehensible posts.
No threats or personal attacks.
No spam.
Moderator Guidelines
Moderator Guidelines
- Don’t be mean to users. Be gentle or neutral.
- Most moderator actions which have a modlog message should include your username.
- When in doubt about whether or not a user is problematic, send them a DM.
- Don’t waste time debating/arguing with problematic users.
- Assume the best, but don’t tolerate sealioning/just asking questions/concern trolling.
- Ask another mod to take over cases you struggle with, if you get tired, or when things get personal.
- Ask the other mods for advice when things get complicated.
- Share everything you do in the mod matrix, both so several mods aren't unknowingly handling the same issues, but also so you can receive feedback on what you intend to do.
- Don't rush mod actions. If a case doesn't need to be handled right away, consider taking a short break before getting to it. This is to say, cool down and make room for feedback.
- Don’t perform too much moderation in the comments, except if you want a verdict to be public or to ask people to dial a convo down/stop. Single comment warnings are okay.
- Send users concise DMs about verdicts about them, such as bans etc, except in cases where it is clear we don’t want them at all, such as obvious transphobes. No need to notify someone they haven’t been banned of course.
- Explain to a user why their behavior is problematic and how it is distressing others rather than engage with whatever they are saying. Ask them to avoid this in the future and send them packing if they do not comply.
- First warn users, then temp ban them, then finally perma ban them when they break the rules or act inappropriately. Skip steps if necessary.
- Use neutral statements like “this statement can be considered transphobic” rather than “you are being transphobic”.
- No large decisions or actions without community input (polls or meta posts f.ex.).
- Large internal decisions (such as ousting a mod) might require a vote, needing more than 50% of the votes to pass. Also consider asking the community for feedback.
- Remember you are a voluntary moderator. You don’t get paid. Take a break when you need one. Perhaps ask another moderator to step in if necessary.
Could be generalized for non-US-centric politics with liberals preventing movement to the left and fascists moving everything right
Eternally relevant:

As we get more towards the proper midterm election season we'll inevitably start seeing more of this 'both-sides/hopeless' stuff that does little other than to help suppress the vote...
Vote for the lesser of the two evils, for sure. But at the same time we can also recognize that they are, indeed, two evils.
And try to primary out the evils! And we can make ground on local elections, it’s not just Congress or presidency
Both sides hopeless, nah.
But it's important to recognize whose interests lie with corporations and whose do not.
Overall, the Democrats are the more left-wing party, and I've been loving a lot of the younger politicians coming from the Democratic Party.
Just be careful, ma'am. Their best strategy for preventing progress to the left is by losing on purpose. If your meme costs them votes, you're actually helping them shirk responsibility. You could be spreading Democrat propaganda right now.
(It's kind of the same as how Israel wants you to hate them so much you do an anti-jewish terrorist attack, except way more subtle and insidious)
Idk, years of winning office and then always breaking the stalemate when Republicans want to push something like ICE funding until 2029 through seems pretty effective at preventing progress too.
I think the solution is to stop electing people who lean on their party affiliation and nothing else, while understanding the contextual gravity of every election. I would say in 2024, for instance, Kamala Harris was the best shot at winning and stalling this current situation, so I voted for her. We need to reform the voting system.
How does it help suppress the vote? I have had things to complain about regarding Democrats that are valid complaints for 26 years, since I could legally vote. I haven't just bowed out of voting due to those valid complaints.
I see this trotted out a lot, but I'm curious who you're actually referring to. Harris wasn't my cup of tea, I was especially upset that we didn't even get an actual primary because of Biden's idiocy and backtracking on his promise of being a one-term President, but I still fucking voted for her.
I see this sentiment around a lot, and it seems like it does little other than prevent Democratic voters from ever being allowed to voice their valid complaints about their own party and instead are supposed to suck it up and play pretend that everything is perfect like Republicans do with their party.
Part of why I think the Democratic Party is failing is that they think just because the opponent is crazy, they don't need to offer anything.
If all you're offering is the status quo that people are clearly unhappy about, they're going to go with the wildcard.
Well you're smart, but you'd be amazed how many people aren't. A lot of muslims and Palestine allies in 2024 voted for Jill Stein's Greens because they were mad about Israel. And I really hope they've learned their lesson, but I fear they haven't, and that they're going to make a bad decision for the Gazans in the midterms because of their anger.
