"Instead, they see exactly what you just pointed out which is; here are billionaires giving to Democrats, here are billionaires giving to Republicans, it's all a racket. Nobody's interested in me, to hell with it, let's vote for the biggest disruptor.
And that's why you end up with a charlatan criminal like Trump as .. next President."
US Senator #SheldonWhitehouse, Nov 5, 2024
https://www.levernews.com/the-master-planners-election-with-senator-sheldon-whitehouse/
@strypey
There's a lot of hopelessness out there "IDGAF, nothing is going to change, so why bother." It leads people to stay home or to want to bring about the apocalypse for the LOLs, because doing that is the only way they think they have a voice.
An introspective Democratic Party should be asking itself lots of really tough questions right now. But it won't, and we'll be in the same place 4 years from now.
BTW, it is worth pointing out that a chunk of disaffected alienated leftists do turn fascist. Some of the OG Italian fascists that went for Mussolini were anarcho-cyndicalists. Ragnar Redbeard, author of Might Makes Right, started out as a leftist and became disaffected because no one was willing to fight the good fight. I.E., if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
@chris
> it is worth pointing out that a chunk of disaffected alienated leftists do turn fascist. Some of the OG Italian fascists that went for Mussolini were anarcho-cyndicalists
Were they though? Or were they nationalist syndicalists, who worked within anarchist unions in preference to being pushed around by Leninists in the non-anarchist unions ones?
I don't know much about pre-WW2 Italian labour history, so I'm not sure.
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But an accurate answer matters, because it can inform our strategy now. Can we draw people away from supporting fascism by welcoming and working with progressive nationalists? What are the success and failure modes of that?
I'm reminded of a lot of anti-corporate activists who were comfortable using nationalist arguments in the alter-globalization movement. How this coalition fell apart after 9/11 split the nationalists from the Internationalists.
What can we learn from these histories?
(2/2)
@strypey
I don't have that accurate answer either, unfortunately.
You make a really good point about coalition building.
Coalition is going to be a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow. I remember the furor a few years back, when Bernie Sanders mumbled something about how perhaps we should be supporting socialist and socialist-leaning allies who had anti-abortion views.
It seems to me that the problem with the left has always been its emphasis on purity. That's especially true when you add culture war stuff into the mix.
I'm also reminded of what one of my history professors said when I was in college at a small state school in Oklahoma. "Oklahoma had a large and growing socialist movement back in 1915. Their intellectual influences were Karl Marx, Thomas Jefferson, and Jesus of Nazareth." They were quite definitely devout church-going Christians. I wonder how many of that sort of people would feel welcome at a DSA meeting? I'd guess not many.
Strypey
chris