You need to be careful about how you talk in front of the people who aren't as strategic.
and that they're going to make a bad decision for the Gazans in the midterms because of their anger.
There is no good decision to be made for Palestinians in most American elections. No, not even comparatively. Even Trump did no more or less than Biden already was. That aside, though, Trump would've won even if every single Jill Stein vote went to Harris.
See, @snotflickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone? Here's one of those people I was telling you about
Historically, GOP candidates have benefited from lower voter turnout (Trump ‘24 being the only notable exception in 40+ years).
By disincentivising Dems and Independents from voting because “both sides bad” and “nothing gets better” it’s increasing the chances of a Republican victory, and accelerating your nations decline.
Your primaries are the period you’re meant to vote for your preferred candidate, whereas in the general election you vote against the candidate you hate more.
-
The primaries for 2026 don't start until March, with some happening as late as September, so we're well within the time period to be critiquing various candidates before the finalized candidates are chosen. It's not like this is being said in October 2026 when all the primaries are already over, no, none of them have even begun.
-
As I may remind you, in 2024, we didn't actually have a primary for the Democratic candidate for President. So no voters really had a choice in the matter at all. Quite a large number of Democratic voters felt strongly that the national party heavily put their finger on the scale for the primaries in 2016 and 2020 as well, so there's a history of feeling like the primaries may have less real voter input than people would hope. (DNC lawyers never argued in court that they didn't put their finger on the scale for Hillary Clinton, they argued that it was legal for them to do so, and that since it was the lawsuit should be thrown out, which it was. We never got to find out if that was true or not, but they certainly hammered it in court that whether it was or not, it was legal for them to do so.)
-
I still have seen very little evidence that statements like this "disincentivize" voters as much as I see people claiming it does. Are there polls to back up this idea, that people choose not to vote because they have been convinced it doesn't matter due to Democratic inaction and people discussing that inaction?
I mean we're literally talking about a party that shut down the government over healthcare, one of the longest in history, and then rolled over for literally nothing at all. We're talking about a party that has members pushing to give ICE more funding while they're killing people and who fold and accept Tom Homan taking over as though he will somehow be better than Greg Bovino instead of kicking ICE the fuck out of their cities. We're talking about a party that gave police nationwide more funding after the George Floyd police riots where police nationwide brutalized peaceful protestors. We're talking about a party that codified, legalized, and normalized some of the worst crimes of the Bush administration, and literally set the stage for the surveillance state and police state that is now turned against us because they didn't want to appear "soft on terrorism." People like myself were screaming bloody murder during the Bush administration that these kind of tools could eventually be taken by a despot and turned against us, and those of us still paying attention kept saying so when the Obama administration didn't shut any of it down and instead kept it around for convenience because they were so sure such a despot would never be elected.
How is that the fault of voters who have the audacity to talk about those very real issues?
Last election cycle I would be driving around town, and of course you see the rabid maga cultists plastering dear leader on everything.
You would find a few tepid supporters of Biden/Harris, nothing extravagant but Dems don't tend to go into a frenzy over their candidates. More anti-trump than anything when he's been a factor.
Then you have the 'genocide joe' crowd, who largely treat it as a given that people know the maga clan is bad so they don't say anything about them, but are real vocal about how bad the Dems are and make it their business to shout it at everyone.
Now anyone that can math knows our system only works for two parties and with the two electoral votes auto granted to every state as a base it favors small more rural ones that tend to vote red. When people go around constantly going on about how bad the only viable party to the r's is then people end up with a 'fuck it, why bother' mindset.
I'm no fan of the weak spine 'we wrote a nasty letter' D's who won't lay a real smackdown on the idiots across the aisle, but I can see why it happens. The right and far right will fervently vote for whomever is the most vicious option they think they can get away with. The far left though, they tend to protest and stay home if someone doesn't pass their purity test, so their support and votes are unreliable.
That's why the Mamdani victory is inspiring. More progressive blood in the DNC will one day remove the block, and hopefully help push that party further left.
Absolutely! I hope he doesn't become another part of the system. He seems like a real person.
America's electoral system needs some serious reform, Like compulsory voting for all citizens with a preferential (ranked choice) voting system. This would give a chance for independents and minor parties to enter government and allow for more options and choices.
But America will NEVER do that, because both parties would lose power and be forced to address all the issues they've been sweeping under the rug for decades. Good luck out there, Americans... You're going to need it.
preferential (ranked choice) voting system
A proportional one like STV, ideally
Thanks, we're really going to need it.
And the majority are owned or being blackmailed for sex crimes by the facist state of Israel https://www.trackaipac.com/congress
We need to shame establishment democrats out of office the same way the alt right shamed "cuckservatives" out...
Shaming establishment dems won’t work. You just have to primary them out with a better, actually progressive candidate. As more and more progressives get voted in, the establishment dems will be forced to lean further left just to get elected so that they can collect their corporate bribes like the republicans. Eventually establishment dems will either 1. Give up 2. Switch to being (outright) republicans or 3. Move only as far left as they have to be to get elected
Look out for the trap! Now that election season is coming up, the billionaire class will be trying to trick the Democrats into fucking up and losing votes so that Trump can stay president. Don't fall for the propaganda!
A single drop of dimethyl mercury is enough to take care of a politician and it's easily absorbed though the skin.
If the left can't beat Democrats, how the hell do you think they will beat Republicans?
Centrists dems lost 2 out of 3 times to an orange clown.
If the centrist dems can't beat republicans, how far will they let us slide into fascism before they give someone else a shot?
Why can’t we rebuild the new deal coalition?
Nobody is going to "give" you a shot. The left has to take it. If they can't figure out how to do that, they don't have what it takes to lead the country.
The DNC puts its thumb on the scale for the centrist all the to give them a better shot. Despite a proven track record for failing to beat Trump.
And you don't think the Republicans put their thumb on the scale every chance they get? The fight is not going to be fair. You have to be able to win in spite of that.
I’m sure the republicans do put their thumb on the scale… that doesn’t mean the direction centrist dems put their thumb on the scale for is correct direction. Centrist dems still lost despite massive institutional backing in their direction.
Candidates like Zorhan Mamdani have managed overcome massive institutional push back.
You’re making an assumption that privately run DNC primaries are perfect competitions for determining which candidate is best. This is an incorrect assumption. The DNC itself has literally said you are wrong in a court of law.
Do you believe the DNC should continue to push back against candidates like Zorhan Mamdani?
Zohran Mamdani is a great example. He beat the Dems on their own grounds. I have faith he can be a leader against the Republican administration precisely because he proved he has a plan and the ability to execute it in spite of resistance.
We need to get rid of "first past the post" election systems. That will allow candidates like Mamdani to be competitive in a larger variety. The way I see it, this will NEVER happen through Republicans and as the system exists now there are only two viable choices. I'm not saying it won't be an uphill battle, but at least there has been some progress in making elections more representative of a variety of political views under Democrats.
That's a non-sequitur.
How so?
Getting leftists on Dem ballots and winning an election against Republicans are completely different affairs, not the least because most people don't vote in primaries (not to mention all the manipulation). If anything why do you think beating centrists in primaries is a prerequisite for being able to beat Republicans in elections? You need to justify that assumption.
You don't think being able to win against an entrenched power structure in spite of legislative obstruction is at all relevant to defeating Republicans?
Not really, no. The US is heavily gerrymandered and there's plenty of disenfranchisement to go around, but fundamentally Republicans don't control general elections the same way Democrats control their primaries, and centrist Democrats have many tools (rhetorical and otherwise) to get primary votes that Republicans don't in general elections. And, as I said, people don't vote in primaries. Besides, this theory has already been tested in practice; according to election polling Bernie would've absolutely trounced Trump in 2016, even though he lost the primary.
Look, Bernie was the only political race ever where I donated money, so when I say this know where I am coming from. We have no idea if Bernie would have been any more effective than Biden if elected. Maybe the right would have reacted so hard that he would have been obstructed every step of the way, accomplished nothing, and we would have gotten Trump anyway. Maybe they would have just killed him in the first year and we would have ended up in the Civil War 2.
I won't respond to that, because now you're moving the goalposts. That is not what we're talking about here.
We are talking about beating Republicans and that doesn't stop at the polls.
Somebody post gif plz.
MyPornViewingAccount
Just gonna go out on a limb and say jorking it to the animated ratchet effect is something worth kinkshaming.
Will this work?

Change the caption on the gears, and instead of pointing fingers at political parties, make it "We may or may not vote" on the left, then "Definitely not voting" on the right.
If you neglect elections and there's a seesaw every two years, sure, that's exactly what happens. But god forbid, to generate the requires electoral/political inertia for long-term change would require you people to... gasp!... make a tiny amount of effort one day a year. And we can't have that, now can we?